mcgol

As promised here are my [very subjective] personal opinions on BA vs AA in PE:

I must admit straight away that the big problem was the AA crew, but the crew was so bad that I have sworn to myself to not fly AA again if I do not need to and there are other options.

But, let's get to the hard product, because this is what most people will care about and not my unfortunate luck with cabin and check in crew. I was on a BA 747 for LHR-JFK and an AA 777 for JFK-LHR. I had a day flight to the US and an overnight on the return

-Ba serves pre take off drinks (incl. Sparkling Wine) while AA serves nothing pre take off
-Cabins are similar size, but BA puts a curtain between Eco and Eco+ while there is no curtain between these two cabins for AA which makes BA slightly more secluded.
-Food: AA's food was by far better and fresher. The portions for AA were much bigger as well, however there were no snacks available in between meals while BA will do their best to get you something and they have Magnums on board now.
-Seat: BA's seat is more comfy (in my opinion) because it is older and hence more padded and more like a comfy chair. The AA seat is modern and sleek and also does not recline as much - however the headrests are much better on AA
-Entertainment: Probably a small win for AA as their headsets are much better than BAs and the screen is slightly bigger (and brand new of course) - movie choice seemed the same to me, AA offers some live sports.

So much to the hard product, in terms of soft product:

Ba was just BA, nothing special but also nothing annoying or bad. Crew was its usual attentive-self and helped when asked - it was decent service. However no gold greeting or 'special treatment' at all - unless you want to call the SSSS on my boarding pass on my way out as special treatment....

AA: well, it started at the terminal. Having read some of the issues about the Flagship check in in here before I came ready with my Gold Card in hand to the Flagship dragon and she quickly told me that she doesn't care about my gold card with another airline, if I was not flying in First or was Concierge Key I should make my way down to section 3 and check in there... After another minute of trying to tell her I was allowed in I made my way to Section three where I saw a massive queue - I asked the staff there about where I could check in as Oneworld Emirald and they told me to go to the Flagship. I did indeed go back and told the lady that I had access and actually demanded to see a manager. When she arrived she apologized and welcomed me in. So, not the best start...

The Flagship lounge is of course quite a disappointment for a oneworld emirald as it doesnt compare to the GF, but with it allowing Sapphires I can see how this would be a step up for Silvers as you can order from a limited menu on "The Terrace". Nothing bad here, just not as good as GF.

On the flight: This was a total nightmare as staff were very rude and dint seem to know what they were doing. I wont go into too much detail when my seat neighbor ordered a gin and tonic she wanted to charge him $8 for the Gin until I showed her the menu and asked if spirits were not free in PE - she apologized (not really) and said "I didn't know this was premium Economy". Weird thinking we were at the very front and had bigger seats.

Then when they forgot to clear my tray I walked back to clear it myself (without saying anything to anyone - this can happen sometimes) but when I returned to my seat there was a drinks trolley in the galley. I stood some distance away from it but still got it rammed into my leg by the attendant which was not accompanied by a "oh I am so sorry" by the flight attendant, but rather with a "Excuse me sir but you are in my way can you please get out of the way so I can continue service". I may, or may not, have told her that there is only one way this trolley is going to move and that is backwards so I can get into my seat...

While there were some more incidents of a minor scale the only other thing I thought was hilarious, which is why I wanted to point it out, was that my seat neighbor (I promise this was not me) ordered a vegetarian meal and while this already created problems for dinner, at breakfast it was even worse. First she had to wait an extra 20 minutes for it and then when it was delivered it was a sausage, with bacon and eggs!!! I almost fell out of my chair laughing when she removed the covering!!!

Anyway, I am aware that a lot of why I did not enjoy AA was because of the crew and I would probably admit that the hard product for AA is slightly better. However, the service was so bad that I just could not recommend it over BA.

I hope this may help someone in the future.

xenole

There were snacks of crisps, pretzels and little bar things plus drinks back in the economy section kitchen.
Other than drinks runs from the front of PE to the back of Y, and a similar ice cream run half way through the 10hr or so flight, no real sign of the crew for me either.

I wouldn't go out of my way to pay for AA PE over BA unless I had AA status and was looking to upgrade from it somehow.
As I said in the "I survived Y" thread, it just seems to be an additional though rather than a separate entity. Probably what MCE should be.

Brainless69

Killian_S

I recently flew AA F transatlantic and found the transparent curtains separating the cabins to be a little strange. They were completely see through and had no noise filter, so in fact, what's the point of having them in the first place?

CKBA

As mcgol noted, similarly I find the AA cabin crew very 'unprofessional' - I would worry how competent they are in the crisis. I know, being smartly dressed with good inter-personal skills doesn't necessarily mean that you are competent, but you feel that at least BA have certain levels of training and rigor... .

