Westward Ho!: AA J JFK-LAX

My last adventure of 2013 came about through a comedy of errors. In January, I had planned and booked a trip to Asia, with a stopover in NYC on the outbound with the intention of visiting a friend. However, plans with my friend fell through in March, as he and his wife decided to book a cruise on the weekend I was scheduled to be in town. No big deal. Having been to NYC on a number of occasions, I wasn’t too keen on doing the touristy stuff there again. So I fired up aa.com and looked for other places to go. I eventually settled on another “geek trip”. This time it was to Seattle. The purpose of this trip simple: take the Boeing factory tour and visit the History of Flight Museum. Unfortunately, I ended canceling my Asia trip due to some family issues. But since my Seattle ticket was non-refundable and I had already applied System Wide Upgrades, I decided to burn some SkyMilesPesos to position to New York to pick up the trip.

With all of the premium cabin travel I’ve doing over the last few years, it’s easy to forget how nice I have it. So a flight here and there in regular coach is nice reality check. Believe me, the two flights I had in Delta’s coach cabin really jolted me back down to earth. While I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to me on the outbound, I wasn’t so lucky on the return. I did really enjoy the availability of complimentary delicious Biscoff cookies in coach.





Other than that, my flight to LaGuardia really wasn’t much to write home about. As soon as I deplaned, I headed to NYC Airporter Attendant to secure passage to JFK for just $13. The very nicely appointed bus arrived a few minutes later, and I soon found myself in front of JFK’s Terminal 8.


Where are the Men in Black?


LAN Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner

American has a partitioned off Premium Check In area at JFK for First, Business, and elite passengers. While not as nice as the new Flagship Check In, it is does add a little to the exclusiveness of the premium travel experience. There is an agent at the entrance asking passengers if they’re flying First or Business Class, but there are no other controls are far as I can tell.



A friendly agent greeted me as soon as I arrived and began to process my check in, but did a double take when she saw that I was headed to Seattle via LAX. After confirming that this was correct, she banged away at her keyboard for a solid minute and then offered to put me on the non-stop JFK-SEA flight without charge, but I politely declined. Why so you ask? Yes for the miles, but I had other reasons I wanted to stick to my original route as well. By virtue of living in the middle of the US my entire life, I don’t get to fly this route very often. So I was pleased to be able to do so again and squeeze in one last flight on the venerable Boeing 767-200ER, which has toiled on this route for a couple of decades now. This would very likely be my last flight on this variant of the 767 as they will be phased out in favor of the new A321.

The only other terminals at JFK I’ve flown out of are Delta’s Terminal 2 and the old Terminal 4, both of which are complete dumps. In contrast to those, American’s Terminal 8 is nice, modern, and airy. Just past security on the wall to left, there is a nice display showcasing the evolution of American’s logo. Despite the recent rebranding efforts, the new logo has not been added to the display yet. Which is surprising given it is JFK, after all.





I headed to the Concourse B Admirals Club, where a friendly AAngel welcomed me in. Overall, I think this club is a lot nicer and usually less crowded than the one in Concourse C. Today was no exception, though it did start to get crowded just before I left. I found an empty quartet of chairs to settle in and was able to get a couple of hours of studying in.









With about 45 minutes to go before my flight, I packed up and headed for the terminal because the lounge was starting fill up. Either way, I might as well stretch my legs before the 6 hour flight. My flight was departing from Gate 8, which was just a short walk away from the lounge.


My ride to LAX

First Class was invited to board around 30 minute prior to stated departure. The gate agent then added that the TSA was there to do secondary security check, so all passengers should have their IDs ready. There were a few TSOs waiting in the middle of the jet bridge. I approached one, but she told me she didn’t see my ID because I used a mobile boarding pass. So what’s the point of this procedure then?

American Airlines 133
New York (JFK) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Depart: 3:35 PM
Arrive: 7:05 PM
Aircraft: Boeing 767-200ER
Seat: 7A (Business Class)

When most people think of the JFK-LAX route, they imagine a premium cabin chock full of celebrities. From a realistic point of view, the premium cabins are probably half occupied by award tickets and upgraders (like myself), with the rest of the cabin composed of business travelers and a celebrity or two sprinkled here and there. But why let facts get in the way of a fantasy, right? In fact, I was really hoping to be seated next to the gorgeous Jennifer Lawrence, spend the next 6 hours sweeping her off her feet with my wit and charm, and then live happily ever after. Unfortunately, it was painfully obvious my fantasy would not remotely come to fruition as my seatmate was already there by the time I boarded. And he ain’t no J Law.

But in a strange way, he did make me think of Ms. Lawrence as he resembled the guy who helped prepare her character, Katniss Everdeen, for the games in the first Hunger Games movie. Anyways, he was friendly enough guy saying hello to me when I got to my seat. We actually made small talk for a bit while other passengers were still boarding. The fact he was heading home to Los Angeles, and spent the most of flight working on his Mac Book Pro a ridiculous privacy screen, further bolstered my theory that he was a Hollywood type.

As boarding wound down, the friendly FA working my aisle came around a tray of “champagne”, water, and orange juice. I chose the “champagne”, which was surprisingly drinkable. The FAs came back a little while later to distributing dinner menus. Just after the boarding door closed announcement was made, the captain made his welcome aboard announcement and pretty much read off every navigational fix on our flight plan.

