Review of American Airlines flight Paris → New York in Economy

Welcome to this FR covering my first long haul experience on AA, on a short week-end getaway to NYC.

This whole trip started because of an expiring BA voucher and a promo they ran in March, which meant I only had to add less than EUR 200 to get myself a return trip to JFK.
Originally my routing was CDH-LHR-JFK-LHR-CDG, but with the wave of flights BA cancelled this summer, my CDG-LHR was cancelled.
Trying to rebook via BA website I was offered the direct flight to JFK on AA,  but each time I tried to confirm, there was an error message. However my booking stated I was now on the CDG-JFK flight, but also still on the LHR-JFK flight.
Thought it was an IT issue and didn't pay attention.

About a month before departure, I got a call from an AA agent in the UK advising me about this issue, which was problematic because I was on 2 flights to the same destination at the same time.
They told me to contact BA to fix it. I explained it was not my fault this happened and I only followed their procedure to get rebooked, but they insisted I tried to contact them.
They were friendly but I was surprised they thought I could get hold of an agent faster than they could.
BA was not reachable over the phone as their call centers were flooded I assume, so I tried their Twitter assistance.
Without any response after 2 days, I contacted AA's Twitter team and they solved the issue in a day.

I was really surprised (and not in a good way) by how these 2 long time partners' IT don't communicate at all.

On the departure day, CDG airport was already experiencing the massive rebound in air travel, with a packed terminal, especially at Air Canada, Air Algerie and Emirates' counters.

AA's were quieter and as I was able to use the kiosks, I got my boarding pass in 5 minutes.
Security and passport control went rather quickly, especially as we'd learn over the next weeks of the huge issues at FRA or LHR. 
 

A first glimpse of my plane
 

Terminal 2A has a rotunda gate area which you access through a long corridor as it's built a bit far away from the terminal, it was my first time departing from there, and I felt the area to be pretty crowded and unpleasant, espcially wih 3 wide body flights departing at the same time.
     

The AA flight to DFW was cancelled and passengers advised all flights were full and there was no alternative tha day, which created even more chaos.

Our boarding started on time and was well organized.

Close up view of your plane. 

After a pretty friendly welcome I was directed to my seat, the flight was completely full it seems.

J class seats look comfortable but are a bit dull, a touch of colour would improve the looks of this cabin.
 

Here are the Y class seats.
 

View from my seat
 

The seat was a bit hard but legroom was not too bad.

We pushed back on time a passed some interesting traffic while taxiing to the runway.
Air Transat Paris "hub" was back, in the summer they have up to 4 flights from CDG each day, to YUL, YQB and YYZ. 
 

And soon enought we took off and made a wide turn towards the north

We reached the island of Jersey in 25 minutes.

We quickly reached our cruising altitude and lunch service began.
 

The choice was…chicken or pasta. I chose chicken and a bloody mary mix to drink.

The tray looked rather full and premium, especially compared to United's huge trays with only a salad, entree and breadroll on it.

The barbecue chicken entree was rather tasty, it had a nice smoky and sweet taste.

Nice detail on the tray

The crew was friendly and well groomed. I didn't have a really nice image of AA so my expectations were low, but they clearly changed that.
Overall the uniforms were more standardized than UA, where each crew member can wear a different version of the uniform.
Uniforms really make an airline look professional or not.

We were flying above Ireland as the meal service ended.

I watched a movie I don't remember, but the IFE content was pretty large.

Halfway to our destination.

A midflight snack was served, icecream and water.
I was pleasantly suprised to see this on an east coast flight.
Most airlines have ended such service on flights of this duration. 

I took a nap and then went to the gally where I started to chat with a very friendly FA .
Several passengers passed through the galley to get a drink and the FAs present were all prompt and happy to serve them.

The pre-arrival snack service started 1,5 hours before landing and consisted in a wrap with a choice of non alcoholic drinks.
 

It was a cloudless skies all the way from New England to JFK, and we were treated to great views.
 

We started our descent to JFK, and with a seat on the right side of the plane I was hoping for a landing facing south to get nice views of Manhattan.
 

Landed !
 

We taxied for about 15 minutes before stopping at our gate .

2 of the 4 or 5 daily AF flights to JFK were already there.
 

Getting closer to AA's terminal 

We arrived on time but it took a long time to deboard.
A surprise was awaiting as the FA I had talked to was waiting for me telling me she had told the pilot I loved planes and I was invited to see the cockpit.
The 3 female pilots were really nice and took a couple minutes to explain some features of the 777 which they loved flying. 

A 737Max on the way to immigration. 

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There weren't that many international flights arriving at the same time so I didn't wait more than 5 minutes before passing immigration. 


Overall my first long haul experience with AA was very satistying, catering was tasty and quantities rather generous, the crew was friendly and professional and the seat and IFE were better than United or LH (at least on the 747/8).
I would definitely fly them again and choose them over other US airlines.