Geordie405

So having just had a trip back to the UK that involved both BA and AA premium economy products I thought I'd write another short synopsis and give my updated opinion on the respective products:

BA's flight was on a yet-to-be refurbished Mid-J (G-CIVE) on the BA288 PHX - LHR on Tuesday 23rd October. The flight was completely full in the premium cabins owing to the cancellation of the earlier service. Apparently there were downgrades, including from First. The cabin itself was fine although my neighbour did comment about the cracks on the plastic around the window. Only water and orange juice was offered as the PDB and chatting with the CSD later in the flight I was told that this was because BA refuses to pay the duty that would allow alcoholic beverages to be served on the ground in WT+ when on flights heading back to the UK. Although in the grand scheme of things the lack of a glass of fizzy wine before take off in WT+ is a minor matter, it makes the whole experience feel less than Premium, especially on the Mid-J aircraft where the seat and IFE are decidedly dated and past their best.

In terms of the rest of the service, the food was decent (I would say better than AA's offering on the return) although there was no cheese and I wasn't offered any bread (not that I would have eaten any). I was offered my meal first on my side of the cabin even though I was in 16J and technically second last to be served. I didn't watch any films on the flight as the selection was exceptionally poor and the screen detracts from the enjoyment in any event. I did listen to some music and, based on that, actually went and bought an album while in Newcastle! Arrival into London was delayed and there was a further delay getting a gate which meant I had a mad dash from Heathrow to King's Cross and only just made my train north! Crew were excellent and I had good chats with both the CSD and other crew during the night. The PHX service was due to go back to MF operation with the last WW fleet operation either the 28th or 31st October. All in all, it was a good flight with no real issues. However, the Mid-J product is definitely past its best and when you compare it with both the newer BA and other OW partner offerings it does feel very sad.

As for my return flight, this was on a 777-200 on AA 51 from LHR to DFW on Sunday 28th October. I was in 13C which is a front row, aisle, bulkhead seat. Plenty of legroom and space generally although I didn't find the seat particularly comfortable on this occasion. Boarding was a bit of a mess with Groups 1 and 2 being told to queue up in the general boarding lane, and groups 3 and 4 using the priority lane. Of course when boarding commenced it was a bit of a free for all. No issues at all with the crew or the service itself. Crew were polite and friendly if not overly chatty but I didn't find them in any way "unprofessional" as suggested above. There is definitely a difference between BA and AA in terms of how the crew operates but I think it's something you get used to if you fly AA frequently. I hadn't pre-ordered my entrée which was just as well as there was a catering error which meant that instead of the main meals being chicken or pasta it was a choice of a steak, or crepes. Apparently a brunch menu had been loaded instead of lunch. The steak was cooked to BA standard - so overdone, tough and dry. Having previously been impressed with AA's catering I was pretty disappointed here. There were crackers and cheese, but it was Laughing Cow spreadable cheese which didn't seem very Premium. No pre-departure beverage at all, and wine was served in plastic tumblers which again detracts from the experience I think. Only red Solo cups would be worse! Ice creams were offered mid-flight which is always nice, and the second meal was some sort of salad (along the lines of a Waldorf but not quite). It was ok, but I would actually have preferred the pizza pocket that was the coach / economy option! IFE was excellent both in terms of the screen size and image quality as well as the choice of films. The only criticism is the location of the headphone socket which is in the most ridiculous place. Blanket and pillow are better than BA's as is the amenity kit. Overall it was a good flight, but with nothing that really made me think "wow" but equally nothing that made me think "ugh" either.

So having been very impressed with AA on my LAX - NRT - LAX trip earlier this year, I am not sure there's as much of a gulf between BA and AA now, especially if you remove the Mid-J cabin from the equation and focus more on, say, the 787 or 777-300 iterations of the BA PE cabin. This trip was booked purely on price and was $1350 or so for LAS - PHX - LHR - DFW - PHX - LAS routing which I thought was a very good deal. With no travel yet booked for 2019 I think I will probably be less focused on the carrier and more on the price and timings. I don't think there's such of a gap between the two products as people perhaps make out, with the exception of the Mid-J where it remains quite striking.

