Review of American Airlines flight from New York to Phoenix in Business

Intro

The second to last portion of my great adventure across Asia would see me heading back to California. However, seeing as I had already flown the A321T in all classes, Jetblue Mint, United Polaris, and Delta One, I figured it was time to try out the old 777-200 Business Class on American Airlines from New York to Phoenix (later to John Wayne). Combining that with a 4500$ credit I had on American Airlines, this was a small indentation into the credit. 

I give a lot of praise to American Airlines, and rightly so in most cases. However, this flight was nothing short of some of the worst wide-body offerings I have ever experienced in my lifetime of flying. Most of the crew were rude; the cabin was falling apart, the seats were disgusting, and 0 amenities. We'll get into the meals aspect later… I am happy I got to try the 777-200 out on such a short route because if it had been longer, I would have been overly disappointed.

Routing

How I Booked

Fares between New York and Southern California tend to be relatively expensive in premium cabins. American Airlines starts at 879$ one-way in Business on the direct to Los Angeles, while other airlines can fluctuate. However, seeing as I didn't have much to do on a Saturday and wanted to fly the older cabins of the 777, I decided to book a flight from New York-Phoenix-John Wayne, all for 667$ in Domestic First.

I wouldn't have done this unless the longer leg was operated by the 777 (which isn't the case anymore). I'd say this was a decent bang for my buck.

Check-In

It was an early morning departure out of New York, meaning that Terminal 8 was busy as per usual. Thanks to priority check-in, my bags were dropped off within a matter of minutes, and I was on my way to security.

Obviously, no lounge access on this routing sadly. 

Boarding

Seeing as I had about an hour and a half before boarding, with no lounge access, I decided to stroll around Terminal 8. I found this beautiful 777-300 that had just come in from New Delhi; now that is a long flight. 

Eventually, at 8:20 am local time, our time came to board from Gate 16. Talk about one heck of a group 1 line, huh? This was ridiculous. It actually wasn't that bad; that was for the CX 350 heading to HK from the next gate over. 😅

The Seat/Cabin

Upon entering the cabin, I was somewhat happy to be in the older configuration of the 777-200. Just over half of the American Airlines fleet is fitted with B/E seats, which you can find a review of here. I was seated in the mini cabin behind door 2L/2R in 7L for this daytime flight.

The one advantage of this seat over the B/E seat is that on the B/E seat, the tray table is above your legs, so it gets a little packed. However, considering this product is flown on long-haul flights to Sao Paulo/London, it’s not the best. Here is a mini tour of the seat…

Remotes, and seat controls 

To add on, my seat was absolutely filthy underneath to the point where it smelt so bad that I told the FA, and I really tend never to complain about anything on a plane, maybe once every 50 flights.

7L is private on this aircraft, and I would certainly recommend the seat. The only aspect that confused me was how the seat didn’t fully convert to align with the footwell, there was sort of a gap hmmm…

I mean, filthy

Amenities/IFE

Okay, American Airlines, what an appalling offering for a flight of over 5 hours on a widebody. I know, I know, I was already expecting no amenities or such, but wired earbuds for a flight of this length, heck, even Delta does it better (I am not a fan of DL).

However, if you enjoy dollar earbuds, the IFE system is quite good on AA. Although, not quite as good as United, in my humble opinion. As always, Wi-Fi was exorbitant, as usual, on the 777 fleet.

Departure

With our inbound aircraft from Sao Paulo arriving late and a tight connection in Phoenix, I was worried we might be a tad late on departure. Needless to say, we ended up pushing back 5 minutes early at 8:55 am EST.

Water and Orange Juice were offered as PDB, although once again, no sparkling wine. Hmmm, I am starting to see a trend here in US aviation. 

We rolled off to the runway

It was a long taxi out to 4L for our departure this morning, but we ended up being wheels up at 9:20 am. Talk about some pristine views out of New York and low cloud coverage. The 777-200 wing is simply gorgeous. 

An interesting thing I noticed is how this one overhead bin kept opening on takeoff and landing. Yeah, this plane was old, in fact it’s older than me😅.

Talk about some views ehh

Meal Service

Once airborne, the cabin crew came around to take our orders for this morning. It was simply “I have eggs left,” nothing else. The choices were either a cheese plate or eggs. Seeing as the cheese plate was gone, and I didn’t eat eggs, I was in a kerfuffle. Apparently, AA loads very few cheese plates (same with UA, who loaded 12 for a 48 pax Polaris cabin SYD-LAX).

Hot towels were distributed…

So, I enquired if I could have some trustworthy biscoff cookies from the economy. The cabin crew went off to check and later came back with some sourdough crackers, 2 packs of Biscoff cookies, and an AHA. Decided

I still felt a bit peckish later on during the flight, so I asked if they had any cinnamon rolls left from the breakfast service. A different FA (who was actually quite kind) checked and brought me back 2, which were delicious! 

Rest Of The Flight

The rest of the flight consisted of wrapping up in my hoodie since there were no blankets offered (BOO). Other than that, I edited some photos from the trip to Egypt and the Pyramids, as well as Vietnam.

I did check out the bathrooms and have to say, they were the best maintained part of the plane 😂. Gotta love the large bathroom on the 777s compared to a max per se (which they fly on this route now). 

Service

Sometimes, I write about a separate aspect of service, and other times, I don’t. In the past, I had been treated to some sublime crew on American Airlines, but this was the one that gave me the feeling they didn’t want to be onboard. Here are some aspects that stood out to me.

No welcome onboard

No hello when taking meal orders, just “I have this…”

No goodbye and thank you when leaving

Did not offer to hang up my blazer. It’s a silly thing, I know, but oftentimes, I see that the great crews come around and say, “Can I hang that up for you, sir?”.

Once the meal service was done, the crew completely disappeared, even from the galley at door 2 unless flagging them down

However, the one crew member that got me the Cinnamon rolls, thank you! I would also like to add that my standards are quite high with AA since, in the past, they have been amazing, so perhaps I am judging harshly. 

Arrival

Well, we had some unbelievable tailwinds or something because the captain came on the announcer at 11:50 am local time to let us know we had begun our descent into the Phoenix area. Our scheduled arrival time in Phoenix was 12:50pm local time, but it seems we had made a fantastic time.

The views out over Arizona were gorgeous. 

As fate would have it, we touched down 45 minutes early at Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport! Wow! In the end, we pulled into gate B25, 40 minutes ahead of schedule. To add on, right next to a special Westjet livery!

The flight may not have been perfect, but landing 40 minutes early isn’t bad at all. That’s the earliest I have ever arrived for a domestic flight in my life. 

Once again…

Then it was off to wait around for a few hours before heading over to SNA.