American Airlines Just Served Me Caviar. No, Really!

Do you think your ground treatment was because of who you are? Any non-famous bloggers have similar experience? If so, I am very impressed, good to see them trying!

I wonder if your file at AA has '"VIP blogger, influential on social media" on it.

Let's see if they are doing this in 12 months for Jane Blogreader...

By attending recent American Airlines press conferences the team is really focusing on providing a much better on board service. The AA executives and President of AA Mr.Kirby mentioned to me that they are truly striving to offer something else and enhance the customer experience and the major focus for them has been the SYD route while also trying to expand things to new markets which I strongly agree with you Ben as this will give American a new buzz because I know some can say that their AA on board experience has been "blah". I am happy to see that you had a great fight - i am booked on this service February 6 so I am keen to see the improvements made and see what American has done. I strongly encourage AA that they step-it-up on their DFW-HKG flight which is also a powerful one within their network. Cheers Ben!

I really have to agree with what you mentioned on how WHAT employees have to offer often does impact the WAY in which they offer it. Yes, every airline has its bad apples (and there's certainly a fair amount of that on longhaul flights operated by US airlines), but often, I do feel that if you give employees in a service industry a product to be proud of, it will provide extra motivation to provide good service to the customers.

Does anyone know how American is performing on the route so far? Was this flight full?

"In true Australian fashion, I was served a salad of baby gems with lemon vinaigrette along with my main course."

I'm confused as to how that's Australian.

"While the beef was overcooked, it was still one of the best steaks I’ve had on American."

LOL. Quite the compliment there, Ben.

Dear AA, your steaks suck. This one, however, totally sucked less.

@eponymous coward please don't bring me into this.

"which was served with olives and crisps."

Oh God, you're American, just say potato chips.

@Mark- the flight loads leading up to Jan 1st going LAX-SYD were WIDE and I mean wide open. 100-200 seats on the plane. Coming back after Jan 1st SYD-LAX the flights were pretty full, maybe 10-20 seats.

This is really great to read! I recently did a red-eye from DFW-LHR in first on a 777-200 and, honestly, was pretty impressed with the crew's attentiveness too. Champagne was offered in a real glass as well and the FA working my aisle refilled me at least two times without even asking! During the flight my wine glass was never empty and the FA even worked to convince me to get some port with my sundae. Most impressive of all was the FA noting that I was going to change into pajamas and turning my seat into a bed while I was in there. It feels so dumb to note these things that would be considered bare minimum on an international carrier, but, it gives me some hope that AA is working on trying to improve the soft product - cant wait to get on this SYD route in the near future!

MU and CZ offer reverse herringbone 1-2-1 in their J class, B773ER TPAC too.

Hi Ben,

Do you think EX Plats would have access to the lounge as well even if flying on business?

How was the spa treatment?

Thanks

@Aaron,

LOL - Exactly what I was thinking!

I know the outbound flights from LAX > SYD have been weight restricted lately, perhaps a lot of cargo?

I'm far more impressed with smoked celeriac soup than with caviar.

I admit I had to google "baby gems"...had never heard of that before. And also LOL'd at the American calling chips "crisps". 🙂

AA is in joint venture with QF! That's standard QF First service! Who want to pay QF and end up on AA flight otherwise? Good on AA lift up the game! Make sure improve your lounge service in Dallas as well AA!!!! It's terrible you have to pay for food at your lounge! Maybe QF should charge all AA passengers for food in Australia!

@Kris

"Do you think EX Plats would have access to the lounge as well even if flying on business?"

Since EX Plats are all OW Emeralds you would have access to the Qantas First Lounge regardless of the cabin you fly (as long as it's in a OW flight of course!)

Did all F pax get this escorted service? Or was it just one F pax?

I have only ever flown business but I love the little touches that first class brings, one day I hope to sample it. Thanks for the review as always.

It's a shame LH doesn't make UA improve their services on joint venture flights

Some of this is slowly leaking onto other AA transpac services. I was on DFW-HKG and NRT-DFW in F this month - and on both flights pre-departure champagne was in a proper (non-plastic) flute. The meals were ok - not as many choices as you described above - nor the ability to mix and match. I will say - due to an 11 hour departure delay on the DFW-HKG leg - I asked to hold off on dinner until 8 or so hours into the flight (so I could sleep). They were willing to do this and did prepare the meal for me once I woke up and asked for it.

Not perfection for sure - but moving in the right direction. Now if they would just keep F on the 777-200s that is something we could all cheer about!

@Arcanum "true Australian fashion" refers to the salad being served with the main course. In the US the salad is not served with a main course but is served on its own.

Just agreeing with the 3-4 folks above that I'd like to hear Lucky's take on whether this was 'joint venture' service or 'blogger service.'

Lucky what was the champagne being poured in F class? also was there a marked improvement in the wine selection? In my opinion QF offers one of the best wine selection of any airline, they really showcase the best of Aus wine. It is shame the US carriers do not do the same, as you guys have some great wines, Oregon Pinots, Napa reds.

