gotofly

Hello Short Hair Francis
My 18 year old son is doing the same flight from DFW to FRA on June 20th on AA flight 70 and he is in Business, my question is the business class seats are they lie flat bed or comfortable or not, as LH has very limited recline even in business.
Thanks

Short hair Francis

When I flew this flight over 1 year ago, it was an AA Boeing 767-300.
2-2-2 config with slanted lie-flats.
And that to my knowledge is not so different compared with the old Lufthansa Business I'm afraid

AirForceFlyer

Really enjoyed reading all this. Insane/Epic MRs! I know it's late but congrats on reaching Million Miler!

Thor3

SHF,

Thanks to you and SFO777 I get to see what is truly important in the world: first class and city highlights. Great photos. With all your writing here, it is easy to see how you wrote your thesis! Do they allow photos in your thesis? They didn't for mine.

Short hair Francis

Thanks very much, i'm pretty sure i've earned the status "Flyertalk's Slowest Trip Report Writer"

No photos in thesis, and the group thesis I co-written were not related to this regardless.
Don't disregard the rural, the history and the cultural discoveries worldwide
Thanks for putting me up there with the category with SFO777

Short hair Francis

Part 23 – We are cutting capacity right? Or are we just going bankrupted?


As explained in the last part, saw someone in the admiral’s club and also on the same flight as well.
Thankfully being dead tired helps sleep so I was essentially asleep the entire flight, and being in 3E means, I was the first person to get off the flight at Chicago.
Thankfully there are alot of places to sneak away in Chicago without being seen.

Feb 5, 2012 – Sunday
AA 2099 ORD – LAX 6:45am – 9:15am (738/F)
AA 1372 LAX – ORD 10:20am – 4:30pm (738/F)
AA 3874 ORD – YYZ 9:30pm – 0:00am (+1)[Feb 6] (CR7/Y)

Another long walk to the end of the terminal, H17 was today’s gate for 2099.

*55th flight, 66421 Miles Flown this year
American Airlines 2099
Chicago O’Hare to Los Angeles
6:45am – 9:15am, 4 hr 30 mins flight
First Class, Seat 6B
Food – Breakfast
Equipment – Boeing 737-800 (16F/132Y)


God how bad are these loads, I thought plane are supposedly very-full now a days
Today’s load, 16/16 in First and 21/132 in Coach.
Here a MP person seeing next to me, but somehow he’s never heard of FT before?
That’s awfully odd…
Another on time departure thankfully with a 3 hr 45 min flight to LAX this morning

AA 2099 Breakfast

Breakfast Bread
Plain Bagel or Biscuit with strawberry jam, cream cheese or butter

Fruits
Side Fruit Plate consisting of Cantalope, Honeydew and Strawberry

Main Course
Egg Quesadilla
A scrambled egg filled corn tortilla shell with hot salsa on the side accompanied with sausage and pineapple

Cereal
Crisp X Cereal served with 2 percent milk and a side cranberry and blueberry dish

Same breakfast as 2 days ago, but no one can expect a different menu here.


In the meanwhile, after the meal, I decide to take the new American Airlines offering in economy, Flat bed seats in Mid-Con service, with the FA’s approval of course

Talk about an empty flight.

2 1/4 hours in the lie-flat service with gogo, and first class drinking glass, I can really get used to this type of flying.
Descent started just past Palm Springs with another landing on 25L, and finally parked at the gate 47A at 8:48am.
Yay, 1 hr 30 mins of turn time today, off for a nice shower.

Time to spot a couple planes in LAX this morning
Who needs some Tahiti love?

Yo Pops, Lol, we need SFO777 jr. on Flyertalk, stat!


Back down 47A after some rest time, the LAX AAngel from yesterday still remembers my crazy antics of CFC onto a delayed flight, yes I’m that crazy.
It’s a Sunday morning out of LAX, of course all the gate area are packed with different varieties of people.
No exception this morning, we started boarding at T-35 with the TSA goons keeping a close eye, no checks for me thankfully.

