To begin my trip, I flew from Los Angeles to Dallas in business class on the American Airlines 787-9, my first time on that particular jet in the AA fleet. The seat was fine, the food not so much, and the service just epitomized why I generally stay away from American Airlines.
American Airlines 787-9 Business Class Review
The ticket cost $596.59 or 50,000 miles. I still held Advantage Executive Platinum at the time of the flight, but when I booked it (three weeks before), there was only one premium cabin seat left. In my experience on AA, you can kiss upgrades goodbye on domestic widebody routes. At that rate, if you value your miles as I do at two cents each, you will pay for a ticket with cash instead of using miles (especially when you consider I flew from Dallas to Doha a few days later in business class on Qatar Airways for only 70,000 miles…).
Check-In
I checked-in online and bypassed the check-in desk at Terminal 4 at LAX. Checking my app, I saw that my flight was leaving from the Tom Bradley International Terminal, which is next door to T4. With Clear and Pre-Check I quickly breezed through security and made my way over to the boarding gate.
Boarding began at 3:22 pm, 38 minutes prior to departure.
American Airlines (AA) 751
Los Angeles (LAX) – Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
Sunday, February 27
Depart: 4:00 PM
Arrive: 08:49 PM
Duration: 02 hr, 49 min
Distance: 1,235 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 7H (Business Class)
Onboard, the glare of the afternoon sun made it difficult to take pictures but I managed a few before others boarded.
Seat
I generally prefer window seats toward the front, but when I booked the only available seat was an aisle seat in the last row center section, 7H. No windows opened between booking and flight time.
Business class on the AA 787-9 is in one large cabin featuring eight rows of seats (seven in the center section) in a 1-2-1 configuration, for a total of 30 seats. American uses the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats, a reverse-herringbone seats which provides excellent levels of comfort and privacy.
Seats controls are digital:
Reading light above the seat:
One thing I love about these seats is that there is plenty of personal storage, including in a pair of compartments on the armrest plus in seat-level compartments on either side.
Inside one compartment was an IFE remote, universal power port, USB-A port, and headphones jack.
However, when I reclined my seat I noticed a prominent (and quite uncomfortable) gap between cushions. I asked a flight attendant about it and was told, “It happens. We’ll file a report.” It is not clear what causes this, but it was not as simple as just pushing the cushions together.
There are no blankets or pillows provided on these shorter domestic flights.
A bi-fold tray table extends from just below the video monitor. When I unfolded the tray table, I found a napkin and crumbs on it…
Meal Service
Prior to departure, flight attendants offered a pre-departure beverage…anything we wanted, not just water or sparkling wine.
Lunch was served after takeoff. I was impressed that hot towels and warmed mixed nuts were offered (those still have not returned to United at the end of 2022 and this AA flight was in February).
Choices for lunch were a Greek salad or American’s (in)famous turkey pastrami sandwich. Sadly, the salad ran out after a few rows and I was left with a choice of a sandwich or nothing, which I wrote about here. Let me use this moment to say that I recognize that American Airlines now offers meal pre-orders on shorter routes like this, but I still believe rather than going front to back or back to front, everyone should be asked their first and second choice and meal preference sorted by AAdvantage status.
In theory, I am not opposed to turkey pastrami, but this sandwich was ice cold and simply inedible. First off, it was mostly bread, with a huge thick roll on both the top and bottom. Worst of all, the bread was ice cold. Are you serious? There was some arugula and some type of spread over the turkey pastrami. And just so we would not forget, a big sticker confirmed what the sandwich was. It was served with potato salad and a brownie.
> Read More: Infamous Pastrami Sandwich On American Airlines Still Being Served In First Class
There’s a twist…see the service section below.
For the remainder of the flight, beverage refills were offered.
Lavatory
The aircraft featured standard-type 787 lavatories, though AA added woodgrain accents. The soap was from CO Bieglow.
