American Airlines BUSINESS CLASS New York to Los Angeles - Airbus A321T
Jul 2, 2015, 11:05 am
#1
formerly southsidesilver
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: San Diego,CA
Programs: BA Gold, UA Silver, HH Diamond
Posts: 998
American Airlines BUSINESS CLASS New York to Los Angeles - Airbus A321T
After taking the First class product on the way over. It was time to check out the Business Class product for my Return flight.
A full write up can be found at the following link.
https://whenitraveltheworld.wordpres...us-a321t-aa19/
I have included the trip report text and some pictures from the flight
28th June 2015
American Airlines Flight 19
Depart : New York (JFK)
Arrive : Los Angeles (LAX)
Departure time : 11:00am (Actual 11:54am)
Arrival Time : 1:41pm (Actual 2:11pm)
Airbus A321T Transcon
Seat : 6A
Flight Time 5h 17m
Meal Service : Lunch
After a decent flight over trying out the new first class product, I was just as excited to give the new domestic business class product a try on the A321T.
I had a great weekend in New York and was looking forward to relaxing on my flight home.
I used just 25,000 Avios points for this Business class reward and paid just $5.60 in taxes.
The business class cabin on the A321T has just 20 seats which are all fully flat-bed and provide some great space. Each seat has a 58 inch pitch and the flat-bed reaches around 77 inches. This is just 4 inches shorter than the first class seat on this plane, so still plenty of space to lay down.
The cabin is in a 2 - 2 configuration and located just behind first class, just over the wings.
My flight was due to depart at around 11am. I left Manhattan and took a taxi around 9am and was running a bit late, thankfully I had checked traffic and it was light on the Sunday morning and the drive only took around 30 minutes.
I arrive at the airport around 9.35am and proceeded to check in
Check in was quick and easy with no one else in line. After that I proceeded to the TSA line, thankfully I could cut out most of the line with the priority pass, but after that it still took about 20 minutes of just waiting due to the TSA constantly changing the lines people were in and people just did not move.
Another fairly successful failure by the TSA.
After passing security I proceeded straight to the admirals lounge as I did not have any breakfast before I left, Its located upstairs in JFK.
I was greeted with a smile and checked into the lounge, I quickly rushed over to find some food and snap some pictures of the lounge before I had to find my gate.
The food was very disappointing, but what did i expect from an Admirals lounge. I picked a bagel and grabbed a cup of coffee
It was a fairly overcast day at JFK and the view from the lounge was pretty dull, guess that goes with the lounge in general.
After a quick 20 minutes in the lounge I decided to head to my gate
I arrived at the gate just as First class passengers were boarding. They then called all Elite status holders and business class passengers to board, About 40 people walked up around the same time when this was called.
I snapped a quick picture of our plane as I walked down the jet bridge
Before I knew it I was in my seat and overall really impressed with the Business class product. For a domestic Business class product it's really up there as one of the best.
I made friends with my seat mate, who was a New York Based DJ and very frequent flyer and we discussed the Business class product and how he would be just in LA for the night to DJ before flying back to New York and then heading to Europe.
The seat boasts multiple power ports, a 15.4 inch TV, Fully Flat Bed and comes with Bose headphones to use during the flight.
It's always nice to stretch your legs and have multiple windows to look out
LAN 787 waiting to push back and head off the Lima, Peru.
I made myself comfortable and was offered a pre departure drink, I just went with a glass of water.
Around 10.50am the captain came on to make an announcement that some of the seats in Business class had no electrical power and some of the passengers were not happy. He then instructed that AA maintenance would be coming on board to try and fix the problem.
After about 30 minutes of trying to fix the problem, it seemed they could not fix the in seat power. The two passengers were then asked to come forward as they would be placed into First class to sort the problem. I guess there must have been two airline employees who had been given some seats in First as after around 5 minutes they came and sat in the other passengers Business class seats which had no power, they did not seem fussed and I'm sure they would not have been asked to move from first unless they were airline employees.
On the ground I was given a copy of today's menu to look at before take off
Shortly we pushed back and made our way to the runway
Take off was smooth and we passed through the fine layer of clouds rather quickly and proceeded into clear blue sky.
Around 30 minutes after take off the crew began lunch service.
Starting out with a hot towel
It was then time for some warm nuts, I enjoyed a coke with my warm nuts.
I will point out that I had pre ordered my meal online and had selected the black and blue salad which was essentially a salad with blue cheese and a beef kebab along side.
