American May Cut Bread & Butter On Some Long Haul Flights: Here’s Why

American Airlines wants to see if it can get away with cutting bread and butter on long haul flights. However, it’s not quite the cost cutting exercise that one might assume.

American runs trial in preparation for A321XLR service

American has 50 A321XLRs on order, which should start to enter service for the carrier within the next year. This plane is long overdue for American, as it’s Airbus’ new long range, narrow body jet, which opens up all kinds of markets for the airline.

While the ability to operate long haul flights on small jets is great in terms of opening up new markets, there are definitely some compromises when it comes to the passenger experience (as I recently discovered, when I flew the Aer Lingus and Iberia A321XLRs).

@xJonNYC reports how the limited galley space on the A321XLR is causing American to run some trials, ahead of the plane entering service. Specifically, American is looking at eliminating bread and butter with the meal service in both economy and premium economy, due to the limited galley space.

The airline isn’t necessarily sure how passengers will respond, though. So ahead of the A321XLR entering service, the airline is trialing getting rid of bread and butter on comparable routes on some existing wide body aircraft, to see if passengers notice. American is expected to run this trial on routes from Boston (BOS), Charlotte (CLT), and Raleigh (RDU), to London (LHR). Then based on the feedback, the airline will decide how to move forward.

AA: So the A321XLR is obviously not going to have as much space as a widebody.Some amenities are going to suffer. AA is testing getting rid of bread and butter in coach and premium economy, on widebody flights from CLT/BOS/RDU to LHR to see what that does for the footprint vs the customer experience— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) May 7, 2025 at 6:02 PM

American’s concerns about galley space are legitimate. That being said, I imagine that if the airline gets a lot of negative feedback about this change, it’ll look to cut somewhere else. I think what’s most surprising here is that the airline may not even offer bread in premium economy — that seems especially cheap.

Airline survey results really matter

This is a reminder that filling out post-flight surveys is time well spent. I think many people assume that these surveys are useless and no changes happen based on them, but that’s simply not the case. Airlines really care about their net promoter score (even if the score is sort of depressing), and which direction it moves. Airlines absolutely do make changes based on how customers perceive aspects of the experience.

So if you really like that an airline is making an investment in a certain area, fill out the survey, and make sure you give the airline credit for that. Meanwhile if you don’t like an aspect of the experience, also mention that.

As airline customers, we have two ways we can vote — with our wallets and with our surveys — and both are considered heavily.

Bottom line

American will start flying Airbus A321XLRs later this year, and it’s an important addition to the carrier’s fleet. Being able to fly smaller jets on long haul flights is useful, though it also presents some new challenges. Given the limited galley space, American is reportedly looking at cutting bread and butter service in both economy and premium economy.

With the airline not sure how passengers will react, American is first running a trial on select routes to London, to see if passengers notice.

What do you make of American potentially cutting bread and butter on some long haul flights? Do you think people will notice enough to provide feedback?