Review of American Airlines flight New York → London in First

Hello Flight Report Community. This is the second segment of my around the world itinerary (I have actually been traveling a lot since my last report and this trip so I didn't get a chance to post more!). After a rather underwhelming experience on my red eye from LAX-JFK on AA's A 321T in F, I was really excited to try out their product in their new B 777-300ER and hopefully even get a chance to check out their new flagship lounge (due to age restrictions I was not allowed to enter the flagship lounge on my previous segment.] My Itinerary, again, is as follows:


AA 10 LAX-JFK A321 in F http://flight-report.com/en/report-10433.html
AA 106 JFK-LHR B 777-300ER in F [YOU ARE HERE]
BA 306 LHR-CDG A 321 in J [Coming Soon]
MH 21 CDG-KUL A 380 in F [Coming Soon]
MH 72 KUL-HKG B 777 in J [Coming Soon]
CX 645 HKG-DOH A 330 in J [Coming Soon]
QR 777 DOH-MIA B 777-300 IN J [Coming Soon]
AA 1352 MIA-LAX B 777-200 in J [Coming Soon]

Flight: AA 106
Aircraft: B 777-300ER

After arriving rather early into JFK, I had about 12 hours until my 6:30pm flight to LHR so i decided to hit up a few friends and visit the city. It was pretty hot this time of year and there wasn't that many tourists around times square or the surrounding tourist traps. After taking the Long Island Railroad back to the airport, I decided to go through flagship check in to reprint my boarding pass (I already had my boarding pass, but I just needed to get an excuse to use the service).

Entrance to the flagship check in



Boy, was it a treat! After being greeted by the clerk at the front who checked to see if my name was on the list for the day's first class departures, I was escorted inside two sliding doors where a single agent was waiting for me.



I was the only one and it was very quiet. After re-printing my boarding pass, the agent pointed to the end of the hallway and told me to go through the doors where there will be someone waiting on the other side to escort me through security.

Hallway



I walked down the hallway, through the doors, which led me into an alternate security line next to the main one. At the end, two TSA agents were sitting doing nothing and when they saw me, they immediately smiled and took my boarding pass. After, one of the TSA agents took told me to follow her and we snaked past the long line of other people.

Escort



It was quite amusing because she was saying: Excuse me! First class coming through which made me feel slightly uneasy due to everyone's glares. Nonetheless, I went straight to the front of the line, put down all my stuff in the bins, and the TSA agent was there to put my bins in front of the other bins waiting. I then went through the regular screening and collected my belongings. From the time I entered flagship check in to the time I cleared security, it was only 7 minutes!

I made my way to the flagship lounge. Common for AA, the flagship lounge is located inside the admirals club. The service at JFK was MUCH better than LAX and everyone was smiling. The agents greeted me, took my boarding pass, and immediately took me into the flagship lounge without batting an eyelash. I was also asked if I wanted to take a shower which I happily obliged!

Flagship shower


I took a look at some of the food.


My bird

Boarding was called about 35 minutes prior to departure and I made my way to the gate. I immediately boarded


I was greeted by a flight attendant who checked my ticket and pointed to the left of the plane. I wasn't escorted but it felt really AWESOME to be able to turn left.

The mini business class cabin en route to the first class cabin


First class cabin


My seat 1A for the 7 hour isn trip across the pond



Seat controls



After getting situated, the purser came by and introduced herself to me and then another flight attendant came by with a tray of champagne as well as other juices/water

Pre-departure champagne


After the drink, the captain went on the PA and announced an on time departure. Here are some photos of the taxi out


Up up and away


After the seat belt sign was turned off, the FA's immediately sprang into action and gave me pajamas. I didn't take a picture of the pajamas on the plane but I did once I got to my hotel at my destination.

First Class Pajamas



. After, she came around to ask for my dinner choice. The menus were actually already placed on my chair when I sat down and it read as follows:

Dinner option. Note the infamous Ice Cream sundae for dessert.


Drink Menu


What is interesting to note is that I checked the business class menu online the previous day and the entree options were pretty much exactly the same as first class, with the exception of the soup and the turkey cutlet was actually turkey breast or something like that. Is first class catering always the same as business class?

I ended up selecting the beef filet and was surprised, it was edible and decent for my first first class meal!

Champagne and warm mixed nuts


Next we were served the appetizer as well as an assortment of dinner rolls

Cured Cilantro Salmon


Next was the appetizer, a sweet potato soup which was actually pretty spicy but tasty


Next was a mixed salad with strawberries. Some people find this combo odd but it was actually very delicious


Next was the main course: the boursin crusted beef. The beef was small and a bit dry but still good nonetheless


And of course, a meal is not complete on American unless you have the famous sundae

First class sundae with everything on it


After dinner, a small buffet was set up between the first and business class cabin.



At first the cabin attendant was pretty rude to me because he thought I was walking up from Economy but after I told him I was actually seated in the first row of business, he quickly changed his attitude and even went up to me from his business class post to check on me throughout the flight…interesting.



I took another walk around to check out the rest of the plane

First class bathroom



The economy cabin is 3x3x3 in main cabin select and 3x4x3 which looked EXTREMELEY TIGHT as everyone's knees were touching each others. I can't imagine sitting in that middle seat for the 15 hour DFW-HKG flights that this bird flies.



After returning to my seat, my bed was already turned down and I took a long 5 hour nap until the flight attendant woke me up for breakfast. As I was really tired and overwhelmed by the experience, I didn't take pictures of the bed but the turn down service did include a very thin pad and blankets over the seat with an extra pillow.

Breakfast was served and I had the quiche, unfortunately I do not have the picture.

We arrived shortly after and this was a rather pleasant flight indeed. It was obviously not up to standards with the other flights that I had on MH or CX but it was a good start to the first class experience.

More to come later!