riku2

I've flown LHR-DFW and DFW-GRU in AA PE after many many trips in BA WTP and the comments of others are spot on here. The inability to tell the cabin crew from the passengers for example. The cabin crew are the biggest difference with BA and a world away from the smiling crew of CX premium economy. On the second flight I was offered drinks with the cabin attendant standing two rows in front and shouting across the rows to me in Portuguese. Sitting in the middle section of four seats I had to help pass the other passenger's food trays from one side to the other for collection also.
The seat belt sign seems to be used differently to european/asian airlines and is on for about 4x as long (about the last hour before landing) and is widely ignored by the passengers. For the DFW-GRU flight I think it was on for about 5 hours of the 10 hour flight. Checking of bags tucked under seats and seats not reclined for take off/landing wasn't enforced either.
Transfer procedures for international - international flights (this was LHR-DFW-GRU) was a bit of a guessing game. With LHR staff and onboard the plane saying bags did not need to be collected at DFW and signs in the baggage hall at DFW saying that ALL bags have to be collected and re-checked. I still don't understand the rules (based on originating airport?). But my bag did make it to GRU without needing collection in DFW.
Overall i'd say the cabins/seats are much more modern than BA, the live TV is nice but things are let down by the cabin crew and things done differently to anywhere else in the world. Perhaps USA based travellers are used to this but it's a bit unusual for those from Europe/Asia.
On the 777 it was nice that there were toilets at the from of the PE cabin (with business class ones opposite with a diagonal curtain between). In a reversal of normal behaviour some of the business class passengers sneaked into the PE toilets rather than wait for their own to be empty (on the first flight the engaged/vacant sign of the business class lavatory got stuck halfway.. with the lavatory vacant but people thinking it was occupied. it was a sign of lack of staff checking that the toilet remained unused by the business class passengers for about 5 hours because they thought it was engaged. Eventually I went up and pressed the door and realised what had happened).

xenole

Well, the AA 777-300 I was on from LHR-LAX had the toilets at the back of the business cabin / front of the PE cabin.
The AA 777-200 from JFK-LHR had the toilets at the back of the small economy cabin behind PE.
There doesn't seem to be any indication of whether a toilet is in use. The overhead sign at the front of the PE cabin never changed.

I had 2 out of 5 flights in the last week or so where my seatbelt was checked, one of them twice (BOS-JFK on the A321T, younger MIA based crew).
Bag on the floor and nothing was said.

I admit I was wandering about when the seatbelt sign was on. As long as the plane isn't bouncing, it's practically ignored on AA from my experience.

Still think the BA crews have the edge. They're really "stiff" and too formal most of the time for my liking, but at least they're not quite as bad as a lot of the AA crews who definitely give the impression with evil stares etc. that passengers are nothing more than a hindrance to their sleeping, eating, social time etc.

Seat wise, I found it more comfortable than the BA seat and had no issues getting out when the seat in front was reclined. The screen tilts nicely to compensate.
The USB took me a few seconds to find under the back of the centre armrest (then again so did the power points on the A321T in business).
Only awkward bit was the headphone socket above the USB port. Hard to find if dark and I used my splitter as it seems to use 2 prongs instead of 1 (or can it get away with one?)

LimaWhiskey

CKBA

22 hours of their lovely company tomorrow (it was either BWI-ICN via DFW on AA or via LHR on BA - I couldn't really justify BA :-( ).

CKBA

A quick up date on AA/BA observations, not least since my previous AA PE experience has been on A330's, while BA WT+ experience has been on 787's. The DFW-ICN trip was on an AA 787.

The AA 787 PE cabin is smaller than the BA 787(-8) WT+ cabin, with 3 rows of 2+3+2. Unlike the A330 where there was a curtain between PE and business, on the AA PE 787 there was a curtain between economy and PE, and then a curtain between the galley and business. This had the advantage of then putting the two toilets at the front on PE cabin in PE territory (!). Even better, the right hand toilet was a disabled toilet so was extremely spacious.

Otherwise, the seat is the same AA PE seat, which is similar to the BA one, although the AA one has those nice headrest wings that cradle your head nicely (I think I recall BA doesn't have these), Of course the TPAC DFW-ICN is a long flight - 14 hours in the air, so food offerings were more than my usual TATL flights; 3 meal service, although with quite a large gap between #1 and #2 . Unlike the AA TATL flights, the AA TPAC cabin crew did appear smarter and more identifiable, although did seem somewhat clueless in terms of the 'premium' level of service (silly things like handing out the drink-snacks from a plastic bag 10-15 mins before the drinks), and not knowing what the full-meal offering was - I guess on-the-job training.

xenole

Few pics:

Seat recline



Position of headphones / USB at back of centre arm rests



Footrests

CKBA

... and the power socket is next to the USB/headphone sockets, although there are more convenient USB/headphone sockets at the bottom of the screen (on the bulkhead seats at least).

I might also add that on all my AA PE bookings I've always been allocated the bulkhead window seat by default.

notalizard

Useful reviews. Good to see AA finally picking up rolling PE out, healthy competition to BA and IB. General impressions especially for the JFK-LHR route I will be taking seems to be it's worth a try over BA especially to also check out the T8 flagship lounge.

South London Bon Viveur