Out to Palm Springs once more for a late 08 holiday, the forecast is toasty (mid 90s) and after a hectic period of work involving a lot of travel this is a holiday is very much looked forward to. So, from our first stop at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, heres a TR from yesterday.
The #1 and I had decided to drain some unused miles accounts, initially intending to book BA Club World we then fell into the trap of not realising that BA and AA miles are not usable on the other carrier transatlantic really silly but there we go. Hence, we ended up on different airlines and with different routings him direct me via Chicago. Then by fluke, I rechecked availability on the direct AA135 and managed to bag a seat on that and in first. We arrived into LAX within 30 minutes of each other in the end but more of that later
You know how the holiday really begins before you leave? All that frantic bag packing, forgetting key items, rushing around cancelling the milkman etc. rather wonderfully we managed to do everything with minimal fuss and eventually sat reading the paper waiting for the car to arrive. Different flights meant different terminals too, so I was dropped off at T3 and the #1 then headed to T5, Ill just have to wait a bit longer to visit it myself. Saturday lunchtime was relatively quiet outside T3 and I headed for the AA flagship check in or whatever it is, the little portakabin thing on the forecourt of T3 I really cant see how this helps the experience but checked in very quickly by a charming agent, BP for 3J in hand and I head in. Bizarrely, you cannot check in online for AA non-US flights (there may be exceptions in the Caribbean but not for transatlantic), but then the AA Web site is fully functional and seat requests and so much more are all well handled.
AA has two lounges at T3, the Admirals Club for AC members and business class ticket holders and the Flagship Lounge for first class. Having been in the FL recently (Jet Airways use it for business and first passengers on their flights to India), I knew all about it and had done my research first class or OneWorld top tier fliers may use any first class lounge in an airport if flying with another OneWorld carrier that day (thanks FlyerTalk) albeit that I think this is discretionary. This gave me a choice of the JAL first, Cathay Pacific first or AA Flagship Lounge. Cathay it was, I headed off past the transfer desks in the terminal and up the lift to it not a great location but once away from the hubbub it was very nice, although no windows to the outside world. I shared the first class lounge with one other person for two hours, couple of drinks, watched telly, ventured out to Hermes and back and was more than comfortable. Its no clubhouse but it was peaceful, nicely designed with a zen-ish tranquiliity and the staff lovely.
Since the AA lounge is sort of on the way to the gates AA uses, I headed off and stopped in there to check on boarding, still a little while to wait and another champagne (some obscure house that Id never heard of but quite tasty) and the papers kept me occupied for 30 minutes more so however was the couple who were videoconferencing with their daughter and grandchildren on his Mac Book Air (I want one!) very funny watching the process, the waving at the laptop etc. But, enough, time to trek to gate 21 the scum end of T3 and find the 777 that would take me to Los Angeles. Most had boarded, so no queues and straight on to the jet bridge and in to the first cabin and 3J.
By way of info, AA use 777s on all transatlantic routes from Heathrow, configured with 16 first, about 35 business and 200 odd coach seats. When the #1 and I first met we flew AA a lot, it was my companys choice of airline so we got a few extra benefits and at the time, being poorer (not sure if thats true given the current financial state of the world) we flew coach and used miles to upgrade at the time AA coach had the more legroom thing and food and drink and was actually quite good. As a frequent flier, I could also pre-reserve exit row seats. After 911, IMO, AA nose dived in all areas and it coincided with a change of jobs for me so we moved over to Virgin.
Anyhow, back to the first cabin its a fairly masculine design, all grey and steel coloured, the seating is 1 2 1 so for single travellers the window seats are the way to go. One thing I love is that they didnt remove air vents so you get four to each seat, great on hot flights. The seat is spacious, quite firm, all electric of course and bags of space around and at the window. The seat also has three swivel positions which is quite unique for take off and landing it faces forward, for reclining and sleeping it angles toward the window (you get three to each seat btw) making it great for looking out at the world and for working it can swivel to face the window directly. There are then two tables, one in the angled position for eating and another in the window facing position for working. This has just about the best working layout I have experienced, loads of space, easy to operate laptop, IFE, have drinks, spread papers around (that is if all four vents arent blasting them around the cabin ) and in the middle pairs of seats with the divider down it almost makes a conference table!
