This is how normal people trAAvel, right?

Good morning from Madrid after a quick flight from Miami. While I managed to get a few hours of sleep, I can’t help but at least mention how lazy and rude the crew was in business class. I generally find service on American to be excellent, and I’ve only on a handful of occasions had service that I consider to be truly sub-par.

I flew roundtrip to Barcelona about a week ago and had phenomenal service in both directions. In both cases I talked to the crew and they commented about how frustrated they were with what’s going on at American right now, though said “as soon as I walk through the airplane door I put on a smile because you guys pay my salary.” A great attitude to have, and it was reflected in the humor and attentiveness with which they approached service.

Unfortunately tonight’s crew didn’t seem to have that mentality. The purser was actually pretty nice (she always asked how the food was, if I wanted anything else to drink, etc.), but the two flight attendants working the aisle couldn’t have cared less, and couldn’t have done a better job at showing it.

Both didn’t once smile, speak a full sentence to my friend or me, or pass through the cabin a single time except during the service.

When taking drink orders they simply said “drink?” Despite asking for a refill several times, each time the flight attendant asked whether I was drinking Coke or Diet Coke (look at the sheet on which you took meal and drink orders!). Compare that to the flight to Barcelona, where they didn’t just memorize my drink preference, but also my name.

Service was incredibly slow, and not on one occasion did they actually place anything on my tray table (including the meal tray itself). Instead they always handed it to me to put down.

After takeoff the purser asked whether we wanted to be woken for breakfast. My friend didn’t want to be woken up, though that’s not to say he didn’t want breakfast (it just means if he was sleeping he didn’t want to be woken up… seems simple to me). My friend was watching a movie when breakfast service began, though was ignored by the flight attendants, so he waved them down and asked if he could have breakfast. She responds with “well the manifest says you don’t want to eat,” and she almost walks away, though he responds “no, I was asked whether I wanted to be woken up for breakfast, not whether I wanted breakfast.” She responds with “well that’s not what the sheet says.” Unbelievable.

After breakfast media players were collected (American has Samsung Galaxy Tabs on the 767 in business class), and the flight attendant dropped the entertainment system of the guy seated across from me right in my, erm, sensitive area. She went to grab it and didn’t even apologize or say a word. You’re supposed to serve me hot nuts, not drop stuff on them…

Anyway, it wasn’t any one thing in particular that made this crew suck, though just a combination of everything. Passengers deserve a basic level of respect, be it in first class, business class, or coach, and when you don’t get that it’s pretty disappointing. Here’s to hoping these two individuals are part of the 15-20% of flight attendants cut with the reorganization (then again, they were very senior, so I suspect not).

Introduction
American Flagship Lounge New York, American Business Class New York to San Francisco
American Flagship Lounge Los Angeles, American Business Class Los Angeles to Shanghai
Park Hyatt Shanghai
Exploring Shanghai
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge Shanghai, American Business Class Shanghai to Los Angeles

I took the Maglev to the airport from Longyang Station,which takes about seven minutes at a maximum speed of 431 kilometers per hour (to the best of my knowledge it’s the world’s fastest train). While I think it’s more practical to just take a cab to the airport, there’s something fun about going 431 kilometers per hour.

Maglev

At our maximum speed

I made it to the airport around 5:45PM, right as check-in opened for my flight to Los Angeles. I waited in the first class queue and despite being the first person in line, the passenger being helped was taking forever.

Terminal

American check-in

The agent that checked me in nearly had a heart attack after five boarding passes printed out for my journey (Shanghai to Los Angeles to San Francisco to New York to Miami to Tampa). He simply had a confused look and said “I’ve never seen this many before.”

I headed straight for immigration and security, which was a painless process. From there I went to the Cathay Pacific lounge located near gate D68, which unfortunately doesn’t have a first class section (which I would have been entitled to use as a OneWorld Emerald). Like most lounges at Shanghai Airport it’s “open air” and on the second level of the terminal, so you hear all the boarding announcements, unfortunately.

Terminal

Cathay Pacific lounge entrance

The lounge was fairly empty and featured plenty of seating, though was unmemorable.

Cathay Pacific lounge

Cathay Pacific lounge

The snack selection was fairly limited, consisting mostly of cookies, finger sandwiches, chips, some dim sum, etc.

Snack selection

Snack selection

Snack selection

Snack selection

Magazine selection

Boarding started right on time at 9:05PM at gate D71 with first and business class.

Terminal

Gate D71

Once my boarding pass was verified there was an agent on the jet bridge checking passports, and then several agents doing “security checks,” which everyone had to go through. I’m used to these in other countries where they actually search your bags (I mean, that would at least add some theoretical layer of security), but here they simply asked “where are your liquids?” I opened my bag and pointed to them, and they said “okay, thank you.” Are they serious? First time I’ve seen the “honor system” used for security.

