Our flight was scheduled to depart at 4:25PM, so we got to the airport at around 2PM, given that immigration and security lines can be quite long in Beijing. I won't be reviewing the ground experience much this time around, given that I reviewed my flight out of Beijing in American's old first class last…
Continue reading: Review: American 787 Business Class Beijing To Dallas
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Any recollection which center dividers were up and which were down in the middle seats in rows 6 and 7?
Good stuff, Ben. I'm taking AA 787 from LAX->ORD in two months (first class). My first time on AA. I'm seated in 1L which is attached. I almost switched assigned seats to 7A after reading your comments about the wobbly seats. But I noticed on the SeatGuru map that the rear-facing seat opposite 7A faces towards you. Could be wrong. Didn't like that, so I stuck with 1L. If it sucks, I'll probably switch to 7A on ORD->LAX leg. New fan, BTW. Love your blog.
Another AA dinosaur FA on board who claims to know everything about AA, but actually probably knows nothing.
Yet again another boring AA review.
Please mrs schlappig try something different.
I guess the "Express Connections" guy really didn't want to report you for your picture-taking 😉 or he's color-blind, one or the other.
Some poor guy in a blue sweatshirt was detained. 🙂 Too bad about wobbly seats, they mar an otherwise great cabin. The food looks delicious.
Flew Shanghai to Chicago yesterday and had the exact same menu. Good crew in Business but compared to Asian carriers very average. The crew was accommodating when asked for anything; however, one had to initiate requests instead of being asked. I was only there for one night on business so had the same crew coming and going - and the same seat and flight attendant!
@ Ben — When an entree is as bad as that, why not send it back and ask if they have any other options remaining?
A few times I've had to do this business class (and once in First). I've never had any resistance and have always been accomodated.
JRL
Glad to hear the crew from PEK-DFW was good. I've flown HKG- DFW twice on AA and will try to avoid AA and ONLY fly CX in the future. The CX crew and food are heads and tails above AA. I'd rather fly CX HKG- LAX and then LAX to DFW than have to put up with the surly FA crews on the AA HKG- DFW flight.
Lucky, in an earlier post you said,
“The one thing that’s awkward about the seat is that for the most part someone is staring right at you, or you’re staring right at someone, depending on whether you have a forward or rear facing seat.”
Can you talk more about this? Which seats have you staring at someone or vice versa? Thanks.
The ginger scallops out of Beijing are the only airline meal I have ever complained about. I have extensive tolerance for bad food (I expect it in airplanes), but this dish is just terrible. The texture of the scallops was disgusting (as Ben says), and there was no discernible ginger flavor, or any other flavor for that matter.
Lucky, how's AA's biz class seats compared to CX's? I just got back to Asia from SFO on CX's J class, I found the seats too narrow to have any comfortable sleep. I did not realize CX's flights out of SFO do not have first class cabin till it was too late. It sure made me and my wife miss those wide CX's first class seats.
The food looked terrible, so the fact that there was so little of it, probably was a good thing.
This just proves the point how TERRIBLE US airlines are. Anyone going transpacific should think twice of being subjected to this (12-14 hours).
It just looked like pre-packaged stuff. That rice looked liked it was scooped out with an ice cream scoop (no it wasn't).
Toss in the surly service, and its time to fly with an Asian based carrier.
@Silver - CX does operate F from SFO to HK on only one of its daily flights, its the CX873 which leaves at 00:50 , their other flights only have biz and below
I don't understand how you think this is good?? This review just shows how crap AA is. Even BA is much much better - but you continue to slag of BA and suck up to AA like there's no tomorrow
Very nice review. Due to the nature of scallops, you just don't order them in those situations.
AA gets him seats on Etihad!
I wonder why AA can't offer a choice of appetizers the way other airlines do. Is it that much cheaper for them? Less work for the FAs?
So the food is all catered from DFW, even for the return?
Two 14 hours flights. A few hours before to load. How long is the plane on the ground in PEK?
Point is, the food you eat before landing on the return has been in carts, presumably refrigerated, for a day and a half. Or more.
How would any airline ever expect that product to taste good? Shouldn't they shoot a bit higher for a fare that's probably in the $4 - 6K range?
Water? I look forward to your comments about the champers and the wine. Are you on the wagon?
Surprised they are still serving the horrible scallops. First and only time I felt obligated to complain to an airline about the food, and this was over a year ago. I'm sure they've had a year of complaints about them directly or from the FAs who hear from the passengers.
ben, anyone that can assist on an off topic question
Will be spending 1 day in Singapore for the first time. Will arrive after a long flight and would like to stay somewhere close to the main attractions, few bars/ restaurants to have dinner, etc. My travel agent has proposed the following hotels, appreciate anyone's recommendations. Thank you!
Julian
FAIRMONT SINGAPORE
CONRAD SINGAPORE
HILTON SINGAPORE
SHANGRI LA SINGAPORE
SHERATON TOWERS SINGAPORE
GRAND HYATT SINGAPORE
WESTIN SINGAPORE
@julian, the Westin is by far the newest and is the closest to places like club street, Telok Ayer street etc where there are lots of nice restaurants and bars. Fairmont or Conrad works too but that's closer to South Beach/Chijmes. The rest are in Orchard road (Only good for shopping).
On the subject of this review, I'm sorry but the food looks abysmal. I kind of agree with @James
Hi Ben,
What seats will you recommend for a family of 3 (2 adults + 1 child) who would like to sit close to each other? If one of them sits in 7A would the other seats in that row be good? I have a business class booking from ORD to PEK in December and would like to pick good seats before they disappear. Thanks.
It wouldn't hurt AA to work on their menu offerings and food quality in all cabins. They're making huge profits now, there's no excuse not to give a little back. Maybe if enough people complain? I've had some very disappointing meals in International business class and I keep seeing the same items on the menus.
While typically nothing to write home about, the premium cabin food on AA is typically decent enough to satisfy hunger. I suspect what's making these meals absolutely disgusting is the roundtrip catering from DFW. That's so gross eating scallops that have been on board for probably close to 24hrs factoring in DFW-PEK flight time and ground time. It's almost bordering on being a hazard at that point. What if the chillers were off or something on the way over? ICK! I'm actually surprised they do this due to weight. It's twice the amount of meals needed on the way over (DFW-PEK). Interesting...and disgusting!
I just landed after the PEK-ORD flight, and sat in 6L which was surprisingly good (I had 1J on DFW-HKG for the outbound, which was also surprisingly spacious).
Same meal options, though I wisely preordered the duck. While not anywhere up to Beijing standards, it was at least edible. Pretty much everything else about the food, seat, lounge, and gate mirrored my experience.
I will say that the 12+ hour flight on the 788 felt significantly shorter than the 15+ hour flight on the 777-300ER, which I can only attribute to the better air quality.
@Lucky
I've flown Mahan Air a couple of times and it's surprisingly nice compared to Iran Air. Privately owned it boasts new interiors and really good catering on board. It will be interesting to see where they take this product now that the sanctions have been lifted.
Hi Guys, meant to flying LAX-LHR on an AA 772 in August in Business, have all the 772s been retrofitted to flat beds now? Dont want to be on angled flat-thanks!