When I Travel The World

Hi All,
Long time reader and I've done lots of trip reports before, but never thought to post them on here until now.

I tried a few times to post the pictures in this article, but they keep coming out huge in the forum and I can't figure out how to resize them. All of the photos are hosted on my site, if any can let me know how i can embed them that would be great.

Please let me know If I have broken any rules on posting so i can correct this.

Well here is my first Trip Report post , hope you like it.


Today I was looking forward to trying American Airlines new transcontinental First Class service from Los Angeles to New York.
American started offering this new Three Cabin Service from January 2014 and I've only heard great things about it.

The flight is operated by an Airbus A321 T aircraft and has a fairly unique configuration.

10 First Class Seats
20 Business Class Seats
72 Economy Seats

I had booked this flight one way using 32,500 AA Advantage miles and $5.60 In Tax
The usual one way purchase cost is anywhere between $2000 - $5000 one way.

I woke up around 4am and check the status of my flight to make sure it was running on time.

I arrived at the airport around 6.30am and my flight was due to depart at 9:00am.

American_Airlines_First_Class_A321T_Transcon15
I used the Flagship first private check in at LAX terminal and it was really nice experience, I was the only person using it when I checked in and the process was very quick, After I was checked In I was escorted into an elevator which took me to the second floor of Terminal 4 at LAX and I almost instantly found myself at the front of TSA line getting some dirty looks from other passengers.

I checked the departures board to make sure my flight was running on time.

After getting through the security check point I went straight to the American Airlines Admiral club so I could enjoy some breakfast and coffee before boarding the plane, and it's always a lot more relaxing being in a lounge compared to the airport.

Upon entering the Admirals lounge I was given a key card which gave me access to the Flagship lounge which was located within the Admirals lounge.
I took a few pictures of the Admirals lounge before making my way to the Flagship lounge

I then went to the Flagship lounge to relax.

The flagship lounge had a much more exclusive feel, it can only be used by International First class passengers or people flying in First class from LAX - JFK. It was a lot less cramped that the Admirals lounge which was packed with people.

I settled with a cup of coffee and an English muffin for my pre flight snack, I had after all been up since 4am and had become fairly hungry.

I then left the lounge around 8.25am and walked towards my gate. I arrived and boarding was just about to begin, so I snapped a picture of our aircraft for the journey.

Boarding was called right on time, the First class passengers were called and I walked up, I wanted to board early so I could take a few pictures of the cabin, but within seconds people were crowding from 1st to try and get on also.

Upon being greeted and entering the cabin I found my seat 1A and took some pictures of the cabin and seat.

I do love the first class seats on the A321T. For a domestic product I feel they are one of the best you can fly on for a trans-con.

The first class seat has over 60 inches of leg room and a width of around 21 inches. It comes with a 15.4 inch Touch screen Tv, Multiple charging and power ports, tons of entertainment options and is around 82 inches when the bed is fully flat.

I settled in and took some pictures of my seat

After a few minutes of looking around my seat I was offered a pre departure drink, it was a Friday so I went with the Champagne (*sparking wine really)


I enjoyed my drink quickly and before I knew it we had started our taxi to the gate.


As we passed by the United terminal at LAX , The cabin crew instructed us that they would be playing the safety video before take off. The safety video started over twice, both times without sound and I could hear the cabin crew talking about how it had no sound, they then decided to stop the Video and do a manual presentation due to no sound.

We lined up and took off into the overcast sky, after about 1 minute we cut through the clouds into clear blue sky.

We reached 12,000 FT and the ding for the cabin crew to get up went, within a few seconds I was given a first class menu to look over.

I decided that I would go with Tomato, Leak & Bacon Strata since I was in the mood for a more hearty breakfast.
Before meal service began I was offered another drink and decided to just have a glass of water, which came with a biscotti.

About 40 minutes into the flight the meal service began and my table was laid.

I was then given a hot towel

I was then given a rather poor attempt at what I call a fruit plate

I would say this was a bit of an embarrassment and hardly a serving size. Either way I enjoyed it for the 5 seconds it took me to eat it.

Anyway onto the main part of breakfast.....

Now the Strata was pretty good and the potatoes also, I was not a fan of the Chicken Sausage, but the worst part was that I was not offered any condiments at all, half way through eating it my mouth was becoming fairly dry, but still no offer of condiments at all. For the first half of the flight the crew seemed as if they were not that interested in being friendly and I just about gave up trying to get their attention.

After the main course I was given a small dessert plate

I enjoyed a glass of the Merlot with this desert.
Overall I found the breakfast service a little bare, and for a first class product it was fairly disappointing.

I mean don't get me wrong, the seat is fantastic and really up there and makes the hard product great, but the quality of the food was lacking and the sad faces from the crew. Only one of the flight attendants on my flight was happy to be there and I had a chat with him and he had been working for AA for over 20 years, after our chat he become a lot more friendly and kept coming back all the time to offer me more wine.

I checked out the air show to pass some time, I really like this version as it gives great views on the screen. After breakfast service we had covered about half the distance.

I then decided to check out the new Retro amenity kits that AA have been offering lately, it contained the usual items.
Toothbrush & Paste, Lip Balm, Eye shade, Ear Plugs, Socks

I have really enjoyed collecting these kits so far.

