After an uneventful flight from San Francisco and a night at the Element DFW Airport, we made it to the airport at around 10AM for our 12:15PM departure. Our flight was leaving from the D Concourse, which was especially convenient, given that the American Express Centurion Lounge is located there. We spent about an hour…
Continue reading: Review: American Business Class 777-300ER Dallas To Hong Kong
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It's a Dragonair A320, an Air China 737 and an Air China 737. (Guys, I can't tell A320s from 737s, I can just tell between airlines.)
Lucky, I'm dying to know how was your experiences at OZ A380 F compared to those of KE.
And R U staying at Grand Hyatt Incheon ?? (near ICN)
Alvin's right on, wrong identification there....the last plane in the lineup is Dragonair not Air China, and most likely A320. The only other narrowbody KA flies is A321....definitely not a 737.
Your experience with the new-hire was interesting because it matched my own (although mine was in Coach :)). AA135 LHR-LAX back in August: Most of the crew were the usual 'average service' crew but one guy, very young so clearly a newer member of the cabin crew, was fantastic - friendly, helpful and pro-active. It made my first TATL in the back (for over 6 years) slightly less painful....although having seat 16J helped a bit too! Hoping to see more and more new hires on my LH routes.
Though LH usually flies 747-8I's to HKG, I'm pretty sure that's a 747-400. The engine nozzles are way too big to be the GEnX's that the 747-8i have, versus the large nozzles of the GE-CF6, the engine of choice for LH and their 747-400's. The other giveaway is the winglets, which the -400 has, and the -8i doesn't have. If you have a larger version of the photo, send it to me, as I'm curios which one it is.
"It’s actually something that was interesting about the crew. The four (or so) Mandarin/Cantonese speakers on the flight had been hired within the last few months, and were hard working and friendly. Then the other flight attendants weren’t quite as good."
My experience indeed. I like these Asian flight attendants, younger (not directly mentioned above, but I'll bet the farm), energetic, actually looking to make you enjoy the flight, moving efficiently(not larded down by fat). American conterpart are older, maybe cant retire from bad economy, slower, dont know what service is - individualism, just wanted to feed you then go to sleep.
@ mclots -- I'll have a post with my initial thoughts tomorrow! And nope, not doing the Grand Hyatt Incheon -- I'm in the city.
@lucky, Thanks!!
By the way, Welcome to my country & my city!! It's 3AM, what R U doing now? haha
I took this flight on August 26 and had a very similar experience, at least until we touched down at HKG. But that day instead of getting a gate, they put us on a remote stand and we had to be bussed to the terminal. It was not well organized and we were packed in like sardines. In the extreme heat and humidity, the bus transfer was a decidedly non-premium experience.
Lucky, how could you not like Looking? It was one of he best shows on HBO this year and Jonathan Groff is so cute!
@ Jeff R -- Ouch! Have never done a bus transfer at Hong Kong Airport. That must suck!
Lucky, many people on flyertalk consider row 4 on AA 77W noisy because of the galley directly behind it. Noisy enough to disrupt sleep. What's your experience? I have only taken row 9-11 on AA 77W before, and hope to hear your opinion. row 3 and 4 are definitely a lot more private.
@ Mark -- I've sat in row four a handful of times and never found it to be especially noisy. I'd still take it over the main cabin any day, personally.
Another resident of Seoul here, long time reader. Must say this blog has helped me out more than once over the past year booking tickets. Next time you hit Korea send me a email we should get the Seoul readers together for a few beers
Ouch to no views from Dallas, given that I am from here. But, true. Would you take AA over Cathy Pacific on this route? (I'm assuming not, but interested in your comparison).
Hey Lucky nice report. I'd like to know what you thought of the noise of the galley since you were in the mini-cabin.Sounded like you were able to sleep just fine. One my one trip DFW-LHR AA 50 in the late afternoon, I found it incredibly noisy any loud due to meal service. Plus they left the lights on way longer then they did in the main C cabin, so that also made it hard to sleep. Wondering if I was juts not lucky :).
Sitting down with the morning latte, yippe Ben's got a blog update, lazy wake up. Defineatly moving it from Aviation to Entertainment. Then "friend comment" another long term follower! Was the champagne so bad in business you went for melted ice? DFW has some of the longest long hauls in the world, when traveling to USA and they say we can get you to DFW my first reaction is where am I? Almost got booked in SYD-DFW anything more than 12 hours needs a stop over even in F. On long haul the food @ the bar is normally allowed to run out for the second half of the flight.
@ Joe -- Soon they'll have a reconfigured 777 with a new business class but no first class product, which I wrote about here:
https://onemileatatime.com/american-777-new-business-class/
In terms of their 777 with a first class product, here's what you can expect:
https://onemileatatime.com/lost-in-translation-american-airlines-first-class-los-angeles-to-tokyo-narita/
As far as Cathay Pacific vs. American, if booking a paid economy ticket I'd book American so I can upgrade to business class. But if flying confirmed business or first, I'd choose Cathay Pacific.
