Review: American Airlines 777-200 Business Class To Hawaii

We’re currently vacationing in Hawaii (which requires pre-travel testing), and in this post I wanted to review our flight here. Specifically, we flew American Airlines from Tampa to Dallas to Maui, with the second segment being operated by a Boeing 777-200.

In this post I wanted to review the experience on that 7hr40min flight, both to a give a sense of what service is like on American in the coronavirus era, and also to review American’s 777-200 business class, as I’ve never written about it before. On the return flight I flew United’s 787-9 business class from Maui to Chicago, and you can read that review here.

How I booked American Airlines business class

For our four tickets, I redeemed miles for three and paid cash for one:

• Business class awards from Tampa to Dallas to Maui were available for 45,000 American AAdvantage miles one-way each, which is quite a good deal
• I booked a paid business class ticket for ~$900 one-way for myself, which is quite a good price, and that will earn me lots of elite qualifying and redeemable miles

American 777-200 business class layout & seating

American has two types of business class seats on Boeing 777-200s. Some planes still have Zodiac business class seats, while others have Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats.

Our flight from Dallas to Maui was operated by a 777-200 with Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats, which I’d consider to be the better of the two business class seats. Ultimately this is a pretty generic product, which is to say that lots of airlines have these seats. However, I have to say that I find American’s version to be among the sleeker ones out there.

American has 37 business class seats on the 777-200 — there’s a forward cabin with 21 seats, and then a rear cabin with 16 seats. The two cabins are separated by the second set of doors, where there’s also usually a walk-up bar on long haul flights, though nothing is being offered there at the moment.

American Airlines 777-200 business class walk-up bar

I assigned us the four seats in the last row.

American Airlines 777-200 business class cabin

American Airlines 777-200 business class cabin

American Airlines 777-200 business class cabin

I was in seat 10L, the seat in the last row of the cabin on the right side.

American Airlines 777-200 business class seat

I really do like the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats — they’re functional, and they have plenty of storage, with two compartments along the side of the seat.

American Airlines business class seat storage

The power outlets and entertainment controller are located inside one of the compartments.

American Airlines business class power outlets & entertainment controller

Then the seat can be controlled from a monitor next to these compartments.

American Airlines business class seat controls

The personal entertainment screen is in a fixed position in front of the seat, and underneath that is the tray table. This can be pulled out or pushed in, and when you pull it out far enough you can double the size of it.

American Airlines business class tray table & personal television

American Airlines business class tray table & personal television

The one downside to these seats is that the footwell is on the fairly small side, so when you recline your seat all the way it might feel a bit tight (but not problematically so, in my opinion, at least compared to some other seats).

American Airlines business class seat footwell

I appreciate how American has individual air nozzles on Boeing 777s, since not all airlines do. That really helps to avoid feeling too warm.

American Airlines business class individual air nozzles

For what it’s worth, below is a picture of the premium economy cabin on the 777-200, which is similar to American’s domestic first class.

American Airlines 777-200 premium economy cabin

And since most of us are flying a lot less right now than in the past, here are some wing views from departing Dallas and arriving in Maui — ah, I love flying!

View departing Dallas

View arriving in Maui

American business class food & drinks

Waiting at each seat upon boarding was a printed menu — the front side had the food selection, while the back side had the drink selection. Keep in mind that American still has scaled back service, and for that matter service may never return to how it was pre-coronavirus.

The menu & drink list read as follows:

While there were no pre-departure drinks, each passenger was handed a bottle of water during boarding.

Bottled water in American Airlines business class

About 30 minutes after takeoff carts were rolled down the aisle with drinks and packaged mixed nuts. I ordered some still water and a Diet Coke — all drinks were served in plastic cups.

American Airlines business class drink service

Shortly thereafter the meal service began — meals were all served on a single tray with everything covered, with an appetizer, main course, dessert, and bread roll. Fortunately American Airlines lets you pre-order your main course, so you can be assured that you receive your first choice.

The meal consisted of:

• A sundried tomato tartar with white balsamic vinaigrette, farro salad, and microgreens
• For the main course I selected the steamed sea bass with cilantro rice and ginger soy glaze
• A raspberry cheesecake tart for dessert

American Airlines business class meal service

I am so, so embarrassed by my horrible trip reporting here, as this clearly shows you how rusty I’ve gotten. I took a picture of the meal with all the packaging (to show how it’s presented), then meticulously removed all the packaging to get a picture of the meal without it, and then somehow forgot to take said picture.

I didn’t realize this happened until I later went to retrieve the pictures, only to find I didn’t capture one. If you can find the kindness in your heart to forgive me, please do. Ugh.

Anyway, the meal itself was fine. The sundried tomato tart had a bit of an odd flavor, the sea bass was decent but not really restaurant-quality, the bread roll could have doubled as a weapon based on how hard it was, and the cheesecake tasted exactly like those Philadelphia Cream Cheese cheesecake tarts I would sometimes have a couple of decades ago.

After the meal I had a cup of coffee.

American Airlines business class drink service

A little over two hours before landing, a pre-arrival snack was served. This consisted of two options — a fruit and cheese plate or a protein bowl. The fruit and cheese plate had cheese and grapes, while the protein bowl had a slice of turkey, half of a hardboiled egg, dried apricots, a slice of apple, and some grapes.

Both snacks were served with packaged sea salt flatbread and some packaged chocolate.

American Airlines business class snack service

American Airlines business class snack service

All things considered the food was decent enough, especially given the times. While the main meal was a good size, I will say that I wish the pre-landing snack would have been a bit bigger, given that this flight is longer than a London to New York flight.

American business class bedding

While perhaps not as good as United’s Polaris bedding, American’s Casper bedding is solid. Each business class passenger was offered a blanket and pillow, which made it easy to get comfortable.

American Airlines business class bedding

There were no amenity kits offered on this flight, for what it’s worth.

American 777-200 entertainment & Wi-Fi

American Airlines has a partnership with Bang & Olufsen, and each passenger was offered headphones. While these are objectively pretty good headphones, personally I far prefer the Bose headphones that American used to offer — I don’t find that these have very good noise cancelation. Am I the only one who feels that way?

American Airlines Bang & Olufsen headphones

American Airlines Bang & Olufsen headphones

American Airlines has an excellent entertainment selection on 777s, though the only thing I watched was the moving map, since I took the opportunity to work for most of the flight.

American Airlines entertainment selection

American Airlines entertainment selection

American Airlines moving map

American Airlines moving map

Speaking of getting work done, American’s 777s have Panasonic Wi-Fi, though pricing sure has increased over time. A full flight pass cost $35, while in the past the most expensive pass was somewhere around $20, if I recall correctly. On the plus side, at least speeds were decent (for long haul Wi-Fi) and there were no data caps.

American Airlines 777-200 Wi-Fi pricing

American business class service

The crew on this flight was lovely. The flight attendants serving my aisle were informal and genuinely friendly and caring. They quickly responded to all requests, and were even proactive about further service, whether it was another cup of coffee, or a water refill.

While the crew was fairly senior, I was surprised they weren’t more senior, frankly. Dallas is a senior flight attendant base, and I figured with international flying opportunities being fairly limited, that it wouldn’t get much more senior than a Maui trip like this.

Bottom line

We had an excellent flight on American Airlines from Dallas to Maui. While service has been scaled back significantly, it’s a treat to fly reverse herringbone seats domestically, the bedding was excellent, I was able to get work done, the crew was friendly, and the food was edible.

It’s definitely a sign of the times that this is the first time in 16 months that I flew in a reverse herringbone seat.

If you’ve flown American’s 777-200 business class, what was your experience like?