The stated was then served and I did not really have a choice, I was just given the Salmon with Soup on the side, which seemed a bit odd
The soup was very spicy and I had to order another drink as it was that spicy.
The salmon was ok, fairly dry like it had been sitting out for a while.
My main course was just ok, some of the salad was a little brown and dead and the beef on the kebab skewer was so tough I almost broke the metal knife just trying to cut through it. It was enjoyable , but nothing to be happy about.
After dinner I was offered either the cheese plate or the ice cream sundae. I decided to give the ice cream sundae a go as I was not given one on the flight over.
I went with the hot fudge option with whipped cream and Ice Cream. Now I did notice in the menu that the Ice Cream is apparently supplied by Ben & Jerry's. I'm not sure if anyone has ever noticed this, but the Ice Cream AA use taste's nothing like Ben & Jerry's and is almost completely tasteless, If i had to name the flavor I would simply just called it "GREY" , it's almost tasteless and I'm sure Ben & Jerry's are just paying to have their name on the menu.
After lunch I kicked back the seat and relaxed for a few hours, I don't really watch entertainment on my flights and I prefer to just look out of the window and watch the world go by.
The flat-bed is extremely comfortable and just as good as the First class seat. The only real difference I find is you have more privacy in the first class cabin with no seat mate and no one to climb over if they are sleeping. But other than that, the service is almost identical and the food served is near the same. Personally after flying both products, I would save the extra miles and just purchase the Business class product again.
Some Fruit and snacks had been placed at the front of the cabin to snack on during the rest of the flight, but I was pretty full.
The rest of the flight was fairly smooth, we started passing over Arizona which has weather of around 110, this caused a few updrafts and gave us a fairly bumpy flight for the last hours, there was also a decent amount of thunderstorms in the area which we deviated around to keep the ride smooth. At 35,000 Ft we still entered the occasion high cloud coverage.
We soon began our decent in LAX
Touch down was much smoother than my last flight. We quickly turned off the runway and got to our gate very quickly passing some aircraft on the way.
It has been a decent flight and almost on par with the first class product. We arrived about 30 minutes late, but overall it had been a nice transcontinental flight experience. Next time I would pick Business class over First.
A full write up can be found at the following link.
https://whenitraveltheworld.wordpres...us-a321t-aa19/
I have included the trip report text and some pictures from the flight
28th June 2015
American Airlines Flight 19
Depart : New York (JFK)
Arrive : Los Angeles (LAX)
Departure time : 11:00am (Actual 11:54am)
Arrival Time : 1:41pm (Actual 2:11pm)
Airbus A321T Transcon
Seat : 6A
Flight Time 5h 17m
Meal Service : Lunch
After a decent flight over trying out the new first class product, I was just as excited to give the new domestic business class product a try on the A321T.
I had a great weekend in New York and was looking forward to relaxing on my flight home.
I used just 25,000 Avios points for this Business class reward and paid just $5.60 in taxes.
The business class cabin on the A321T has just 20 seats which are all fully flat-bed and provide some great space. Each seat has a 58 inch pitch and the flat-bed reaches around 77 inches. This is just 4 inches shorter than the first class seat on this plane, so still plenty of space to lay down.
The cabin is in a 2 - 2 configuration and located just behind first class, just over the wings.
My flight was due to depart at around 11am. I left Manhattan and took a taxi around 9am and was running a bit late, thankfully I had checked traffic and it was light on the Sunday morning and the drive only took around 30 minutes.
I arrive at the airport around 9.35am and proceeded to check in
Check in was quick and easy with no one else in line. After that I proceeded to the TSA line, thankfully I could cut out most of the line with the priority pass, but after that it still took about 20 minutes of just waiting due to the TSA constantly changing the lines people were in and people just did not move.
Another fairly successful failure by the TSA.
After passing security I proceeded straight to the admirals lounge as I did not have any breakfast before I left, Its located upstairs in JFK.
I was greeted with a smile and checked into the lounge, I quickly rushed over to find some food and snap some pictures of the lounge before I had to find my gate.
The food was very disappointing, but what did i expect from an Admirals lounge. I picked a bagel and grabbed a cup of coffee
It was a fairly overcast day at JFK and the view from the lounge was pretty dull, guess that goes with the lounge in general.
After a quick 20 minutes in the lounge I decided to head to my gate
I arrived at the gate just as First class passengers were boarding. They then called all Elite status holders and business class passengers to board, About 40 people walked up around the same time when this was called.