I then wanted to take a few pictures of the bed in the fully flat position so reclined it to check it out.

I then zoned out for about the next hour just drinking some wine and listening to Music. I decided to give AA's music selection a try so I could use the complimentary Bose noise cancelling headphones.

With about 1 hour and 30 minutes remaining in the flight I was given a bottle of water, shame that its still Dasani. I don't know why AA does not change this to at least something that's not just purified water.

We then started passing over Chicago which had some rough weather as of late and the Captain gave an announcement. We had been cruising along at 33,000 Ft most of the flight and the Captain said the weather coming up would be fairly bumpy and that the aircraft was too heavy to fly any higher, which surprised me as we only had just over an hour to go. He informed us we would just have to fly into it and there would be some chop.

Fine, not a problem with me, but after 20 minutes of being bumped around It was getting fairly annoying, at this point I noticed we started descending and the air become much more smooth and we leveled off at around 24,000 FT.

With just over 45 minutes left I decided to have an Espresso. Now this is one great feature of the A321 T. An on board coffee machine that can make actual espresso is a great feature.

We then began our final decent into JFK and the cabin crew took their seats for landing. It was a fairly clear day with some scattered clouds and we had a smooth decent, the pilot landed the plane with a fair thump into the runway, but it was nothing unusual.

We pulled off to the right of the runway and taxied to our gate. I snapped a few pictures during the taxi

For me it had been a fairly enjoyable flight. The food was standard and could have been a lot better and the older crew could have been a bit happier to be doing their job, most of the flight was nice and smooth apart from the weather over Chicago and we landed on time into New York.

I would probably be fairly upset if I had spent a small fortune on this flight and received sub par first class service.

I was interested to see what the Business class would be like on my return in two days time.

HMO

thanks for sharing! ^

offerendum

Ihave to fly LHR - SFO (paid F). I think about flying LHR-JFK-SFO as I get 420 Tier Points this way compared to 210 for LHR - SFO. I once did JFK - SFO in the old e-class product which was awful. The new product Looks decent.

TOMFORD

Thank you for sharing. It's good to see more and more of these new domestic products. Time to ditch UA and DL.

oneworld82

The new Premium Transcon product is industry-leading IMHO. Will try it soon and report on it!

When I Travel The World

I did the return in Business class and will write about that one soon.

Madone59

Thanks for the TR ^

manico

I did the reverse route - JFK to LAX - in FC also using points (32.5k one way but 10% back if you have the Citi AA MasterCard). Overall I wasn't that impressed with it but perhaps I had very high expectations due to the promotion by AA of the new aircraft and service.

When checking in at JFK I didn't see where the Flagship check-in was and the agents at the FC desk didn't mention that I could use it. In any case, the Pre-check lane was virtually empty so a long security line wasn't an issue. I don't fly AA that much anymore and rarely in FC so I wasn't sure that I could use the Admirals Lounge on an award ticket (again, it wasn't mentioned by anyone but I realize it was for me to ask). After trekking to the outer gates to use the Admirals Club there, I was told by the agent that I could use the Flagship lounge (located near security) which served hot food for breakfast. Needless to say, I trekked on back to access it and was a bit surprised that I was the only one there (at least for about 30 minutes). It's a very nice and large space overlooking the gates and the food selection was decent but nothing to write home about.

As for the FC service and seats, they were nice but a bit tighter than I thought. I liked the 1-1 seating but falsely assumed that meant more roomier seats. I recall flying in AA's 767 from LAX-MIA a couple years ago and preferred those seats to the A321 (if I recall the 767's had a weird thing were you could swing the seats around to the window and were more "capsule" like).

Service was for me, typical AA, meaning that there were barely any smiles and the FA's just did the bare minimum required of them (perhaps I've been flying AS and Int'l airlines too much). Entertainment options were good and the food just so-so (an improvement for sure over prior AA FC experiences I had but not overwhelmingly tasty).

If I had to pay $ for this flight I'd rather either go Business or Economy (the exit row seats on this plane are decent enough for me). Funny thing was that right before we boarded, there was a guy at the gate who approached me to ask me if I was flying Business. When I said no that it was FC he proceeded to tell me that he was looking for someone who was flying Business so he could use his US Air systemwide upgrade to bump them to FC so he could fly Business. Just my luck!

lalismom

I haven't been able to fly for a few years...no friends or family to entrust the well-being of my little canine daughter to and would not use boarding...so we travel, happily, by car on trips...so this was great for me to see as AA is my favorite. Thought what a great trip it would be for my dad to celebrate his 100th birthday in a couple years...enjoyed all your pictures of the meal service which looked delicious to me, and just right in portions as I am a smaller eater and would have loved sampling all.

gaobest

Great TR - looking forward to the TR of the C class return trip.

crazyarmadillo

thanks for sharing - I try and avoid the breakfast flights - the next one currently leaves at 10.10 and its lunch menu - this month there is thai beef curry, pasta or shrimp. And yes the fruit plate is somewhat amusing. The last time I flew the FAs were slightly embarrassed to say the least.

Shame about your crew - I have always found the crew on the a321t in F to be excellent.

The a321t does seem to get weather at JFK but I find a glass of wine turns it from being annoying to fun!