Trip report LAX-DFW AA174 June 21st

I left the airport hotel at exactly 05:00 and arrived at Terminal 4 a bit later. The American check-in area was quite nicely decorated. I checked in at the Business class counter, as there were quite a lot of people lining up in the First class one. The check-in agent saw the rest of the itinerary, and commented how crazy I was flying to all those places. I got my boarding pass and checked my bags to DFW. I proceeded then to gate 16b to wait for the flight. The departure time was at 06:23, but boarding commenced at 05:45, so I did not have to wait too long to board. I was the first passenger t get on the plane, and when I got on, the FAs were still standing around in the First class cabin chatting. When they saw me, they all hurried back to their posts. The plane was a 767-200, and I took my seat in 2B, which was strangely the first physical row, but numbered row 2. The seats are covered in what looked like sheepskin, but was quite comfortable, although odd looking. I would say that the seats are about the same width as the UA 767-200 F class ones, but a little more comfortable. The recline wasn't as good as the UA ones, nor could the leg rest go as high. The plane was configured as a 3-class configuration physically, but it was basically a domestic 2 class service. I think the business class seats were given to AA elite members.

My seat was not the best seat to sit in during boarding, as people would always hit you knees while trying to walk by. After takeoff, it was ok, but then I would advise people who get this seat to board at the end. Pre-departure drinks were served while we waited at the gate, and I asked for ginger ale. The captain came on the PA and told us that there was a problem with the air-conditioning system, and we had to wait a while to get it fixed. We ended up waiting at the gate till nearly 07:00 before we started moving. Taxiing and take off didn't take too long, and we were on our way. Flight time was 2 hours 35 minutes, and the cruising altitude was 35,000 feet. After takeoff, drinks and breakfast was served. We didn't get a menu for this flight, but had the choice of chive omelette or raisin bran cereal. Frankly, I would expect a breakfast to include cereal already, and was disappointed that they thought to offer this as a meal. I therefore chose the omelette for breakfast, ginger ale for the drink. The drinks came without any nuts or snacks, followed by the breakfast. The omelette was pretty disappointed and tasted quite bland. The fruit was alright, but the melon slices were very hard. Bagels were also served, and that was the only good part of the breakfast. I saw some other people having the cereal, and it was basically the same setup except the omelette was exchanged for a bowl of cereal. I've come to believe that breakfast on any airline was bad, but not as bad as this. It's basically worse than United in Economy class, and just placed on nicer plates! I think if AA is serving this kind of stuff for their domestic First class, they ought to be ashamed of themselves after serving such good food on their International service.

When the trays were cleared away, I spent some time reading my Tom Clancy book, and just relaxed on the remainder of the flight. I was quite disappointed with service, as the FAs just sat around in the galley gossiping. My seat had a good view of that, and not once did they come around to offer more drinks. Only 10 minutes prior to landing do they come around to collect the glasses and ask if we wanted anything else? I mean if we wanted something else, it was a pretty bad time to ask, just before landing. We landed in DFW from the southern approach, and touchdown was at 12:00, half an hour behind schedule. Taxi to the gate didn't take too long, and we were off the plane within a few minutes. I headed to the baggage claim to pick up my bag, but found that DFW was very big and confusing. There were no signs to tell you which carousel to go to. Luckily, there were only two (as far as I could see), and I found them after getting out of the secure area. The bags took about 20 minutes to come out, and after picking them up, I was on my way to the United check-in desks.

Overall, I was very disappointed with American's domestic service. Maybe this is just one bad apple, but the food and service was very lacking. If this is what American is like on domestic flights, I would suggest that most travelers avoid it. It's not a terrible experience, but I would much rather take United on their domestic flights over this. Just my $0.02.

I'm still curious about what you are doing with all the oneworld miles? Are you going for AA EXP, or taking it on BA or Cathay Pacific?

-David

The LAX check-in setup is my favorite in the AA system (after LHR Park Avenue Facility) The have nice red carpets. when Ii was there I went into the F class line, which was very short but it was like 10 PM at night. I think it is usually long becuase there are a lot of EXP in the LAX area, butn ot necessarily flying First. Great Report!

yes, I'm going for AA EXP

Is that going to help with UA/Cathay Pacific round-the worlds?

