christep

And so to the second part of my mad mileage run of 32660 miles in 108 hours. By the way, in answer to the obvious "why?" question:

- the ticket gives me 6 segments in N America and my plans changed so they were all available en route to Europe
- I get more holiday than my girlfriend so I had some extra days to spend anyway
- I wanted to keep my AA at Platinum at least
- the Cairo prices for the next ticket are too good to miss.
- I'm mad

AA 814 YVR-DFW in Business

So anyway, we left off with me arriving in Vancouver at 2-30 am local time. My next flight was 07:03 to DFW but all of the airside transit options were closed at that time of night, so I had to enter into Canada at one of the only two manned booths in the airport. Despite dire predictions from number_6 I had no trouble at all at Canadian immigration - they had no problem with the fact that I was in transit from the USA to the USA, although he did explcitly write "transit 1/2hr" by the entry stamp in my passport.

The US departures area wasn't totally deserted - maybe a dozen people dozing on various seats, and after a bit of a wander round I did likewise. The AA check-in was the last to open up, finally starting at 5am. The system would only give me the next two flights (YVR-DFW-ANC), presumably on the grounds that the connection time at ANC was officially too short, although of course I am coming back on the same plane.

My Part 1 report obviously tempted fate, and for the first time ever anywhere in the world I got "randomly selected" for a hand search by US customs on exit at YVR, but it took all of a minute. Much to my surprise, none of the various people who has manhandled by wheelie bag has commented on the fact that it it is stuffed over the size limit and must weigh close to 20kg... I hope that isn't tempting fate again.

The US departure area at YVR is undergoing quite a bit of reconstruction, and (despite the big "more access to more lounges" ads for OneWorld) there isn't any facility for OW there.

Eventually the flight was called and it was clear the load on the MD Super 80 was very light - 8 out of 14 in business and less than 30% in coach. This was the first time I had flown a "business" product on AA within North America, and as far as I can tell it is identical to what they call "First" on the MD80. And I have to say that what they offer is done quite well. The breakfast was really not bad - a hot "quaesidilla" (essentially a cheese omelette wrapped in a tortilla served with a little salsa and some sliced hot sausage), good fruit bowl, plentiful juice and coffee and various pastries (I had bagels & cream cheese). The service was very friendly throughout. Of course the downside (compared with CX at least) is: no lounge, no inflight entertainment of any sort on the MD80, frankly poor room when the seat in front is rocked back - the problem is not legroom when you're sitting, which is OK, but getting in and out of your seat is difficult.

After breakfast I snoozed, and woke up at ToD into DFW, where we landed 25 mins ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a free gate which meant that in the end we were a few minutes late disembarking. The crew did a good job of keeping people informed through this.

DFW Admiral's Club + AA DFW-ANC-DFW in First

In the Part 1 report I was concerned that I might get very smelly indeed before I could take a shower. But I needn't have worried. I had been completely unaware that the Admiral's Club at DFW (the one near gate A23 at least) has a really good arrivals lounge facility (linked to the old Flagship Lounge I believe, which is now just an annex to the main AC). So I had a big bathroom including a shower with 5 separate heads (the main 12 inch diameter on the high ceiling, one on a hose, and three on the wall as sideways "body sprays"), a toilet and a wash basin. Decent towels, soap, shampoo, body lotion (and "feminine supplies") were provided. This was all a very pleasant surprise, which I lingered over since I had 4 hours before the Anchorage flight.

Then in the lounge itself, which is huge, with a children's room with arcade games, a "womens room" (I could only speculate on what might be in there), a very well-equipped business centre, a bar, and music listening points with headphones. All in all it's really quite a nice lounge, the only downside being that food and drink beyond coffee/tea and nuts/pretzels cost money. As a OneWorld Emerald I got a coupon for one free drink, but that's all (I took a rather nice draught (?)Shiner Bock beer - much better than your average gnat's pee lager, though served slightly cold for my taste).

