After my tiring status runs, I had a quick overnight in Los Angeles, and I was headed to New York early the next morning. I was staying with a friend and luckily I got some decent sleep and woke around 4 and left for the airport in an Uber at 5. Sadly I didn’t get Pre-check for this flight so made sure I had sufficient time for the 7 am departure.

Luckily the traffic into the airport was minimal. American have a nice Flagship check-in for flights in their ‘Flagship First’ product and Concierge Key members.

The check-in area is a nice part of the flagship experience, and it can greatly reduce waiting in lines, I was already checked in on my phone, but they insisted in printing a hard copy.

 

 

I was escorted to security and was done within 10 minutes. I then took the T4 connector to visit the Qantas first class lounge only to find the lounge opened at 6:30, right when boarding started Damn.

I have never seen TBIT so quiet if only it were like this in the evening. I walked back to T4 and decided to visit the Admirals Club and Flagship Lounge. Both are getting renovated at the moment, and they should look pretty good once the upgrade is finished.

I had visited the Admirals club many times as a kid when Qantas used to fly out of T4. It brought back some fond memories as I walked passed the lounge.

The Flagship lounge was very quiet and only had about six guests at the time. I spent about 15 minutes in there before walking down to the gate.

The lounge had food and beverage available, but I wasn’t feeling hungry.

I left the lounge and walked to the gate where boarding has just started. American do priority boarding quite well compared to other Oneworld carriers I’ve flown. I settled into 1F and started taking photo’s but then realized I was supposed to be in 1A, whoops.

The first cabin is in a 1-1 config, and the seats are in a Reverse Herringbone layout.

The cabin was full, and boarding was finished on time.

The seat is spacious and comfortable; the seat is nearly identical to the 777 long-haul business class.

American provide an amenity kit for the flight which I thought was nice, even for a day flight.

 

As with most herringbone seating the IFE screen has to be latched away for takeoff and landing which can be a pain if you want to watch something at that time.

I love that American use Bose Quiet Comfort 15’s headphones. However, they used to have the 25’s which are the newer ones.

Now back to my proper seat 😉

The crew came around to distribute menus and offer a pre-departure drink. I went with Orange juice.

The menu has a few options to choose from, for this flight I went with the fruit plate and omelet.

 

 

The meal service started shortly after we got to the top of cruise. First brought out was the fruit plate.

 

The cabin was dark for the entire flight which was great for sleeping.

The fruit was nice and fresh.

The omelet was cooked well and had a strong taste. On previous flights, I had found some of the food to be bland and nearly tasteless.

The amenity kits are designed by Cole Haan and include the basic contents.

 

The flight was very smooth, and I managed to get around 4 hours of deep sleep.

 

 

Bottom Line

The flagship experience was very well done and I enjoyed really enjoyed the flight. I’m a big fan of Reverse Herringbone seating, and the privacy makes it easier to sleep.