In order to actually get to Europe, both my girlfriend and I had to take positioning flights to Chicago. I was in Southern Connecticut visiting family for the Fourth of July, which meant that the most convenient airport to get to was White Plains (HPN). Thankfully, American Airlines maintained a robust schedule out of HPN on the holiday weekend, including a 6:00am flight directly to Chicago O’Hare (ORD). This was also the only flight with any award availability at the time of booking; 15k miles + $19 for a first class seat booked through Alaska Airlines. Though I was not particularly looking forward to the 6:00am flight, it gave my girlfriend and I a full day in Chicago and would hopefully mitigate the possibility of delays that crop up later in the day.

My girlfriend had already flown into Chicago the night prior, taking a flight from Baton Rouge (BTR) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) via Dallas Fort Worth (DFW). I booked the trip for her for only 6k AA miles + $5.60 in economy, and her Platinum status—helped by the light travel day—bumped her to first on both legs, including a 787-8 on DFW-ORD. Not bad at all!

The Flight:
For me, the journey to the Baltics began with a very unwelcome 4:30 am alarm to get me up in time for the 6am flight from White Plains to Chicago O’Hare. After a quick drive down Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway, I was curbside fifteen minutes before departure.

First Class boarding was called a few minutes after 5:30am, and passengers were ushered onto the tarmac and up a set of air stairs to board flight AA3751, operated by a 22-year old Embraer E170 aircraft with tail number N774JG.


I had selected seat 4A for the two-hour hop West. The seats on the left side of these planes are arguably the most coveted in AA’s fleet as they are single, providing both window and aisle access and considerable recline.

The five passengers in the first class cabin were greeted with a pre-departure beverage of choice, which set the tone for a really strong service from the lead flight attendant. Given the hour, I stuck with coffee.

We pushed back early and with minimal traffic at this early hour, blasted off into the orange-tinged sky toward Chicago.


The journey itself was unremarkable, though we were treated with some fantastic views of the Windy City as we made our approach to the airport.


I do want to acknowledge, once again, the quality of service provided. The FA working the first class cabin was constantly in the aisle to ask passengers if they needed anything. I’ve found the service on AA’s regional subsidiaries, particularly Envoy, to be consistently a cut above what you’d find on mainline. Needless to say, I was well caffeinated hopping off the plane.

This was ultimately an unremarkable flight, which I suppose is a good thing when you have a flight to catch later on in the day.