My American Airlines 737-800 flight in first class from Los Angeles to Pittsbrugh got me to PIT safely and on time, but left so much to be desired.
American Airlines 737-800 First Class Review (LAX-PIT)
Here, I chose American Airlines for a business trip to Pittsburgh because it offered convenient nonstop service and did not charge a premium for the nonstop flight…the cost was about $540 one-way in business class…sold (both AA and Breeze fly nonstop between Los Angeles and Pittsbrugh, but Breeze does not operate daily, including Mondays).
I know I already offered my detailed first impressions of this flight and I’m not trying to beat a horse dead, but this represents a more comprehensive review of what a typical transcontinental flight on American Airlines looks like (or perhaps not…).
This was the flight where I foolishly forgot to take my house shoes off before driving to LAX, noticing it only when I was about to walk through security. Thankfully, I had a change of shoes in my bag.
> Read More: My Accidental Footwear Fail At LAX
I stopped at the T5 Admirals Club and got some work done before my flight. I tried the “Southwest Salsa Verde Breakfast Wrap” and had some avocado toast…not bad.
Boarding commenced at 8:24 am from gate 48A.
AA 1245
Los Angeles (LAX) – Pittsburgh (PIT)
Monday, April 7
Depart: 9:01 AM
Arrive: 4:37 PM
Duration: 4hr, 36min
Distance: 2,136 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 4F (First Class)
It was a beautiful morning in LA as I boarded my flight and settled into seat 4F. No pre-departure beverages were offered, but we took off on time.
Seat
The American Airlines 737-800 cabin includes 16 seats, four rows in a 2-2 configuration. AA uses the Collins MIQ seats in first class, with 37 inches of seat pitch. Seats are 20 inches wide and recline five inches, including the last row where I was seated since AA simply has a loose partition rather than an actual bulkhead between first class and economy class.
The seat is comfortable enough and I appreciated the USB-A and universal outlet and also the side storage under the armrest.
The USB-A port is located on the seatback and while there is no screen, there is a cradle for your mobile phone (more on the IFE below).
Between seats is a small tray that flips down for drinks.
The passenger service unit had personal air vents and reading lights.
Unfortunately, the seat was dirty…it was long overdue for a deep cleaning. There was dust and bits of garbage all around my seat and my tray table had not been wiped clean.
Lavatory
The first class lavatory, located in the front of the plane, was also filthy… absolutely deplorable. I found it like this:
Shame on the previous passenger for leaving the lavatory like that, but if AA wants to be premium, its flight attendants should get used to checking on the lavatory often. Before I used it, the lavatory had been unoccupied for 15-20 minutes.
IFE + Wi-Fi
It was a beautiful morning outside and a beautiful day to fly across the country:
While AA has no seatback screens, it does have streaming in-flight-entertainment, including movies, TV shows, and music.
Internet costs $28 on AA (or $21/hour)…I find that absurd, considering it’s free on Delta and $8 on United. While American Airlines will roll out free internet next year, why not now? Why not lower prices to reflect competitive pressure? There’s nothing premium about spending so much for Wi-Fi.
Food + Drink
Breakfast was served after takeoff: a small three-cheese omelet with a side of fruit (strawberry, blueberries, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, and pineapple), seasoned potato wedges, and a rock-hard cinnamon roll. The other choice was a charcuterie plate. To ensure my first choice, I pre-ordered my meal while reserving my flight. Kudos to AA for having pre-order options for over a decade.
But first, a hot towel and a choice of beverage (I just drank sparkling water).
The omelet was fine, but not more than a few bites, and the fried potatoes were quite greasy.
No other beverages or snacks after breakfast, even though there was still almost four hours left in the flight…
Service
The onboard service left much to be desired. What annoyed me most about the flight was that the flight attendants disappeared for the remainder of the flight after breakfast. No roaming the cabin, no additional drinks, no nothing. While Delta and United offer a pre-arrival drink service on mid-con flights even in economy class, the flight attendants working this flight could not even be bothered to check on their first-class passengers during the flight.
The crew on this flight makes a quick turn in Pittsburgh back to LA, meaning they get 10 hours of flying in a single day and can still sleep in their own beds at night…I guess they were saving their energy for the trip home…
CONCLUSION
We landed on time in Pittsburgh and I made a beeline for Joe & The Juice for some coffee and green drink.
I still feel like I’ve been uncharitable to American Airlines this year on Live And Let’s Fly, but it’s truly not deliberate…I’m rooting for AA to boomerang back as a competitive premium carrier in the USA and hope the new 787-9 and A321XLR deliveries accelerate that process. But my transcontinental 737-800 flight in first class was a reminder that American Airlines still has a long way to go….in almost every aspect of service.
That damn Avocado Toast in the Admirals Club drives me nuts. Again why make a special stand for something many won’t eat or even consider?
Nasty, nasty stuff that some marketing company pushed and Americans fell right it.
The mini donuts later in the day are a much better option.
… Which explains a lot about the average American waistline.
I’ve gotten over it Matthew – the call button is your friend in First if you want additional service and they are not doing the minimum to provide service proactively.
I recently used the FA call button and an FA came over, turned it off, asked the “emergency” was and when I said I was thirsty and would it be possible to have a Diet Coke.
She said, that button is for emergencies only, not for service, we take that button seriously, it isn’t for your pleasure.
After scolding me, she turned and walked away, saying don’t push that button again unless there is a real emergency.
Same things happened to me too. Long lecture that the button was only for emergencies. Wonder why it isn’t labeled as such and why the safety briefing doesn’t mention this. Only on US airlines!
AA has finally achieved consistency; unfortunately, it is consistently awful. All of their supposed recent and planned improvements sound nice; however, until they fix the issues with their flight attendants’ truly pathetic service, it’s all lipstick on a pig, a really, really ugly pig.
