RTW Report BA/CX/AA
Oct 25, 2001 | 10:47 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: London, UK. AA EXP 5MM; Hyatt Diamond, SPG Ambassador Lifetime Platinum, Hertz PC
Posts: 254
RTW Report BA/CX/AA
Hi Folks
Exactly a week after the New York/Washington tragedies, I set out on 3 consecutive long haul flights (LHR/HKG on BA, HKG/LAX on CX and LAX/LHR on AA) all the flights were in first and running them so close together gave me a chance to compare & contrast the premium service on the three main One World airlines.
Here are my thoughts on the flights;
BA
Pre boarding, The Terminal 4 lounge was spacious and lacked nothing, nevertheless it came after the HKG CX lounge.
Cabin layout, without doubt the nicest of the three, designed by Kelly Hoppen, it features wood, Connelly leather & suede finishes. The suites are angled to give some privacy & the center seats do not extend the whole way down the center allowing free movement around the cabin.
Crew, friendly, without being obsequious and extremely helpful. Probably second best of the bunch.
Food, no arguments here; without doubt the best food I have ever eaten on an airplane. I had a Sea Bass that I would have rated excellent at the finest restaurants in town (I am a Restaurant Consultant by profession). Metal cutlery with plastic knives.
Amenities, The sleep suit is nice, the down pillows & duvets are great and the provision of power adapters is a really nice touch. However I have to rate them below Cathay as they did not supply noise reduction headsets; I have grown so used to the excellent Bose sets on AA that I find it difficult to fly without them.
CX
Pre boarding; The Terraces lounge at HKG may well be the nicest airport lounge in the world, nothing else to say.
Cabin Layout, not as nice as BAs but still very nice; despite having fewer seats than the BA it did not feel as open. The outer armrest drops for increased space whilst sleeping.
Crew, the finest of the three, very friendly and seemed really happy to help.
Food, almost as good as BAs and as with BA the plate presentation was well thought out. Once again metal cutlery, except for plastic knives.
Amenities; once again sleep suits, excellent pillows & blankets, Sony noise reduction headphones but the dumbest amenity kit I have ever seen. It had shaving cream & aftershave but no razor. Nevertheless the best of the bunch.
AA
Pre boarding; there is no Flagship Lounge at LAX, so I used the Admirals Club instead, which is really showing its age and feels definitely second rate after the BA & CX lounges.
Cabin Layout, Despite being the newest of the bunch the Flagship Suites seem drab compared to the other two. Having the pair of seats running all the way down the center of the plane makes it feel claustrophobic and inhibits easy movement about the cabin. I very much like the seat swivel feature and the fact that both armrests can be retracted whilst sleeping. Bottom of the heap, I am afraid.
Crew; I was welcomed aboard the plane by a guy from Special Services who greeted me by name & thanked me for flying with American. Little touches such as this made me feel very welcome & the male flight attendant who took care of me throughout the flight was also excellent. However all this effort went to nothing when I almost had a row with a senior female FA who demanded my headset when we were 90 minutes out of LHR. I explained that I only had 30 minutes of my movie left & begged her to let me keep them for this period. She looked at me as if I were scum and said to me I have work to do; I need them now. BTW, the F cabin was less than 50% full.
Food, appaling, my dinner choice was veal & I received a piece of grey material that could have been anything. It was overcooked to the point of incineration and was so tough that my fork broke on it. We used all plastic cutlery.
Amenities; in this company the only good thing I can say about AA is that they have the best headphones. No sleep suit, no duvets, same old amenity kit whose contents seem to emanate solely from China. This is AMERICAN airlines, yet the amenity kit seems to have nothing from the US; unlike the BA one which has only British contents.
It pains me to write this because the AA flight was the one that took me both to 2 million miles on AA and also requalified me for EXP this year. Nevertheless I have to say that overall my opinion is that Cathay were the best, BA closely followed them and AA were several leagues behind. Please remember also that the BA flight was at 99% capacity; the CX one at 60% and the AA one at under 50%, so one might assume AA would have had time to give the best service.
This is, of course, nothing more than a snapshot of three individual flights and can not necessarily be expanded into an overall view of the three airlines.
Nevertheless my wife & I will be back in an AA F cabin in 6 weeks from LHR to LAX and I will be interested to see if anything has changed.
Keep the faithkeep flying.
Good Luck
James
------------------
London UK.
AA EXP 2MM
Hilton HH Gold
Hyatt Passport Platinum
Exactly a week after the New York/Washington tragedies, I set out on 3 consecutive long haul flights (LHR/HKG on BA, HKG/LAX on CX and LAX/LHR on AA) all the flights were in first and running them so close together gave me a chance to compare & contrast the premium service on the three main One World airlines.
Here are my thoughts on the flights;
BA
Pre boarding, The Terminal 4 lounge was spacious and lacked nothing, nevertheless it came after the HKG CX lounge.
Cabin layout, without doubt the nicest of the three, designed by Kelly Hoppen, it features wood, Connelly leather & suede finishes. The suites are angled to give some privacy & the center seats do not extend the whole way down the center allowing free movement around the cabin.
Crew, friendly, without being obsequious and extremely helpful. Probably second best of the bunch.
Food, no arguments here; without doubt the best food I have ever eaten on an airplane. I had a Sea Bass that I would have rated excellent at the finest restaurants in town (I am a Restaurant Consultant by profession). Metal cutlery with plastic knives.
