Trip Reports - New AA BOS-LAS service brief report F & Y

Well, taking advantage of the double miles promo, I booked a few trips to LAS and will give a brief report.

AA 469 759p-1052p
12/21 F, 1/4 F, 1/10 F.

F service is okay...none of my flights were full. Service starts with warm nuts after take off...pre-departure drink given only 2 of 3 flights. Snack service (This peeved me because when the flight was originally planned it had a departure time of 730pm which also means a full meal in F and snack in Y. Sure enough they pushed the departure time back so, only snack in F, nothing in Y)

Snack was chicken fajita pizza or shrimp and scallop pita??I think....both with salad and cookie......on 2 of 3 flights...on the third flight it was chicken fajita pita or mushroom pizza.

FAs tend to disappear after meal service with only 2 rounds to ask for drinks after meal. This is rather low given it is a 5.25 hour flight.

In Y one beverage and one round of water.

Opinion: Toss up. Upgrade if you have extra stickers (5 stickers for this trip) in your account that you don't care about and you want more space (assuming you know the flight is full in Y). Definitely not woth 15K miles.

Flight 1036 LAS-BOS 956pm-552am
1/5 F, 1/11 Y

Flight was full both times I took it. F fills up with upgrades because people think they might be able to sleep.

F service is horrible...pre-departure drink, cold packages of nuts and pretzels and one drink after takeoff..maybe one round after movie starts. FAs just assume everyone falls asleep and ignore the cabin. AA got an e-mail about the lack of even a cold plate snack on this flight (4.5 hours)..it is a contradiction to their website description of F service. Will let you know the response.

Y service...plane was full but had an exit row and luckily seat blocking worked as the middle seat next to me was one of about 5 empty seats on the plane..one round of drinks..one round of water..again FAs assume you should fall asleep and not bother them...FAs pass to do safety checks with no regard for my shoulder (which i try my best to keep out of the aisle) as it got bumped rather violently EACH time.

Opinion: I can't really sleep on the 757s in F because the seats aren't comfortable, so I wouldn't even use stickers to upgrade given the lack of service...of course if you can sleep on red-eyes then maybe you would rather upgarde, as Y service is non-existent and either FAs or obnoxious people around you will keep you awake. Definitely don't use miles to upgrade.

comments and other experiences on these flights appreciated..

When the FA 'disappear' after FC is served and cleaned up, they are in back helping with the limited service in the back.

The don't really disappear, if you know what I mean. THere is no place to hide. And no mirrors.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by R&R:
When the FA 'disappear' after FC is served and cleaned up, they are in back helping with the limited service in the back.
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Although your hypothesis might be true, I have rarely seen this happen. However, I have seen FA siting in the front jump seat or the last row of coach reading, writing, and relaxing for a majority of a flight (not just taking a break).

Contrast this to the Asian carriers where the FA are hustling the entire time and even clean out the lavs. When was the last time you saw a FA clean out a lav?

Nice trip report....sorry to be off topic

In my case, "disappear" was two FAs in the front galley chatting, reading, and lounging for a couple of hours. On my 1/4 and 1/10 BOS-LAS flights I don't think they needed help in the back since each flight probably had 50 people on it.

I guess after flying CX in Y, I am still spoiled and should be deprogrammed to lower my expectations.

Let hope that Jetblue will fly this route soon! last time when I flew B6 from SEA to JFK on a redeye flight, we got a full beverage service with assorted snacks (chips, cookies, and pretzels) after takeoff and juice prior to arrival. Bottled waters were also passed out.

I am shocked to see the lack of service on these relatively long flights, but Las Vegas is a typically "leisure" markets. Therefore, most US airlines seem to justify that minimal services are required on these flights. Yes, I am pretty sure that departure time is purposefully moved back to avoid meal services.

Carfield

I would love to see B6 in BOS...Unfortunately, it won't happen until Terminal A opens at the earliest. Even F9 got squeezed out of Terminal B because Massport raised the cost of terminal space to them astronomically.

I got a response from AA regarding service on these flights. I wasn't looking for anything and didn't receive anything except a very candid admittance that they are losing money and food service is one of the areas in which they are trying to cut costs. Also, even though it is a long flight (5+ hours) there are exceptions to providing meal service given circumstances..(This is interpreted by me to mean that since we know BOS-LAS is a low-yield flight...we're going to give you nothing)

In any case, it was a rather depressing letter although I appreciate the honesty.

This is the kind of decline in service that made me jump ship to NW. NW's service is at least good domestically, and I'd rather trade more miles to find award tickets later than pay the kind of money I did in 2002 for upgrades on AA.

This despite the fact that I really do like Oneworld and AA, but I just couldn't rationalize it once NW comped me to Gold (same tier)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Steve

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Carfield:
Let hope that Jetblue will fly this route soon! last time when I flew B6 from SEA to JFK on a redeye flight, we got a full beverage service with assorted snacks (chips, cookies, and pretzels) after takeoff and juice prior to arrival. Bottled waters were also passed out.
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On transcon redeyes, which is a better coomparison to your B6 flight, American does a full hot snack service in the main cabin. This typically includes a beverage service followed by a basket with a hot sandwich, carrots, chips, and cookies. The LAS-BOS flight suffers both from not being a trans-con (I know it's long, but LAS is not in a coastal state, let alone on the coast) and from being a presumably low-yield flight.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sllevin:
This is the kind of decline in service that made me jump ship to NW. NW's service is at least good domestically, and I'd rather trade more miles to find award tickets later than pay the kind of money I did in 2002 for upgrades on AA.

This despite the fact that I really do like Oneworld and AA, but I just couldn't rationalize it once NW comped me to Gold (same tier)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Steve </font>

As you can see from my profile, I too am NW GOLD...took a comp last year and retained it this year. I do like NW better and have never sat in Y on them domestically, except for the dreaded CRJ. There are only three things that keep me flying AA...First, Oneworld alliance..I want to use my miles for CX flights to Asia. NW can't compare service wise with CX. Second, award availability and the ability to upgarde on any fare...AA and its OW partners have much more availability for awards. I only use miles to upgrade to C or buy C or F awards over an ocean. On NW you need to buy a high fare to upgrade and I have never found a Standard award for the dates and destinations I want. Finally, I stick with AA because I want the lifetime status.

On the question of whether BOS-LAS flights are or are not transcons, I feel like we're perhaps getting played by AA/Oneworld doubletalk on this.

On one hand, we're told that the flights are not transcon for purposes of catering or flagship lounge access (when in First on BOS-LAS, departing BOS). (There's a thread in the [broken] AA forum about FL access on BOS-LAS, dated a couple months back, reflecting discussion with FL staff.)

But, for purposes of Oneworld Explorer fares, BOS-LAS is a transcon flight -- see http://members.shaw.ca/fewmiles/oneworld/owe.html , section 6.A., lines 176-183.

Doesn't seem fair, does it?!