While I believe that American Airlines has great potential, my rather depressing flight from New York to Los Angeles onboard the Airbus A321T in three-cabin first class was a huge disappointment and exposed so much of what is wrong at AA.
American Airlines A321T First Class Review
I wrote about my first impressions of this flight, but inadvertently never published a full review. Here it is.
I booked my ticket the day before travel for 45K AAdvantage points plus $5.60 in taxes. It was 7.5K points more than in business class, which made for an easy decision to choose first over business class. The difference in ground product alone is worth the upgrade.
Check-In
American Airlines and British Airways operate jointly out of Terminal 8 at New York JFK. The first class check-in area has recently been refreshed and is much classier than before, with wood accents and velvet couches. Before entering your name is cross-checked against a passenger manifest. Only international first class passengers traveling on American Airlines or British Airways are allowed access, as well as those traveling in first class to Los Angeles or Orange County (American uses premium jets for these markets).
I had checked in already using the American Airlines mobile app, but by proceeding through this premium check-in area for ease of reaching the security checkpoint (you exit the check-in area in the front of the security line).
Lounge
As a first class passenger, I had access to the Chelsea Lounge, located just beyond the security checkpoint on the upper level. You can check out my full review of the lounge here. The Chelsea Lounge is only for first class passengers and features a superb a la carte menu. I had a Negroni followed by NY strip steak and sole meunière (a French fish dish consisting of sole, floured and fried, served with hot melted butter, lemon juice and parsley).
I am quite happy I ate in the lounge before the flight because the main course onboard turned out to be a huge disappointment. This lounge has no natural light, but is quite posh and cozy.
> Read More: Chelsea Lounge New York (JFK) – First Class Lounge For American Airlines + British Airways Review
I proceeded under the tunnel to my gate, where boarding commenced 35 minutes before departure.
AA 300
New York (JFK) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Saturday, April 24
Depart: 07:30 PM
Arrive: 11:15 PM
Duration: 6hr, 45min
Distance: 2,475 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A321T
Seat: 4F (First Class)
I was second onboard (a Concierge Key passenger boarded ahead of me) and my camera fogged up, so the pictures are not up to my standard, but I also took a couple of pictures after we landed in Los Angeles of the cabin with mood-lighting on.
Seat
The first class cabin, dubbed Flagship First, features 10 seats in a 1-1 configuration. The seats are based on the Safran SkyLounge and have 63 inches of pitch, are 21 inches wide, feature a 15.4-inch touchscreen, and recline into a fully lie-flat position.
The positive: even after a decade in service this seat remains comfortable in all positions (when the cushions are properly secured) and I appreciated the ample room for my feet as well as the storage. This remains my favorite business class seat (and I do not say that facetiously, as this seat type is used for business class on AA’s widebody jets and on other carriers around the world).
AA offers Casper bedding in Flagship First Class, including a duvet, pillow, day blanket, and lumbar pillow. The bedding was excellent and aided in my nap for a couple of hours during the flight.
But I did notice some issues. Not only was the cabin showing its age, but it was also poorly maintained.
First, the seats themselves have seen far better days. The “woodgrain” was warped and there was an uncomfortable gap between cushions when the seat was placed in lie-flat mode (same problem I had on the AA 787-9). I was able to compensate for this by wedging a blanket into the gap, but this really should not have been necessary.
There was also a piece hanging from the seat in front of me.
One of the overhead monitors would not close and was stuck in a half-open position (also note that there was a personal air vent above each seat, which was appreciated).
Worst of all, there was some brown substance on the window that looked like…well, you know.
This is all simple stuff. Cleaning the cabins and ensuring the seat cushions are properly secured should be part of every pre-flight checklist.
Amenity Kit
An amenity kit was waiting on the seat, specially designed for Flagship First and co-brnaded with Shinola.
The contents of the bag included a pen, ear plugs, dental kit, eye shade, socks, and skin products from D.S. & Durga including lip balm and hand lotion. The contents of the bag were just fine, but the bag itself was a cheap faux-leather plastic. It’s a missed opportunity because AA’s joint-venture partner British Airways offers “genuine” leather bags in business class from The White Company and I use those all the time. This bag I just left behind onboard, adding to landfill waste.
As an aside, I still think the Lufthansa “grocery bag” amenity kits are the most practical amenity kits ever and I reuse those every time I go to the grocery store. As more US states ban single-use plastic bags, those sorts of amenity kits would really be practical.
Food + Drink
A choice of beverage (open bar) was offered in plastic cups prior to takeoff. I chose club soda.
