Review of American Airlines flight from Washington to New York in Domestic First

Hello and welcome to this new series of Flight-Reports. These flights were taken back in February–it was a quick trip to Ireland to see a good friend over the long Presidents Day holiday weekend. We'll start with the first leg, and probably the least interesting of the flights, the quick 45 minute hop from DC to New York JFK.
Here is the full routing:
Washington DCA ✈ New York JFK | American Airlines, B737-800, First Class
New York JFK ✈ London LHR | American Airlines, B777-200ER, Business Class
London LHR ✈ Dublin DUB | British Airways, A320-200, Economy Class
Dublin DUB ✈ Philadelphia PHL | American Airlines, B757-200, Business Class
Philadelphia PHL ✈ Washington DCA | American Airlines, E175, First Class
We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half prior to departure. With no bags to check we headed straight for security.

Once airside, we headed to the Admirals Club. The flight was departing from Terminal C, so this is actually the former US Airways Club.
The lounge was very crowded, as is to be expected on a Friday evening.

The food offering. Nothing terribly exciting; just the usual carrot sticks, cheese cubes, crackers, and hummus.

There were also two kinds of soup. Because there is no First Class lounge at DCA, Executive Platinum and oneworld Emerald passengers are automatically given vouchers for "premium" drinks at the bar. I used the vouchers on Prosecco–there is usually no real champagne.

Always a nice view from the clubs at DCA

Our flight was running late, which made me nervous because I only had about an hour connection at JFK.
Finally our flight arrived at gate 42 about a half hour late.

In rapid succession, all of the neighboring gates were filled within minutes.

About 10 minutes after the plane's arrival we pack up and head to the gate for boarding.

When we got to the gate, First class boarding was just about done so we were the last F passengers on board.
Not surprisingly, we find the older cabin in this 737 in the old colors.

For the first time ever for me in a premium cabin, I couldn't find any room in the overhead bins for my carry-on–everything was full! I counted more bags than pax in the cabin, leading me to think some passengers in Y had left their bags in F, as happens often.
I had no choice but to hang out at my seat with my bag as boarding continued. During a break in the boarding, I told the lead Flight Attendant that I couldn't find any room for my bag. He rolled his eyes and screamed at me, "Well you should have checked your bag!" I was taken aback and replied, "Seriously??? Excuse me??? And How was I supposed to know there wouldn't be any room? Sorry, but in First there should be room for everyone's bags!" I was livid!!! What a rude and poor attitude to have with a customer, much less a premium cabin customer with status!
Several other passengers in F, notably our neighbors directly in front and across the aisle commented about the flight attendant's bad attitude and rude treatment. The gentleman in the row in front was kind enough to move some items under his seat to make room for my bag. The Flight Attendant couldn't have cared less–absolutely no inclination to assist.

The zen boarding music helped to calm me down a bit.

Boarding ended fairly quickly, which is good since the flight was running late.

Despite out little argument earlier during boarding, the FA comes around to offer Pre-departure drinks, though with a permanent scowl on his face.
I asked for some sparkling wine.

Within a few minutes the doors are closed, the lights are turned off, and we push back. The safety video plays during taxi to the runway.

Taxi time was thankfully short and we took off to the south over Alexandria, VA.

Our grumpy Flight Attendant did one round of drinks in F, which is fine. But I've done a lot of DCA-JFK/LGA and vv flights in F, and on every other flight FAs always make an effort to offer refills despite the short flight time. But not this guy! Service with a scowl and bare minimum work.
I had more sparkling wine. As we were in the fourth row of F, the snack basket was half empty by the time it got to us. Normally FA's will go refill it, but nope….not this guy.

In the middle of the flight a flight attendant in uniform sitting in 7B, the first row of coach, comes up to First and takes out, not one, but TWO GINORMOUS BAGS from the overhead bin right above our seats to take something out.
WOW…REALLY!?!?!? So THIS is why there was no room for my bag. Oh I just couldn't believe it; especially since he had sat there earlier and watched me struggle to find room and then get yelled at by the Lead FA. Total disbelief at the utter lack of regard for paying Premium cabin customers! Most AA FAs are total sweethearts, so this is definitely the exception and NOT the rule, but damn, I won the b**chy FA lottery that day!
Ok, now on to something positive…
I like that you can access aa.com and the AA app for free with the wifi. It allowed me to keep an eye on the estimated arrival time and see the gate of my connecting flight to London. With the delay we were now arriving at 7:22PM

The London flight departs at 7:55PM. Looks like I'll have to run from Gate 40 to Gate 3.

Gate 40 is in Concourse C and Gate 3 is at the end of Concourse B. It's going to be tight, but doable.

Here we are on final approach.

We landed at about 7:20PM, but luckily the taxi time was short.
We taxied past Terminal 1 and this Air France A380.

Here we are taxiing past our 777 to LHR

Last view of the cabin on disembarking.

We arrived at the gate a little before 7:30PM, which gives up enough time to get to the next gate. Phew…that was close!
Thanks for reading and see you for the next FR aboard an updated AA 777-200ER with the new Business class!