Originally Posted by
Magic01273
HI all, am taking my first AA flight for several years, next month (am I fairly seasoned traveller but have always taken either BA or Virgin from UK to the US). and I'm going on a 777-200 from LHR to PHX. I'm currently in seat 03A.
Having a quick look through the boards here, it appears that there are two variants of the J seat possible on these 777 aircraft - a reverse herringbone arrangement with all seats front-facing as one seat variant and then a second yin-yang variant possible on other 777-200 aircraft . Looking around at pictures/reviews I think I've gathered that the "preferred" seat variant seems to be the front-facing reverse herringbone product BUT that both products are actually OK and so I don't need to be that worried about which one my flight gets - is that fair to say?
Is it still the case that if you look at the seatmap on aa.com - and if your seatmap displays available (blue) seats without any notches, that you are expected to get the reverse herringbone variant (barring any equipment changes)? Or is that an inaccurate way to tell?
Any other tips/advice for AA travel in business class are very welcome! Is anyone able to compare/contrast around the AA hard/soft products vs. BA club world? Travel on BA mostly out of necessity/convenience but never really rated their CW product that highly, so interested to hear what people who have experienced both AA and BA think in terms of how the products compare. Thanks!
You got it. Both AA 772 variants offer all-aisle access, full lie-flat seats in a 1-2-1 layout. There are pros and cons to each setup, some people prefer the all forward layout or vice versa, but all in all both are comfortable and I wouldn't worry at all about which config you end up with. Both of AA's 772 business hard products are miles ahead of BA's cramped, forward backward, climb over your neighbor nonsense.
And you're correct about the seatmaps, no notches means you're scheduled on an all forward facing setup. However, AA typically uses the all-forward setup as a placeholder on all 772 flights, so seeing that at a month out doesn't mean anything. Start checking again about a week before the flight to get a better guess of what you'll be on.
AA vs BA: as mentioned above AA hard product wins hands down, people have varied options on soft product but generally speaking they're about the same and will largely come down to crew, which is a roll of the dice on either.
And remember, as an AA business pax departing LHR T3, make sure you go to either the CX or QF lounge, do not bother with the BA or AA lounges.