This is the part of the trip where Moomba madness sets in and we do a little RTW trip with several diversions in just on two weeks.
As I wanted to sample the new AA F seat on the 77W I decided to forego the delights of BA first and booked my ‘across the pond’ journey on AA. This meant a hopping off point of Terminal 3 at Heathrow.
I made my way on a morning HEX after a brief tube journey and a 10 minute walk from my flat.
Once I popped above ground I walked down to the far right end of the forecourt at T3 to the AA Flagship check-in area. I was grilled by the stupid security guard who asked if I was in the US on business or in transit. I said tourist. She asked again if I was on Business or in transit. I said tourist. Idiot. After negotiating that extremely comforting ‘security’ check I approached an agent who checked my bag through to DFW via LAX and issued me with both boarding passes.
The agent told me I could use fast track upstairs an asked if I knew where the lounge was.
I made my way inside and up to fast track security that was pretty much what it said on the tin. This time I avoided a pat down by some halitosis afflicted gent.
I darted, as best one can, through the throngs and into the sanctuary of the BA F lounge where I was waived in.
Shock horror, I decided it was too early for champagne and went up to the restaurant for a spot of porridge, OJ, coffee and one of their lovely made to order Bacon and Fried Egg sarnies.
View from BA F Lounge LHR T3
Bacon & Egg Sarnie
BA F Lounge LHR T3
BA F Lounge LHR T3
I pottered and moved to avoid important people on phones and pottered a little more before heading out up to my gate that was at the far end of the terminal. I dawdled my way up to gate forty forever and had my passport checked to see if it had the ‘I’m secure’ stamp on it that the ‘cough’ security agent stuck there prior to my checking in.
After waiting a while they announced they would start boarding soon and contrary to my experiences in the past they did not board F first. Very unlike AA. It was the general F,J elite scrum affair. Perhaps they have been taking notes from BA??
I eventually negotiated my way down to the aircraft.
Flight AA 0135 LHR-LAXSeat 1A (First)
Aircraft: B77W
Departure time: 12:00
At the door 2 I was pointed in the direction of F and told ‘you’re this way’.
I found my seat and took a couple of quick snaps before settling in. At the seat was a duvet, pillow, amenity kit and the bose headphones.
I found the whole cabin to feel cramped with quite narrow aisles between the seats. The seat has a nice wide screen video monitor although the controls were in an awkward place over my left shoulder. The seat was confortable and retained the swivel functionality of the previous incarnation of the AA F flagship suite.
AA 77W F Seat
AA 77W F Seat
AA 77W F Seat
The purser dropped by and introduced herself to me and said she would be looking after me on this flight. Another crew member dropped by with PJs and the purser returned with the menu and wine list. She came back a few minutes later to confirm my meal choice that I had made online and ask about the other options I wanted for the meal and of course what drink I would like after take off.
Menu
Wine List
I was offered OJ, Water or Bubbly in the first class plastic cups whilst on the ground.
The captain announced a flight time of 10 hours and 41 minutes to LAX and gave us a weather forecast.
Pre-departure Bubbly
We pushed back at 12:10 and taxied down for a take off time of 12:26.
After the attendant gong, but before the belt sigh was switched off the purser dropped by with some warm nuts and my signature scotch and dry. I wasn’t overly fond of the champagne they had served prior to take off so gave it a miss. A hot towel was given out at this stage also.
S&D and warm nuts
The belt signs were eventually extinguished some 40 minutes into the flight. The purser, who used my name in all interactions with me, dropped by and offered a re-fresh of my drink and more nuts.
She also placed a glass of water at everyone’s seat. I noticed my water glass had the US logo on it and the scotch glass had the AA eagle. I wonder if that was mistake or deliberate?
AA & US logo on glasses
The meal service started a while later and the purser set my table for lunch and another crew offered me bread. I am a sucker for pretzel bread so opted for one of those.
Table set for Lunch
The smoked trout starter was nice but I think something happened to it en-route my table or the AA flight attendants have an interesting artistic flair when it comes to meal presentation. The salsa had a distinctive Jackson Pollock-esque look to it.
Lunch Starter
The starter was nice and I switched to the sauvignon blanc wine during this course and the soup that followed.
The soup was very nice and winter warming.
Lunch Soup
The salad was fresh and tasty.
Lunch Salad
When the purser confirmed my order she asked how I would like my steak cooked. I was little incredulous but hey she pulled off a nice medium rare for me. I wasn’t so sure about the courgette and celery accompaniment though. I switched to the Shiraz for this course.
Lunch Main Beef
Lunch Main Beef Pink
What would an AA flagship fight be without the famous sundae for dessert? As usual I asked for the butterscotch with nuts and no cream. As usual I am always questioned about the no cream part. She also asked if I would like to try one of the sweet wines. I thought the straw wine sounded intriguing. It was like some cross between a sticky and a fortified wine.
Lunch Dessert
After the meal I sat back to watch a movie and some TV and took a wee nap at some point.