As nice as the food looks, as an improvement over what you were getting before...it still looks like top business class food as opposed to what you'd get in first class on other leading airlines.

First of all, thank you for the tip. I got match to the Hilton Gold Elite.
I have a question and am seeking any suggestions: as you know, United has made getting to the United Gold, Platinum of 1 K very very difficult with the qualifying dollar requirement. This year, all dollar amounts for all status have been increased. My issue is not that I don't fly enough miles, but in many cases, I have to choose United alliance partners and therefore not a United ticket, hence no qualifying dollar.

Question: other than spending $25,000 with my Explorer card to get waiver for qualifying dollar requirement, is there any other smart way to bypass this qualifying dollar requirement, if it is impossible to have a United ticket?

As an AA Intl FA (Purser) I am l, yes, mostly embarrassed by our presentation. It is a much better product when presented properly (no over cooked steaks...depends on who is in the galley). At the Purser conference last year, we were assured that if the new service does well on the SYD route, then it will expand to everywhere else. The service is different in ALL classes. Did anyone get a chance to experience BC or Coach (Y)?

They removed my 57,000+ FF miles because I couldn't fly for a year but they'll treat the people in these 8 seats like royalty.........unbelievable. Treating all passengers like you appreciate their flying your airline would go 100% further!

@kathie
Expiring miles is a fact of life, and while it sucks you lost all those miles, there's nothing you can do about it. You sign up for these programs, you play their rules.

Flying in F on LAX-SYD flight in Feb.. I wonder if the catering would be as good out of LAX....

Salad service in Australian restaurants and homes is AFTER THE MAIN COURSE to clean the palate, unless it has changed since I was last home a few months ago.

We are flying syd-lax in Sept, looking forward to reviewing AA BC.
Flying with "open mind".
(Not that it is important but I cannot find any Australian, including myself, who has ever heard of Salad after main, at home or in any restaurant. Yes enough about salad!)

Just flown AA 73 in Seat 2A, and like you, highly impressed!
I did AA 117 Transcon then AA 73, JFK-LAX-SYD and was equally impressed with the Flagship Lounge's reception and fresh food offerings at JFK as the service at LAX, where I was met and helped all the way by Karyn from AA Premium Customer Services ( and I'm nothing special).
Can't report on the Flagship Lounge at LAX because I was recommended the Qantas F Lounge (We're working on making the FL as good!)
The flight and food were as you described, and breakfast superlative, topped by two impossibly good triple shot latte/ espresso.
The seat was much roomier than I expected and in sleep mode (with TWO mattress pads and TWO large pillows) very comfy, provided you lowered the 4 inch arm rests on each side (the FAs did not know this!).
In short you review was spot on, they are really trying (the senior FA seemed anxious about getting things right), and this is 4 months later.
Oh, and the flight was full. 21 waitlisted for Y, no upgrade requests, 20 happy Y pax (hope the last one got on!), 16 happy Y pax sitting in J, and 4 happy J pax sitting in F!

Quit yer bitchin' about First Class on American, and "I don't know why they bother." You make a lot of great points, I like what you have to say overall, but not everyone cares about champagne and caviar. Some of use just like a nice big First Class seat. I actually was really looking forward to First on American to Hong Kong via Dallas, but I was able to change both departure and return to the non-stop on Cathay Pacific and who can beat a non-stop. I think the CEO of Cathay was actually on my flight. Oh and at HKG they let Business board through First, the horror! And at The Wing some rude guy claiming to be a former president at Philippine Airlines (as if that says much) complained and demeaned the poor front desk ladies into letting him into the lounge.

I have spent hours reading your blog. It's extremely helpful! As I stated in an earlier comment, I'm just so disappointed with the way the SWU's are handled. I understand it is part of the business and now I understand even more why it's taking so long to get off the wait list (party of 6 flying from MIA to LAX to Sydney on Wednesday, May 18th.) it's just very frustrating to have no clue whether we will be upgraded or not. And, we booked last fall and we were first on the wait list. We were chairman for 10 plus years on US Air, it just seems slightly unfair that we have to wait in limbo until we literally walk on the plane. Anyone with any advice on how to get off the wait list for an upgrade? Sorry for writing twice about the same thing. I'm just so frustrated and it feels good to get this off my chest.

Hey Lucky did you ever publish a full trip report for this flight? Just wondering!

The exceptional ground staff in SYD you mention can be attributed to Qantas (an exceptional airline in its own right). There are a few factual inaccuracies in your article I look forward to reblogging.

This service is now available on the Dallas to Hong Kong flight as of July 4th (I was on the debut flight for the new menu service) but does not include the ground service offered to first class passengers on the Sydney route.

I flew AA72 2 weeks ago in F class and the service improved even more from this one in 2016.