I snapped a quick picture of our plane as I walked down the jet bridge
Before I knew it I was in my seat and overall really impressed with the Business class product. For a domestic Business class product it's really up there as one of the best.
I made friends with my seat mate, who was a New York Based DJ and very frequent flyer and we discussed the Business class product and how he would be just in LA for the night to DJ before flying back to New York and then heading to Europe.
The seat boasts multiple power ports, a 15.4 inch TV, Fully Flat Bed and comes with Bose headphones to use during the flight.
It's always nice to stretch your legs and have multiple windows to look out
LAN 787 waiting to push back and head off the Lima, Peru.
I made myself comfortable and was offered a pre departure drink, I just went with a glass of water.
Around 10.50am the captain came on to make an announcement that some of the seats in Business class had no electrical power and some of the passengers were not happy. He then instructed that AA maintenance would be coming on board to try and fix the problem.
After about 30 minutes of trying to fix the problem, it seemed they could not fix the in seat power. The two passengers were then asked to come forward as they would be placed into First class to sort the problem. I guess there must have been two airline employees who had been given some seats in First as after around 5 minutes they came and sat in the other passengers Business class seats which had no power, they did not seem fussed and I'm sure they would not have been asked to move from first unless they were airline employees.
On the ground I was given a copy of today's menu to look at before take off
Shortly we pushed back and made our way to the runway
Take off was smooth and we passed through the fine layer of clouds rather quickly and proceeded into clear blue sky.
Around 30 minutes after take off the crew began lunch service.
Starting out with a hot towel
It was then time for some warm nuts, I enjoyed a coke with my warm nuts.
I will point out that I had pre ordered my meal online and had selected the black and blue salad which was essentially a salad with blue cheese and a beef kebab along side.
The stated was then served and I did not really have a choice, I was just given the Salmon with Soup on the side, which seemed a bit odd
The soup was very spicy and I had to order another drink as it was that spicy.
The salmon was ok, fairly dry like it had been sitting out for a while.
My main course was just ok, some of the salad was a little brown and dead and the beef on the kebab skewer was so tough I almost broke the metal knife just trying to cut through it. It was enjoyable , but nothing to be happy about.
After dinner I was offered either the cheese plate or the ice cream sundae. I decided to give the ice cream sundae a go as I was not given one on the flight over.
I went with the hot fudge option with whipped cream and Ice Cream. Now I did notice in the menu that the Ice Cream is apparently supplied by Ben & Jerry's. I'm not sure if anyone has ever noticed this, but the Ice Cream AA use taste's nothing like Ben & Jerry's and is almost completely tasteless, If i had to name the flavor I would simply just called it "GREY" , it's almost tasteless and I'm sure Ben & Jerry's are just paying to have their name on the menu.
After lunch I kicked back the seat and relaxed for a few hours, I don't really watch entertainment on my flights and I prefer to just look out of the window and watch the world go by.
The flat-bed is extremely comfortable and just as good as the First class seat. The only real difference I find is you have more privacy in the first class cabin with no seat mate and no one to climb over if they are sleeping. But other than that, the service is almost identical and the food served is near the same. Personally after flying both products, I would save the extra miles and just purchase the Business class product again.
Some Fruit and snacks had been placed at the front of the cabin to snack on during the rest of the flight, but I was pretty full.
The rest of the flight was fairly smooth, we started passing over Arizona which has weather of around 110, this caused a few updrafts and gave us a fairly bumpy flight for the last hours, there was also a decent amount of thunderstorms in the area which we deviated around to keep the ride smooth. At 35,000 Ft we still entered the occasion high cloud coverage.
We soon began our decent in LAX
Touch down was much smoother than my last flight. We quickly turned off the runway and got to our gate very quickly passing some aircraft on the way.
It has been a decent flight and almost on par with the first class product. We arrived about 30 minutes late, but overall it had been a nice transcontinental flight experience. Next time I would pick Business class over First.
Last edited by When I Travel The World; Jul 2, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Jul 2, 2015, 1:14 pm
#2
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: SFO
Programs: AY Plat, LH FTL
Posts: 7,387
Jul 4, 2015, 8:15 am
#5
formerly southsidesilver
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: San Diego,CA
Programs: BA Gold, UA Silver, HH Diamond
Posts: 998
The food looks mediocre.
If I was paying I think I would opt for JETBLUE MINT.
If I was paying I think I would opt for JETBLUE MINT.