American Airlines is facing questions regarding an unpleasant meal experience of a passenger on one of its transatlantic flights. The traveler took to social media to recount the details of the incident, sharing a video of the meal and prompting a response from the airline and many others.
Bugs in the salad
An American Airlines passenger recently took to Twitter to complain about finding bugs in the salad of his meal. Ricky James tweeted that he paid $10,000 for a business class round trip on an AA flight between Frankfurt (FRA) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) but was left unsatisfied by the quality of the service on the flight.
In the video that James posted, tiny black specks can be seen inside his packed salad, which came as part of a larger business class meal. Upon close inspection, the particles can be seen moving inside the leafy salad as seen through the transparent plastic wrap.
James was also a little surprised by the flight crew's reaction, who, he claims, "laughed it off and asked if I wanted a different salad."
Towards the end of the video, James zooms in on his boarding pass, which shows the date of the incident to be June 2nd.
American Airlines is looking into the incident
Sensing the gravity of the situation, American reacted to James' tweet on the same day, posting, "Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll send this over to the right team to review this further."
The post has received many comments from Twitter users, with one of them suggesting that American should reimburse the $10,000 James spent on the tickets. The airline has responded to Simple Flying regarding the incident, saying,
“We’re concerned about this report, as what the customer is describing is not up to our standards. We are investigating this matter and are working directly with our catering provider in Frankfurt. A member of our team has reached out to the customer to apologize and learn more about their experience.”
When James was asked on Twitter whether American had contacted him, he replied that he did receive a call from the airline's representative.
Follow Simple Flying for all the latest aviation news.
American's strict response in the past
American Airlines is likely busy trying to find out the source of the oversight and, judging from past incidents, does not take something like this lightly. In 2017, the carrier stopped using the catering services of Gate Gourmet for its flights from LAX after traces of Listeria bacteria were found in their facility.
The carrier allowed the caterer to serve again after working extensively with outside food safety experts to ensure that any re-entry to their kitchen at LAX maintained strict food safety standards.
What are your opinions about this? Please let us know in the comment section below.