#67 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
593 reviews
Thanks for reading my first flight report. This is one of my most-flown routes over the last couple of years as I have family in New York and live in LA. I had been upgraded once or twice but had not purchased a business class seat outright. Given the busy Thanksgiving holiday, I chose to stay in NY a few more days after I found an attractive business fare that would get me back into LA in the late evening on Wednesday the 30th.
We had some nasty weather the day of travel and traffic to JFK was horrendous. Next time I would consider taking the subway as I arrived 45 minutes before departure. Fortunately, TSA Precheck was a breeze and I headed over to Gate 33, which is a bit of a walk from security. I did not have time to check out the Admirals Club (interestingly I flew the day before the new lounges were set to debut at JFK). There was a flight to Heathrow leaving next to our gate, and eventually it got fairly crowded for a Wednesday evening.
I boarded with Group 2 and arrived at my chosen seat 6A. It was a fairly spacious seat with an adequate-sized monitor for watching movies, shows and playing games. You can't notice it in this picture, but the foot pad in the cubby hole came straight off (it looks like it was tied to the seat with Velcro). I think this speaks to the age of this plane and it makes sense that AA is eventually going to replace them. There is a nifty nook for storing a small laptop or magazine. It's sad that AA no longer offers the print version of American Way on their planes.
Great legroom - but pad in cubby hole came straight off! (Not apparent from the photo)
Behind the seat was a nook where I found the Shinola amenity kit and a bottle of water. Also located there was a power outlet and the headphone jack and a few other outlets (including a USB). I will say the power outlet didn't hold my iPhone charger very well.
The Shinola kit was decently made (seemed like wool for the exterior and included the following:
- Eye Mask
- Stockings
- Lip Balm
- Hand Cream
- Pen (nice perk but more useful on an international route IMO)
- Toothbrush and toothpaste (appreciated that the toothbrush is made of post-recycled material)
- Ear plugs
- Discount code for Shinola and D.S. & DURGA
On to dinner - I felt that the tray table was a bit small. Previously, the FA's would lay a tablecloth before serving the cocktail nuts and drinks, but now the tablecloth is laid once the meal is delivered.
I ordered a sparkling water and the nuts which were served warm.
The dinner…was not good to be honest. I didn't receive an email to preorder the meal even though my seatmate had apparently preordered the chicken. Having to choose between the short rib and the rigatoni with impossible meat, I went with the short rib. One thing to note, they also didn't provide menus, or at least not in the way I expected. When I chose the entree, the FA handed me a printed sheet of paper with the options.
The short rib was edible but I didn't touch the goat cheese canape or salad as they both had cheese. The twice-baked potato tasted off, almost as if it were powdered potato, and the asparagus wasn't fully cooked. I would have to say the highlight of the meal was dessert, which was a chocolate cheesecake. They did offer a selection of breads but I did not partake.
The FA serving my seat was friendly based on my limited interactions with her. She helped my seatmate store his jacket and resolved an issue he had with the WIFI network (which I did not test). I also want to note that the biz class lavatory was fairly clean the one time that I used it. One service note - they started serving dinner from the back of biz (I believe) and made their way up to the the front.
In regards to the inflight entertainment, I finished watching Iron Man and Vengeance (a BJ Novak film which I really enjoyed). No issues with that system on this flight. After dinner, I dozed off for a bit (this is a lie-flat seat). The Casper pillow was fairly thick (I would have preferred it to be less so); I did not use the blanket. I did appreciate that each seat comes with an air nozzle.
We arrived at LAX almost an hour behind schedule as the plane arrived late into JFK, and we were held at the runway for a bit as well. Fortunately, leaving T4 is quite easy and I'm looking forward to the remodeled terminal.
This was not the greatest transcon business experience on American. I had better food on AA in premium economy from MAD - DFW. The seat is showing its age. But the service was friendly, the dessert was tasty and the entertainment options were quite good for the 6 hour jaunt across the country. I'll be flying this same route in a few weeks and will make sure to pick a different seat next time. I am now more curious than ever to try JetBlue Mint to see how it stacks up.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 25 avis concernant 4 compagnies sur la ligne New York (JFK) → Los Angeles (LAX).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est JetBlue Airways avec 8.1/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 6 heures et 25 minutes.
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5 Comments
I’m surprised the catering isn’t any better on your flight than the non-premium transcon I did from DCA to LAX a few days earlier. It looks about the same.
Definitely try JetBlue…Mint blows away the US3 on transcons, especially if you can get a throne seat or the new 1-1 cabins! Plus you can credit B6 flights to AA at the same mileage earning level as if you flew AA in Business.
Ps, the cover photo should be your own picture, if you could update that please.
Welcome to Flight-Report and looking forward to future reviews!
Looking forward to see more reviews from you :)
Best wishes
The catering looks very lackluster for a premium route that should have the same catering as long-haul. 2 salads? Really not creative catering.
Thanks again for sharing and welcome to the site!
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