American has been flying their new Airbus A321s between New York and Los Angeles since last January, and suffice to say it’s a really nice product. American previously operated 767-200s on the route. While widebodies are nice, the planes were old and the hard product was outdated.
It’s interesting that American went for a premium configuration, which includes 10 first class seats, all of which have direct aisle access. This came at the same time that United was eliminating first class from their transcon routes, making American the only carrier to offer three cabin service between New York and Los Angeles.
I reviewed American’s A321 first class shortly after it commenced service on the route last year, so was curious to see how the product was holding up.
American 255
New York (JFK) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Sunday, January 4
Depart: 10:00AM
Arrive: 1:20PM
Duration: 6hr20min
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 2A (First Class)
Boarding started a bit behind schedule, and was done through the forward door.
American seems to consistently board A321s through the forward door, which I’ve never quite understood, as it means everyone boards through first class. The reactions to the first class product from other passengers is sort of funny, since it’s not often you see a 1-1 configuration on a narrowbody plane.
American A321 first class cabin
I was assigned 2A (sorry, the below picture is of 1F, as I didn’t take a picture of the actual seat on this flight), which is almost the same reverse herringbone business class seat that American has on the Boeing 777-300ER.
American A321 first class cabin
For a longhaul flight, a reverse herringbone seat is my favorite type of business class hard product. At the same time, American also has fully flat business class seats on the A321, so on a daytime flight it’s questionable how much better a reverse herringbone seat is.
American A321 first class seat
Some complain that the area by your feet is a bit tight with reverse herringbone seats, though personally I find it to be quite spacious.
American A321 first class legrest
To the left of the seat was an exposed storage compartment, where you can place headphones, amenity kits, etc. There’s also a power outlet there. American offers international business class amenity kits in A321 first class.
American A321 first class storage
Next to the storage area was an area with seat, lighting, and entertainment controls.
American A321 first class seat/entertainment controls
Waiting at my seat was a pillow and blanket, which are the same ones American offers on longhaul flights.
American A321 first class pillow & blanket
There were some Bose headphones. I love the fact that American offers these in first & business class on their longhaul flights. Even some top international carriers don’t have high quality headphones, which sort of blows my mind.
American A321 first class Bose headphones
Once settled in the purser offered us pre-departure beverages of choice. I just ordered some water.
American A321 first class pre-departure water
We were then offered lunch menus for the flight.
Since the A321 only has 102 seats, boarding was quickly finished, at which point the captain came on the PA to welcome us aboard and inform us of our flight time of 5hr50min.
American A321 first class cabin view
By the time the door closed the first class cabin was completely full. The most amusing part of the cabin had to be the Greek billionaire and his wife that were a couple of rows behind me. They were traveling with two babies and a dog, so they had their hands full, to say the least.
They were a bit abrasive with the crew at first, but got much better throughout the flight.
We pushed back about 10 minutes after schedule, at which point the safety video began to play.
View taxiing out at JFK
We taxied out to runway 22R, which took about 15 minutes. Once at the runway it was a 10 minute queue for takeoff. Finally at around 10:35AM we were cleared for takeoff.
Our climb out was pretty choppy due to some not-so-nice weather in the area, though once we climbed above the clouds the ride smoothed out.
American airshow New York to Los Angeles
Fortunately these planes have Gogo Wi-Fi, so I logged onto my computer and got some work done. Usually I find Wi-Fi to be excruciatingly slow on these transcons, presumably because you have a lot of people using it (despite the limited number of seats), but on this flight it was the fastest I had ever experienced. Maybe it’s because I was traveling on a Sunday.
About 30 minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off and service began. The lunch menu read as follows:
And the wine/beverage list read as follows:
Service began with warm nuts and drinks. Since it was early and I had a long day of travel ahead of me, I decided just to have a Diet Coke with lime. For reference, unfortunately American serves Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine in first class (the same they serve in the Flagship Lounge), which isn’t nearly as nice as the champagne they service in international first class.
American first class hot nuts & drink
After drinks the table was set for lunch. There were two tablecloths. The second one is removed after the main course, so you have a “fresh” table for dessert.
The stater consisted of marinated sesame shrimp with cucumber, and was tasty enough. I was also offered a selection from the bread basket, and chose pretzel bread.
American first class starter — marinated sesame shrimp
American first class starter — marinated sesame shrimp
The main course consisted of a tiny side salad with corn and black beans. The amazing thing is that up until a couple of years ago American had a salad cart they’d roll through the aisle where you could pick what you wanted, and it consistently had protein. Now they serve the same tiny side salad in their “Flagship first class” that you’d get on a domestic first class midcon flight.
American first class salad — seasonal greens with black bean and corn relish
For the main course I ordered the horseradish encrusted salmon. While the salmon as such wasn’t great, the horseradish crust was quite nice. The rice and spinach was tasteless, though. It definitely seemed to be the best of the three options.
American first class main course — horseradish encrusted salmon
One of my friends had the lasagna, which looked the same as what they serve in domestic first class.
American first class main course — Italian lasagna
And then the third option was a salad and soup.
American first class main course — poblano soup and southwest salad
For dessert I had a sundae with the strawberry topping and nuts.
American first class dessert — ice cream sundae
The purser working the aisle was awesome. He was friendly and attentive, so I can only say good things about him. That being said, it’s really quite sad to see how far the service on American’s transcon flights has slipped.
The crazy thing is that American invested so much in this new product and in keeping three cabin first class, yet they do nothing to differentiate the service. The food is more or less identical to what they serve in business class, and that’s more or less identical to what they serve in domestic first class, minus the custom made sundae.
The meal service was done within about 90 minutes, and I was offered bottled water.
American A321 first class bottled water
I watched Frozen for the first time on my flight from London to New York the night before, so while going through the music selection I was so excited when I saw there was a “Let It Go” remix, which I listened to about 12894384o82x times on replay.
American A321 first class entertainment
Here it is, for anyone that’s interested (though I still prefer the original):
I worked for the next several hours. It’s worth noting that there’s a snack basket in front of row one if you’re hungry, which has some decent options as far as packaged junk goes. Then about an hour before landing freshly baked chocolate chip cookies were offered, though I passed.
About 30 minutes before landing the captain came on the PA with updated arrival information, informing us of our anticipated on-time arrival.
American airshow New York to Los Angeles
American airshow New York to Los Angeles
After spending a while in Europe I was thrilled to see the sunny and warm weather in SoCal.
View on approach into LAX
We touched down on runway 25L at 1:15PM, though it took us about 20 minutes to get to the gate. First we had to wait to cross runway 25R, and then there was congestion on the ramp, so we had to wait for a few planes to push back first. At least we had a nice view of Tom Bradley International Terminal while waiting.
View upon landing at LAX
View upon landing at LAX
We bid farewell to the crew, and headed outside a bit before the connection to Honolulu.
American A321 First Class bottom line
American’s A321 first class hard product is great. I do love reverse herringbone seats, and for a narrowbody plane it’s an extremely impressive product. That being said, it’s sort of sad how bad the soft product has become.
There’s a huge opportunity cost to having reverse herringbone seats on a narrowbody plane, given how you could fit more business class seats in the same space. So it really does puzzle me that American has no problem taking up all that space with those seats, but at the same time the service is more or less the same as in business class, not to mention that it’s only marginally better than what you’d usually get in domestic first class.
If you’ve flown American’s A321 first class, what was your experience?
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