Anyhow, I am going on take off was delayed by connecting pax and also by cargo, we moved off the gate about 40 minutes late. The captain didnt seem too inclined to keep us informed, sort of lazily mentioned it about 30 minutes after the scheduled departure. Pre flight drinks were in plastic glasses, the horror, only a basic newspaper selection and no magazines. Three cabin crew for first and a full compliment of 16 passengers so I presumed, a number of upgrades since the day before it was half empty. We were away after another 20 minutes or so and quickly climbing (777s do go up quite fast compared to 340s!).
Our cabin crew then started drinks orders had been taken on the ground (I wish VS would do this) and proffered nuts or little bowls of parmesan and roast vegetables. All three of the FAs in first fitted the category of long-time AA stalwarts they were fine, just not very jolly, very matter of fact yet no real complaints. Amenity kits were waiting (a useful bag of bits and pieces and a useful bag too!) but no jimjams. I noted with interest the order in which meal orders were taken, having read about this, with the purser dotting around the cabin until she came to me apparently they do it by status so AA Executive Platinum holders and first class ticket holders get their choice first, I came about half way through being on a miles seat which sort of validated my assumption of a lot of opups.
The menu:
to start: a choice of nuts or marinated cheese antipasto
appetiser: smoked salmon and honey ginger shrimp
the salad cart: freshly tossed salad
main course options: beef fillet with porcini mushroom crust and bordelaise sauce with fennel and poached olive potatoes OR chicken roulade with asparagus and dauphine potatoes OR parsley cheese crusted salmon OR cheese tortellini
dessert: ice cream sundae
cheese
There is a dine upon request option.
The wines:
Pommery Brut Champagne
Pascal Bouchard Chablis Vieilles Vignes
Spy Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
Freemark Abbey Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Chapoutier Croze Hermitage Petite Ruche
Emilio Lustau Sherry
Grahams Vintage Port
Generally, the food was excellent, I had the beef and while AA may be renowned for it, it did work for me. The cheese was a joke though. In the vein of Mr Long I tried all the wines bar the port and settled on the Spy Valley and Freemark Abbey through my meal.
Dining took us through to about 3 hours into the flight, and a very northerly route with a flight time of 10 _ hours. After eating I swivelled to the window facing position and worked half heartedly for a couple of hours AA use a cigarette lighter style power port and no silly fussing about batteries out etc. Following this I took a tour through the IFE fairly recent AVOD on AAs 777s and a very wide selection of films, TV programmes (like the whole first series of Mad Men for example, so much better than on VS were frequently you just get one or two episodes offered). The screen in first is only 8or so but of high quality however, whoever designed the interface and navigation on screen for the system should be fired, its terrible. With Sex and the City on, I reclined the seat and slunk it torpor waking a couple of hours later as we headed over the US / Canada border with 90 minutes to go before landing.
A nice pre-arrival touch was a glass of chilled water with a citrus and mint garnish.
Despite the late departure, we arrived on time into gate 41 at T4 in LAX, AAs terminal. Meaning a walk underground to Tom Bradley and the immigration and customs hall. What a god awful place this is, OK under construction maybe but all the same, welcome to America it is not! Anyway, it didnt take too long although priority baggage was not very effective. The #1 followed through within 30 minutes and we met our Peninsula Hotel greeter and were driven by the wonderful Joe to Beverly Hills.
AA did what they said they would on the tin. Nothing more. I wouldnt pay for it but for just the taxes, I couldnt complain. Its certainly spacious (as you would expect), great for working, good food, but other than that theres absolutely no panache.
Coincidentally, the #1, who I thought would like BA Club World, being a small c conservative and a bit traditional, pronounced it completely mediocre. Id got him upstairs on a 747 and a window seat, he hated looking at the person next to him, that the privacy screen goes up and down whenever theres an interaction with the crew, climbing over his neighbour and said that the food was terrible. He compared it very negatively to Upper Class and were both looking forward to getting back to normal business on Virgin for our next holiday!
There's a plane at JFK, to fly you back from far away
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
all those dark and frantic transatlantic miles