Another awesome report Lucky! Wow I'm surprised First and Business class were both full yet economy was only half-full. Do you think Business class was overbooked and thus they had to upgrade some J folks to F?
After the flight, would it be reasonable to send a complaint to AA that the antenna was broken and thus you weren't able to do some work? Obviously all AA can do is apologize but I'm curious whether they'd be willing to give a few AAdvantage miles in lieu of your inconvenience.
@ Joey -- Business was presumably mostly full with upgrades, while there were at least five non-revs in first class. So it was full in the sense that the seats were occupied, and not that they sold them (unfortunately for them).
Ultimately I'm happy the wifi eventually kicked in and it is a third party that provides the wifi, so I didn't really feel like complaining.
@jaimie, the armrest on the aisle side pops up. @lucky, this is essentially the same hard product as the one offered in F on the A321, correct?
just finished two CX legs to HKG and back. outbound via YVR with a 2-hr stop where we weren't allowed to leave our seats. ends up being close to 20 hours BIS. not pleasant -- and that's even with the amazing friendliness and service in CX F. just so so long to be sitting on a plane. really wears on you. enough complaining.
i was chuckling reading this report imagining how an AA FA would react to some of the same requests that CX FAs are more than happy to oblige.
I was on this flight the day before you in 3J. The miso glazed sea bass was good enough that I ordered it again on the same flight a couple weeks later. Wifi was working as expected, FA's were old hags who should have retired in the 80s. Much better male FA's on the 138 flight.
A couple of commenters above mentioned that this plane was loud, I agree. Someone else asked if you'd take AA over CX. Normally, no I wouldn't, but if I take AA metal, I can burn a SWU and bump up to J I'd do it in a heartbeat (and did, twice) since my company does not pay for business class.
@ Christian -- Have you tried the champagne American serves in business class? 😉
Lucky, how do you know there were 5 non-revs in first? Assuming they weren't flight crew members in uniform, how did you know?
@ Al - There was a US$800 fare from SFO - DFW - HKG and there was comfortable biz upgrade space. Y -> F isn't that likely.
Hi Lucky!
Hope you are enjoying Seoul on your current trip. Considering it my second home after LA, hope you get to check out the city areas north of Han river- Gangnam is too jaded and overrated. The spirit of Seoul and korea is definitely north of the river- visits to several palaces and sections of old town dating back several hundred years back should give you unique experience. Don't hesitate to wander off into back alleys, there are a ton of hidden gems and interesting shops.
Lastly, next time you transit through ICN, be sure to check out the only official Chinatown in all of Korea, in Incheon. They got some of the best dumplings around.
Enjoy your trip and look forward to your report (and eventual meet up with your favorite non-Taylor person in the world)
@ JohnB -- Flight was F5 (meaning five seats were left for sale in first class) and there was no one on the upgrade list.
@ Al -- Because I booked a cheap economy fare and was lucky to upgrade to business class. No way to get first on a reasonably priced paid ticket.
Ben- You wrote, "I had selected seat 4J, which is located in the mini cabin, consisting of just eight seats spread across four rows." I think the mini cabin has just two rows.
Why does Air France fly a A380 to HKG? Is there that much demand?
Can you use Systemwideupgrades on flights with an AA number but operated by another airline?
It's worth spend more (money or miles) just to fly AA First Class?
@ AlanT -- You can't, it has to be American metal. As far as whether it's worth it to spend the money on American first class, all depends on the route and cost, in my opinion.
Math doesn't add up: "eight seats across four rows" in the mini cabin, but isn't the config 1-2-1?
Didn't you mean to put 16hr50min under the flight information instead of 15hr50min? Otherwise a flight time of 16hr25min would be way behind schedule.
Regarding the food, the selection appears to be meat, meat, or meat. Even the omelette has meat in it. 🙂 Would be nice to have some fish for example. And there's no choice of appetizer, just one selection. Guess we're spoiled by EY and CX...
Hi Lucky,
I will be flying from DFW to HKG in early December. I have the seat choice of 3D, 3G or 7J. Which one would you recommend? Especially for 7J, I'm just wondering if there is good HK skyline view when the night falls. Am I gonna be able to see anything? Or I should just stick with either 3D or 3G for the privacy?
Thanks a lot.
Nick
Hi Lucky, I just booked Dfw-Nrt-Cgk this coming April.
Never flew on 1st class before, so I'm really pumped up.
I live in Atl and been looking for the flights for a while before i decided that route.
The reason was mainly because i can't find JAL or Cathay flight from other airports "Jfk and Ord" that will work with the layovers and they don't have 1st class availability at the moment, and i better book 1st class cabin before the devaluation.
Question is,
Do you think they'll charge me extra points if suddenly 1st class from JAL and Cathay open up and i decided to change my otinerary. Since they are from the same class.
And worst case scenario, I'll still be flying on AA-777 from Dfw-Nrt, do you know if that's the older 777-200, or the 777-300er?
Thank you.
Well, just changed my seat to 3J after reading this article, best seat in Business?