After a session on the email (and being subjected to over an hour of high volume phone calls from the girl in the next pen in the business centre) it was off to boarding for what was obviously a completely full flight. This time it was a 757 with the big beige leather seats in First. Again, the service was very good - the team friendly and the quality of the food and wine was more or less at the same level as CX Business Class. I took a G&T before takeoff, and there was a choice of filet mignon, chicken or salmon for main course, from which I chose the beef. After the generous bowl of warmed nuts there was a round of hot towels and then a starter of a large mixed salad with parma ham, and a choice of dressings served from big bowls on the trolley. I much prefer this to the little cartons of vinaigrette on CX, which I often find a little acidic for my taste. The beef was fine - although a lot more well done than I would choose on the ground. The accompanying chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon were fine.

I suspect a dessert was offered, but at this point the combined effect of the drinks and 36 hours or so without more than a doze caught up with me, and the next thing I remember is ToD 3.5 hours later. By the way, does anyone know the correct etiquette to adopt (or, indeed, any good one-liners to use) on being woken up by an FA tapping your shoulder to put your seat upright and finding oneself with a somewhat obvious "early riser"?

We clearly had some headwinds en route, and we were nearly 30 mins late in arrving. Anchorage was a bit drab frankly (apart from the huge, stuffed polar and brown bears in the boarding area), though I guess I'm not sure what I expected.

What I did not expect was the mix of people on the flights - being oil country I had expected to be surrounded on the plane from Texas by large numbers of hairy-ars*d engineers, but what I found was essentially tour groups of 50- and 60-something couples. The flight back particularly had that very American "folksy" atmosphere with everyone (including the FAs) chattering away about where they came from, their grandkids (possibly great-grandkids in the case of the FAs ) and so on. I hadn't realised that the main reason for this route seems to be to connect with cruise ships that run up and down the north-west coast to Vancouver and thereabouts.

The other thing that was apparent in Anchorage was that all the flights out were over-booked. When I turned up at the gate counter to check-in, having arrived on the in-bound less than an hour before the scheduled departure, there was much sucking of teeth and comments about seats not being released yet. Fortunately, the computer took a more favourable view and, to the desk agent's surprise, immediately gave me the boarding passes back to DFW and onwards to Chicago. I don't think 6F (last row) was the seat I reserved, but hearing comments around me I was grateful not to have to fight to get on. This should be a concern for people planning to do same-plane turnrounds at ANC. Particularly if you don't have AA status I would recommend trying very hard to get the return boarding pass before you get on the outbound.

Service on the flight back was again fairly friendly - being a 10pm departure (and 7am arrival) the food offer was a "light supper" with the choice being a chicken wrap or pizza, and I chose the chicken, which was fine. There was also a slice of chocolate cake on the tray, which was nothing special. The same wines were served, but I suspect the tonic for the G&T came from the same can as on the way up, since it was totally flat. And the FAs told us that no dry ice had been loaded, so the white wine was not much below room temperature. In fact, for a chardonnay this was not a problem - it is often served too cold for my taste, and the flavours come out better a few degreees warmer.

It was on this flight that the absence of any AA inflight entertainment became an issue. They have a system which is set up for 12 channels, and they have the movie soundtrack on two of them (English & Spanish) - the rest seem to be unused. It seems that you really do need to bring your own on AA (and I hadn't, unlike the guy next to me who was watching episodes on MASH on his laptop).

Arrival into DFW was more or less on time and I again caught up with the email, this time in the Admirals Club by C19, which seemed to have more or less the same facilities as the one in Terminal A (though perhaps without the FL-style showers).

AA DFW-ORD, Admirals Club in ORD, ORD-LAX

I discovered that in amending one of my reservations to accommodate the mileage upgrade on the LAX-LHR flight, AA had messed up my preceeding ORD-LAX, accidently putting it one month later. Fortunately my TA spotted this, and while there were no more A seats on the flight I planned, there was enough slack in my schedule for me to get a later flight which did have space.

But before that the DFW to ORD sector, which was again overbooked (AA ought to be doing pretty well if my experiences on this trip were typical). This was another MD80 - I'm sure the schedule said 757 or 738 when I booked, but it seems AA does a lot of shuffling of aircraft types. I'm not a big fan of MD80s, not least because of the very limited stowage space for carry-ons. There is a lack of consistency in the AA domestic first product - for example, all the other flights had good size cotton covered pillows, whereas this flight had cheap little tyvex covered ones. But the breakfast was equally good as yesterday's: a nice selection of fruit, a bowl of cereal (I could have had pancakes instead if I wished) and bagels with cream cheese.

In Chicago I wandered round to the Admirals Club between the H & K piers (only realising when I got there that the arrival gate was very close to the Flagship Lounge), Again a shower was in order (this is what comes of having a Cantonese girlfriend nagging me about being a "smelly gweilo" for taking only one shower per day :| ). The facility here was also quite nice - plentiful supplies of toiletries and towels. The only downside was the shower itself, which was a traditional single head and rather lacking in water pressure. But suitably refreshed I settled down for another work email session before my rearranged flight to LAX.

This last domestic US sector was on a 757, and also well overbooked - there were at least 10 people hanging around the gate looking a bit miserable.

I'm beginning to wonder if it is AA company policy for all FAs to dye their hair blonde... I don't recall one who wasn't, although many obviously weren't that way naturally (grey being the most common natural tint I suspect).

Again the service was good and friendly. Lunch was served, again with the excellent salad, and a choice of salmon, chicken or mushroom tortellini for main course (the only time I was offered a vegetarian dish on American). I took the salmon, which was served with rice and veg and was quite passable. This time I stayed awake for dessert, which was the renowned American ice cream sundae, with a choice of sauces.

And 10 minutes early in LAX, that was the end of my domestic North American travel for this trip.

LAX-LHR AA International Flagship First

I had been trying at each Admiral's Club to see if I could find an agent who could do whatever was needed to take my ticket coupon for LAX-LHR which is part of a DONE3 issued on Cathay stock, combine it with the 25,000 mile upgrade from my AA account and issue me an F boarding pass. But to no avail. So eventually I had to trudge out through security at LAX to the ticketing desk. There the agent decided immediately that since it was a one-way upgrade departing today that she would simply hand amend the ticket coupon, inserting the AA award coupon number, which was easier than I feared. Then back through security. Obviously the shoes that people wear when departing from LA are inherently more dangerous than those worn by travellers departing YVR, ORD, DFW or ANC since they all needed to be X-rayed.

Nothing much to say about the AC at LAX - Sam Adams is the nearest thing they have to decent beer.

This is my first time in Atlantic First on AA (an op-up on DFW-NRT which I basically slept through a couple of years ago was my only previous AA International First). The flight was full in First.

I have to say that the Flagship Suite really does work for me as a space. Being able to swivel the whole seat sideways to a "desk" facing straight out of the windows is excellent. Of course the Bose noise cancellers (real ones, not the cheap pseudo noise cancellers they have on Cathay) are also great, although the cables aren't long enough to avoid the "control box" falling off wherever you put it as you move the chair around. I am curious about the technology they claim to have invented so that "these headsets will only work aboard this aircraft" as they say on them. Since they function perfectly when plugged into my laptop this is an interesting claim.

I like the fact that the space (in 2J at least) feels private without inducing claustrophobia, and that there are multiple air vents to avoid the stuffiness I sometimes feel on the BA equivalent. I have yet to find an airline seat where the adjustable headrests work consistently - mine refused to stay at the maximum height and kept slipping down my back. Occasionally I will find an individual seat that works (generally a new one) but most of them don't.

It does take a while to get used to the service style, including, to take a random example "Paul, there you go love" when being handed a hot towel. But I guess this is an age thing... at 40 I am easily young enough to be the son of all three of the FAs. Although only one of them is blonde just to disprove my theory from the domestic flights.

The food and drink was what more or less what one would expect from First. Yes, number_6 I can appreciate that the Pommery vintage champagne is better than Lanson Black Label, and the Merryvale Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 was an excellent red with the beef stew (it had a fancier name, but that's essentially what it was) which is apparently a signature dish of one Nancy Barocci (whoever she is). The cheese focaccia was particularly good. No caviar with the smoked salmon though. And plastic cutlery really does detract from the experience in my view.

The seat is very easy to sleep in so I got another of the 3 hour naps which is the most I have got at one stretch in the last 72 hours. I had asked to be woken for breakfast, which duly occurred 80 mins out of London, and the cheese omelette with bacon, fruit plate and croissant were fine. I wasn't impressed by the tea though. I know it is difficult to get the water hot enough at altitude, but some airlines make a much more reasonable job of this than others.

And so to London. With a final "bye, bye, sweetie" ringing in my ears I took my leave of the three surrogate mothers I had had for the last 9 hours and went in search of the Arrivals Lounge.

This was a mistake. Bizarrely, the AA arrivals lounge closes 40 minutes after the scheduled arrival of the LAX flight. I was quick through immigration and got there at 13:45. The receptionist was the usual grumpy jobsworth that you find in Customer Service in the UK, but I managed to talk her into letting me have a shower room for 15 mins. In retrospect, of course, I should have just gone over to T4 and used the Molton Brown Spa facilities. The shower room was about one quarter of the size of the ones in DFW and ORD - just big enough for a shower, basin and toilet, but even getting a wheelie bag through the door was non-trivial.

So here ends the AA part of this mad run. What are my conclusions?

I think I must have had a bad experience with AA in my early travelling years because my expectations were really quite low and, in fact, the service was consistently better than I expected. The AA domestic F product is about on a par with the CX regional J product, except for the absence (in MD80) or very limited (in 757) in-flight entertainment. The Admiral's Club lounges in ORD, DFW and LAX are not bad in their facilities except that there is only coffee/tea/water/pretzels for free - clearly well behind most CX or BA lounges in this respect.

And so on to the third and final part of this mad run: Part 3 will be BA to and from Cairo to pick up an AONE3, then on to HEL to start my holiday proper.

YVR Cockroach

Thanks for the report.

Looks like the YVR-DFW breakfast you had was exactly the same as was served on my flight 1 March this year!

As for BC between the U.S. and Canada/Mexico, it's exactly the same as BC. The whole renaming started a few years ago (I don't know if it was because then OW stablemate CP offered BC service instead of FC). At any rate, the only immediate difference then was a very slightly lower fare and fewer bonus CoS miles & points.

Glad you had a decent breakfast on the trans-Atlantic. It can be pretty horrible sometimes.

JohnG

Nice report, Thanks.

However, I did have to laugh at your misunderstanding of the beverages at the AC's. The beverages you mention are the only ones that are self-service, however all non-alcoholic beverages are FREE, you just have toask for whatever you want at the bar. Furthermore, as a OW elite when travelling on AA tickets you should be handed/can ask for drinks vouchers from the staff at the door. These are valid for alcoholic drinks so you dont even have to pay for those. In other words, you had a complete,full bar at your disposal, it seems you just didnt know about it

christep

Thanks for that clarification. I have always got one drinks voucher at ACs but when you are there for 3+ hours that isn't much. Can I simply go and ask for more?

It isn't well advertised that non-alcoholic drinks are free - I don't see many people drinking them...

I'll know next time through.

jongar

its a great report, i have only read to the point where you go to the bar in the AC in DFW, but i want to point out - beer is only too cold if you chip your teeth on it

RTW4

I have just taken yet another transcon in AA premium ( trip report to follw)....AA has a very fine product STILL from LAX-JFK. I agree with all of your comments.

number_6

The food and drink was what more or less what one would expect from First. AA is now serving identical food in J as in F (and identical wines). So if you liked it in F, think how much better that tastes in J (I think AA made this change when they dropped F service on all but the LHR and NRT routes, maybe one more route). That 'stew' is called chateaubriand by AA and is very good (just not what most people expect from the name!). You are lucky to have gotten the Atlantic (flagship suite) configuration, often they switch to a Pacific one (I suspect for the extra seats). Congratulations on your trip, but next time you really must leave the airport at ANC (even if only for a few hours). Anchorage is a fabulous place, but the airport is a dump (as is much of the city). Most of the gate agents working AA are AS employees and not familiar with AA's system. You were very lucky, undoubtedly your Emerald status served you in good stead in the computer even if it meant nothing to the agents at Anchorage. Very common to get stranded overnight at ANC.

number_6

You can go back to the desk and ask for more (I've gotten as many as 4 at once, without asking -- ironic as I rarely use more than one and give the others away). As for which beverages are free and which are paid, that is rather complicated. Espresso, bottled water and perrier are paid, for example. Starbucks bottled coffees are not only paid, but can't be obtained by using a voucher! So there is at least a 3-tiered price structure, and seems to vary with the employee.