BAArcelonAA: American Business Class New York to Barcelona

Great comeback about this not being a real business class product! I burst out laughing in my office.

I've flown that route many times - jfk to bcn is one route that usually gets delayed a lot, but it's also where I had similar experiences with great crews on board. looking fwd to rest of your report, bcn is on my top list of favorite cities.

"Instead of making one for me he looked at me in pure horror as if I made an outrageous request and said “what do you think this is, a bar?” Of course he quickly followed it with a smile and suggested I take both and mix them on my own so I can have double the portion."

I would have smiled back and insisted he make me the drink I asked him for. That's his main job, not to make jokes, however nice his personality is.

@Andy
No reason to be a jackass to the FA when they are just trying to lighten up the mood. And as I'm sure you subsequently read, the FA gave him a double serving of the requested drink.

@Kris: right you are. And given how tiny AA's little wine glasses are, doubles are barely enough! 🙂

I had always wondered if the airlines read the travel blogs. Now I know for sure. A couple of days ago, I commented here on how AA hasn't had a single AA metal flight to Europe with 2 premium award seats available, for the past 3 months or so. Today, half of the dates from November thru April are available, including a couple days a month with non-stop LAX-LHR openings.

Now I know from experience that AA usually releases award seats in bunches, with nothing released in between. But 3 months of literaly nothing in any cabin, from any NA Gateway, for all 10.3 months months is unheard of. In fact, last fall when I booked my FC LHR flight for this August, September return, you could have any day you wanted, as long as you booked it 10 months out. Then all of a sudden nothing at all, for months on end.

So I posted my ranting and raving complaint here, and now just two days later, even though there is still virtually no FC availability, J is widely available for all of Nov-April. Coincidence? Maybe, but Occam's Razor says it's more likely that AA reads this blog, and figured they were likely to lose frequent flyers if they didn't open things up, than that

rather than that I just happened to reach my boiling point of frustation the day before they were going to open things up on their own.

Assuming that's true:

Good start, AA, now how about opening up some FC non-stops to Europe.....

Coins,
We did this trip last year. Same class of service + Le M on points. My only issue was that the flights attendants took 45 - 60 minutes to deliver the headphones... and that was after I asked for one.

A great crew certainly makes all the difference!

As a side note, is it just me, or is that “Lions Drift Pinotage” one of the worst wines ever bottled? When “reasonable prices” makes the first sentence of the description one has to wonder…

"is that “Lions Drift Pinotage” one of the worst wines ever bottled"

Speaking of Pinotage in general, yes. But I've had a couple of carefully selected Pinotages over the years that, well, at least they weren't "bad". Doing an internet search on 09 Lions Drift Pinotage, I found universally good comments on this wine. For a Pinotage, of couse. No one is comparing it to a Burgunday or Napa Cab.

The thing is, the list price on this wine is around $17, which means a grocery store price of $15, and if Costco carried it, it would be $11 or $12. My guess is that AA serves this obscure wine, since no one other than a wine journalist from South Africa would know they are being served a $12 bottle.

Frankly, I'd expect a T/A Business Class flight to service something a bit better than that. In no way should it be the equal of the other red being served, the Beringer Alluvium, for which Robert Parker gives the 2007 a mediocre 88pts. Then again, the AA Carte doesn't list the vintage for the Beringer, so who knows....

By way of comparison, I've seen the Beringer Alluvium on sale at Safeway for around $17.

@Kris

Um, smiling and asking the FA do DO THEIR JOB is not being a jackass, regardless of how they lighten the mood. I wonder if the Swiss Air FA who didn't make Lucky the ice coffee would have been better received if she cracked a joke and gave him the ingredients and told him to make it himself. I realize that was first class, but asking a FA in business class to make a passenger a drink when the flight is only half-full doesn't make somebody a jack-ass. As I said, it's their job.

Also

"the FA gave him a double serving of the requested drink."

Well, I guess Lucky could have ordered a second drink (if they had made it), but wouldn't that make him a jackass?

Thanks for the great articles. I will be flying this route this upcoming June 2014 in the business class cabin for the first time. How comfortable are the seats on Americans product as compared to United/Delta/European airlines? Also, how willing are American flight attendants to let you switch seats to an empty one?

Also, do you know if/when this business class will be upgraded to American's new business class product if they are planning to do so? It'd be awesome if it was before my journey

@ Sean -- There's no way to know if that route will have the new business class yet unfortunately. Chances are it won't in June, only Zurich has been announced as having the new product so far.

I'd say the current product isn't quite up to par with most airlines with fully flat products, though I guess it depends what you're comparing it to.

The crew should let you switch to a different business class seat if there are empty ones.

Enjoy the trip!

Poor thing!!!! Douche!!! Did you actually enjoy Barcelona? I don't think so! You don't have the brain for that.