American Airlines says goodbye to French bubbly, now serving Ferrari Brut on board
Star bloggers headline much the same thing "No more champagne for travelers from [...]
American Airlines
Oneworld
Star bloggers headline much the same thing "No more champagne for business class travelers aboard American Airlines."
In this article:
Instead, we want to read the news in reverse and highlight the fact that to replace French bubbles, the world's largest company has chosen the Italian bubbles of Ferrari Brut.
The decision of AA
The carrier that with more than 200M passengers carried annually, an average of more than half a million passengers a day decided to remove champagne from the business class wine list.
A few more years AA will also have a first-class cabin, and for these passengers nothing will change, but for everyone else,
So it looks like @AmericanAir Has cut champagne on long haul. pic.twitter.com/D5IKIUZvYW
- Jerry (@BIGJinLA) August 3, 2023
Did you get your flight cancelled, miss your connection, land late?
You could get up to 600€ compensation per person
Underlying this decision according to all media reporting the news is an economic reason, Ferrari Brut costs less, so AA saves money. The news that started with a tweet about X (i.e., the new Twitter name) soon made its way around the web, without finding confirmation or denial from the company.
Now I'm curious whether also in AA's flagship lounges the Piper champagne banquet that greets travelers immediately upon entry will be replaced by a Ferrari-branded one; it would be a really beautiful advertisement for the Italian brand, since only the company's elite customers pass through these lounges.
W Made in Italy
For us Italians, it must be a boast the fact that the world's largest carrier, with more than 1,000 planes in its fleet, has decided to serve Italian bubbly on board its planes and for Ferrari will only be an excellent advertising vehicle. It should not be forgotten that in addition to Champagne there are other wines such as Spanish Cava , but also American, South African and many other wines, and Prosecco itself is more popular than bottles of Italian champenoise.
Bottles of Ferrari are served to premium passengers on planes and in lounges of ITA Airways and Aboard the Costa Crociere flagship is a special wine cellar just branded Ferrari where guests can not only taste all the labels, from the house founded in Treno in the early 1900s, but also eat a menu designed especially to enjoy the world's most famous and best-selling Italian classic method bubbles.
Virgin Atlantic also serves Italian
Last year aboard a flight to Los Angeles. not only had I "caught" an Italian flight attendant, but also a prosecco label on board a Virgin Atlantic flight.
The high-altitude bubble war
The choice of wine to offer their passengers is a real war. For companies, it is a major cost item, but it is also one of the main levers for marketing and attracting passengers. Just think, for example, of Emirates taking the worldwide exclusivity of Dom Perignon, forcing all other companies to stop serving champagne to their passengers.
In conclusion
Personally, I do not choose to fly or not fly with a company depending on the wine that is served, partly because drinking at high altitude in a pressurized cabin is not like drinking in a restaurant. In the characteristics of my perfect business card wine also has a marginal place because except for those traveling first class all other passengers will receive a mid-range product, and let's face it without fear of contradiction 95% of passengers around the world would struggle to tell the difference between a Krug and any Cava.
