A black woman is wondering if she was skipped over for her first class meal on American Airlines due to racism or just incompetence.

Black Woman Says She Was The Only Passenger Skipped Over For Meal In American Airlines First Class

A black woman was traveling on AA from Boston (BOS) to Miami (MIA) on May 3, 2025 and “treated herself” to first class. But when meal service began after takeoff, she was skipped over. She claims flight attendants did not offer her food or even an explanation of why she was not offered food. She was awake during meal orders and had not eaten since she “looked forward to this” (a small plug here for the Chase Sapphire Lounge in Boston, where she could have enjoyed a much better meal than anything onboard AA).

Posting about this on TikTok, she said:

When u the only black person in first class and the food apparently ran out…. Well thank you American Airlines

Why didn’t she report it? She claims her “brain couldn’t comprehend that this happened,” and she was baffled.

Her story has now gone viral.

What Happened Here?

I’m going to assume, for purposes of our discussion, that she actually was denied a meal…while it’s not uncommon for TikTok influencers to stretch the truth, this would be a terrible story to fabricate.

I wasn’t there and so, like One Mile At A Time, I’m certainly not going to simply dismiss that there might have been racism or at least discrimination at play…it is a possibility, especially after the incident in which American Airlines removed all (unrelated) black male passnegers onboard because one of them smelled bad.

> Read More: Lawsuit Claims Eight Unrelated Black Men Were Thrown Off American Airlines Flight After White Flight Attendant Complained About Body Odor
> Read More: American Airlines CEO Apologizes For Treatment Of Black Passengers, Vows To Change Culture

But while there may certainly be American Airlines flight attendants who are racist, I’d like to think this was more likely an apathetic or lazy flight attendant…something that (tragically) is not all that uncommon nor directed at a particular race or gender.

The black woman was seated in the last row of first class and AA takes meal orders from front to back, prioritizing pre-orders first. If she did not pre-order a meal and there was a catering snafu in which not enough meals were loaded, I can see why she ended up without one.

But what I cannot understand is why this would not be communicated. Could the flight attendant have thought she declined her meal? On United Airlines, one of the pre-order options is to decline the meal; but this is not an option on American Airlines. I’ve seen many instances where a flight attendant will not confirm pre-orders; they just serve them. But this was not a possibility here.

Could it just be that the flight attendant was forgetful? Sure.

But a competent flight attendant would have apologized for the catering snafu and offered her compensation on the spot. Whether or not there was racism may be difficult to determine from her account, but the lack of professionalism was clear.

CONCLUSION

A black woman is blaming racism as the reason she was skipped over for a meal in American Airlines first class. While that is a pssoiblity, the more likely explanation is poor customer service and communication from an American Airlines flight attendant. Either way, this story reflects very poorly on AA.

What do you think happened onboard?