*56th flight, 68161 Miles Flown this year
American Airlines 1372
Los Angeles to Chicago O’Hare
10:25am – 4:30am, 4 hr 5 mins flight
First Class, Seat 3E
Food – Snack/Brunch
Equipment – Boeing 737-800 (16F/132Y)


4 groups of kettles this morning on our flight to Chicago, an Australian single mom with a baby, a family of 5 with 3 kids between 9-12 y.o, and a group of thirty five school kids from Mainland China. If you want a bad day to get settle down on a plane, this is your primary candidate.
The baby surprisingly was the best behaved on this flight, seated in the row 7 bulkhead, maybe a 5 mins of crying at landing which is expected.
The worse might be hard to decide, more on that later.

If there was one day, just a single day where you want to put your minuscule amount of Mandarin Chinese to the testing, today was the day, everyone gets settled in. Unfortunately we couldn’t get the trip leaders for the 35 Chinese Kids to sit down, they were trying to tend for most of their party.
It was a nice little headache for the FAs today, I did suggest if things get out of hand, I would go for a try on the mike if its “absolutely necessary”.
Thankfully, we didn’t have to go that far.
Door closes ahead of schedule thankfully at 10:08 but slight delays at pushback due to the prescribed issue above.
Finally we get pushback at the scheduled time of 10:25, the usual wait of 3-4 planes and we’re the air turning around at Long Beach and heading east for the final time in this 7 day trip.

AA 1372 Snack/Brunch

To start
Warm Mixed Nuts

Sides
Pita chips with hummus
Side Salad with green pepper and tomatoes on Italian Dressing

Main Course
Chicken Parmesan
Cheese Fried Chicken with green beans with red salsa sauce on side

Shrimp Salad
Large Shrimp on Green salad with green and red pepper and tomatoes on Italian Dressing

Dessert
Freshly baked on board cookies (Oatmeal Cranberry)


The FAs kick into action fairly quickly and the baby already heads off to the first class lavatory, fair enough since the coach cart on in the aisle.
But as the FA start to deliver the tray to the seat, he individually distribute them from the trolley that was at the front left exit door.
Guess who comes running up the aisle, the 3 kids comes running up the aisle to battle for the lavatory. You know what, the tray have forks and can injure people.
Worst of all, I was wearing flip flops

Trust me, took every ounce of my weight not to get up and start to yell at the kids or their parents. If you can see the First Class FA is delivering, why would someone run and try to hit them?
I personally could care less about kids flying, I did as I was young, but I was expected to be my top behavior. Otherwise, I can expect to go home in a LD3 along with the bags and other pets on the way home.

Parents, do your part, the plane is not a playground, Thank You

Thankfully the rest of the flight wasn’t nearly as stressful as almost having my toes stabbed with a fork. A landing on runway 10 and we’re easily at the gate 20 mins early.

Back to the Admiral’s Club for more work done and a shower, I still have some homework to do at times and the AC is usually a nice haven for that.
What’s today, SUPER BOWL with American Advertising!!!
If you live in the US, you will never know it, but Canadian TVs put in their own advertising which most hates, as they are nowhere as laughable as American Ads.

A nice walk out to the G club for the final 5 mins of the 4th quarter, caught the rest of the game in the Eagle concourse Club, congrats to the New York Giants!


*57th flight, 68595 Miles Flown this year
American Airlines 3874
Chicago O’Hare to Toronto
9:30pm – 0:00am(+1)[Feb 6], 1 hr 30 mins flight
Economy Class, Seat 5B
Food – Beverage Service
Equipment – Canadian Regional Jet 700 (9F/56Y) Operated By American Eagle



Over to G1B, another 4500 BA miles to take me back to YYZ tonight, with the best seat in the house, 5B with 5A empty, can’t get better than that.
Sadly sometimes you know you’re on a flight home with the snobs of YYZ, yes YYZ snobs do exist

