introduction
Welcome to another trip report! Today I'll be embarking on a new journey from Philadelphia to Lisbon onboard American Airlines on one of their Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. A few months ago AA was having some attractive fares to Europe, so with space available on my calendar I said why not :). Of course this was also to one of my favorite European cities of Lisbon, Portugal and I couldn't say no to revisiting this wonderful city.
Made my way to the international terminal to see what to spot there since I know a lot of wide body jets arrive at this time of day.
Plane spotting
A B787-8 Dreamliner arriving from Madrid, Spain
Flight time: 7h 19m
B737-800 arriving from Providenciales (PLS)
Flight time: 2h 53m
This B787-8 Dreamliner just arrived all the way from Athens, Greece
This B787-9 Dreamliner (identical to the one I'll be flying on tonight) will be flying to Rome this evening.
And this B787-8 Dreamliner will be departing for Amsterdam later today
Managed to catch this beautiful Qatar Airways B777-300ER arriving from Doha (DOH)
Flight time: 13h 37m
My flight looks to still be on time ??
At a neighboring gate is another B787-9 Dreamliner about to pushback for it's flight to Barcelona
Flight time: 6h 55m
boarding
It's now our turn to start boarding ;)
Some information about my plane:
Flight number: AA 258
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
Registration: N823AN
Delivered: December 21, 2016
My seat for the next 6 hours, 34L Main Cabin seat
Legroom is pretty good. These seats offer 31" of pitch, I'm 5'9" or 176cm for reference.
Awaiting at each seat is your standard blanket & pillow on AA long haul flights. Though this flight has to be one of my shortest transatlantic flight to date at just 5 hours and 55 minutes. I've been on domestic flights within the US that were longer then that yet you still get these goodies!
Boarding is complete and this is a 100% full flight.
Safety information video.
Pushing back on time. Quite impressive as I say so myself for AA ?. Lately almost all my flights I've had with AA (at least domestically) have been delayed. Anyone has had this issue lately too?
You can check out the full pushback/taxi & takeoff video below:
FA's came by down the aisle offering complimentary earbuds.
We'll be taking off on runway 27L
Commodore Barry Bridge
Bay Shore/Seaside Heights, New Jersey
inflight service (dinner)
Inflight service started about an hour into flight.
Options for dinner tonight were chicken or pasta, I opted for the chicken. The meal tray also came with a side salad, churro brownie, mini cheese wedge, crackers & a warmed bread roll.
The main course had a delicious chicken marinaded in a tomato along with some couscous.
Right after the FA's rolled out the drinks cart and offered everyone drinks. On AA international flights alcoholic drinks are complimentary. I went for a regular coke ;).
Overall the meal was delicious and filling :).
After the meal trays were cleared, the FA's came by once more again with the drink cart and offered more drinks to everyone. I went for a coffee since I didn't want to go straight sleep ?.
About 3 hours into flight we were somewhere over the mid Atlantic Ocean.
Began to play around and see what was being offered on AA's entertainment system.
My favorite part of the IFE system, the moving map ?. Looks to me that we are more then half way through the flight.
Gradually the sun started to rise.
4 hours into flight and the cabin lights are turned on for the pre-arrival service.
The colors from the sunrise were spectacular.
pre-arrival service (Breakfast)
Breakfast service began about an hour and a half before arrival.
This is what was offered for breakfast…
The bag contained a yogurt, granola, a fig bar & utensils. I was expecting something a little more substantial though given that this was just barely a 6 hour flight it was ok.
I'm not a huge fan of yogurt however with the granola it was pretty tasty.
Afterwards the drink cart came by and I went for another coffee.
I'm sitting so far aft that I could just barely see the horizontal stabilizer.
A look at the dirty tray table. At night I didn't realize how dirty it really was…Those red wine stains on the tray table were already there from the previous flight.
Safety card…
Entertainment guide…
Love the mid-day mood lighting on the Dreamliner
landing
Beginning initial descent
Views of the Portuguese countryside
You can check out the full landing & taxi video below:
Landing on runway 21
Unfortunately condensation formed on my window and I couldn't see anything for a brief moment.
Arrival
Arrival at the gate.
TAP Airbus A320Neo departing for London (LHR)
Flight time: 2h 10m
Disembarking…
A brief look at the Premium Economy cabin
Off to immigration!
One last look at our B787-9 Dreamliner, thanks for the safe journey!
This concludes the trip report. Thanks for reading!
Interesting report. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading! :)
AA has a quite impressive network to Europe in Philly!
Service looked quite average to what you get nowadays between the US and Europe, I still think AA seems a reasonable option for the trip though.
Thanks for the very detailed FR!
Your welcome! and thanks for reading :)
Pretty decent overall TATL experience for Y. Though it's really a shame about the poor cleaning--AA were so good about cleaning during the pandemic and it now seems they've gone back to doing a half-as**d job, sadly. Also too bad about the crew, it can be really hit or miss with AA on domestic, but you expect a little better attitude on long-haul. First meal looks quite good, but the 2nd looks cheap.
Thanks for sharing!