SFO777

I flew AA50 this past Monday and was underwhelmed by virtually every aspect.

My first thought as I entered the cabin was... this is the best they could do?? Seats were just OK, but I found them a little narrow compared to other real First Class seats/suites. Some of the controls were in strange or inconvenient positions. One of the worst flaws was the complete lack of personal storage. Sorry, but this almost feels like J+ seat and cabin. Indeed, United 777 First is more comfortable and functional. The old AA 772 First seat is more comfortable, with more space and more storage.

And whose brilliant idea was it to stagger seating leaving 2A and 2J partially in the J cabin?



With quite possibly the thinest, cheapest "curtain" between F and J on an international flight.



No curtains between the galley and the cabin means the galley is exposed to those of us on the right side of the plane and floods the entire cabin with light all night long.



These pics pretty much sum up AA's apparent attitude to the 77W First Class product.



AA can't even be bothered to use really glass for PDBs in an 8 pax TATL First Class cabin.
And the oh-so elegant AA First Class salt and pepper shakers.



And the plush AA hot towel.



The food? Meh. Don't know whether is was on off day or cut-backs, but our DFW-EZE 772 food was much better. As for wines, why even pay Ken Chase when he doesn't know good wine from vinegar and you've set a $10 to $18 per bottle price limit. Just send an intern to Trader Joe's or Costco and buy each week. He couldn't do any worse than the swill that Chase selects and AA serves.

All in all, American's new 77W is a big disappointment and confirmation of my long-standing policy to rarely fly TATL/TPAC on a domestic airline.

For those interested in the gory details, I have lots of pics in my trip report.

ESpen36

Wirelessly posted (Apple iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11D201 Safari/9537.53)

Honestly, what do you realistically expect, with F mostly filled with upgrades, award tickets, and non-revs? What is the incentive for AA to provide a CX or QF level of service?

There are very few routes that have legitimate demand for paid F.

Exec_Plat

I like the way OP doesnt clarify those are pre-departure beverages...

although I agree about Ken Chase.

g1ant

Even though I never use them, the cheap, nasty salt & pepper pots annoy me every time. Stupid I know, but they are just an indication of how little AA cares about their F service.

elitetraveler

I enjoy the new AA 77W J -- erratic FA service notwithstanding.

When DP said his goal was to once again put AA as a top world class airline I was thinking maybe they would resurrect a top league F -- perhaps at least to have a halo effect -- i.e. - a U.S. airline could compete on service with EY, CX, JL, SQ, LH.

I assume the mini F cabin is profitable -- that there are people willing to pay for a hard product that is incrementally better than the J product. To me the soft product is a wash.

mmgm

I asked a FC FA about them. He said the old glass ones often stopped pouring. He assured me the plastic ones were temporary. Of course this was two months ago.

NauticalWheeler

This was also posted in the trip report thread (incorporated into a larger report likely to side step ft rules regarding cross posting).

will2288

Overall I enjoyed my trip in AA 77W F, in the same seat you had.

But I absolutely agree abou the curtain issue. I found the seat had plenty of privacy from F passengers, but 3G could see easily into my space. I wish the privacy curtain could be much thicker, although I don't know of the FAA rules on the matter.

jtw_mia

I recall that AA was recently using clear / chromed salt and pepper shakers that looked much more appropriate with the new plates and silverware. It seems the white plastic is back.

JDiver

Cheap disposable plastic mini-shakers . Interesting, isn't it? My predilect shakers were thi, were they Noritake? - "river rock" shaker set on Cathay (Business class).

AeroWesty

Why not use mini-grinders instead? Pepper ground goodness knows when is for the family dining table and coffee shops.

JDiver

Having flown in both, I have to say the difference between 772 NGBC and Flagship Suite, as elderly as they might appear on occasion, is a significant difference (2x3x2 with middle seat, angled lie flat seats, etc. vs solo and spacious suite); the difference between 773 Business and First is just not all that much in comparison.

Eastbay1K

And that is exactly why AA went to a small cabin and only on a limited number of routes.

That is their incentive - otherwise they shouldn't have bothered at all with any F cabina on this aircraft.

Ceasy

LHR is one of those routes.

Can't speak for the hard product, but I'm waiting to see if they upgrade the soft product considerably once the 772's have F removed. They can't do so now due to the potential for confusion among customers, but considering the demand for F to LHR it would be worth their while to do so afterwards.

Dr. HFH

CX curtains are opaque, thus eliminating the light-from-the-galley-during-overnight-flights issue.