Review of American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Dallas/Fort Worth in Economy

tokyo skytree

Welcome to another trip report!
I'm ending my 4 week trip in Japan enjoying my last evening in Tokyo on top of the amazing Tokyo Skytree! I was quite lucky to have an exceptional view of the world's largest city this afternoon!

I was even luckier to be able to spot Mt. Fuji in the distance right as the sun was setting!

This was a perfect way to end my almost 4 week trip exploring the beautiful country of Japan. 

introduction

Let's continue on with the trip report 😉.
Today I'll be traveling on American Airlines from Tokyo to San Francisco via DFW and PHX. Taking me first to Dallas, Texas will be on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in economy class (main cabin). I booked this as a main cabin ticket which entitled me to free seat selection and a checked bag.   
I had just checked out of my accommodation in Taito City and I'm making my way to Haneda airport via public transportation. Which is another good reason to alway try and fly into Haneda vs Narita airport when staying in Tokyo. 

Here's a look at the overall Tokyo metro system which can be a little intimidating at first glance. During my whole stay in Japan I used google maps which proved to be a life saver when it comes to getting around every major city in the country.

From here I'll be taking essentially one train to the airport which should take about 48 minutes. With my suica card the cost of taking public transport to the airport was about $3.47usd. Making it super affordable compared to other major cities in the world.

After about 50 minutes later I made it to Terminal 3 station (international terminal). 

From the T3 metro station you can take an elevator straight to departure's hall.

It's quite busy here today at the departure hall.

Check-in

Today the American Airlines check-in desks are located at section I. 

I'll be printing my boarding passes as well as printing my luggage tag. 

I still had to make line to drop my luggage but the line was going by quick. 

I dropped my bags which took at most 15 minutes and I was all set. Before I continued, I went to the 7/11 at the departures hall to use up the rest of my Japanese Yens on my suica card and buy some snacks for the journey. 

Since I still had a few hours to kill until boarding started, I decided to look for the observation deck to do some plane spotting.

I finally found it and I must admit I got kinda lost 😅. The observation deck is located in 5F, two floors above the check-in hall.

plane spotting

Looks like it'll be a perfect afternoon to do some plane spotting.

From right to left: JAL B777-300(ER), B787-9 Dreamliner & B777-300(ER) 

This is an aviation enthusiasts dream 😍.

United Airlines Boeing 777-200(ER) departing for Los Angeles; flight time: 9h 15m

ANA Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner departing for Sydney (SYD); flight time 9h 12m

Japan Airlines Boeing 777-300(ER) arriving from Sydney (SYD); flight time: 9h 34m

Japan Airlines B777-300(ER) departing for Los Angeles (LAX); flight time: 9h 9m

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, it is time to start heading out :(.  

Heading back down to 3F to clear security. On 4F there are a lot of cool restaurants and stores to do some last minute souvenir shopping. 

Security and passport control went smoothly and I was airside in just 15 minutes. 

My flight is AA176 with a 19:45 departure. It's currently showing as a new earlier departure time of 19:25 which I thought was interesting. 

During check-in the agent had notified me that we'd be boarding our aircraft by bus to a remote stand and sincerely apologized for the inconvenience. I on the other hand was super thrilled that we'd be boarding our 787 by bus given that the weather outside was quite nice ;). This got me more excited for boarding 😁. 

Gate area

Made it to my gate area.

Eventually the gate area filled up with a lot of people right before boarding. 

Eventually boarding commenced and I boarded with group 6 and onto the bus. 

I think I spot my plane ;).

my aircraft

Some information about my plane:
Flight number: AA 176 
Aircraft: Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
Registration: N874AN
First flight: September 9, 2020
Age: 3 years (at time of flight)

Here's my bird that'll be taking me across the Pacific this evening to Dallas. This Boeing 787-8 is configured in 4 classes which are: 20 Flagship Business, 28 Premium Economy, 48 Main Cabin Extra and 138 Main Cabin seats for a total capacity of 234 seats.

One of two massive GEnx-1b engines that power this plane.

boarding

My seat for the next 11 hours, 21A.

A nice size PTV is always nice to see before a long haul flight.

seat features & amenities

Legroom is pretty good. These seats offer 31" of pitch, I'm 5'9" or 176cm for reference.

Placed at each seat was a plastic wrapped pillow and blanket that will come to great use during the flight.

My view for the next 11 hours!

Each seat gets its own universal power outlet which can be found under the seat.

In addition to that there are USB outlets next to the headphone jack below the PTV. No reason to not stay charged up during the flight 😉.

