in 40 minutes time i went from nowhere to somewhere special.

as i was late getting to jfk for my flight to fra on friday, i rushed to platinum check-in to inquire about seating. teh agent informed me the flight was oversold, but of course, they weren't bumping anyone(drats!) with that, i decided to do a last minute upgrade, and only one way since my return flight from lhr was unavailable in biz class. they called aadvantage desk, who proceeded to take 10 minutes to figure out how to upgrade my ticket. at this point, two agents were helping me to ensure i made the flight which was now leaving in 30 min. they became frustrated with the desk, as i had been earlier in they day when i had called. they finally received the certificate number, and then proceeded to check me in for the flight. but by this time, the gate had closed the flight, and my agents had to call to get me put back on the flight list, this time in biz. as i ran to gate 10, i arrived to find them in disarray. the head agent was berating a junior agent for already letting non revs on the plane when customers from delayed arrivals were still coming. as i approached to get my seat assignment, they were still quite overbooked, so while moving passengers from coach to biz, i was bumped up from biz to 1st!!!

as for the service, the best i've ever had on aa. there were only three of us in the cabin; a couple in which the man worked for aa, so i got singular attention as the only "real" passenger. all appetizers are avaiable to you as opposed to a selection. also the entire wine list if you would like. purser paul insisted i try the oregon pinot noir, after i had already taking a liking to the chateau langoa-barton. also, the caviar plate was nice with ice cold absolut. then the salad cart with lobster tail and claws (unshelled) followed by raspberry sorbet for palate cleaning. the entrees left something to be desired, but the fruit & chees cart followed by subdaes for desert with the graham port put nice touches on the evening.

now the dvd's are standard in both biz & 1st on 767s and md11s, the selection was eclectic at best. all titles as well as players have been encoded so that neither will operate with conventional equipment or discs. i felt the more current selection of movies with the sony players was more interesting. as for breakfast, eggs to order(?!) was proceeded by the cereal, yogourt and fruit option typically avaiable in biz class with warm breads, fresh(?) sqeezed orange juice etc.

so my net net. great attention, great amenities in terms of additional courses and attention paid to detail, but main courses could use some work. but in reality, i'm NOT really complaining!!!

if they only did this more often, i'd be more addicted to them than i am already!!!