Hello and welcome to my latest flight report! About a week ago, I flew from Lima to London in American Airlines with a stop in Miami. This was my first time flying from South America to Europe through the USA. Although it is far from the fastest way to get there I was eager to try it out.
My flight would leave Lima at 9 in the morning. We arrived at about 7. The line at the AA check in was quite long but it did move quickly.
I was checked in by a friendly agent. She said the flight was completely full in all classes and that was true!
I then met my father who was flying the first segment in LA. We went through security which was slow, however there were not many people in immigration.
By the time we were airside, it was already close to boarding time. I bid goodbye to my father and went to my gate.
I was seated in row 26, a standard main cabin seat. Legroom was a bit tight but bearable for a 5 hour flight.
We took some time to take off due to the usual traffic in LIM.
About half an hour after takeoff the flight attendants rolled the carts and started giving breakfast. I did not like their system. Rather than just delivering food and drinks from the same trolley and at the same time, there was one flight attendant giving the food and then another one with another cart giving the drinks. The thing is that drinks took ages to arrive. Choices were Omelette or sanwich. I chose the Omelette which was fine and washed it down with a cup of tea.
The flight attendants in flights from LIM to MIA are Peruvian, while the Pilots are from the USA. The crew members serving me were quite friendly. Perhaps I just had low expectations from AA.
I then had some failed attempts to sleep, but eventually gave up and started watching a few shows I had loaded in my Ipad.
The sky was clear, allowing some nice views of the Carabeean. An hour before landing the crew started to deliver a pre arrival snack. This time it was a tasteless sandwich and some sort of brownie. Again my coke took ages to arrive.
We landed on schedule without any hassle.
I bid goodbye with my seatmate whom I had a long chat before takeoff and made my way to immigration.
My plane in MIA.
There was quite a queue and it took me about 20 minutes to be seem by an official. There was another Peruvian guy who was also transiting through the USA. Apparently he didn't know where to go. I saw immigration staff yelling at him telling him that he should know where line he should go. Then they sent him the wrong way. My official was not rude but not soft either. He asked me a few questions before stamping my passport. I had to pass through baggage towards the main hall and then re clear security. All of that took more than an hour.
I will then include a report of my flight from MIA to LHR on an AA 77W.
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Verdict
American Airlines
5.8/10
Cabin6.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi4.0
Meal/catering6.0
Lima - LIM
5.5/10
Efficiency5.0
Access4.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness7.0
Miami - MIA
6.9/10
Efficiency6.5
Access7.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0
Conclusion
It had been a long time since the last time I flew AA. Quite frankly I tried to avoid them if possible. However, having low expectations of their economy product, I have been pleasely surprised. Although the cabin in their 757 is very dated and there is no IFE in Y, the crew provided positive and consistent service throughout the flight making it enjoyable.
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One of the reasons why I have never thought of the US as an attractive destination for me is all I have read and heard about the way foreigners are mistreated in their airports and borders. God knows that I've never met a US citizen that I didn't like. In fact, I have a good number of friends from there. But I'm sure that I would end up in jail in no time if I ever had to deal with an rude airport official because I simply could not tolerate it in silence. I'm amazed that you scored Miami Security/Immigration efficiency higher than Lima after seeing what you saw. Lima must have been really terrible.
Hi Nechus thanks for commenting Yes, I completely agree with you and it is a petty because that does not represent how many people in the country actually are. We did have amazing views of the caribbean. Shame i accidentally deleted some pics.
Sorry. I was so concentrated in my rant that I forgot to praise you for your good report. America is such a beautiful continent. The Caribbean looks wonderful from the air!
thanks for sharing, in my experience AA delivers a decent product, not far from competitors like AV or CM. It's been a while since my last time entering the States through MIA, but the last one wasn't as nice as I've had on ATL or FLL
Hi Chibcha, thanks for dropping a line. I was pretty impressed by AA's crew, especially the crew I got on my MIA-LHR flight was excellent. I don't know much about AV's service, but have some flights with then soon so I will then be able to compare.
The first tray didn't look to be sufficient at first but they also gave you a pre-arrival snack on a flight of this length which is nice even though the quality of the pre-arrival snack wasn't on top.
Thanks for sharing this report on an interesting routing!
This was my first time flying from South America to Europe through the USA. - Transiting through the U.S. is never a pleasant experience as the facilities here are not really set up ideally for International-to-International transits unlike in most other countries, mostly because of immigration and security reasons.
The thing is that drinks took ages to arrive. - That's a terrible system. I think they normally do the drink service before giving out meals. I fly AA a lot, but not often in Economy, but from the last time I flew Economy, I remember having a drink service first. That was over a year ago, so maybe they've changed the protocol since. If that's the case, it's a shame and makes no sense.
The old 757 cabins are definitely getting old and tired. It's not acceptable in this day and and age not to have PTVs in Economy on long-haul international flights. Luckily AA has announced that they'll be retrofitting the International 757 fleet with full-flat beds and PTVs in Economy. Not sure when that's supposed to happen as they haven't released many details, but at least we know improvements are coming.
Transiting through MIA is a pain in the neck, but fortunately there was not a large queue in immigration. Good to hear that AA is retrofitting their 752. As you say their hard product is not acceptable. Cheers!
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11 Comments
The first tray didn't look to be sufficient at first but they also gave you a pre-arrival snack on a flight of this length which is nice even though the quality of the pre-arrival snack wasn't on top.
Great aerial shots!
It's nice that you had a good crew onboard!
Have a good one, see you!
Thanks for dropping by! Yes it was nice to have a nice crew and this happened to be the case in most of my flights with AA.
cheers!
This was my first time flying from South America to Europe through the USA.
- Transiting through the U.S. is never a pleasant experience as the facilities here are not really set up ideally for International-to-International transits unlike in most other countries, mostly because of immigration and security reasons.
The thing is that drinks took ages to arrive.
- That's a terrible system. I think they normally do the drink service before giving out meals. I fly AA a lot, but not often in Economy, but from the last time I flew Economy, I remember having a drink service first. That was over a year ago, so maybe they've changed the protocol since. If that's the case, it's a shame and makes no sense.
The old 757 cabins are definitely getting old and tired. It's not acceptable in this day and and age not to have PTVs in Economy on long-haul international flights. Luckily AA has announced that they'll be retrofitting the International 757 fleet with full-flat beds and PTVs in Economy. Not sure when that's supposed to happen as they haven't released many details, but at least we know improvements are coming.
Thanks for sharing!
Transiting through MIA is a pain in the neck, but fortunately there was not a large queue in immigration.
Good to hear that AA is retrofitting their 752. As you say their hard product is not acceptable.
Cheers!
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