Amenities, The sleep suit is nice, the down pillows & duvets are great and the provision of power adapters is a really nice touch. However I have to rate them below Cathay as they did not supply noise reduction headsets; I have grown so used to the excellent Bose sets on AA that I find it difficult to fly without them.
CX
Pre boarding; The Terraces lounge at HKG may well be the nicest airport lounge in the world, nothing else to say.
Cabin Layout, not as nice as BAs but still very nice; despite having fewer seats than the BA it did not feel as open. The outer armrest drops for increased space whilst sleeping.
Crew, the finest of the three, very friendly and seemed really happy to help.
Food, almost as good as BAs and as with BA the plate presentation was well thought out. Once again metal cutlery, except for plastic knives.
Amenities; once again sleep suits, excellent pillows & blankets, Sony noise reduction headphones but the dumbest amenity kit I have ever seen. It had shaving cream & aftershave but no razor. Nevertheless the best of the bunch.
AA
Pre boarding; there is no Flagship Lounge at LAX, so I used the Admirals Club instead, which is really showing its age and feels definitely second rate after the BA & CX lounges.
Cabin Layout, Despite being the newest of the bunch the Flagship Suites seem drab compared to the other two. Having the pair of seats running all the way down the center of the plane makes it feel claustrophobic and inhibits easy movement about the cabin. I very much like the seat swivel feature and the fact that both armrests can be retracted whilst sleeping. Bottom of the heap, I am afraid.
Crew; I was welcomed aboard the plane by a guy from Special Services who greeted me by name & thanked me for flying with American. Little touches such as this made me feel very welcome & the male flight attendant who took care of me throughout the flight was also excellent. However all this effort went to nothing when I almost had a row with a senior female FA who demanded my headset when we were 90 minutes out of LHR. I explained that I only had 30 minutes of my movie left & begged her to let me keep them for this period. She looked at me as if I were scum and said to me I have work to do; I need them now. BTW, the F cabin was less than 50% full.
Food, appaling, my dinner choice was veal & I received a piece of grey material that could have been anything. It was overcooked to the point of incineration and was so tough that my fork broke on it. We used all plastic cutlery.
Amenities; in this company the only good thing I can say about AA is that they have the best headphones. No sleep suit, no duvets, same old amenity kit whose contents seem to emanate solely from China. This is AMERICAN airlines, yet the amenity kit seems to have nothing from the US; unlike the BA one which has only British contents.
It pains me to write this because the AA flight was the one that took me both to 2 million miles on AA and also requalified me for EXP this year. Nevertheless I have to say that overall my opinion is that Cathay were the best, BA closely followed them and AA were several leagues behind. Please remember also that the BA flight was at 99% capacity; the CX one at 60% and the AA one at under 50%, so one might assume AA would have had time to give the best service.
This is, of course, nothing more than a snapshot of three individual flights and can not necessarily be expanded into an overall view of the three airlines.
Nevertheless my wife & I will be back in an AA F cabin in 6 weeks from LHR to LAX and I will be interested to see if anything has changed.
Keep the faithkeep flying.
Good Luck
James
------------------
London UK.
AA EXP 2MM
Hilton HH Gold
Hyatt Passport Platinum
Oct 25, 2001 | 2:51 pm
#2
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Agoura Hills, Ca USA
Posts: 470
James,
I agree with you about AA food. I do think however, that CX has a far better first class meal service than BA. Also, the BA FA were quite unfriendly in first. I must say that I have been very impressed with the QF first class service as of late. I also agrew that the Bose headphones are great. The flagship suites IMHO are a great improvemement over the "old" 777 seats on AA
I agree with you about AA food. I do think however, that CX has a far better first class meal service than BA. Also, the BA FA were quite unfriendly in first. I must say that I have been very impressed with the QF first class service as of late. I also agrew that the Bose headphones are great. The flagship suites IMHO are a great improvemement over the "old" 777 seats on AA
Oct 26, 2001 | 1:35 am
#3
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Circle City
Posts: 3,568
Look for the razors in the drawer in the loo next time. Also has a few other goodies like more toothbrushes and whatnot. I agree with your synopsis quite accurately, though I think the CX cabin is nicer. The BA is more stylish, imo, but I do like the more room of CX.
Oct 29, 2001 | 12:50 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 1999
Posts: 1,023
BA is definitely my favourite for First. I think CX is very close, but I don't like their cabin layout - it's all fairly subjective though.
I am surprised that you think the CX amenity kit was the best. I think the BA BAg has a far more interesting set of products, plus the case itself is worth keeping. Oh, and the contents are not soley British, they change frequently and tend to be a selection of the hotest cosmetic items from around the world, like just recently the Aesop range made in Melbourne Australia, as well as items from around Europe and the U.S.
I've got an AA flight in first this week DFW-LGW, just found out that on the day of my flight they are switching the 777 flagship suite config for a 767
. The suite was the one thing I think AA could truly call first class. Oh well, at least the DVD inflight theatre on the 767 is vastly superior to the 777's selection of entertainment options.
I am surprised that you think the CX amenity kit was the best. I think the BA BAg has a far more interesting set of products, plus the case itself is worth keeping. Oh, and the contents are not soley British, they change frequently and tend to be a selection of the hotest cosmetic items from around the world, like just recently the Aesop range made in Melbourne Australia, as well as items from around Europe and the U.S.
I've got an AA flight in first this week DFW-LGW, just found out that on the day of my flight they are switching the 777 flagship suite config for a 767
. The suite was the one thing I think AA could truly call first class. Oh well, at least the DVD inflight theatre on the 767 is vastly superior to the 777's selection of entertainment options.