Maybe it was beginner’s luck, but I had a wonderful flight on American Airlines from London to New York on the 777-300ER in business class. I hear so many complaints about service on American Airlines, but that was absolutely the best part of my flight.
Great Flight On American Airlines 777-300ER Business Class
Rather than fly nonstop home on British Airways from London earlier this month, we connected via New York on American Airlines. An extra stop with two kids? A bit annoying, but breaking up the trip proved to be a good thing and more importantly, it allowed us to upgrade both segments from basic economy to business class. That was particularly helpful since we were checking bags.
Besides us, business class had only two other passengers. Yes, a 777-300ER with only four out of 52 flat bed seats taken.
That meant very personalized service, but personalized service itself is only part of the equation. The true star of the flight was Julie, one of the kindest, warmest, friendliest flight attendants I have ever encountered. She took such good care of us and just made the flight pleasant. Thank you Julie (and Lorraine and the whole crew) for such an outstanding flight.
AA still offers menus in business class and has not cut back as much as Delta and United. We pre-ordered our meals online and I found the sea bass to be very tasty. Everything was served covered and on one tray.
Augustine enjoyed his chicken, but enjoyed the IFE selection even more.
Oh, and the seat. Of course I’m used to flying United Airlines most of the time and found the reverse herringbone seats on the 777-300ER to be quite spacious and comfortable. We had the mini-cabin to ourselves. The short LHR-JFK flight was not long enough for a nap, but I comfortably enjoyed a movie and worked. I loved the Bang & Olufsen headphones.
Oh, and I spent 1/3 of the flight in economy class. But you’ll have to read the full report in order to understand why…
CONCLUSION
I’ll be publishing a trip report from my brief trip to Germany soon, which will include a full review of this flight.
Overall, AA greatly exceeded my expectations and I really look forward to flying AA more this year.
“AA greatly exceeded my expectations”
Those are words rarely spoken and heard, but I’m glad it went well!
I think any flight that is that empty is usually a great experience, even though it’s not a sustainable business model for the company.
+1
A great FA can make all the difference with kids on a long flight. Just engaging them for a few minutes can be so nice for them and their parents. I remember when our first daughter was only about 9 months old we flew IAD-LHR on BA and an older FA actually offered to hold her while my wife and I ate our dinners. The food wasn’t all that great, but it was certainly the most enjoyable meal we’ve ever had flying long-haul since we had kids.
Matthew,
It would be great to hear your pov on the AA 777-300 business seat vs. the new UA Polaris business class seat. From a seat map perspective the UA seat seems less roomy – but it appears you have the experience to provide a real life pov.
Even though that AA seat has been around for a decade – I still think it’s better than 3/4 of the Polaris seats (basically only the straight-ahead seats at the window are better IMO, due to the privacy, even as they have less usable space).
I’ve flown AA J once and it was on the 777-300ER and I thought it was comparable to CX J. Both in terms of soft and hard product.
I have flown on the 777-300 J class once before in 3J (mini cabin) from DFW-LHR and fell in love with it. So much so that I booked the same seat the end of July with miles from LAX-LHR the end of this July. I’m out of GDL and that last trip was the first of 21 trips to London where I arrived with NO jet lag. Never been able to sleep on a plane but got over 4 hours on that flight. And the FA’S were great then as well.
Are those egg tarts?
No, it was a lemon custard tart.
Any idea what the load in back (PE & Y) was like?
PE was about 70% full and economy probably no more than 1/5 full. Not sure why there were so many in PE.
Cheap buy-ups or differential…some limited business travel where they pay for PE but not J…
Or another option would be Swiss via Zurich with connections all over Europe and on the way back nonstop into ORD
One quick question, did you get slippers? Or nothing at all?
No slippers. Nice amenity kit, though.
Sea Bass? Really, I don’t know who you are anymore.
Yeah, you lucked out it looks like. An empty C, one of the good AA flight attendants, and finding use of your SWU…off a basic economy fare no less. A score all the way around.
If AA crews do things the way AA’s book says do them, along with just being pleasant, they can be quite competitive with any other airline.
I fly ORD to Europe a good amount of times per year, even during the pandemic. Being self-employed, I have to look a bit more at my travel budget and the non-stops J fares on UA and LH are often times way overpriced compared to oneworld. That’s why I often find myself flying BA connecting LHR outbound, and returning via a short-haul BA to Heathrow and then with AA to Chicago. For some reason I can sleep really well on both the new and old J seats on BA. At least pre-pandemic I usually built in the stop in LHR to use the CX F and QF lounges at T3. I found the AA crews operating LHR-ORD to be usually very friendly and attentive, at least much more so than domestic to to/from South America, and I enjoy the space of the reverse herringbone AA seat on the daytime flights.
Hi,
Out of ORD would be a great option to fly on Air Canada with a great C-class. I flew both Y + C transatlantic and as you have to fly via Toronto there should be a great fare and still star alliance like UA + LH respectively. Another advantage of AC is that you can do the US immigration while in transit. In ORD you only claim your bag + your out.
Take care, Armin
AC is pretty decent, especially the lounge experience in YYZ is phenomenal. However it’s hard to find AC J tickets at a reasonable price, but maybe out of ORD. For me, I’d rather have a connection in Europe on the outbound (as the day+1 is always a ‘wasted’ day) than in the US or Canada, but on the inbound I don’t mind a connection in the US or Canada, though it delays a bit with changing terminals etc. I’ve missed many connections in Europe e.g. CDG-FRA-IAH due to all the early departure times, and it makes for a really long day.
Or another option would be Swiss via Zurich with connections all over Europe and on the way back nonstop into ORD
“…more importantly, it allowed us to upgrade both segments from basic economy to business class. That was particularly helpful since we were checking bags.”
Not following here. Could you please explain. What does the cabin class have to do with checking bags?
Basic economy requires you to pay to check any bags though if you have the airlines credit card that usually gets you 2 for free. In Business you usually get at least one or two checked bags per person included.
Correct with AA.
Had we flown BA though (and just flown one-stop ZRH-LHR-LAX) we would have to pay for all our bags, since BA does not give complimentary bags even to oneworld Emerald members on Basic Economy fares.
And American co-branded credit cards also only get you checked bags on domestic trips which is pretty bad considering both United Chase and Delta Amex cards get you free checked bag(s) on international itineraries as well.
I once flew American from Manchester to Philadelphia about 4 years ago – the service was phenomenal. Singapore Airlines standard service, even.
Are those egg tarts?
Every “Julie” I have ever met has been a wonderful soul. ☺
UA for me is in the abyss, I’m still UA Gold for 2021 but most of my flights now are on AA/AS even though am in a UA hub (IAH), thanks to a status match. I never liked AA especially in recent years but I feel UA has gone way way down in the race to the bottom, and AA/AS have actually improved.
Flew AA MIA to CDG on the 772 on the 23rd on a J ticket. I was worried that the flight was going to be horrible. Food was good, Flagship lounge at MIA was excellent. Service was excellent. Thought it was a fluke. The return flight was just as good. I haven’t flown AA in years, but the experience was a level above UA flying EWR to JNB in October in Polaris