Menus were waiting on the seat upon boarding. I appreciate that American Airlines prints menus and also offers online pre-orders for main courses.
After takeoff, a hot towel was offered and placemats were laid ahead of dinner service.
Next, canapés were served, including mixed nuts (not warmed) and olives, followed by a choice of beverage (more club soda for me). I like this element of the service and love that AA has pecans in its nut mix.
For my appetizer, I chose the beet poke with edamame, and pickled red onion. It was served with a baby spinach and kale salad on the side and essentially looked like two salads. I was also offered butternut squash soup, which was served in a mug on the same tray. A warm bread roll was dropped on top of the appetizer.
The salad, appetizer, and soup were excellent and I really should have just stopped there, especially after the meal I had consumed a few hours earlier in the lounge.
I pre-ordered filet mignon and it was one of the worst steaks I have ever had on an airplane: well-done to the degree that it resembled shoe leather. Regular readers know I usually eat whatever is put before me on a plane, but I could not stomach this.
I pushed the steak aside and moved on to dessert, which included a nicely-presented cheese board with crackers, grapes, strawberries, and dates followed by an ice cream sundae featuring vanilla ice cream topped in strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and walnuts.
The main course was horrible, but the other elements of the meal service were quite nice. I strongly recommend you order fish or pasta and avoid ordering red meat on AA.
Later in the flight, a hot chocolate chip cookie was offered. The smell of warm cookies wafting through the cabin was tantalizing.
Service
I’d say the most disappointing part of the flight was the service. A single flight attendant worked the entire first class cabin (10 seats) and though she meant well and was by no means hostile, there was absolutely no refinement to the service.
Meal orders were taken before departure and there was no warm greeting, let alone addressing passengers by surname. Instead, there was simply a question, “What do you want to eat?”
That’s such a bad way to do service.
I asked if the sauce could be left off my steak and was told:
“The sauce is already on it. You can just sort of brush it off.”
When the appetizer trays came around, the flight attendant yelled out, “Can you pull out your tray for me?” to each passenger who had not already done so.
The man sitting in seat 1A had headphones on and rather than just signal to him or open the tray table herself, she just raised her voice, such that she was yelling at him to pull the tray table out.
Drink refills were not offered with dinner. Furthermore, when she served the main course she just left the empty glass and empty soup mug on the tray.
After finishing my main course, instead of asking specifically if I wanted an ice cream sundae or cheese plate or cake, she said, “Do you want anything else like dessert or anything?”
I mean, come on…that’s not the way to do it.
Halfway over the country, she came through the cabin yelling, “Hot cookie! Hot cookie!” as if she was selling hot dogs at a baseball game.
It woke several people up. Cookies are meant to be served just before landing, not just after dinner…
Of course headphones were collected about an hour before landing which also needlessly woke many people up. Collecting headphones is such an annoyance…I’d rather see cheaper headphones than be disturbed during the part of the flight when so many are sleeping.
So we reached Los Angeles about 15 minutes early and the captain proudly announced an early arrival.
But our gate was occupied.
And occupied.
And occupied.
An HOUR passed by. We went from being early to very late and nothing fritters away goodwill like not having a gate upon landing.
I passed by the time by losing thousands of (virtual) dollars playing blackjack, showing once again why I will never actually gamble with cards.
IFE + Wi-Fi
American Airlines offers a nice library of movies, TV programs, audio, and games on-demand via touschreen or passenger service unit (the little remote control attached to the seat).
Excellent Bang & Olufsen noise-cancelling headphones are offered, but as I motioned above are collected early.
Wi-Fi internet was available for purchase for $39.99. I passed. Complimentary internet for T-Mobile is now available on more aircraft.
And of course, it always a pleasure just to stare out the window.
Lavatories
First class passengers have a dedicated lavatory in the front of the aircraft. It was clean.
CONCLUSION
My experience reminded me of why American Airlines plans to eliminate its first class service. There are just so many missed opportunities.
Overall, I was happy to fly across the continental USA in a lie-flat seat…what a privilege. But the service on the flight was really poor…and I feel like much of the blame goes to management rather than this particular flight attendant for failing to properly train her and for failing to properly staff the cabin. One flight attendant responsible for managing everything in that cabin is really asking too much.
I would gladly fly AA again on this route and sincerely see such great potential from this carrier. But as the years go by, I do wonder why American Airlines is not realizing that in order to be trusted with the big things, it must be trusted with the little things…
I flew this same route in first class in 2015. Here’s my review if you want to compare then and now. Not much has changed…even with the steak.
If you knew anything at all , you would know that they’re all about to be refurbished!
Yes, I’ve written about that.
It doesn’t mean AA should throw in the towel while still selling a three-class product.
My experiences in F on the 321T track yours. So many little things that AA could improve upon (and I’m not even talking about serving a salad next to another salad, which is perplexing) such as the crew. I’ve had a very good F FA once, but my other experiences leave a lot to be desired.
One question for you – do you think the ala carte service in Chelsea is as good as FFD was? I don’t – still think that FFD was the best airport dining experience out there – at least as good as the sit-down dining offered by QF and CX in its lounges, if not better.
I thought the food, particularly the special dishes from Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja, was superb in the Chelsea Lounge. Flagship dining was great, but I’m not sure it was better.
Thanks. I was in Chelsea shortly after it opened, and I thought it was good but not great. Sounds like it has improved (or I just was too enamored with FFD).
As a follow up to my other reply – I think I’ll search for some decent F award redemptions to give Chelsea a try again. Need to burn through my stash of AAdvantage miles somehow.
I’m the opposite. Clinging on to my AA miles for dear life. Based in Sydney now and the 40k biz class redemptions to Asia are too good to give up!
I still have nearly 600k and that is after flying JAL F r/t 3 times in the last 15 months and QR J to MLE this coming January. If I can find a 50k redemption for F from JFK to LAX I’d take the hit.
Another great review….thanks!
It’s AA, what do you expect?
“the flight attendant yelled out, “Can you pull out your tray for me?” to each passenger who had not already done so.” What if that passenger is Deaf, I am so dying curious how AA flight attendant would do to them.
Matthew, you sound like a over privileged whinner!
You stated one “flight attendant 10 passengers”, THATS THE PROBLEM.
GREED! THAT CORPORATE GREED EQUATES TO POOR SERVICE.
Matthew, you cant open your own tray table?
Those tables are very difficult for the standing in the aisle flight attendant to open.
Your sitting next to the compartment!
Open it like most passengers do (is this beneath you?)
While taking orders, fas do not have time to chit chat. (Concentrating on getting predepartures,catering issues and closing the door on time. Let alone, dealing with overpriviledged problimatic whinners!
You call what you do work? LOL
Have of the time, you do mot know what your talking about.
I review you wrote on SWISS Buinessclass.
I flew swiss business on the A330.
Seats were terrible, headset not as good as AA, Bedding was substandard compared to AA’S Casper Product and food was just ok.
Just goes to show how paid influencers operate!
Sad!
There is no escaping the horrible service on the flight – that is not just me whining – but I acknowledged that blame properly falls upon AA for failing to staff a first class cabin the way that it should or train flight attendants on how to be gracious.
“you sound like a over privileged whinner!”. What’s a “whinner”?
“Those tables are very difficult for the standing in the aisle flight attendant to open.” should be “Those tables are very difficult for the flight attendant, standing in the aisle, to open”.
“Your sitting next to the compartment!”. It’s ‘you’re’ not ‘your’.
“Have of the time, you do mot know what your talking about.”. Tsk…
“I review you wrote on SWISS Buinessclass.”. Sigh…
Other than the points above, great comment! You have, cleverly and very effectively, shown how much your opinion matters to us.
Great review. All in looked pretty decent from the Chelsea to the cup of soup and i don’t mind two fresh salads.
I don’t order a steak on a plane but if I did I would want extra sauce or gravy I reckon.
I understand the frustrations with service, especially the headphones. Such a drawback of aa to London is lights on, headphones collected and breakfast served 2hrs before landing. Ugh.
The issue with transcon AA F is that pre-COVID they used to staff 2 FAs, and are now down to 1, which is the same FA : passenger ratio as in J. But the service is more elaborate in F than J, so it sort of results in you getting even worse service. (For example, in F the entrees have to be plated, whereas in J the entrees are heated up in the servingware and just have to be taken out of the oven and brought right to the seat.). It’s too bad the A321XLRs are delayed for AA, because that means transcon F is sticking around longer than originally planned, and at this point it just need to be brought out to the pasture.
I wonder what AA mgt would say to this FA if they read this review? “This is not how we do things in premium”? Or “meh, this is how you were trained”. Customer service is learnt from top down. Can’t see why American (and Australian) FAs can’t be simply taught to be slightly more courteous (noting they don’t have to be formal like Asian airlines necessarily). Always feel bad ordering an extra drink on an American airline (often greeted with a slight nod loll)
AA management would likely say “meh”. Or perhaps that they are spending too much on Chelsea. 😉
Ha!
Such a huge contrast to my recent A321 flat seat experience with super cordial service, personal greeting by the purser, great food etc- on a two hour flight. Of course that was on CI, so my expectations had been reasonably high to begin with, but they were comfortably exceeded.
This is a product of AA unable to effectively sell first class on any route and the cabin probably having 50% nonrev occupancy in aggregate. AA should have bit the bullet years ago and reconfigured these planes to remove first class and the galley (long, expensive retrofit), but instead left it in place to offer a terrible product.
I’d imagine the same goes in F on their longhaul routes as well. Mostly employees and sort of an easy workday for those flight attendant.
“vanilla ice cream topped in strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and walnuts.” Is this the cheapest desert US airlines can serve? That has been Delta’s official desert on international business class forever. I absolutely hate it as it is cheap ice cream full of sugar and corn syrup based toppings. Can’t they offer something a bit healthier?
To AA’s credit, it uses Haagen Daz ice cream which is quite good.
Did you see them get the ice cream from a Haagen Daaz container? Delta’s scoops come already inside the glass container in the food cart and you are offered different toppings. It is definitely not Haagen Daaz.
Santastico, I flew AA JFK-LHR in F 10 days ago. Yes, I saw the Haagen Daz container when they prepared my sundae.
I fly LAX-JFK regularly and mostly on AA. The service is usually quite good and AA’s catering, while never impressive, is substantially (immensely better than UA when it comes to quality and presentation) and sometimes better than what DL offers. The 321Ts are a little beaten up inside, notably the overhead bins and the frames around the First Class seats but I’ve found my experiences to be generally very good (clean cabins, polite service) and the Chelsea and Soho Lounges are really nice. Is AA massive out of NY? No. But there is something to be said for the often pleasant experience that is T8 at JFK vs the overcrowded, low ceilings, and terrible layout of T4. DL, UA, AA all have their pros and cons, but they essentially all do the same thing.
Blaming management for the actions of employees is just plain lazy.
Leadership comes from the top. It genuinely wouldn’t surprise me if these people are never trained and of course asking one flight attendant to do all this work in first class is just ridiculous.
The FAs don’t receive any special training to do the T service as far as I understand, and having 5 FAs instead of 6 was a cheap move they blamed on Covid and it’s not coming back. That said usually the FAs awarded these pairings are more senior and enjoy only working these transcons, so sometimes they provide nice touches that are entirely their own and it’s not from leadership. They’re just gonna drag the T out until the XLRs arrive. The seat back entertainment is becoming unreliable on the Ts they break down often.
I reached the same conclusion about F on the A321T, though with a different route to get there. In my case, service was good, Flagship First Dining (this was pre-pandemic) was fantastic, and the onboard food was absolutely dreadful. It just feels like AA can never get everything working together at the same time with their premium product.
I wish you would review the AA 321 neo that flies daily from Phoenix to Maui. It is a truly wretched first class experience on a 6-hour flight. No video screens. Seats from the row ahead recline into your dinner tray. Cramped. Aeroflot would be proud. Give it a look sometime, Matthew. You’ll be horrified at what AA purports to be first class.
Too bad, so sad on AA. Typical.
Let’s just say that this isn’t Turkish Airlines catering, which they are able to do even on a 1 hour flight in business class.
You got a lot more food than I did on a recent flight in BC to London!! I agree about needing more than 1 FA up front. Sadly, AA is going cheap on staffing and it recently bit them in the rear with a cancellation out of DUB when someone got sick and all of the sudden they didn’t have minimum crew. My last flight reminded me of walking through Sears a few months before closing their doors. Depressing, sad and could have been avoided.
But you arrived safely.
Thank you to eluding to the fact that this is a management issue. That FA probably got thrown into that position knowing nothing. Before COVID, there were 2 FA’s dedicated to first class on the 321T. Now just 1.
Was the Jack the hole card and the dealer showing a 5?
After the sh!T on the window, and “You can just brush it off…” I couldn’t read any more. It’s not whinging, it’s common sense and courtesy. What a totally useless stewardess to be so untrained in a First Class cabin. And yes, I used the word stewardess. Go melt, my leetle snowflakes…
December 5, 2023 at 10:00 am
The issue I saw there was the disgusting woman having a feet up with shoes on
I say that because you complained in the article about scuff marks and deterioration. There is your reason why this happens and you actually supported it and complained about it at the same time.
You are full of shit. Stop riding for free and complain at the same time. This job seems to be difficult with whining people like yourself. I would have lost my shit doing this job if I have to listen to you on an airplane
Excuse me?
“I daresay the wood grain was WARPED in my first class seat!” (monocle popping)
The rich should be killed and eaten.