A Most Excellent AA Flight: FCO-JFK (Rome-New York) - with pics

[tom911]

After my visit to the AA contract lounge in Rome (had yogurt, finger sandwiches, and some juice), made my way to C33 for boarding. I was the first passenger to board, and in the end we only had 8 passengers in business, at least one of which was non-rev. In the 7 years that I've been flying AA, I've never been on an international flight with this few passengers in business.

There are 30 seats in this configuration, and I had all of row 6 to myself, and there was only 1 occupant in row 5 several seats across from me. The load coming over last week was a little better with about half the cabin full. AA runs this service from JFK 4 days a week (the other 3 days from ORD). One of the flight attendants mentioned this used to be a seasonal service and just recently went year round. I was worried the flight might be cancelled after seeing the thread about pilot shortages, so made sure I checked that the incoming flight was still on the schedule for last night before going to bed.

Service: excellent. Had the salmon entree, and flight attendants were very visible. Didn't have to worry about being elbowed by other passengers when there's no one seated anywhere around you. One of the flight attendants prompted me to move over to a window seat as we went over the Alps, a view well worth the move for.

Here's some of the video that was available on the IFE unit, as I know this has been a topic of discussion on the AA forum. The programs met my needs just fine.

COMEDY:
The Comebacks
Dan in Real Life
Mr. Woodcock
Music and Lyrics
Martian Child
King of California

DRAMA:
In the Shadow of the Moon
The Brave One
The Nanny Diaries
The Jane Austen Book Club
Michael Clayton
Gone Baby Gone
Sleuth
Finding Neverland

KIDS:
Charlotte's Web
An Arctic Tale
Bee Movie
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

CLASSICS:
The Graduate
Tootsie
On Golden Pond
From Here to Eternity

ACTION/ADVENTURE:
3:10 to Yuma
Rush Hour 3
Stardust
The Assassination of Jesse James

Other featured categories were Documentary and Special Interest, and TV episodes included CSI and NCIS.

I listened to music tracks from Tom Petty, John Cougar Mellencamp, Carly Simon, Gwen Stefani, Led Zeppelin (Stairway to Heaven, one of my favorites and 8 minutes long). I watched Michael Clayton, which SkiAdcock from the UA forum had recommended, as well as Elizabeth The Golden Age.

I took over 700 photos in Rome, and hope to get those up by tomorrow. Just about wore out a pair of Columbia hiking boots with the miles I put on walking about the city. I stayed in convent accommodations that were conveniently just a 15 minute walk from St. Peter's Square.

Tom in the Flagship Lounge at JFK

[DCAstudent]

Thanks for the report!

[britenbsas]

Nice to read such a positive report. Thanks!

[flguy]

Thanks for the info, I have a flight to Italy coming up from MIA was thinking if I should do AA MIA-JFK-FCO or just to Alitalia MIA-FCO
Not sure if it would be worth my trouble to fly to JFK but would love to be able to upgrade since I am gold with AA.

[JDiver]

Welcome back, Tom, and thanks for the great report!

Due to winds aloft, our FCO-JFK flight also departed from the usual routing (we actually passed over FRA and past before we headed on the GC to JFK,) and the (very snowy) Alps views were truly stunning. We were at relatively low flight level as well, and I had a wonderful views as we ran up Lake Maggiore, where I have spent some time. The crew was pretty good, though the ORD-FCO crew Jan 2 was absolutely tops - the best!

[tom911]

Originally Posted by flguy

would love to be able to upgrade since I am gold with AA.

Well, there would have been 22 available seats coming home on Tuesday with AA, and about 15 going over last week. The F/A's tell me these flights are packed in the summer, but for one looking for upgrades off peak these do look like good opportunities. I was able to jump on a $500 base fare from SFO which I can't recall seeing in years.

I connected to a 3 class JFK-SFO and was in the last row of business class and slept 5 of the 6 hours of the flight, and even passed on dinner. That's pretty typical when I get an early morning start in Europe (walked over to Ottaviano station in the rain, then Termini, then another train out to the airport), and the day starts catching up with me as I leave the U.S. east coast homeward bound.

Photos have all been uploaded now and are linked below.

[tom911]

Originally Posted by JDiver

The crew was pretty good, though the ORD-FCO crew Jan 2 was absolutely tops - the best!

One of the F/A's told me they actually prefer more passengers on board, as it keeps them busy and makes the time go by. At 9.5 hours FCO-JFK, it's one long flight. At least with the 1100 FCO departure there's plenty of time to get to the airport from the City, so didn't need to stay anywhere out by the airport. The UA flight was just 2 gates down, and pretty sure they use the same contract lounge that AA uses there.

[salut0]

Originally Posted by tom911

(walked over to Ottaviano station in the rain, then Termini, then another train out to the airport)

You'd probably have had a quicker and easier trip out to the airport by taking a taxi to Trastevere station and then the train to FCO from there (the train that stops at Trastevere is the other, local line to/from FCO rather than the Termini express).

Hope that helps for your next trip...

[tailwindflyer]

Excellent report. Cool photos too. Thanks.

[kebosabi]

Thanks for the report! I'll be looking forward to my JFK-FCO-JFK flight this weekend!

[tom911]

Originally Posted by salut0

You'd probably have had a quicker and easier trip out to the airport by taking a taxi to Trastevere station and then the train to FCO from there (the train that stops at Trastevere is the other, local line to/from FCO rather than the Termini express).

I'm not even sure how I would set up a taxi for the morning, as the place I stayed did not have phones in the room, and I don't have an international cell phone. What's the travel time from Trastevere on the local train?

I had walked down to the #64 bus stop, but the digitial display they had didn't show a bus coming in the next 10-15 minutes, so just walked over to Ottaviano rather than wait. I had been using that station on and off all week.

[lalala]

Originally Posted by tom911

I'm not even sure how I would set up a taxi for the morning, as the place I stayed did not have phones in the room, and I don't have an international cell phone. What's the travel time from Trastevere on the local train?

I had walked down to the #64 bus stop, but the digitial display they had didn't show a bus coming in the next 10-15 minutes, so just walked over to Ottaviano rather than wait. I had been using that station on and off all week.

We take the trastevere train all the time to the centro from FCO. I would estimate travel time to be about 45 minutes (its a locali), but much nicer and cheaper than going up to FCO.

However, two people on the leonardo, a cab ride to Termini (if you are not brave enough to take the bus or too lazy) costs about 37 Euros with tip. Flat rate to FCO from Rome is now 40 euros, so it can be a toss up.

Man, I wish you had told me you were going. I could have given you the location of the best gelato in the city.

Next time...

lala

[Plato90s]

[AA moderator note]

As this is primarily a trip report, it will be moved to a more appropriate location.

[tom911]

Originally Posted by kebosabi

Thanks for the report! I'll be looking forward to my JFK-FCO-JFK flight this weekend!

Let us know how the loads are. I'm curious whether this is one of those routes that would consistently be good for use of systemwides in the winter time (assuming plenty of empty seats).

[lucky9876coins]

Very nice report! I'll be flying ORD-EZE later in the year in Business, and quite looking forward to it, especially in comparisan to UA.