Darren
Jul 4, 01, 3:25 am
I have not had much time to write recently, as my personal life has had to take priority. At the moment, though, I am at the Wing, bored out of my gourd. At least it is probably the most comfortable place to be bored in.
After cutting my previous trip off early, and working like a dog since my return, I decided it was time to finish the trip. (Randy, when I type finish and it, it turns into finiXXXX. A bit paranoid, imo) Anyway, my routing took me from LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-HKG, where I am now. This won't be a 'stop report', as I have not stopped. It will be a comparison of a few flights that I took. They were all in First class, as it is part of the OW explorer fare.
LAX-LHR, AA136 on the newish 777.
This was really the first longhaul American Airlines flight that I took in first class. The longest before was on the 763 from MIA-LAX, which is/was the extention of the SCL-LAX flight. Many had told me that the AA flights on the 777 were excellent, and from their recommendations and from a few of the recent trip reports, I was excited to try it. The plane was the newly configured 777, with the swiveling sleeper seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. I don't remember the exact seat I had, but it was about 1/2 way up. I had never been on a 777 with sleepers, only on the CX 2-class aircraft.
My first impression was of how big and spacious it is, compared to the 747. During dining, it became almost like a large restaurant, with plates clanging, and people yacking like there was no tomorrow. In retrospect, I think the setup causes a couple of things to happen. First, you lose the exclusivity and privateness of the 747. The 777 just seemed massive, even though there were probably about the same number of seats. Second, was that the noise level was much higher. The setup is more conducive to talking, and like in a restaurant, it soon became the battle of the conversations. Carts were constantly being wheeled down, people shouting, things being dropped, etc. All of it magnified by the more open space of the cabin.
The new AA seats were pretty nice, though the swivel thing seemed like a pretty useless gimmick. They were comfortable, though like BA, the seats also have the 'coffin' feeling because your feet are off to the side of the seat in front of you. I suppose the design is formed by necessity, though, and it didn't make the seats any less comfortable in my opinion. The only really strange things I felt about the seats were that if you are reclined and want to set the seat back up, it goes through a series of odd contortions before finally getting there. For instance, the back would begin rising, then stop. The footrest would go all the way down, stop, and return about half way. Finally, the back would go all the way up. Very odd. Also, the take off and landing position of the seats is parallel with the sides of the aircraft. But since the seats don't recline in the position, no one leaves them there, and they all quickly get turned into the 30 degree angle, which is for the bed position. I couldn't figure out why they even had the 0 degree angle position, other than another neurotic safety thing.
Service was predictably average. Not great, not bad. There was a sufficient number of flight attendants, and they were pretty good. One of my personal pet peeves is when an attendant has to come out and ask who you are. They have a manifest, and should use it. I can understand that maybe it gives them a chance to find out how someone refers to themselves (first name, last name or nickname, etc...), but it just smacks of laziness. Cathay is incredible in this respect. They never, ever have a manifest in hand, and always know my name before I come aboard. The AA flight attendants also seemed more arrogant and condescending than I am used to, but I just ignored that. Barked orders, didn't thank people personally for flying with them, etc. Little things.
Food was good. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the menu for the moment, so I will post it at some other time if I have a few minutes.
Overall, I would give the flight a B+. Nice seats, average service, and decent food. Most importantly, it took off and landed. Any flight that does so without incident will get at least a D. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
After cutting my previous trip off early, and working like a dog since my return, I decided it was time to finish the trip. (Randy, when I type finish and it, it turns into finiXXXX. A bit paranoid, imo) Anyway, my routing took me from LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-HKG, where I am now. This won't be a 'stop report', as I have not stopped. It will be a comparison of a few flights that I took. They were all in First class, as it is part of the OW explorer fare.
LAX-LHR, AA136 on the newish 777.
This was really the first longhaul American Airlines flight that I took in first class. The longest before was on the 763 from MIA-LAX, which is/was the extention of the SCL-LAX flight. Many had told me that the AA flights on the 777 were excellent, and from their recommendations and from a few of the recent trip reports, I was excited to try it. The plane was the newly configured 777, with the swiveling sleeper seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. I don't remember the exact seat I had, but it was about 1/2 way up. I had never been on a 777 with sleepers, only on the CX 2-class aircraft.
My first impression was of how big and spacious it is, compared to the 747. During dining, it became almost like a large restaurant, with plates clanging, and people yacking like there was no tomorrow. In retrospect, I think the setup causes a couple of things to happen. First, you lose the exclusivity and privateness of the 747. The 777 just seemed massive, even though there were probably about the same number of seats. Second, was that the noise level was much higher. The setup is more conducive to talking, and like in a restaurant, it soon became the battle of the conversations. Carts were constantly being wheeled down, people shouting, things being dropped, etc. All of it magnified by the more open space of the cabin.
The new AA seats were pretty nice, though the swivel thing seemed like a pretty useless gimmick. They were comfortable, though like BA, the seats also have the 'coffin' feeling because your feet are off to the side of the seat in front of you. I suppose the design is formed by necessity, though, and it didn't make the seats any less comfortable in my opinion. The only really strange things I felt about the seats were that if you are reclined and want to set the seat back up, it goes through a series of odd contortions before finally getting there. For instance, the back would begin rising, then stop. The footrest would go all the way down, stop, and return about half way. Finally, the back would go all the way up. Very odd. Also, the take off and landing position of the seats is parallel with the sides of the aircraft. But since the seats don't recline in the position, no one leaves them there, and they all quickly get turned into the 30 degree angle, which is for the bed position. I couldn't figure out why they even had the 0 degree angle position, other than another neurotic safety thing.
Service was predictably average. Not great, not bad. There was a sufficient number of flight attendants, and they were pretty good. One of my personal pet peeves is when an attendant has to come out and ask who you are. They have a manifest, and should use it. I can understand that maybe it gives them a chance to find out how someone refers to themselves (first name, last name or nickname, etc...), but it just smacks of laziness. Cathay is incredible in this respect. They never, ever have a manifest in hand, and always know my name before I come aboard. The AA flight attendants also seemed more arrogant and condescending than I am used to, but I just ignored that. Barked orders, didn't thank people personally for flying with them, etc. Little things.
Food was good. Unfortunately, I have misplaced the menu for the moment, so I will post it at some other time if I have a few minutes.
Overall, I would give the flight a B+. Nice seats, average service, and decent food. Most importantly, it took off and landed. Any flight that does so without incident will get at least a D. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif