palmanfr

Upon arrival at JFK Terminal 7, we disembarked directly inside the departures hall, as we were considered as domestic passengers. It took a few minutes of walking to get to the luggage claim area, only to find that my luggage was missing, so I headed directly to the BA luggage office where another gentlemen on my flight, also connecting but towards CLT and SFO was in the same situation as me. The agent tried to be helpful with this situation but could not tell us much. At the end, we concluded that since we were considered as domestic transfers, the luggage will be transferred automatically to AA. Surprisingly, the agent could not confirm this hypothesis. Would be good for BA to train their JFK staff to the specifics of this BA1 service !

A quick airtrain ride later, I was in terminal 8, from where AA operates. I should actually say we as I made the ride with the other passenger having luggage issues. It appeared, as his itinerary suggested that he was also doing a mileage run ! And more interestingly, he happened to be working for BA, in the LCY base!
So after collecting some fresh AA boarding passes, we headed towards the priority security check/circus of the terminal 8, which was cleared in about 10 minutes. I wish AA would allow Emerald passengers to use their flagship check in in T8, as it used to be.
And more generally, I wish that BA and AA would really work on facilitating the transfer experience in JFK, by using a shuttle bus between terminals within the secure area for example…

We then proceeded to the flagship lounge and it took us a bit of time to find an empty spot. The lounge is certainly very nice, but also very crowded since they now allow every non-AA sapphire status holder and one guest to get in. The previous flagship lounge was more « private » for sure… As I was quite full, I just got a couple of soft drinks, but the buffet seemed to be well furnished and the drinks selection seemed quite good, including some Bollinger champagne available. A few changes occured since last time I went there several months ago, including new buffet furniture and the opening of their flagship dining lounge for their international and transcon first class passengers. Indeed, I did not have access to it since I was « just » in business class on their JFK-LAX service.




















AA Flaship lounge JFK airport


View from the lounge

Restrooms and shower rooms are available inside the lounge. Tested the former and they were very well-maintained. A business center is also available if needed.

American Airlines Flagship lounge – New York JFK Terminal 8
Buffet area / F&B selection : B+
Seating available : C
« Clean and comfy » : B
Extra amenities : B
Overall ranking : B

palmanfr

It took a good 5-minute walk towards the satellite terminal where my boarding gate was. 30 minutes before scheduled departure time, the boarding was already at group 4, so looks like they started earlier than scheduled.

American Airlines – AA133 – October 10th 2017
New York JFK Terminal 8 – 17:00
Los Angeles LAX Terminal 5 – 20:21
Airbus A321 (321T) – N116AN – Business class, seat 06F, window.

Sorry for the lack of seat pictures, but I was quite tired and the cabin was full and I boarded last so not so many opportunites to take cabin pictures...
It was not my first time on board the transcon service, but I always flew in the economy plus section, in the third tier of the aircraft. This time, I was in business class. The main benefit off flying on the 321T is that you have flat bed seats in both the business and first class (this aircraft features 3-classes of service, and the first class seat is equivalent to the one used on their 777-300 business class). The cabin was already almost full when I boarded, including the overhead bins. The seat 6F I preselected is located at the first row of this cabin (bulkhead seat), and the only business class lavatory is located just across the aisle.

First class on AA Airbus 321 Transcon


Seat 6F – AA Airbus 321 Transcon business class

The cabin configuration being in 2-2, you will need to step over your neighbour if you are seated on a window seat and need to use the lavatory. A duvet and a pillow were located on the seat, and right behind the headrest were placed a Cole Haan amenity kit with a bottle of water. I was actually suprised to see an amenity kit to be there. It contained the usual stuff : Earplugs, moisturizer cream, tissues, socks, an eye mask and a dental kit.


Seat 6F – AA Airbus 321 Transcon legroom


Amenity kit and water bottle behind the seat

Paper menus were placed on the little cocktail table between the two seats and a non-alcoholic pre-departure beverage was served prior to take off, which occured after a 10 minute taxi time.




AA133 JFK-LAX Business class menu

About 20 minutes after take off, Bose noise-cancelling headsets were provided and the FA came to take the meal orders and offer a first bar service, which was served with warm nuts.


AA133 JFK-LAX First drink service

A choice of 3 main courses was offered that evening and choose the to order the sea bass. A tray served from the galley came 15 minutes later with the starters and the salad. Honestly i was not that hungry, and the appetizer, some hummus and the salad were quite big and a bit on the heavy side for the hummus, but still quite tasty (including the salad – for which a choice of two dressings was offered. The sea bass was excellent and cooked just right. I however passed on the dessert, so I cannot comment on it.



AA133 JFK-LAX Dinner service – Sea bass

It was time for me to get some sleep and test the lie flat position of the seat. Clearly this is not the long haul business class used in first class on this same plane, and the length of it is similar to what is used on the BA babybus, so I could not extend my legs fully. I still managed to get a good hour of sleep.


AA Airbus 321 transcon business class flat bed mode

The service was alright at start (no name addressing) but later on during the flight, the crew seemed to have disappeared in the galley, with even one flight attendant sleep below blankets on the floor near door 2L ! (not sure if this FA was travelling as a passenger or as an acting cabin crew).
A basket of snacks and fruits were placed during the flight on the bulkhead panel of row 6.
A last round of drinks was offered shortly before landing – but no sign of the cookies mentioned in the menu (I was not really hungry though)


AA133 JFK-LAX Snacks basket

The seat, when not positioned as a bed, was quite confortable, but I missed a compartment to place the laptop. A couple USB ports and a power socket were available. The IFE was the new AA system with a decent selection of video and audio programs, but I mostly used the moving map feature and some music compilations they offered. A little remote control, with a touch screen, was located under the armrest, which is convenient as you cannot really access the touch screen with the seat belt fastened. However, this remote controller started to act crazy as soon as I touched, with programs randomly changing, the volume going up and down… So I eventually managed to deactivate it for the rest of the flight. WiFi was available troughout the flight.


AA Airbus 321 Transcon IFE remote


WiFi prices (for a laptop)

As a wrote before, the only business class lavatory is located right across the aisle from this seat. While choosing seat 6F has some benefits (like the limited need to jump over your neighbour when going out of your seat or the extra storage space in front of the seat, the main disavantage is the proximity of the lavatory, especially on night flights as the bathroom light is pretty intense and shines just in front of you.


Approaching LAX

We landed in LAX a good 20 minutes ahead of schedule and had to wait a couple minutes to get our gate in terminal 5.

Cabin Crew : C
Seat : B+. Seat is nice and has the benefit to be able to go in full flat on a domestic flight.
On time performance : A
Meal and beverages : B. Special mention for the main course.
Overall experience : B

palmanfr

After disembarking, I looked at the connections screen to see that my next flight was departing from T4. I headed for a quick stop at the Admirals club in T5 as large signs were indicating that the lounges in T4 were closed for renovation. The lounge in itself is a pretty standard renovated Admirals club, and thanks to the Emerald status, 2 drink vouchers were given at the entrance. It was also pretty crowded at this time of the day. A bar, with a self service buffet was available. I did not stay long enough (about 10 minutes) to comment more on this lounge, but you can see some pictures below.








LAX AA Admirals club Terminal 5


It was time for me to walk towards T4 using the underpass and I arrived to the gate 5 minutes before boarding. I took this opportunity to check one more time with the gate agent if my luggage was transferred, to which she replied that she did not have access to the luggage tracking system as she was not working for luggage services. Sounded pretty weird to me… Anyway, it was time for me to board, and as usual on AA, priority boarding was respected. Boarding now on AA is done in 9 groups and as I was travelling in domestic First, I was group 1.




Boarding gate for AA1642

American Airlines – AA1642 – October 10th 2017
Los Angeles LAX Terminal 5 – 21:20
Las Vegas Mc Carran Intl LAS – 22:37
Airbus A321 – N981UY – Domestic first class, seat 01A, window.

For this short flight (45 minutes in the air), I have to say that the crew, especially the FA working in the first class cabin was much more friendly and energic than on the previous service. The captain also came to the gentlemen seated next to me to greet him, I figured out later that he was Concierge Key, AA’s highest tier, by invitation only. A beverage was offered before take off, which occured on time, and soon after it, the FA started to ask around the cabin if anybody wanted any drinks or snacks. With a full cabin (16 seats I think), she managed to give 3 rounds of drinks and thank everybody, 2 by 2, for flying AA just before landing. Otherwise, this short flight was pretty uneventful, it was a smooth ride, the seat was the standard ex-US Airways recliner and we arrived at the gate 10 minutes before scheduled time, which sounded like a pretty good news to me as I was feeling pretty tired…




AA 321 First class seat 1A

Cabin Crew : A
Seat : B, and anyway much better than any European airline.
On time performance : A
Meal and beverages : B
Overall experience : B


Finally reached my destination, too bad the lights were down…

It took a good 10-minute walk to get down to the terminal, take the automated train and get to the luggage claim. Luggage arrived a good 15 minutes later. Or at least for the other passengers. As mine did not appear on the belt… So my next direction was AA luggage handling office. And here below is a transcript of the conversation between the AA employee and me :
- Me : Good evening, do you know if all the luggage from LAX has been delivered ?
- Agent : Yes, it was.
- Me : Ok, so then my suitcase is missing…
- Agent : Ok, do you have your luggage receipt ? Ok… i twill be there tomorrow at 11 am, it is still in JFK now.
- Me : But how come ? My connection was long enough… The problem is that I won’t be in Vegas anymore tomorrow at 11. I am taking another flight tomorrow morning at 8 O’clock.
- Agent : Are you on American ?
- Me : No, I am on Delta, on a different reservation, as I am going to Yellowstone and you do not fly there. So I would like to have a PIR issued for this luggage delay.
- Agent : Ok, but since you are flying with Delta tomorrow I cannot issue a report…

At this point I was looking pretty confused and reminded the girl about the international regulations and standard practices when it comes to luggage delays. She argued that since the luggage was located in JFK and I am not flying AA on my next flight, she could not do anything. At this point, I asked to speak to a supervisor who appeared to be the woman next to her…

- Agent : He wants to have his luggage delivered on Delta, but we cannot do that right… (At no point I asked the luggage to be placed on DL, as I know they don’t have any interline agreement anymore between DL and AA).
- Supervisor : No, we’re not gonna put it on Delta.
- Me : Ok, so what next then ? The luggage was supposed to be transferred and delivered with this flight and it was not. I won’t be in Vegas by the time i twill get there. At least, I want an irregularity report to be created now for this mishandling, in accordance with the conditions of carriage.

This followed a 10 minute argument on if the report should be issued or not and where to deliver the luggage. The closest they could deliver it was Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is located more than 150 miles away from where I was staying, without any guarantee that it will get there before I would leave the Yellowstone area. So I asked at the end to have the luggage delivered to SJC, my next destination, where I would pick it up myself. This took another 5 minutes of negotiation. At the end, I got my irregularity report number (with at date and hour mentioned to be 8 hours in the future…). I just deplore the very rude, arrogant and careless attitude of the staff, who obviously did not really knew the rules. I believe that, especially in this kind of job, saying hello, thank you, sorry and goodbye are just more than simple words. They even failed in that respect. I understand that this is not always a pleasant job as they see every day frustrated and potentially rude customers, but AA truly failed in this customer service experience to me. This was absolutely not in par with the premium experience one could have expected. Good customer service, or at least interaction, can happen in those circumstances, and I experienced it later during my trip with Delta, where the approach and the way they dealt with the issue was radically different. As any other frequent flyer, I understand luggage mishandlings can happen once in a while and had quite a few in the past. But I never had to fight that hard to get an irregularity report issued. I guess someone less experienced than me would have let it go…

I left the airport pretty annoyed by this story and called the hotel I booked for the night (the homewood suites LAS airport) to pick me up with their shuttle, which arrived 15 minutes later. I checked in at midnight after being welcomed by a friendly receptionist and was upgraded to the only room left : A two bedroom, two bathroom suite. The next 5 hours were certainly comfy… No pictures here but the hotel website give pretty good indications about the type of rooms they offer. I paid 139 USD for this room, and booked a month before (flexible rate for a queen bed room, but got upgraded). Most of the hotels were indicating sky high rates for that evening starting 2 weeks before my stay.

757

Great report so far! Looking forward to the rest. I've often wondered what the service is like on that BA A318 from LCY, and sounds like you're flew on a private jet with only 21 passengers onboard - Wow!

palmanfr

Thanks 757 ! I am now enjoying my last day of vacation in DC and will post the remaining of my trip in the next coming days! After discussing a bit with the crew, the babybus has got more passengers in the past few months, and is usually full on the way back from JFK. I've heard reports where only 7 or 8 passengers were on board and that would be called true luxury !

palmanfr

The next morning starting with a very quick breakfast at the hotel, followed by a 10 minute walk to the rental car center, where I took the shuttle to the terminal. (The hotel provided a shuttle but the times were quite inconvenient, as it was departing only at 6 and 7 am. With my flight being at 8 am, I did not want to take a chance to miss it by taking the 7 am shuttle). This is another reason why I booked this hotel : The proximity with the rental car facility where I knew from past experiences that they had frequent bus services to the terminals.

Being in a previous life a holder of status on the « European side » with each of the three alliances (LH Senator, BA Gold and AF/KL Gold or Platinum), I always considered that AA was giving the most benefits to their alliance partners when travelling with them. With a generous luggage allowance, and thus, for all the passengers on the same booking reference (3 x 32 kg – I don’t even get that on BA !), lounge access when flying domestically and economy plus for free at time of booking, they are clearly ahead of DL, where you can still take 2 x 32 kg (when travelling domestic – the DL website is unfortunately not very clear on this topic for Skyteam elites) and COULD score an economy plus of first class upgrade (but nothing is sure), but don’t have any lounge access or UA where the luggage allowance is of one piece only, you need to pay to get economy plus but get access to their lounges. With AA, you get everything.

So this little aparté was to say that it was my first time flying on Delta, and while I heard may good things about them (including from an AA flight attendant !), the beginning of my journey with them started with an automatic email received in the morning stating that my flight to Cody, Wyoming was delayed of 90 minutes… This came after numerous schedule changes which happened between the time I booked a couple months ago and now. So I was skeptical about what to expect next… Between the missing luggage and the late connection, I was afraid to have a bad frequent traveller karma…

Since I did not have any luggage to put on hold on my next Delta flights, check in was done in a heartbeat using the self service kiosks. (As usual, I did 24 hours before departure the online check in but I like to carry a hard copy of my boarding pass with me). The area near the DL counters was quite empty at this time of the day, and surprisingly, TSA was cleared within a few minutes. So it took me about 10 minutes only to get from the terminal entrance until the gate, where I saw on the departure screens that I got upgraded to economy comfort, thanks to my AF/KL Gold status.

Ultimately, Economy plus on DL is better (on paper) than on AA as you get some additional benefits, so I was happy to be able to test the economy comfort section, even for such a short flight.

The boarding process on DL is a bit different than on AA as it contains only 3 boarding groups : Premium for first class passengers and DL Diamond status holders, SkyPriority for Economy comfort and Skyteam elite plus card holders (Including me as AF/KL Gold member) and finally the general boarding for all other passengers.




Delta boarding area in LAS




Delta Boeing 737-800

Boarding started on time, 30 minutes before scheduled departure time.

Delta Airlines – DL2140 – October 11th 2017
Las Vegas Mc Carran Intl LAS – 08:00
Salt Lake City SLC – 10:28
Boeing 737-800 – N385DN – Economy comfort, seat 14D, aisle.

The flight was completely full that morning but we still managed to depart the gate ontime ; however, it took us a good 20 minutes before taking off as it was the peak hours for departures. Immediately after taking my seat I saw a clear difference between the economy plus on DL vs AA on the exact same type of aircraft. First, my DL seat had an individual entertainment screen, Secondly, each seat had a USB plug and access to a regular power outlet. The inflight entertainment on Delta, called Delta Studio features a classic selection of movies, series and audio programs, but also live satellite TV, which I found pretty cool. It has also a moving map feature and some details about the particular aircraft you are in as well as a description of any other plane in the Delta fleet.











Economy comfort on Delta’s Boeing 737-800

The service was covered by 4 young FA’s from the New York JFK base and consisted in a cold or hot beverage and two Lotus Speculoos (simply called « cookies » in the US, those were actually made in Belgium) or pretzels.


Delta’s service

The service was ok, and the crew always showed a « friendly face » during the flight. Considering the short flight time and the slightly bumpy conditions, the crew did not manage to serve the middle section of the aircraft but apologized on the PA. We landed on time in SLC under the sun and it took a 5 minute taxi time to get to our arrival gate.
I was a bit suprised to see that we landed with most of the window shades down, I did not even see the landing coming !




Delta’s hub in SLC

Cabin Crew : B+
Seat : A-, if I consider this is an economy class seat
On time performance : A
Meal and beverages : B, if I consider this is economy...
Overall experience : B+, again considering this is economy.

vpat48

A very good TR. Looking forward to the rest of it soon!!

nequine

Enjoying reading your TR and looking forward to reading more

palmanfr

It was my first time in SLC airport, and I found this airport quite easy to navigate in and well indicated. There is only one terminal building with 5 different concourses, with Delta Airlines and a few other skyteam airlines using the concourses B-C-D, and their subsidiary Delta connection, which operates regional flights via SkyWest mostly from concourse E. All other airlines operate from the small concourse A. My flight from Las Vegas arriving in concourse B and my –delayed- connection from Cody departing from the E gates, I had time to walk around.

SLC is equipped, as far as I can tell, with only one frquent flyer lounge, the Delta sky club, located between the gates C and D. I tried to gain access to it, but since I was travelling domestically only, my ST Elite plus status could not grant me access to it. I discovered later that American Express platinum cards could give you access to this lounge.

The airport in itself is not particularly big, and I don’t think anyone could get lost even if you would try to ! I however liked the fact they had large windows across the terminal allowing you to do some plane spotting with the mountains in the background. Tables and chairs were located everywhere, I found it pleasant…

At 1 pm, the flight boarding was called, as our Canadair CRJ200 landed from Grand Junction 30 minutes before…




Boarding for Cody !


Our plane for Wyoming, Delta Connection CRJ200

Delta Airlines, operated by Delta Connection / SkyWest – DL7381 – October 11th 2017
Salt Lake City SLC – 11:38 scheduled, 13:25 actual
Cody COD – 12:58 scheduled, 14:25 actual
Canadair CRJ200 – N430SW – Economy, seat 02A, window.

After leaving my carry on luggage on the cart I entered the aircraft and took my seat 2A. The plane was quite full (There are only 3 flights a day to COD, 2 DL operated from SLC and one UA flight from DEN). I was lucky enough not to have anyone seated next to me. We took off after a short taxi time and enjoyed scenic views during the entire flight.
Our unique FA on this flight provided us water and coffee, with Biscoff Lotus speculoos cookies or pretzels, just like on the previous flight. We experience quite some turbulence in the second part of the flight that the FA had to interrupt the service to go back to her seat.
We landed in Cody at 14:25 and disembarked a few minutes after.
Not much to say about this short regional flight, besides the nice views.




Flying over the great salt lake










Somewhere over Utah and Wyoming…






Cody Yellowstone regional airport. You cannot get lost there !

Obviously, this is not a big airport and the rental car counters or a few companies, including AVIS which I decided to use this time, are located straight next to the unique luggage belt.
After picking up my keys (and a few halloween treats at the counter) I proceeded to the rental car and went downtown Cody to get some hiking shoes and warmer clothes…

palmanfr

Thanks ! I have been now back home for a week (all good things must come to an end ) and finally found some time to continue this !

tennislover9

Looking to make a trip out to Yellowstone this summer. Looking forward to your pics and itinerary.

palmanfr

With the flight to Cody being a bit delayed and the necessity to buy some warmer clothes, I lost a good couple hours of my Yellowstone visit. I cannot really remember how I ended up planning only 1 day and half in this wonderful National park…
Especially that Grand Teton National park was also on my bucket list. At the end I did not manage to go to Grand Teton at all and only a few parts of Yellowstone NP. This will definitely be used as an excuse to come back !

The drive from Cody to the park borders took a good hour.






Drive to Yellowstone NP

With my first night planned in the small town of West Yellowstone, I had to cross the park from East to West, which gave me the opportunity to visit a bit during the ride.




















Sunset in Yellowstone

One of the main reasons I decided to stay in West Yellowstone, Montana, is due to the fact this is the closest town from the park borders, barely a mile away from the entrance. Ideally, one should stay inside the park, in one of the few lodges located inside. However, all the hotels and lodges closed for the season 3 days before I arrived, so I had to stay in a town outside the park limits.

I booked one night at the Best Western Desert Inn via Hotels.com for less than 100 euros a night, flexible rate, breakfast included. This hotel certainly did the job for that night, rooms were clean and bed comfortable enough. Most of the hotels of west yellowstone showed « No vacancy » signs that particular evening…








West Yellowstone, Montana

The next day was focused on maximizing my Yellowstone experience, which was absolutely fantastic. It was also cold. Very cold considering the wind chill, and at some point I really dreamed awake about wearing the warm stuff I had in my checked luggage. But the experience was simply fantastic. Most, if not all the US national parks I visited in my life were great, but this one was definitely the best experience I had. It personally gave me the same feeling as Easter Island, which I had the opportunity to visit earlier this year, despite having very little in common with Yellowstone. I think the pictures are worth a million words ! Here below are several selected pictures, taken with my phone. (looks like the panoramic ones cannot be rotated. Please let me know if you know a trick on how to rotate those...)










































Yellowstone National Park

The second night was spent in Cody, Wyoming, from where I was departing the following afternoon for my next destination in California. I decided to stay at the Holiday Inn to get one more night, which would give me some extra points due to the accelerate promotion. I checked in quite late, around 10 pm and I have to say that the Cody nights are pretty quiet… I ended up having a snack from the scary Wendy’s fast food located across the main street.




Holiday Inn Cody, WY

The next morning, I decided to go to see the historic downtown and the buffalo bill reservoir, located on the way to Yellowstone. My flight being at 2.40 pm and Cody airport being pretty small, I could afford to get there just 50 minutes before the departure of my flight and have a bison burger in a local restaurant for lunch…








Buffalo Bill reservoir, Wyoming








Downtown Cody, Wyoming

offerendum

Yellowstone is really something great!

vpat48

I was at SLC/Yellowstone/Grand Teton just ten days before you, so this is bringing back some great memories. Keep it coming.

aquamarinesteph

This is a great trip report! Loving the photos, and can't wait to read the rest! :-)

(PS - Now I need to plan a visit to Yellowstone...)