A quick look at the tray table which can be folded and extended.

My long journey that awaits 😅.

The FA's passed by the cabin and offered everyone complimentary headsets which weren't to bad honestly and they did their job. 

Boarding is complete and today's flight load to DFW will be completely full at 100%.

takeoff on runway 34r

We pushed back ahead of schedule.

We got a bow and a good bye wave by the ground crew which was very nice.

We would be using runway 34R for departure tonight.

Until next time Japan 🥲.

I got lucky and sat on the perfect side of the plane to capture breathtaking night views of Tokyo on our climb out. 

This gives a better perspective of the world's largest city. The city lights seems to go on forever.

Last views of Japan as we began our journey across the Pacific.

dinner service

25 minutes after takeoff the FA's passed by the cabin giving everyone a warm towelette. This was very surprising as I've never seen AA do this on any of my previous transatlantic flights. This must be a thing on transpacific flights, nonetheless is was a nice touch.

Meals were served a little later about 45 minutes since our departure out of Tokyo.

Unfortunately I couldn't recall what the other option that was offered for dinner however I went for the Japanese pork. The meal included a side salad, side of fried chicken, bread roll (cold), lemon mousse and lastly a small water bottle (which the FA brought me later).

Shortly after the drink trolley came by and I went for a coke.

Plastic cutlery and AA branded chopsticks came with the meal tray.

Although the main entree didn't look appetizing, it was actually quite delicious! 

The lemon mousse was my favorite part of the meal, very delicious.

Overall it was a very delicious meal! 

After the meal service the cabin lights were turned off for everyone to get some rest. I on the other hand decided to spend the next few hours watching a few movies.

At one point I got up to stretch my legs and went to the galley to get a coke. I ran into one of flight attendants who turned out to be the purser of the flight and we ended up chatting for an hour in the galley. One of the nicest FA's I've encountered in all my time flying. We both chatted and exchanging our exciting stories we had in Japan. He told me that this happened to be his 2000th transpacific crossing exclusively to Japan which was incredible to hear. I mean after all he did tell me he joined AA  in 1994 so his seniority can hold these kind of trips. What was a crazy coincidence was we happen to be from the same county in Utah where I grew up. Unfortunately we had to end our conversation as a passenger in premium economy had thrown up and he was called up to tend to the passenger 😅. 

mid-flight service

About half way through the flight the FA's began the mid-flight service which consisted of a snack box and a choice of drink.

The snack box contained a bag of cookies, a KitKat and three sandwich pieces.

The sandwiches were extremely tasty!

After waking up from a nap we were now flying over Northern California and it was daylight outside. Unfortunately though the windows were kept locked at the halfway setting which was disappointing. This is my number one pet peeve about the Dreamliners. 

inflight entertainment

AA's inflight entertainment isn't the best as Delta studio but it did the job of having a lot of movies, tv shows and a great interactive map.

This though is what I kept on during most of the flight 😅.

seat back contents

Long are gone the days of airline magazines which I still miss to this day but here you can find the typical 787 safety card & entertainment guide.

Somewhere over southern Utah.

The cabin lights turned on to sunrise mood to signal the start of the pre-arrival service.

About 2 hours before arrival the flight attendants passed out the meal trays. 

Options for this meal were western breakfast of French toast or chicken noodles. I went with the latter. The meal came with the entree and a small potion of fresh fruits.

Again with this meal we got the same plastic utensils and AA branded chopsticks.

The meal was perfect and cooked to perfection.

Shortly after the drinks cart came by and I went for another coke.

Overall this was another fantastic meal, great job AA!

Finally, the FA's unlocked the windows so now I can better appreciate the landscape from 38,000ft 😊.

I decided to get up and do one final stretch before landing.

the loo

I decided to also use the loo one last time. 

It's what you can expect but at least it was pretty clean for it being almost the end of the flight.

initial descent

Shortly after we began our initial descent into Dallas/Fort Worth.

Wichita Falls Regional Airport (SPS)

Southwest 737 flying below us.

Looks like it'll be a perfect afternoon to land at DFW.

landing on rnwy 18r

Welcome to Dallas!

Finnair A350-900 & Qatar A350-1000

arrival at gate

We arrived at the gate 35 minutes ahead of schedule.

One last look at my home for the past 11 hours.

As I deplaned I encountered the purser again and we said our goodbyes and he wished me a good rest of my journey.  

One last look at my B787-8, thanks for the safe and fun journey across the Pacific!

This concludes the trip report, thanks for reading!