Service
Service was hard to sum up in a “good” or “bad” catch-all, so I will describe it instead. The male flight attendant working my side of the plane was excellent. He was attentive and kind, calling passengers by name, offering frequent beverage refills, and was simply all you could ask for.
So what’s wrong? Well, perhaps I was pushing my luck, but when the sandwich arrived literally ice cold, I asked if he could place it in the oven. He asked his colleague who was working in the kitchen and she loudly complained, “If we do it for him, we have to do it for everyone!” (as if I that is such a bad thing…).
I thought it was totally unprofessional she would say that in front of me. Nevertheless, she sighed, grabbed it, and took it away. She brought it back five minutes later. It was still cold, but no longer ice cold. Would it have hurt to leave it in for 20 minutes and actually make it warm? Nevertheless, I thanked her profusely which seemed to warm her up to me. She explained that, “I can’t do that for everyone, but was happy to do it for you.” Again, I just don’t understand why, in theory at least, she could not do it for anyone who asked…or perhaps proactively considering the sandwich was almost frozen.
So was the service good or bad on the flight? Well, I will leave that up to you.
Wi-Fi + IFE
The full in-flight-entertainment system was available plus wi-fi, though no noice-cancelling headphones. Disposable headphones were provided. Selections include movies, games, music, and TV shows.
AA also offers seat-to-seat chatting, which I did not take advantage of.
Wi-Fi was $19.99 for the flight, which I thought was steep for the sub-three hour flight on a Sunday afternoon.
CONCLUSION
We landed on time in Dallas where an adventure on the Dallas Dart awaited. Overall, I loved the seat on AA and after this flight and my more recent 777-200 journey would certainly travel AA again. But the seat, service, and food issue did not make this my favorite AA flight…
As always, appreciate your reviews.
How did the F&B compare to UA or DLs offerings as of the date of your flight?
Pre-order is back and so is at least one hot option on this route.
It’s been almost a year, but I seem to recall AA being a notch ahead of the competition’s F&B during Covid.
Had I been able to pre-order the salad or a hot dish, the meal would have far exceeded what DL or UA offer on a route of similar length (except perhaps for breakfast, where UA does really well). I loved that there were hot nuts and a warm towel, even nine months ago.
This is such an old review. Things have changed so much post Covid. The dirty tray table is unacceptable. But you thinking you should get a choice by status is ridiculous. You can have exactly what you want by preordering.
And what about for those who clear their upgrades at the gate?
The legend of this sandwich grows with every review.
Going For Great
lol
Wow! I’m very sad to see that many US carriers flight attendants don’t want to work in highest standards – yelled out loud about heat sandwich which it’s unnecessary to do this. When I fly Asian or Middle East carriers, I feel more safety and welcome on their planes more than here in the US. I always try to avoid AA for any cost.
Hilarious that FAs in the United States consider it such a chore to do their actual job. God forbid passengers expect their food to be warm!
Serious question Matt, do you save up reviews, just finally got around to this one, or some other reason to wait this long for a flight from February?
Still relevant, other than THANKFULLY that sandwich is gone as far as I can tell. And yes, you hit it 100% on how cold it was served.
I addressed it a bit in the intro–I’ve traveled so much this year, so often that it really is a time issue. I’ve chosen, as the months have gone, by to prioritize more recent reports. Now I’m trying to catch up.
If you read the blog six years ago, you’d know I was always a year behind on my trip reports. Thankfully I am not that bad anymore, but this 0ne got delayed more than I had hoped and that means the three trips that took place after this one that I have not yet written about will also be delayed. But with only 24 hours in a day and so many other responsibilities, I just cannot write more than one segment per day.
I appreciate that you document the date of your flight, but question the value of posting this review, given the nearly 10 months that has lapsed, and especially given the year in question. The aviation world has evolved considerably since February 2012.
