At the time of booking, we got a very good price with American Airlines from JFK to Los Angeles with a connecting flight to Vegas. We had, years ago travelled from Heathrow to New York with AA and found them to be fine. The plane was advertised as a Boeing 767 so we thought there will be some sort of In flight entertainment, although it won’t be as good as V-Port.
An email from AA the previous day, advised us when we could check in online. The hotel wanted about $15 to use wifi, so a visit to Starbucks at Grand Central for a coffee and use the free wifi and we were checked in ok.
We took the New York Air Service bus from Grand Central to JFK and headed to Terminal 8 to drop the bags. Even though we had checked in on line the previous evening, we were directed to the self service machines to check in again. This was relatively simple, but it was not long before the first surprise, $25 each for our bags! No mention of paying for bags either at time of booking or at on line check in previous evening (unless it was hidden somewhere in the small print). Printed off boarding passes and then waited in line for the agent to take the bags and check our travel documents were in order. We then headed to security and it did not take very long for us to get through here. The Terminal 8 at JFK is a really good terminal (compared to T3 at Heathrow). A good range of shops and plenty of room to sit down and wait for your flight. We headed towards the Gate and found a Starbucks to have a coffee and bite to eat while we waited for boarding. Also bought some food and newspapers to read for the flight. Boarding started at about 1120 and it was fairly quick despite the flight being almost full. The seating plan showed the 767 as 2-4-2 so we had secured 2 seats together next to a window. The first thing that struck me when we boarded – no TV screens in the seat backs! It was a series of overhead screens that dropped down during the flight.
Left the Gate early and take off followed 20 minutes later, not bad for JFK as sometimes it seems to take forever to get from the gate to runway. Once we were airborne we were advised that it would be about 5 hours to get to LAX. The cabin crew came round with headphones for use with the in-flight entertainment - $2 each for the privilege! This was followed by a trolley service, soft drinks were free but food/snacks were available for a cost between $4 & $10. Luckily we had bought some food before boarding. AA flights now have internet access, you can use laptop or I-phone (if set to flight mode before take off) to get on line. It’s great to be able to use the internet while flying, but it costs! Access to aa.com was free, anything else and was about $7 for the flight. The food and drink trolley made a second appearance, other than that it was a fairly quiet flight.
We landed at LAX approximately 45 minutes early and it only took 5 minutes to reach the Gate.
There was no rush to get off the aircraft as we had a couple of hours connection time. We went to the AA flight connections desk and they confirmed that our connection was ok and told us what Gate it would go from. Plenty of time to have a good look round the Terminal and get some food and drink. Before too long and Boarding started, the plane was very small (a McDonnell Douglas MD80), with the seats 2-3. We had 2 seats together towards the front of the plane. The plane was very busy and it took a fair while to get everyone on board, the lack of space in the overhead lockers meant that large carry on bags had to be taken away by the cabin crew. Once we left the Gate it was only 15 minutes before we were airborne. The flight only took 41 minutes, but there was still a free service of soft drinks. We approached Las Vegas from the South West landing over the southern end of the Strip with a superb view. Once off the plane we headed to baggage collection and bags were just arriving. A few minutes later we were in a taxi heading to our hotel and the bright lights of Vegas.
In summary, for the price paid (just over £100+tax) it’s good value if you consider the flight is 2,500 miles. Nowhere near as comfortable as flying Virgin Atlantic, the IFE is rubbish compared to what we’re used to(V-Port) and remember that everything (bags, food, IFE, Internet access) costs you on the day. But the flights were on time and were reasonably comfortable.
However, next time would be tempted to try a different airline to see how they compare.