With 32 degrees outside and the plane on the ground for over 1 1/2 hour, the captain decides to have our wings de-iced for good measure. Unfortunately for Mr. 5C, and 5D, who apparently had a mis-connect on FLL-ORD-YYZ, they think American Airlines is out to screw them.
Yo, chill out, Mr. DYKWIA kettle, planes don’t wait for people unless it’s the last flight of the day (sparingly). Otherwise, NEXT!
Luckily I got along quite well with the Eagle #2 FA, its not that hard considering all the flying I’ve done, I even memorize the Eagle safety audio that month believe it or not!!!
She didn’t understand why as I EXP why I was stuck in the back, I corrected her but she still extended an offer to sit up in First Class tonight.
I decline it, I know the rules, wouldn’t want to get an FA in trouble over a short Eagle flight.

Meanwhile, where is that de-icer by the way, Its February in Chicago so we couldn’t have gone to pawn the truck already even if AA is in Ch.11
That took up an hour, and finally we left the gate at 10:45pm.

The FA goes around very quickly, doubles for me, Yay, more minis for the mini-fridge at home and the #2 decides to offer free wine to the DYKWIA tonight. They are apparently allow to do that in delayed situations.
And she still gets chirps, what do these people think?
Flying is fantasy land? Don’t you think the crew wants to be in bed instead of serving you at midnight?
What a disgrace to Canadians worldwide…

Either way, back in YYZ at 0:47am, late but at least I’m back.
Could be worse, I’ve had a red-eye service from Chicago to Toronto before.
Dep time, 1:50am, arrival time 4am!!!

Took another 1 hr and 15 mins to get to parking and get home.
90 mp/h on the freeway tonight

This showed up nicely that night at home, hard work not wasted


For absolutely great weekend memories, this was the finished product with the 1 Million Miler bristleboard



Finally back home with another 7 day Mileage Run
Next week is Valentines, what am I going to do about that?

Next Part
Part 24 – As spontaneous as it gets, AA Economy YYZ-JFK-ZRH

Short hair Francis

Part 24 – As Spontaneous as it gets, AA Economy YYZ-JFK-ZRH


The Seventh Section of the trip reports covers Part 24 – 26 which was as spontaneous as it gets, Feb 9 – 12 (YYZ-JFK-ZRH-LHR-YYZ)

Tues night
Itching for something to do on Valentine’s day, who can I ask for a date?
I mean, I would’ve flown someone from elsewhere if necessary?
Whateves, I’ll sleep on it.

Wed night, maybe I’ll just visit my buddy in Innsbruck for the weekend?
How do I get there, Zurich was the next easiest way in/out as Munich had no seats on Friday morning.
4 hour train ride from Zurich to Innsbruck…

I’ll sleep on it one more time…
Step again to Thursday morning 8am, another class, another presentation
At least my group was first to go
Sometimes I feel frequent flying is a very lethal and addicting drug, we can’t stay attached to the ground. And with my flying the last month, I was just as heroin high to flying as they come.
Crazily twitching and out of class at 10:30am, at least my luggage was packed and good to go in the car case I wanted to go.
Screw it, everyone is getting some love one way or another, British Airways can give me some of theirs.

Feb 9, 2012 – Thursday
AA 3862 YYZ – JFK 1:30pm – 3:30pm (CR7/Y)
AA 64 JFK – ZRH 5:55pm – 7:50am(+1)[Feb 10] (763/Y)

Remember, I usually take a 2-4pm flight either out of Toronto, Buffalo or Rochester. The only way I can make that JFK-ZRH flight was to catch the 1:30pm out of YYZ.
It is currently 10:30am, my various problems today to catch my flight?
1) I haven’t gone to paid for the ticket, it was still on hold and cancels out 2 hrs prior
2) My car wasn’t parked at the school today, it was at home (7 mins away by bus)
3) I don’t have enough gas in the tank to make it to YYZ.
4) I live 70 Miles away from YYZ ( 1 hr 20 mins according to mapquest)
5) I have no Euros or Swiss Francs in my wallet
6) AA has a 1 hr cut-off for int’l flights.

So essentially I have 2 hrs to get home, grab bags, buy my ticket, get money, get gas, drive to Pearson, park the car at airport and catch shuttle back to the counter.
I think I just crap my pants on today’s plan.

You stupid bus, of all the days to run late, it would be today.
Managed to get the ticketing done while I was waiting the bus, if there was one day to identify theft my a$$, it would be today.
Thankfully my 70 Miles drive is all freeway driving. Sadly the fastest I can afford to drive was 149 km/h or 92 mph. Ontario has a law which your car will be impounded plus an additional 10000 dollar fine if you drive 50 km/h over the speed limit.
I eventually left home at 11:10am for the usual 1 hr 10 min drive to Pearson.
Ok, not enough gas, I can fill it up halfway, got to call the Admiral’s Club helpline and get the YYZ AAngels to check me in via phone just in case.
Oh ya, that’s also a fine in Ontario too if I get caught driving while on the phone, wonder how much this will cost if the cops catch me today.

30 mins away from home, there is a cop on the road but luckily only on patrol. Now even I’m not stupid enough to go 49 over right in front of them. Dang, since when does driving at 120 km/h or 75 mph seem so slow….

After about 10 mins, the cop was off his patrol, now I need gas…
Driving the 90s range really burns out your gas in a zip, come on 20 bucks, get in the car and found my bank, ya Euros. It’s now 12:05pm, still 12-15 mins away from YYZ.

Get to the airport parking lot, it’s now 12:20pm and waiting for a shuttle bus.
Yes yes yes, there is a shuttle bus!!!
Usually there is a minimum 10 min wait, today’s wait 30 secs

Get to the AA counter in Terminal 3, it is 12:28pm, 2 mins before cut-off time.
Phew, I MADE IT
1 hr 18 mins for a 70 miles drive, a gas fill-up, head to a bank to get Euros, park the car at the outer parking lot and take a shuttle bus.
I’m not trying this again if I have a choice.

CBP and CATSA was a swift 15 mins combined process, and I’m at home.
Home being YYZ Admiral’s Club
10 mins down time drinking huge amounts of water and down to A9 for another Eagle flight


*58th flight, 68961 Miles Flown this year
American Airlines 3862
Toronto to New York Kennedy
1:30pm – 3:30pm, 2 hr flight
Economy Class, Seat 5B
Food – Beverage Service
Equipment – Canadian Regional Jet 700 (9F/56Y) Operated By American Eagle

Get into my favorite seat of 5B in the coach cabin, plane only had a load of 40 people, pushback was 15 mins early too, sweet!
Pushback right on time, and you guess it, I freaked out the 2nd FAs since I was mouthing off the safety audio again…
“Please direct your attention to the forward cabin for a brief safety demonstration, please ensure your seatback are straight up and tray tables are stowed and personal items are placed under the seat in front of you. All American Eagle flights are non-smoking…”

A quick 10 min taxi out to runway 24R and we’re in the air, 57 mins flight down to Kennedy this afternoon.

Luckily I escaped the traffic on the 401 today


The FA after takeoff were very quick, they obviously assumed I worked for Eagle, which I don’t, guess that is an occupation hazard of a frequent flyer, you can close to memorize all the word of the safety audio/video.
Some rest, man do I need that.

Approach was into New York started around 2:20pm




And with a 50 min early arrival into Gate 32F, we had to wait for crew to direct us into the gate. Parking into the gate was at 2:47pm. Time to make the long 10 min walk to the Flagship Lounge.

A shower and some food, I didn’t even had a chance to grab breakfast nor lunch today.

Someone said American was cutting back the catering in the Flagship, wonder if this qualifies?


At 5pm, I made the long walk back out to the outer concourse, gate 46
American Airlines Boeing 767-300, in the back tonight on a 20K off-peak Y award


*59th flight, 72881 Miles Flown this year
American Airlines 64
New York Kennedy to Zurich
5:55pm – 7:50am(+1)[Feb 10], 7 hr 55 mins flight
Economy Class, Seat 21J
Food – Dinner, Continental Breakfast
Equipment – Boeing 767-300

Boarding start quickly as J was at 9/30 and Y was just around 90 people, guess I pick another good flight to fly TATL Economy.

