American Cuts First Class Sliders & Fries… Because They’re Too Popular?!

American Airlines is cutting its first class sliders and fries, but the reason is kind of surprising.

American’s first class sliders & fries haven’t lasted long

In premium cabins, American lets passengers pre-order meals. In addition to being able to select one of the onboard options, the airline also offers exclusive options that can only be pre-ordered, which aren’t otherwise available onboard.

These selections rotate over time, and in March 2025, American added an interesting new option. The airline introduced “all-American sliders and fries” as a first class meal choice. While there’s no branding to this partnership, there is a bit of a “burger wars” situation going on between US airlines, with Delta serving Shake Shack burgers in first class.

Often these pre-order options stay on the menu for quite some time, but that’s not the case here. Instead, American is cutting the sliders and fries option for flights as of May 14, 2025.

Here’s what I find interesting. I had assumed that these were being cut due to negative feedback, because I’ve seen some pretty bad reviews of them. However, apparently that’s not the case — instead, they’re being cut because they’re too popular.

@xJonNYC reports that American is removing the sliders and fries from the pre-order menu because they’ve been too much of a success. People were ordering more of them than expected, and some catering facilities reportedly had a hard time keeping up with demand. So the expectation is that American will bring these back at some point, once that can all be figured out.

People actually like these sliders & fries?!

I’ve shared my thought process for ordering airplane food. If you ask me, when flying, you’re generally best off either ordering cold dishes, or dishes that reheat well. After all, airplane food is generally cooked on the ground, then stored for an extended period of time, then catered onto the aircraft, and then reheated, prior to being served.

So I think of it the same way as I’d think about what I’d be happy to eat as leftovers after a day. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have leftover curry or pasta, rather than a leftover burger and fries, which just don’t reheat that well.

I haven’t had American’s sliders and fries, though most of the reviews that I’ve seen have been quite negative. So I’m confused, how are these proving so popular? I guess I have three theories:

• I imagine there’s a novelty to ordering sliders and fries on a plane, since not many airlines serve them
• There has been a lot of media attention around Delta’s Shake Shack partnership, so maybe that increases interest
• People do like junk food and comfort food, so I suppose there’s something satisfying about it, even if not as good as on the ground

Bottom line

For the past couple of months, American has been offering sliders and fries as a pre-order option in domestic first class. This will be cut in the coming days, but not because they aren’t popular. Quite to the contrary, they’re being cut because they’re reportedly proving so popular that some catering facilities are having a hard time keeping up.

Have you tried American’s sliders and fries, and if so, what did you think?