While AA was flying wide-bodies on a number of trans-cons earlier this year, I believe the 787 no longer flies the LAX-DFW route. There may be occasional 777 service, but it is a rarity. AA’s food has improved considerably up front since February. Cleaning issues, which also I observed on some planes earlier this year (and not just AA’s), have also improved. Your other main sticking point is the service, and while I’d like to think it is steadier today, this is highly subjective and varies from one crew to the next on all domestic carriers.
The only way this review would have value to me is if you were also comparing the competition’s flights from the same period, also on aircraft types that were no longer used on the routes in question. Otherwise it seems to me to be click-bait, or justification for a tax write-off.
You’re free to value the reviews as you see fit. I am documenting my trip now for reasons I already explained and believe that every data point is helpful. But I also agree this situation is not ideal, just a sad reflection of the limitations upon my day and productivity.
If you’re paying for F, AS is usually the way to go on this route, but I think you know that, so I’ll assume AS was booked or more expensive (which it usually isn’t).
AA really is two different carriers. Int’l AA/321T and domestic AA. Despite the nice 787, LAX-DFW is still domestic AA, and your experience summed that up perfectly.
The timing of this flight worked well and I wanted to fly into DFW instead of DAL. Alaska was an option, but as I recall not marginally different in price (like during the pandemic when I flew from LAX-DAL in F for $228).
“everyone should be asked their first and second choice and meal preference sorted by AAdvantage status.”
ridiculous
Why? That’s what United does and it works great.
It works well [for me]*
A no-status passenger paying for F should get priority choice ahead of a free upgrade. How crappy would it be to save up for a nice trip and not get your first meal choice? Front to back is the fairest to everyone.
And all paying passengers ($/miles/etc) should come before employees or someone using a buddy pass.
Matt I must ask did you get the name of the fishwife flight attendant who was reluctant to & failed to warm your sandwich? While I would be reluctant to complain myself, the attitude may need to be addressed. That was a complete fail on her part.
I did. I never did anything with it and I suppose too much time has now passed, but it certainly left an unfortunate taste in my mouth (not to mention cold).
Gotta say. maybe it’s not very good when it’s ice cold but the sandwich actually looked pretty good to me. I took a flight on AA, JFK to MAD this past summer with the same seats (but on a 777). Loved the seats and especially the air nozzles overhead but absolutely hated the food – it was probably the worst transatlantic meal I’ve ever had. I would have jumped at the opportunity to have the turkey pastrami instead.
Very thorough review. I worked for AA Catering for 10 years, & can understand his concerns. The kitchen in DFW & most hubs is run by Lufthansa Sky Group (LSG). American owned catering at one time, but sold it to LSG. Imagine that – an American airline catered by a German airline. FA’s complain about LSG.
Not surprised at the reaction from the galley girl. After AA bought TWA and we started working with ‘legacy’ AA FAs, we TWAers were appalled at what they considered ‘service’, especially those of us from International. As for prioritizing meal requests, kudos to you for recognizing how it should be done. We did it at TWA. The first time I was on an AA transcon domestic flight, I alerted my colleague we were almost out of the preferred offering. She shook her head and proceeded to offer them to the row of upgrades and non-revs. That left the last row with the million mile Key customer the inedible alternative. At TWA we rarely ran out of 1st class choices because we provided those same choices as crew meals. Thus, no wastage from over supply; with additional inventory and passengers getting to select first. it was a win-win.
That was when I also discovered AA provided no crew meals. You know the addage: Look after your employees the way you expect them to look after your customers.
Way to keep us updated on products from 10 months ago.
My pleasure.
Former USAirways FA here. Regarding the ice cold bread I immediately thought that dry ice somehow played a roll in it being that cold.
Before 9/11 I can remember serving HOT food from PHL to MIA. 2 choices as well as desert. Dessert was served after main meal.
This was on 737-300 mind you. I’ve been away from the life for 12yrs now but service had pretty much tanked by 2010 imo.
Awesome review.
Thanks for your comment!