My flight to Houston was departing out of gate 40, which was a short walk from the Admirals Club. I got there just as the gate agent announced a few minutes to boarding announcement, which she ended with the quip, “Passports are not needed to enter the state of Texas.” Methinks she’s spent a little too much time with Rick Perry…
American Airlines 211
New York Kennedy (JFK) - Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH)
Depart: 5:00 PM
Arrive: 7:55 PM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 4A (First Class)
Our aircraft today was the lovely 4 month old N927NN, which still had a very strong new plane smell. Not surprisingly, it was equipped with the Boeing Sky Interior. There was a bit of commotion while boarding as 3F accidentally took up residence in 5F. 3F’s confusion was understandable as all of American’s 738s and MD-80s begin with row 3 in First Class. That was settled pretty quickly, as was boarding which wrapped up within 15 minutes of beginning due to the light load in both cabins. In fact, everyone upfront had an empty seat next to him or her, a rarity these days. Now with the boarding completed so quickly, you would think that PDB service upfront would be open bar. But nope, the FAs chatted amongst themselves and threw together a tray of water and OJ after the cabin door was closed. Not a good sign for the rest of the flight.
Pushback was delayed due to a company 767-300 stuck behind, as explained by our captain during his welcome aboard announcement. However, that was the only intelligible part of the announcement. The rest of it might as well been made by Charlie Brown’s teacher. I wouldn’t have known the difference.
As expected taxiing out to the runway took a solid 30 minutes. Even if electronic devices were allowed to be used during all phases of flight that day, I still would have perfectly content enjoying the steady stream of interesting traffic parading outside the window.
Given the light road and very new engines, our Boeing 737-800 practically leaped off the ground after a very short take off roll. One thing of interest I noticed during climb out was an old airport with its runways converted to use as city streets.
Most of us here on FT fly enough to know the routine as well as employees, and in some cases like this one better. The routine for all of AA’s non-breakfast mid con flights with meals is:
- Hot Towels
- Warm mixed nuts with drink of choice
- Refills
- Meals
- Dessert (Basic Plus Flights)
- Mints before landing
Apparently, our FA didn’t get the memo. I was able to get a solid hour of work done after we climbed through 10,000 feet before there was any sign of service. Even then, there were no hot towels offered. Just straight into the
warm lukewarm nut service. Since I was officially off the clock at that point and recovered from the previous evenings festivities, I figured a gin & tonic would be a perfect accompaniment.
Even on some of my shorter meal flights (like on my ORD-DCA snack flight a few weeks back), most FAs even offer a round of refills before distributing entrees. On longer mid-con flights like this 1,417 mile journey, most FAs individually offer second helpings of nuts and refills before clearing ramekins and distributing entrees often times by hand. No such luck tonight, despite the very light load. Just a few minutes after nuts and drinks were offered, the meal cart rolled down the aisle.
Since my upgrade had cleared at exactly 100 hours, I had more than enough time to preorder my entrée on line. Choices for tonight are:
Seared Breast of Chicken
Stuffed with spinach and cheese, complimented by Emmental potatoes au gratin and buttered haricots verts
Sacchetti Pasta
With Alfredo sauce and sun dried tomatoes coulis
Both choices sounded really good, and were new entrees in the rotation. I preordered the chicken, which was not acknowledged by our flight attendant. But I got my choice anyways, probably due to the light load. While water, white wine, or red wine was offered with the meal, at no point was an offer made to refresh my cocktail.
Choice of sourdough or wheat rolls was offered.
American offers two types of First Class dinner service on its mid con flights, basic and basic plus. Basic plus adds a cocktail shrimp appetizer and a choice of ice cream or a cheese plate for dessert. This upgraded service is offered on longer mid con flights and select routes such as DFW-LAX/SNA. With reports on the AA meal thread of the discontinuation of basic plus on DFW-LAX, I was curious to see what was on offer tonight. I was very to pleased to see the basic plus set up on my tray.
To put it bluntly, service sucked but at least the food was excellent. The salad was crisp and fresh, though a little boring compared to some of the other AA salads I had this year. It’s hard to screw up the cocktail shrimp. The chicken, stuffed with a generous helping of cheese and spinach, was moist and delicious. The potatoes au gratin was cheesy and good, though the green beans were a bit rubbery. My entrée was served nice and hot, in contrast to my cold roll. But it was soft enough to eat.
It took forever for my tray to be cleared. When it finally was, the FA asked if I would care for some ice cream. Not particularly fancying ice cream at that moment, I ask for a fruit and cheese plate instead. I was told that they weren’t loaded. Fair enough, I can live with ice cream. Served rock hard, I enjoyed the generous scoop of chocolate ice cream after it melted down a bit. The beautiful sunset outside was a nice accompaniment to dessert.
After my ice cream dish was cleared sometime later, I went to lavatory only to notice that there were a couple fruit and cheese plates sitting in the galley. Not cool, but it’s water under the bridge now. As expected, the FAs disappeared after meal service only reappearing during final descent. I was completely satisfied after getting a glass of water on my way back from the galley. The gentlemen seated in 4E eventually realized that this was a self service flight, and made a couple of trips to the galley to have his drink refreshed.
This was by far the worse AA flight I’ve ever been on. And it was an aberration, because since then my cabin crews have been good to great. Still though, I felt it warranted some attention so I made my first complaint to AA since I’ve begun flying with them. They gave my 5,000 miles as compensation. A penny for my thoughts I suppose. At the end of the day, I got home on time in one piece, my bags made the flight with me, and I had a delicious meal to boot. So I got exactly what I paid for.