bl4666

I will be taking a flight from DFW to NRT in Business. This will be the first time that I will be taking AA on a trans Pacific flight. I had taken a JAL flight from ORD to NRT also in Business and totally enjoyed the inflight meal and the shell seat was quite comfortable.
Will the AA flight be equipped with the new Business Class?

Wexflyer

Maybe, maybe not.

romcarlos

Theres is no way to know if you are getting the NBC or the old one until 24 hours prior to the flight. If you see a 8th row on the seat map, means that you are getting the NBC. While this is an improvement over the old one, I rather fly JAL....

Deltahater

Odds are you will be getting surely service from FAs who have 20+years on AA, while on JL you get 20 year old FAs....

I had my worst service experience on DFW-NRT flights...

nytango

is this a political argument that belongs on omni?? experience v change and fresh faces and youth???

Fang

I had a great flight DFW to NRT in June.

I would think that you will have a good flight also. However, I would fly JAL from ORD to NRT if I had the chance.

JSSAUCE

I hate to break the bad news to you but going from JL Business to the old AA Business seats is a huge change. I have been on both and just love the JL product.

The service is much better on JL but I have been ok with the service on AA.

I do not remember the FA on JL being 20 years old. There was a mix of young and older.

Joel

onemoreokie

I've found the service DFW-NRT in J to be hit and miss just like most AA flights. I'd see if you can score a Japanese meal as they are pretty tasty for airline grub. Seating wise JL is much better J product. I'd bring backup entertainment options but that's just me. Have a great flight!

PresRDC

I've done DFW-NRT; DFW-KIX (twice); and KIX-DFW, all in F.

Never had anything close to a bad FA.

Deltahater

No, it is a factual statement reflecting my experiences on AA to Japan.

A political statement would be:

"Archaic and protectionistic rules imposed by reckless and selfish union leaders created a seniority system that does not reward good customer service or above and beyond leadership among FAs as age determines who gets the most desirable routes to work on, e.g DFW-NRT".
Their relentless lobbying has also delayed an open sky agreement with many Asian countries who are not allowed to fly within the USA. The unions know that youth, smiles and service sells and Asian carriers are much better positioned to deliver this service than US based carriers with their well document service failures (as a collective group). Of course there are incredible FAs working for US airlines, but in general the service is better on an Asian carrier than an American carrier."

I would, of course, make statements like these in OMNI only.

kbins

I've flown J on AA DFW-NRT and back four times, the most recent in March. It doesn't even compare to JAL service (I've flown NRT-SIN and back, most recently in March). If you have any chance to change carriers to JAL metal, I would do so. I have no experience wtih new business class on AA.

That said, it's certainly better to fly J than Y transpacific. My employer didn't pay for business class for flights less than 8 hrs so I was always happy for the upgrade.

Blumie

Union leaders do not impose rules. Collective bargaining agreements are reached by negotiation between unions and management. I guess you could argue that its "reckless and selfish" to ask for these rules, but management agreed to them. Also, when you negotiate compensation and work rules for yourself, aren't you also being selfish? I know I am.

JSSAUCE

A few years ago I was on a flight OKA-HND or HND-OKA and it was very hot. I mentioned in passing to one of the FA that it was a little hot. A few moments later she came back and told me they checked and it was set high. They lowered the temp for me. My wife, who is Japanese and daughter who speaks Japanese, were horrorfied when the FA also expained it to them in Japanese to help translate the outcome to me. I wonder if AA would do the same.

Joel

cordata

Are you saying the FAs could not speak English? Or are you saying they spoke both English and Japanese and you were impressed positively by this?

edwin_p_morales

I just flew NRT-JFK last week....I was stunned at the presence of an FA on the crew who must have been mid-20's. The one assigned to us though was more in the "ridden on the trail hard, and put away wet" category.

It can be a shock coming from CX/BA/GF biz class to interact with the American FA's. My wife asked when the IFE would start and she scolded her for not hearing the PA announcement about it, which I had caught but was short and kind of confusing.

That said she was super attentive and competent and brought wine/food/etc efficiently, was always on top of everything. Just a slightly different "tone" to it that I can see might rile some people used to a more Asian concept of customer service.

And since the OP is wondering. It's a toss up, but mine was a 77 with the old seats, which was a mini let down (I sleep a lot better on the new ones) but wasn't so bad...