Around 3.5 hours out the purser dropped by with a tray that had un-eaten snacks from the presentation they had set up in the galley during the flight. She managed to offload small wrap and a sweet treat on me. (no photo).
Later, around 1.5 hours out she was out again asking if I wanted the second meal and which I would prefer. I asked for the chicken salad and some more water. The meal was served on a tray with a bowl of fruit and the freshly baked cookie.
Pre Landing Meal
After the tray was cleared away the purser was out again with sparkling water with lemon and a small box of Lilly O’Brien chocolates ‘as a thank you for flying American’.
There was time for a final hot towel service before the cabin was secured for landing. The purser dropped by and thanked me again for flying with American.
We touched down at 14:07 and made a long taxi to just short of our gate where we had to wait for a tug. This took 15 minutes to arrange and we finally stopped at the gate at 14:23. They pulled the air-bridge up to door 2L and the purser apologised on her way back there. This meant the forward business cabin got to disembark before F. Of course this meant squat anyway as we had the joy of a bus ride over to TBIT for immigrations. At the top of the bridge an agent with my name handed me the bright orange priority sleeve with my onward boarding pass in it. After the bus was full but not BA crammed we drove over to TBIT and walked another mile before getting to the immigration hall.
I pointed out my orange sleeve to a gent who asked if I had been to the US before on my passport and he just directed me to the electronic processing line.
This moved quite swiftly and involved swiping my passport, answering the customs questions, having my photo taken and the finger prints of one hand read. A pass was then printed and I joined the short queue to talk to an officer who asked the usual questions. He then let me through and said to give the printed slip to the customs officer.
I proceeded down to the baggage claim where priority baggage meant nought as I my bag must have been in the last batch to be offloaded given the amount that was already doing the dance around the carousel.
Finally my bag arrived and the only point in the whole process where my orange sleeve made a difference was I was able to go down the zero queue lane to customs. The agent took my slip and sent me on my way.
An agent ensured my bag had made the cut off time for my connecting flight, which it did by ten minutes. I then handed it over and walked out of TBIT back to T4 and up to the premium security lanes. The queue was around 10 minutes I guess and after being irradiated I was on my way to the flagship lounge at the Admirals club.
I sat for half an hour and grabbed a water before making my way down to my gate.
They started boarding with F & ‘military in uniform’ only and I made my way down to the new A321 aircraft.
Flight AA 2492 LAX-DFW Seat 2A (First)
Aircraft: A321
Departure time: 18:20
It still had that new plane smell to it as I took my seat by the window. The plane filled up and one of the crew asked if I would like a drink. I opted for some water to start.
The crew announced a flight time of 2 hours and 34 minutes. A hot towel was handed out before push back at 18:23. We took off out over the ocean from LAX at 18:34 and did a sweeping arc back over the airport on our way to Dallas.
After the gong the crew got about the business. I could tell the purser was new to his job and was being mentored by the other guy. The service followed the usual AA routine with the drinks and warm nuts to start. No prizes for guessing what I ordered to drink.
After the drinks I was offered another and accepted but no more nuts were on offer. As usual the F cabin was full, as was the entire plane.
S&D and warm nuts
The ‘fresh’ purser asked what my meal choice was and I said I had pre-ordered the chicken. He said ah so you did I am sorry. He said it is my first time. I laughed and said I noticed.
The meal was quite nice and a reasonably sized portion. I washed it down with some of the white wine. I find it quite interesting flying on different airlines and how the various portions of the service are done. On QF when offered wine you are told what it is and often where it is from on all my AA flights I was offered ‘white or red’ wine.
Dinner Tray
The white wasn’t too bad although I have no idea what it was.
After the meal I asked for some more water but the crew member couldn’t grasp what I was after. I eventually had to say it with an American accent and then he understood.
After meal the warm cookies came out and I asked for a cup of coffee to accompany it.
The flight was soon over and we approached Dallas late in the evening and touched down at 23:06.
On disembarking the purser apologised for his greenness and I said not a problem and thanked him on my way out.
It seemed like a very long walk through a construction site with hoardings on both side of me before I eventually found and exit and went down to the baggage carousel. Priority tags still didn’t seem to do a lot but my bag eventually did make it.
I then had to find my way to the hotel shuttle point that is a level below the normal arrivals level.
I attempted, unsuccessfully to call the hotel on my mobile phone and eventually found a courtesy phone in the elevator well. The hotel said he would send a shuttle over and it would be there in 15 to 20 minutes. Thirty-five minutes later he arrives and then has to go over to E to pick up someone. Then he finds out the people he picked up at E were not the ones he was supposed to so we circled back to E again to pick up the idiots that couldn’t follow instructions on where they needed to be. I eventually got to the Sheraton DFW just over an hour after I had called them.
I noted later that there is a 500 point goodwill posting to my account that I can only assume was as a result of this fiasco even though I didn’t complain at check-in I just wanted my room for the night.
A few more photos here.