How's America West First Class?
 

Couldn't get a coach seat into Las Vegas from PHL this Sunday (the 10th) on any airline, so got booked into First Class on America West, direct from PHL to LAS. How is the service? What kind of meal can I expect? 8:10 a.m. departure.

djlawman: Decent. In my experience, not as nice as CO, UA, or US, but better than NW. I fly HP a lot and have never had a really bad or a really great experience.

I've found it to be decent, about as good as most domestic airlines. It is not however up to the excellent standards of Continental.

Djlawman, I've always been more than satisfied with HP First Class, especially since the flight attendants settled, signed and ratified their work agreement some months ago. The cuisine compares with most USA domestics and the service has always been pleasant and enjoyable.

P. S. Glad you finally reached a verdict on where to reside during your LAS visit. The jury was out for an extended length of time on that one. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by MRLIMO (edited 10-07-1999).]

I have enjoyed FC on HP. It's pretty okay. Food not great. Equipment pretty new, fairly clean. Service okay. Nothing bad, not the top airline either.

Do any of you happen to be HP Platinum's who could nominate someone? If so, I would be honored if someone would nominate me to Silver status. E-mail me @ [email protected].

Djlawman:

I agree with the the other FlyerTalkers posts on the subject, you can expect decent service. You can expect to get a hot meal on the 319 Airbus scheduled for that flight (One of America West's newer aircraft, the first delivery was last fall)

AW has been improving the meal service on longer flights, they recently have started serving hot meals in coach between PHX and EWR, and will expand that on other or their longer flights. AW 737 aircraft are not equiped with ovens, and only serve cold meals.

Don't forget to let us know how the flight turns out.

Thanks for your comments. I'll report on all of it when I get back, the America West FC outbound, Paris Hilton in Las Vegas, Dinner at REsort at Summerlin, and return on TWA (again, direct flights back on US and America West were sold out Wednesday morning).

Does anyone remember some press about a shortage of seats to LAS? Your difficulty in finding a convenient/desirable itinerary is evidence. I think National Airlines will be coming to PHL later this year, too.

On another note, I will be flying HP SAN-PHX-ORD/MSP-PHX-SAN next week. How likely are upgrades for a CO gold on these routes?

PHX-ORD: A320, Wednesday afternoon
MSP-PHX: 737, Sunday afternoon

I don't know about a OnePass Gold, but I have upgraded successfully on HP almost every flight I've ever taken with them. Even though they have a relatively small FC on most of their equipment. FWIW.

What is the story with the in-seat TV's in FC? They seem to be out of order or broken? Did they ever work?

Yes, National will begin flying between PHL and LAS in November.

America West food report:

HP 402 IAD-PHX (10/8)

4 peeled shrimp with a very nice fruit salsa.

A rather ordinary green salad (not "designer greens") with containers of ranch and creamy Italian dressing.

Choice of grilled salmon, grilled chicken and vegetable lasagne: I had the salmon - a really large piece of fish, well prepared but smothered with a cloying soy/honey sauce. Served with a nice white rice/wild rice mixture, also oversauced. My rowmate's vegetable lasagne looked very good.

For dessert, the famous HP specialty: ice cream coated in dark chocolate. Coffee ice cream this time. Yummy.

HP 2807 PHX-SFO (10/9)

Half of a corned beef sandwich on a soft roll, a slice of red onion, an eighth of a tomato, a third of a pickle, and a tiny Toblerone bar. Not very good for a two hour flight at lunch time. The corned beef was nothing like the succulent, thin sliced, heavenly stuff I grew up on at the Rascal House on Miami Beach. It was the kind you would get at a grocery store somewhere in ... well, Arizona.

[This message has been edited by dgolds (edited 10-09-1999).]

The TVs installed have never worked. Some equip have them on all the seats, incl coach. It was an aborted idea I think just prior to one of HP's bankruptcies. They were going to be an int'l airline, moving upscale. Best laid plans of mice and men...

The old seat-back screens on America West were for an in-flight entertainment system that was discontinued a few years ago. The system was a computer game system, no movies or video, there was , of course, a charge for using it. The system also could be used to make AW flight and rental car reservations, as well as to view terminal maps and would provide up to the minute connecting gate information (no charge)