I recently flew from Los Angeles to Dallas on an American Airlines 787-9 in business class and wish to provide my first impressions of the flight, a mini-review that touches on the highlights.
American Airlines 787-9 Business Class – First Impressions
AA’s 787-9 Dreamliners currently have 30 flat-bed reverse-herringbone seats in business class, all located between door 1 and 2 in the front of the aircraft. I reserved my flight just a few days before and there was only one seat left in the cabin: 7H. While I always prefer window seats, for a three-hour afternoon flight to DFW this was not a problem.
Stepping onboard, I found the cabin to be attractive, though the glare from the afternoon sun impacted the quality of my pictures. The seat has plenty of legroom and personal storage and is comfortable in an upright and semi-reclined position.
But it was not comfortable in the lie-flat position: there was a big gap between cushions and I could not figure out how to fix it (it seems, looking on Flyertalk, this is a fairly routine issue).
Service onboard was very, very good, with a level of attentiveness that surprised me in a good way (drinks were always kept full).
Sadly, when I opened my tray table I found this:
Clearly, the tray tables had not been cleaned between flights.
After takeoff, drinks and warmed mixed nuts were served.
I did mention in an earlier post that we were served lunch after takeoff, a choice of Greek salad or AA’s (in)famous turkey pastrami sandwich. Pre-orders were not available and by the time flight attendants reached me, only the sandwich was left for me and everyone around me.
This is a really bad sandwich and I don’t know how else to say it: putrid. 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.
I doubt heating would have saved this sandwich, but AA should have at least put in the oven and served it warm.
We landed in Dallas on time and I was soon on my way to my next adventure…the Dallas Dart.
CONCLUSION
It’s always nice to score a widebody premium product on a domestic flight, but the gap between the seat cushions and pastrami sandwich undermined the excellent service received onboard. Overall, though, I would not hesitate to seek out an AA 787-9 again. Still, this flight did not leave me fully satisfied.
AA has a reasonably comfortable seat and good IFE, but service is rarely pleasant and food and drink is always awful. For a flight up to say 10 hours, particularly overnight flights, I think its fine. If its longer and you’ll want to eat, I would rarely choose AA if faced with other options.
Can you please explain exactly what “reverse herringbone” means compared to harringbone? Or anything else?
Thanks
Herringbone seats are biz-class seats that angle towards the aisle, reverse herringbone angles away from the aisle.
I think the latter is more common than the former
The reverse herringbone means the seats are slanted toward the fuselage with your feet in toward the windows and your head facing toward the window. Regular herringbone is also slanted (not vertically Im talking toward or away from fuselage) but it’s toward the aisle so your feet are closest to the aisle and your head is facing inward and away from the window. Both are otherwise very similar in terms of how the seats “nestle” into each other in a pattern. However most FF prefer reverse herringbone bc it gives the illusion of more privacy since you aren’t staring at the aisle and the people in the aisle are likewise not staring at you when they walk by plus reverse herringbone puts your face toward the window making it easier to look out the window. It is a little hard to explain in words but hopefully this helped. Also see seat guru to see how this works in visual format. And of course, this is just what I think so happy to be corrected.
It’s AA pastrami sandwich time.
seat is more comfy than the 787-8s at least
I fly Business class from Philadelphia to Aruba and it is a 4.5 our flight in A319. Which has the worst First and or Business class seats. I cannot understand why a 3 hour AA flight warrants pods and a 4.5 hour flight gets the seats that are no better than a just a wider seat . I am certainly not paying a bargain price for these seats.
Because you are flying on a vacation route and not a business route. Very generally speaking, most airlines will put their more “tired” products on leisure/vacation routes. People are either going to or coming from vacation and not as concerned as a business heavy route. That’s my guess anyway.
I should also add on reflection that PHL-Aruba is probably an especially skinny route that just doesn’t warrant a widebody.
Don’t knock the turkey pastrami sandwich, it’s always been Stuart’s favorite (not just his favorite airplane sandwich, but his favorite sandwich anywhere). One time I watched him beg the FA for a second one.
We are only 4 days away from the relaunch of LAX-LHR! Nonstop service from Los Angeles to Europe is finally resuming on United this Saturday, April 16, onboard the 787-9 Dreamliner.
Why on earth did u not raise hell about the food? The problem is everybody just sits there like little b and don’t complain. Be a man and speak up.
lol
I am flying business next week, and I don’t want that horrible sandwich. Hopefully I can pre order!
Flying this ord to lhr on Saturday night with my 8yo.
Sandwich saga continues!!! Twice in one year ??? Any updates about the United Cheeseburger with bacon??
Try the truly awful seat on the 788 next time…
It seems identical to United Airlines “Polaris”!
Just more toys to cover up lousy food & higher prices.
HOW do you get that this is ANYTHING like a Polaris Suite?!?
Flew as LHR to Dulles in Feb. No lie flat seat, just recline. Not comfortable at all. Service was excellent however, and made up for sub par seats a bit
Prefer the 777 business pods of a few years ago
I love the 789 hard product. Have noticed the same seat cushion issues like yours from time to time and sometimes able to fix it myself.
Very surprised to see that nasty sandwich served. Maybe a temporary catering issue at LAX? A month ago I flew RDU-DFW (under 1500 miles) and had a choice of two cold breakfast options that were way better than this. Last night I flew CLT-PHX (over 1500 miles) and the food was really good for domestic first standards (two hot entry choices, nicely presented, and healthy-ish too).
I flew the 787-9 in business from DFW to NRT and back late-May / mid-June this year. Overall the hard product was good (not great), but the soft product…especially the food…was horrible. I did not suffer the pastrami sandwich; however, the selection of “shrimp stuffed eggplant” was a huge mistake and was only half eaten when I tapped out. The the only service the restroom appeared to receive on the 12 hour flight was a new roll of TP. The only saving grace for the soft product was the generous and frequent booze offering.
Perhaps I am spoiled from my QA Q-suite trip last summer, and while I did not expect AA to be equal it was not even close for the soft product on a long-haul trip and it seemed as though there was minimal thought put towards it.