We pushed back a few minutes later than scheduled. Taxi time was even longer as the winds around the airport had shifted, and the decision to turn the airport around was made midway through our taxi. We ended doubling back to the other side of the airport before taking off toward the south, and passed over Philadelphia before setting a more southwesterly course.

About 45 minutes after take off, Samsung Galaxy Tablets and Bose head sets were distributed. After that, the FAs came around with the taking drink orders. I had celebrated my birthday the weekend before with friends. Needless to say, my liver could probably use a break. So I stuck ordered a Coke which was delivered with warm mixed nuts. Dinner orders were taken soon after. Let’s take a look at that menu, shall we?

Dinner

Starter

Prosciutto and Parmesan Cheese
With cantaloupe puree

Salad

Seasonal greens with fresh vegetables offered with mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil salad

With your choice of sour cream and herb dressing or premium extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Assorted gourmet breads will be served with your meal

Entrees

Grilled Fillet of Beef
Served with Foyot sauce, chive celery root potato puree and basil haricots verts

Cheese Tortellini
With Romano sauce

Dessert

Traditional Ice Cream Sundae
Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream with you choice of hot fudge, butterscotch or seasonal berry toppings, whipped cream and pecans

Gourmet Cheese Plate
An assortment of fine cheeses with garnishes

Light Refreshment

Fresh Seasonal Fruit

Cookies
Freshly baked on board

Wine List

Sparkling Wine
Valdo Prosecco Brut, Veneto

White Wine
Ardenwood Chardonnay, California
The Climber Sauvignon Blanc, Mendocino

Red Wine
Round Hill Cabernet Sauvignon, California
Viansa Vino Rosso, Sonoma Valley

Not long after the orders were taken, tablecloths were setup for each passenger. The appetizer and salad setup were delivered not long after. A choice of pretzel bread or sourdough rolls was offered. Of course I chose the delicious pretzel bread. The salad was very fresh, and the mozzarella cheese balls went well with the balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The prosciutto was moist but I didn’t finish it because I’m not a big fan of the flavor.



While American’s chicken entrees are consistently good, I haven’t had the same with their cow based brethren. In my experience, American’s steak have either been overcooked, bland, of a poor quality cut, or a combination there of. The steak placed in front of me that night looked nice, but would it taste nice? I was in for a very pleasant surprise. The steak was cooked to a beautiful medium rare, and was of a good quality cut. I was in heaven after the first bite. The meat was very nicely seasoned, and enjoyed every bite of it. It was definitely the best steak I’ve ever eaten in the air. The mashed potatoes were a bit bland, but nothing a little salt and pepper couldn’t fix. The green beans were rubbery but edible. But I seriously question the culinary prowess of whoever thought that half an onion would make a good side. The sunset, visible outside of the window, provided a nice back drop to my very nice meal.




Perfect medium rare. Sorry for the blurry picture!



After trays were cleared, the sundae cart was wheeled down the aisle. I had mine made with hot fudge, a touch of caramel, and topped with pecans. “Would you like whipped cream and cherry on top?” the FA asked. Well, I gotta save calories somewhere, right? I probably don’t need to go describe how delicious the sundae was. A bottle of water was distributed at that time as well. My seatmate declined both.



I studied for the rest of the flight. Although they were very attentive during the meal service, the FAs were sparsely seen for the rest of the flight. Fruit cups and cookies were offered prior to landing. Still stuffed from dinner, I declined both. Soon we were descending into the LA basin. ATC did a fine job throughout the flight setting us up on perfect straight in approach to Runway 25R without any major course corrections toward the end of the flight. We touched down smoothly and made the quick taxi to Gate 49.

I spent about an hour at the Admirals Club before taking the shuttle to the terminal Alaska uses. I was fortunate enough to have an empty middle seat, which made the 2 hour flight to Seattle much more pleasant. The flight up to Seattle was uneventful up until landing. I’ve logged over 400,000 miles in my short life, but never have I experienced such low cloud ceiling. I couldn’t catch even a glimpse of the ground until less than a minute before we landed. While I had complete faith in our flight crew, it was a little nerve wracking even for an experienced flyer like me.

Checked bags hit belt well within Alaska’s 20 minute guarantee, and I was soon in a shuttle bound for the Sea-Tac’s nice new consolidated rental facility. With Hertz devaluing their reward points, I decided to use the last of mine for a nice premium car for the weekend. A mobile alert informed me that I was assigned to a 2013 Ford Taurus. In the past, I would have probably requested another car, but Ford has really stepped up their game recently and I was eager to see how much they had improved. I was not disappointed. The Taurus was a really well appointed car with pretty decent driving dynamics for its side.


My excellent rental. (Picture taken later)

After checking out with the lot attendant, I headed straight to my home for the next couple of nights, the Fairfield Sea-Tac. Despite arriving just after midnight, the front desk clerk was as cheery as a sunny day. After taking care of the business end of things, she informed me that I had upgraded to the honeymoon suite on the account of my Platinum status. Those words didn’t quite register in my tired state. Had I been a little more lucid I would have realized immediately that honeymoon suites don’t quite go hand in hand with Fairfields. This is what I walked into:





I sent those pictures to my girlfriend the next morning. She replied with just one word: no. Sadly, I didn’t have time during my stay to make use of the Jacuzzi.

The room was standard older Fairfield fare, but was pretty clean. The bed was comfortable enough, especially compared to the bed the Doubletree Downtown Boston. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the property especially given the el cheapo AAA rate of $70 per night. Plus, it gave me enough nights to put me over the top for Marriott’s Fall Mega Bonus.