-David

not really.. but it does help with my domestic trips within the US, which I always buy the cheapest economy fare to upgrade.. with EXP, I would have choices now on both UA and AA.

Is this your first trip in AA F Class?

Although I agree that breakfast flights on AA tend to be lackluster at best, I don't feel such flights are indicative of their usual service standard. You should try a dinner flight sometime.

good point .. the RTWs are in F anyway, so you don't need any help in that department, right?

You are almost as lucky as me, Terrence, but heck, you'd probably get bored living and working at home on Kauai. Now if I could only convince my company that a RTW would be better than ...



-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 06-23-2001).]

My company basically lets me do what I want, as long as it doesn't cost them anything. We have an agreement with QF, but I prefer star alliance. So, they make me pay the difference between QF and SQ, UA, or whoever, unless I can justify it. But I can usually come up with a business reason for not going QF - always in the timing of the flight... QF flights just never seem to fit my schedule

They will also let us u/g a USA or Europe return to a RTW (once again, if we cough up the $$$).

your experience in AA domestic F is indeed very representative.
overall it is on par with the products in this market. but after being spoiled by CX and int'l F, I would be surprise if you were not disappointed --- remember that F in this country is a misnomer, but it is just a sub-J class in reality.
(in my experience, UA's domestic F seat is better, service similar)

I do this route a lot and split betweewn AA and UA. UA flys an A319 so if it is full upfront I will often take AA. My biggest complaint about AA on this route is even if they have a 757 they don't play a movie. Also make sure you sit towards the front of FC on AA East bound flights and towards the back on AA West bound (if you care about your food choice). UA really needs to get rid of aircraft with only 8 FC seats on competitive routes such as LAX-DFW.

In my experience, your story is painfully familiar. I have had endless bad experiences in domestic first and business class (not to mention coach). I faced no one to check in Business or First at LAX for a red-eye flight (and a completely unapologetic agent on the coach line). Then there was the gate agent at SFO who would when asked if there were available Business seats (I was holding a UA Business ticket and was trying to get on an AA flight with friends), barely paused his conversation with a fellow employee to put me in a coach seat for the Business class fare (with no verbal communication until I pointed out the fact that I did not get a Business seat -- at which point he snorted and said, "THATS not going to happen! Its sold out." I returned to UA where I had a Business seat reserved. There was the "don't know, don't care"-equivalent response I got at LAX when I asked if my connecting flight at ORD was flying to IND (that was New Year's weekend 1998 -- you know how that turned out -- I spent 6 hours on a bus from ORD to IND in a snow storm -- they had to be able to find that out in advance since the bus was waiting. There was the last straw IND to LAX where I cashed in AAdvantage Miles for a first class seat IND TO LAX -- regional jet IND to ORD, then had to RUN (litterally) from the far end of ORD to catch my LAX flight -- breathless, I ran on to the plane into my seat (1D). Crew couldn't have cared less about the ordeal -- no apology, no offer of water, nothing. The service on the flight was literally coach food on nicer plates -- no movie and I think I saw the FA 2x the whole flight. The bulkhead in front of me was worn and the carpeting pilling into the big fluff balls. I vowed never again -- and I have stuck to that for the most part. The service in coach was even worse, from the FA on an JFK to SJU flight that argued that my low-carb meal (pasta, rice, and a nice roll) really was a low carb meal b/c "that's what the label says." When I finally went to the galley in the back when the cart reached it and asked for regular meal. I was told that it was already thrown away (again barely interrupting a conversation with another FA) -- obviously not true. I asked to see the pursor and was told that she was busy (never did show up). On another flight, my girlfriend was told that no, she could not have any water until the beverage service started on a coach flight from LAX to EWR (I only found out later -- would have gone ballistic). I HATE AA for the complete lack of service and even more for the complete lack of trying. The only decent in-flight domestic service I have found on AA is on flights with 3 classes of service -- and then the above illustrates that that is not assured. The FAs seem to have the attitude that they are running a utility -- virtually "go fly someone else if you don't like it." This was a long vent, but believe it or not, I could go on and on about bad service I have received on AA in every class of service.

I have taken only two breakfast flights on AA (in F). They were certianly sub-par compared to United, Continental, or US Airways. On one four-hour flight DFW-SEA, they served nothing more than cereal and yogurt! They had one bottle of water for the enitre F cabin. Dismal.

Their P class transcon is of course much better.