PIT-JFK, AA 4314, operated by American Eagle, Saturday, 2009/08/15, 12:55-14:30
Embraer RJ145, seat 1A

This is the only Y-class flight in my RTW itinerary. I call American Airlines in advance to check about the bags, and I receive the answer I was hoping for, namely that I can check two bags, up to 50 lbs each, free of charge (but not necessarily free of hassle; we'll see.)

I love PIT. Returning the car, checking in and clearing security took all of five minutes on this Saturday morning. Of course they wouldn't check my bags all the way through to Tel Aviv, apparently because of the overnight connection. Which didn't prevent the system from disallowing me to check-in on-line, because I had an international connection. Oh well. I check the bags to SFO and will re-check them tomorrow.






The flight to New York is uneventful. Flight almost full, only three available seats. We leave the gate on time and taxi to runway 28, for the 1:10 hour flight to JFK. After the inevitable hold pattern over New York, we land on 4L and taxi to Terminal 8. By 14:20 I'm in the Admirals Club, and this time I receive TWO drink chits. I don't have enough time to use them both. My next flight leaves from gate 43, just next door to the lounge.


JFK-SFO, AA 85, Saturday, 2009/08/15, 15:10-18:45
Boeing 767-300, seat 6A

The 767 is much nicer in First than the 757 and MD-80 I've been on. The seat is a real business seat, which, while pitch isn't great, reclines very nicely for a day flight. Drinks are distributed before departure (water, OJ and "champagne") and the flight attendants, for a change, seem to care (one of them, with a heavy French accent, actually moves through the cabin welcoming pax and asking whether there's anything she could do to make them feel more comfortable). The flight looked full on ExpertFlyer, and two names were listed on the monitors as waiting for an upgrade, but 5 minutes prior to departure there are still some six available seats in First -- probably missed connections.







Then the captain comes up on the PA (actually, he's speaking from the flight attendant position) to inform us that we're still waiting for some 40 passengers connecting from Milan, and the flight is now expected to depart 20 minutes late, to 15:30. I've tracked this flight in the previous days so I know that it has at least one hour leeway. Flying time should not be more than 5:30 hours. So we wait.

The Milan passengers start to trickle and when the doors close, at 15:30, the flight is completely full. We take off a few minutes later, and with a flight time of 5:37 hours we are expected to land on time (eventually, we're some 10 minutes early). Immediately after take-off the flight attendants hand over media players with a selection of some 25 movies (of which I have a hard time finding one I'd like to watch). I didn't expect that on this domestic flight. Food is also a nice surprise: the now-expected warm nuts, this time with refill; a constant flow of wine, and there are three reds and three whites to choose from; a decent salad followed by a surprisingly nice steak with mashed potatoes. Our French-accented flight attendant is superb, caring and attentive, and overall this long flight is a good surprise. I find the seat very comfortable, mainly due to the manual control over each parameter independently: I can set the recline angle just as I like it, and the length of the feet support as I like it, etc. One mediocre film and a one-hour nap and we're ready to land.










A once-in-a-lifetime thing then happens. I'm waiting for my two bags at the carousel, which starts moving some 15 minutes after I reach it. There must be some 400 bags on this flight, and mine come out second and third. Priority tags work or sheer luck? Who knows.