Passengers don’t fly with American Airlines to be wowed by a selection of quality wines, but the Fort Worth-based carrier seems determined to change the perception that its onboard service can be best described as lacklustre after securing a major partnership with prestige Champagne house Bollinger.
From next month, Bollinger Special Cuvée will debut in Flagship First and Flagship Business on flights to Paris Charles de Gaulle before a wider rollout across American’s international Flagship network over the coming months.
On the ground, American Airlines has already rolled out Bollinger Special Cuvée at its Flagship lounges in Dallas Fort Worth, Miami, and Chicago O’Hare, and the Champagne will also soon be available in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
American Airlines makes no secret of the fact that it has partnered with the world-renowned family-owned Maison as part of a mission to make the carrier more premium.
The force behind AA’s transformation into a more premium airline that can better compete with Delta and United Airlines is Heather Garboden, American’s Chief Customer Officer, who is desperately trying to alter the airline’s image problem.
Garboden has been tapping experts from Disney and the Auberge Resorts Collection to inform her on what changes need to be made, and we’ve already seen a host of improvements designed to compete against American’s biggest rivals.
Free in-flight Wi-Fi will finally be introduced next year, pajamas and mattress pads for Flagship Business Class passengers on AA’s longest flights are making a highly anticipated return, and pandemic-era service cutbacks have been reversed.
The introduction of a prestige Champagne is certainly a major change from what American Airlines has served its highest spending passengers in recent years.
Back in 2023, the airline quietly ditched Champagne altogether in its international Flagship Business Class cabin, replacing it with an Italian imposter in the form of Ferrari Brut Trento DOC.
While American Airlines has secured the rights to serve Bollinger, it will be competing against Delta, which serves Taittinger Brut Reserve in its Delta One Business Class cabin on long-haul flights, and United, which offers Laurent-Perrier’s La Cuvée Champagne on all Polaris business class flights.
Three Champagne brands that are, however, out of reach of the Big Three US airlines, or any other carrier for that matter, are Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot,t and Dom Perignon.
Any other carrier, that is, apart from Emirates, which secured the exclusive global rights to serve these Champagnes on commercial flights back in 2022.
The deal proved quite the upset for Singapore Airlines, which was forced to drop Dom Pérignon from its Champagne lineup as a result of Emirates’ dealmaking with LVMH, the umbrella company behind some of the biggest names in luxury.
