AA71
FRA-DFW
Seat 12A
777-200
I love the seat pitch on AA's 777 and 767 business class. I normaly prefer to fly in an aisle seat, but with AA's very generous pitch, I am happy to take a window seat. There was plenty of room for me to walk to my window seat without encroaching on my 12B seat partner, and can easily slide my roller bag under the seat in front and not come close to touching it with my feet.
Pre-takeoff drinks of champagne, juice or water are offered - champagne is always a good way to start a 10 hour flight. We are soon pushing back and quickly into the air. The Captain tells us the winds are favourable and we should be about 30 mins early into DFW where the weather is clear.
As always for AA long-haul flights, I was careful to select a seat according to FEBO. AA take meal orders based on the flight number of the flight, with even numbered flights having orders taken from the front of the cabin and old numbered flight from the rear (Front Even, Back Odd). But knowing there are two meal services and that serving is always from the front, I like to avoid the back row on odd numbered flights. AA will run out of the most popular meal choice, which is something that I have never had happen to me on any other airlines when travelling in business class (yes, I know there will be people who have experienced this in QF, BA, CX etc, but I have not had that experience or even heard the FAs on my flights telling people they cannot have their first choice.
When the time comes for meal orders to be taken, the FAs head straight to row 13 (the rear of the J cabin) and start taking orders. Hmm, 13A, B, D and E all choose the lamb. The she moves forward and starts with 12D, then 12B who both also request the lamb. Now I know I have made a wise seat selection as I also request the lamb. That is 7 from 7 for the lamb. There is only one lamb dish left for the 3 rows in front of me. At least there were three other choices on the menu for them to choose from. I order a Diet Coke for starters, while my seatmate requests a scotch on the rocks and has two bottle of Dewars poured over a full glass of ice. I consider following his lead and asking for one bottle of Glenlivet poured over 2 ice cubes, but decide to stick with my initial choice for now.
The meal is very good, though lamb cutlets can be a little difficult to eat with airline cutlery - even though the knife was steel, it was blunter than most plastic knifes I have used so far on this trip. I take a glass of Koonungra Hill Shiraz with the meal and once again am reminded why I usually don't have wine with my meal. Dessert is Ben & Gerry's Cherry Choc-Chip Ice Cream.
After the meal I pull out my laptop and watch a few DVDs. Again on this day-time flight the FAs insisted on having all the blinds closed. If I wanted to sleep on the flight I would have chosen a night-time flight. I chose a day-time flight because I wanted to be awake on this flight and sleep in a hotel room at the end of the day.
About 2 hours before landing we are offered a snack. This time the orders are taken from the front of the cabin, which is why I like to be just back or forward of the middle according to FEBO. The choice is Mushroom Pizza or Cold Asian Chicken Salad.