V-Flyer

So where were we? Oh yes we just arrived at the AA Flagship Lounge at JFK.

So, for one of AA’s headline lounges, I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t terrible, but just nothing special. It reminded me of the MIA lounge that VS use, but with (far) nicer furniture and a larger food selection. Apparently better booze but I didn’t look. The only staff walking about were collecting used items, not taking and orders. But there was free wifi so out came the iPad and the few hours soon passed.

We left the lounge a little too early, out of slight boredom and wanting to get down to Washington, so we had to wait about 5 minutes before boarding was announced. This was an American Eagle flight, and was an ERJ140, the smallest plane I have ever been on. Unfortunately they don’t offer First Class on this flight, but we thought as it was only an hour and 20 minutes we thought it would be ok in economy. We had chosen 4 B&C, the seats were “A” aisle “B&C” just 3 across. As there are few seats we were soon fully boarded and the door closed. Quick push back, but then we just stopped and sat there. We were told that we were waiting for our scheduled departure, about another 15 minutes. I was really starting to get uncomfortable in such a small and cramp environment, but once we were moving again and we took off I felt much better.

In the air the lone cabin crew did a drinks run, these drinks you had to pay for but he announced that customers who had connected from a same day OneWorld flight in First or Business then drinks would be free (as well as OW status pax). This was nice to hear as we didn’t know of this benefit. So we both had a drink, much needed in the extremely dry cabin air. After this I somehow fell asleep in the chair and woke up just before landing.

Once we had landed, turning off the runway at great speed and along the taxiways, we suddenly came to a halt, where we waited for about 10 minutes, within seconds of stopping the uncomfortable and fidgety feeling was back. We were waiting for our gate as we had arrived early, once on our gate the air bridge was quickly attached and we were out of the baked bean tin!

Thankfully, directly opposite the gate, were some much needed rest rooms! Upon exiting the no return point, we were greeted by our driver who was taking us to Mandarin Oriental and made our way to baggage claim. One of our bags was already there on the side, despite the staff insisting no bags for New York were there yet. True no bags were off from our flight so the lonely bag must have gotten an earlier ride. We had quite a long 15 minute wait for the bags, but then we were on our way into Washington and being greeted at a wonderful hotel.

Thanks for another good TR An excellent perk With the free drinks, it's the small things Talking about the small things, had a couple of flights on these small aircraft and I quite enjoyed the experience

Thanks!

Next time try the Acela Train

Thank you for the TR.