Free avocado toast!? No wonder their Financials are so bad
Sponsored by Citi!
It did look good.
Can someone please explain to me why the flight attendants on AA are so awful?
Not my typical experience. But it tends to be feast or famine – either really great, or really bad.
… just curious… in that case maybe a consistent, ‘meh’, mediocre experience would be preferable ? … As it seems a consistently ‘great’ service is a bridge too far ….
Yep.
Long-time AA flyer here. It’s not that they’re consistently awful, but you just never know what you’re going to get from one flight to the next. Some crews are great. Others get the “D” for “Dreadful”. That’s been the case ever since Discount Dougie and his crew took over and turned AA into the world’s largest low-cost carrier.
If your comments about FA’s being absent in Cabin after meal service, meaning you never saw a FA in the Cabin for more than three hours? Thats airline and FAA violations. You can report the Crew. The may have arrived late the night before, short rest or they are lazy. $504.00 to fly First and be treated like this? Stop flying American. Make them miss your money?
I stopped flying AA years ago. Their prices are almost always the lowest and with AA you always get what you pay for!
Socks with sandals? -GASP- 😉
I’m an AA flight attendant and I’m appalled at your experience. I knew right off the bat when you said no pre-departure beverages, it was not off to a good start. We get paid for boarding now so there’s no excuse for not doing pre-departures unless boarding began so late that it was impossible to do them. Not being catered yet is almost never an excuse unless it’s the first flight of the day and the galley has been stripped the night before. Otherwise there is almost always sufficient catering left from the inbound flight. The ice might not be perfect but 9 times out of 10 it’s still usable. You bloggers need to start being very specific on your flight reviews about pre-departures. What time was boarding scheduled to begin? What time did boarding actually begin? If pre-departures were offered, was it a full choice — including alcohol, or was it only water and orange juice? (This is a stupid habit that was never legitimate to begin with but that has been passed between FAs as an acceptable form of pre-departures for years and it needs to stop. FYI, it’s NOT! Nobody wants orange juice at 5pm. They want a cocktails!) More details to document: If FA says they haven’t been catered yet, ask them for some ice for a sore shoulder. If they can provide ice for that, they had ice for pre-departures. Write it up. AA.com/contact AA
But Camille, unless there is turbulence shouldn’t the cabin be checked on? And the lav? Just asking
Absolutely! That’s a given. I just chose to focus on pre-departures in my comment because it’s such a frequent area of service failure in the current environment. Cabin walkthroughs are required of each flight attendant every 15 minutes if it’s safe to do so. Not just rotating every 15 minutes and taking turns. But each FA. And they should be staggered so if you have 4 flight attendants each walking through every 15 minutes there theoretically should only be a few minutes in between one FA’s walk through and the next’s.
Thank you for the reply.
Camille,
Interested traveler mentioned in the comments above that the flight attendant told the passenger that the flight attendant call button was for emergencies only. Is this true? I thought it was for service also? Could you clarify this point please?
Thank you in advance.
John
I hate that American sucks, but they do. I spend a lot of money with them, so I suppose I’m a sucker. LAX-PIT is a funny route. It’s a long way to fly, but also not a very premium route. That being said, FAs should love it. A lot of paid time in the air and not a ton of work. Way better than PIT-ORD-XNA-PHX-TUS which probably would cover the same amount of time and be a single work day.
Right. Especially because they fly right back to LAX after and rack in 10 hours of duty time…like a flight from LAX-LHR and you can be in your own bed at night. A very senior route!
I’ve flown AA coming off an international F flight (BA) a few times over the past few years.
It really is hit and miss. Sometimes you get great crew (interestingly, I find it tends to be when one person is working a small J cabin up front by themselves) and sometimes you get awful.
There is absolutely zero excuse for not being proactive through a business / first cabin every half hour.
This review is just one more reason we are staying away from AA. We flew American to Hawaii and Europe for many years. We switched to United probably five years ago for the reasons given in so many reviews. Lousy service, angry FAs on AA. We pay to fly biz and first class and I won’t be treated like a piece of baggage. United has been mostly OK, but we’re giving Delta a try, first time, in a couple of weeks. American? You’re permanently in the rear view mirror.
Flying AA F on PBI-LGA route in December foolishly thinking AA was trying to right the ship and provide a better experience. Lifetime Gold, now expect inferior service. I am hoping for better.
The pic of the author in the lavatory is dreamy! Wow.
We fly AA (husband and I) a lot. We buy F or Business. We gave up on “Free upgrades” even as EP’s. Domestic service is hit or miss. It’s like AA has taken on the persona of perpetually grumpy/rude US Airways instead of them moving up to old AA service attitude. International service esp in 1st, is awesome. They are working shorthanded (purser on last two flights to & from DFW/LHR had to go help in back after take off), and still make walk throughs regularly. Wish the domestic crews would fly a BA short haul. Tho their A319/320 configuration sucks, the FAs manage to get a meal or snack served even on short flights. You don’t even get cookies or water on some AA flights. I get it that you aren’t being paid what you want (who is?), but being rude to the people who are paying you, I not acceptable. And that FA call button? Is not just for emergencies! Stop playing on your phone and get to work. Your job doesn’t end after the safety demonstration like many of you think it does.
Lousy service. AA has truly become a proverbial dumpster fire along with other airlines in the Empire of Lies. The uncleanliness of the cabin leads me to believe that “American Aeroflot” would be a better name.
The first class meal was no better than meals in coach were “back in the day” before deregulation.
I don’t consider LAX-PIT or vice versa to be a true transcon. Perhaps a near transcon but not a full fledged transcon.