American Airlines Boeing 767-300 Coach Cabin


Exit Row Seat, 21J


I originally had a neighbor at 21H but as the plane was relatively empty, he among many others decided to take a row of 3 in the middle instead.

Legroom isn’t bad, I am on the short side however


Door closed at 5:46pm, 7 hrs and 5 mins of flying to Zurich, lets get out of here…



Takeoff just around 6:20pm and headed out East towards the Atlantic

AA 64 Dinner

To start
Nuts and Pretzel Mix
Cheese and Cracker
Sesame Bun

Salad
Side Green Salad with carrot shavings on olive oil and vinegar dressing

Main Course
Tomato Ravioli
Stuffed Cheese Ravioli served on tomato sauce with melted grated cheese

Wasabi Beef
Wasabi and Soy Sauce based Stir Fried Beef with served with White Rice and green beans

Dessert
Double Chocolate Crunch Brownie
Rich Chocolate Brownie with Nut Shavings

Oh boy, when was the last time I ate a coach meal?
Awhile…


Went with the Ravioli as that seems to be a safe choice as I’ve seen them plenty of times in domestic First meals.
What did I expect, small coach meals, I’m still starving
Ask the FA and got an additional wasabi beef main.

Man, what does JFK catering used for rice, it was a sticky piece of uncooked goo

After the meal, I caught about 4 hrs of sleep, a very lucky night occurrance and woke up to the continental breakfast about 1 hr 15 mins out from Zurich.

AA 64 Continental Breakfast

Juice
Minute Maid Concentrate Orange Juice
Additional Drink Cart Service

Breads
Warmed Croissant served with Strawberry Jam and butter

One croissant is still better than no croissant


Part 24 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Descending into the clouds


And into Snow covered Zurich

Outside temperature, -10 degree Celsius, 14 degrees Fahrenheit, this might not be the best idea for a winter weekend trip afterall

A 15 min train ride back out to Zurich Hauptbahnhof.


The first scheduled train to Austria in the morning was the 8:40am departure from Zurich, so I had about 30 mins of waiting, still pretty efficient to get from the ZRH to the Central station to the Austria-bound train

Hello Österreich Bahn



An empty cabin for a 4 hr train, no sardines this morning
And mysteriously after 12 hrs with almost zero planning, I’m in Europe



Next Part
Part 25 – Such a little country, Liechtenstein

dat4life

While I'm sure some here will disagree, I think the 20K off peak award to Europe is one of the sweetest spots on the AAdvantage award chart. Especially if you have free access to MCE.

Thanks for coming back finishing this epic report, SHF!

SMFlagg

Great report, as always SHF. Love reading them...but really...one croissant? Holy moly....

Short hair Francis

20K off-peak Euro rewards can be very good, especially for an EXP like me, pick an empty winter AA metal flight, then literally can go across the pond on a whim

Yes, only 1 croissant, and yes I did ask for Seconds lol
I'll try to finish this report as quickly as I can do it, I also have travels from 2013 I would love to write about but obviously have to finish what I started first, just can't pop them out in SFO777 speed sadly

Short hair Francis

Part 25 – Such a little country, Liechtenstein


Oh ya, why was I just spontaneously decided to head over to Europe on one of the coldest weekend around. My parents were in Milan for their cruise and its was near the freezing mark down there, and I was literally stuck as a frozen ice cube in Innsbruck, Austria, - 10 Celcius daytime.
Luckily my buddy tracked me down rather easily at the Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, and we went to pick up a cheap accommodation place for the night, his game was near Innsbruck tonight and he lived about an hour east.
Surprisingly petrol prices can make people do surprising things.

When was the last time I stayed at a place like this?

Seriously I can’t remember anytime I stayed at a place with shared bathroom.

As I already made a previous trip out to the Innsbruck/South Tyrol/Munich area in November, I wasn’t really in the mood to sightsee more especially with these type of temperatures.
Sleep also had a question here as my hockey friend said I slept like a hibernating bear with heavy snoring lol….

That night game was at Ztrl about 10 mins west of Innsbruck.
You know you’re in trouble on a night like this, you’ve wore every piece of clothes possible, 2 long sleeved shirt, 2 jackets, 1 pair of jeans, 2 pairs of underwear and a hat and you still can’t keep warmth.




Makes you wonder why people like the Canadians, Russians and Polish, places with generally cold winters can drink A LOT!

This game was no exception in -13 Celcius at night time. The locals were just as big as a fan of hockey as us crazy fanatic Canadians, but at the same time, they know when to huddle up.
At every intermission, the entire stadium clears out in 30 seconds and everyone jumps into the heated bar to warm up.

My friend’s team ended losing 10-8, you can’t exactly win a game with 4 3rd period penalties.
He wanted some food and a drink and I was game but both of us took a quick night, hard to be motivated to drink too much on a night like this.

The next day we headed over to Liechtenstein, and to Zurich as that was my way to go home on Sunday, a new city and country for my friend and I chipped in 1/2 the gas and the Park Hyatt Zurich, hard to say no to that.

Both myself and my friend usually drive for most of our group when all of us head on a trip, I’m slightly more tolerant and more patient in traffic but he has better endurance than me. Sadly Euro cars are shift so I couldn’t drive today.
We were unfortunately stuck in the Austrian alps with a 10 min long tunnel.
By the time we got to Liechtenstein, it was close to 1pm, we need pick up gas, booze and other snacks as I knew those will be very expensive in Switzerland.



A quick look by the border guard, I didn’t even know those existed between Liechtenstein and Austria and we’re on our way to Vaduz.

Vaduz Castle


Quick photo opp at the castle and we decided to head into town

The capital of Liechtenstein, Vaduz


Surprisingly it was a local day for Halloween in February but either way, a lot of kids were in costumes.






As we didn’t have the Voletti for Switzerland, we took a very back way to get to Zurich, must have took us 2.5 hrs at least vs. the autobahn.

If it wasn’t so cold and expensive, I would love to be here




Finally at 4:30pm, we got to the Park Hyatt Zurich and with free parking right behind the hotel being a weekend

Park Hyatt Zurich



Part 25 Continues Below

Short hair Francis

Hey bud, I thought you’re on a special diet not to eat all my Swiss Chocolate


A quick 90 min nap to get us ready for the night.
And starts the bar hopping, must have been 10-15 bars that night.

It was only – 6 Celcius that night but man, there is only so much bars I was willing to hop so at 1am when my butt is frozen, I give up and I head back.
My bud however stayed out until 3:30am with a chick.
Ok, where is that Ambien I need right about now?

Either way, all 3 of us woke up around 9:45am, I had a 1pm flight to catch from the airport.

A wonderful Swiss breakfast for the morning and all comped, woohoo, 120 CHF!


The girl decides to walk back to the train station and we head off to the airport.
Where are those Swiss chocolates bud? Nope, they are all gone, ugh…
Dang it!

Zurich Airport


British Airways counters weren’t very hard to locate in the terminal and no wait, I have my BA First and Business Class boarding passes.

I guess we covered up Malev pretty darn quick


The Panorama Lounge in Concourse E was the contract lounge for BA and it was crazy packed

Alright 10 mins, was all I spent in there, saving myself for the good stuff this afternoon.

Next Part
Part 26 – Some love for Valentine’s Day weekend, BA new First LHR-YYZ

mkjr

outdoor games are cold....at night, not sure how people can play them. i friend of mine who took me to ball games in Tokyo early in the season said the remedy for that is sctoch and HOT water. i must say, this stuff is great and ever since, drink it all winter at home in YYZ...esp. in my road glass - insulated/thermos mug... ;-)

nice TR. we did the same YYZ-LHR trip in F around the same time...

jfkeze

Mexicana still lives on, while Malev got covered up!!!!!