American 182
Shanghai (PVG) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Tuesday, January 31
Depart: 9:45PM
Arrive: 5:25PM
Duration: 11hr40min
Aircraft: Boeing 777
Seat: 9B (Business Class)

Once onboard I was welcomed by the flight attendants and directed to my seat in row nine, which is the bulkhead. Once again the crew seemed to be split between “senior mamas” and language qualified flight attendants. This flight is apparently one of the most senior for the LA base, so it was interesting that the language qualified flight attendants in business class were both under 30, while the non-language qualified flight attendants were at least double their age.

Within a few minutes I was offered a pre-departure beverage and went with a mimosa. American’s orange juice is barely drinkable, as is their champagne, but together they’re actually half decent.

Pre-departure mimosa

Boarding finished up within about 15 minutes as the flight was once again really empty. There were at most 10-12 of us in business class, so I had a set of two seats to myself.

Seats across from me

Business class

Before pushback the captain came on the PA to welcome us aboard and advise us of our flight time of 9hr59min, anticipating we would be almost two hours early. Holy cow. I guess the winds are really strong, given that the flight on the way out was almost an hour longer than usual.

We began a quick taxi to our departure runway, where we had to hold short because the flight attendants hadn’t started the safety video early enough, so we had to wait for about five minutes as they finished it. At the same time they passed out menus and amenity kits in business class.

Despite that, we took off at 9:43PM, still two minutes before our scheduled departure time.

After a smooth climb out the seatbelt sign was turned off within about 20 minutes, at which point I changed into pajamas and the service began, starting with the distribution of hot towels and Bose headphones.

Airshow

The dinner menu read as follows:

Service for whatever reason was very slow, as the flight attendants took forever to set up the cart. Eventually they were through the cabin with drinks and nuts. I ordered a Diet Coke with lime. Nut refills were offered a few minutes later.

Diet Coke with lime and hot nuts

About 30 minutes after the beverage service, the flight attendant rolled through with the appetizer/salad cart. I’ve heard catering out of Shanghai is pretty bad, and that was definitely the case. I ate the salad and shrimp, though the chicken was pretty inedible.

Salad and appetizer

For the main course I ordered the beef filet, which was inedible, so I just let it be (I would’ve ordered the vegetarian option, but alas there wasn’t one).

Main course

Then for dessert I had the ice cream with strawberry coulis and crumbs. It was, of course, delicious.

Dessert

By the time the meal was finished it was 11:45PM in Shanghai, and I went to bed at around 7PM most nights during my trip (as you can tell, I’m a really exciting person). So at this point I was dead tired, and even American’s angled flat seats wouldn’t prevent me from sleeping.

To increase comfort somewhat, though, I decided to make a pillow and blanket fortress to make the seat a bit more cushioned. Fortunately the three seats in the center section were empty too, so five pillows and five blankets later I was actually rather comfortable, and slept for a solid six hours.

Reclined seat

I woke up with just under two hours to go to Los Angeles, at which point the pre-arrival meal service began.

The meal was supposedly “brunch,” but this is quite possibly the strangest “brunch” menu I’ve ever seen. The menu read as follows:

So that’s juice and breakfast breads with a shrimp salad or bacon tomato sandwich? Really?

Just about everyone commented about how strange that was. C’mon American, either serve breakfast or the typical pizza/sandwich option, but this inbetween service was downright odd.

I had the sandwich, and it was pretty nasty.

“Brunch”

As we continued our descent Bose headphones were once again collected and the customs/immigration video was played, along with the “in-flight UNICEF team leader” asking for spare change.

Airshow

Airshow

After a smooth descent we touched down in LA nearly two hours early, and had a quick taxi to the gate.

View on descent

View on descent

Immigration took only a matter of minutes thanks to Global Entry, so I found myself in the Flagship Lounge in no time, though sadly only half of my journey was done. After four uneventful flights and 24 hours I found myself in my W bed at home.

Introduction
American Flagship Lounge New York, American Business Class New York to San Francisco
American Flagship Lounge Los Angeles, American Business Class Los Angeles to Shanghai
Park Hyatt Shanghai
Exploring Shanghai
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge Shanghai, American Business Class Shanghai to Los Angeles

My flight from Tampa landed at 12:50PM, so I headed straight for the Flagship Lounge, which is located inside the Admirals Club.

Admirals Club entrance

At the desk I was welcomed and given a key to the Flagship Lounge (American’s international first class lounge), which is located behind sliding glass doors to the right of the entrance. I had access to the Flagship Lounge on account of being an Executive Platinum on an international ticket, which is one of my favorite Executive Platinum perks.

The Flagship Lounge at JFK is my second favorite, behind only the LAX Flagship Lounge. It’s spacious and features great tarmac views of Terminal 8.

Flagship Lounge seating

Flagship Lounge seating

Flagship Lounge

Tarmac views

While the food selection has been cut back somewhat over the past few months, it’s still excellent. The lounge features self serve booze and an extensive buffet which is switched out several times daily.

Drink selection

Since I was there around 1PM they were serving lunch, consisting of pasta, meatballs, cheese, meats, hummus, veggies, etc.

Lunch selection

Lunch selection

Meatballs

After spending a few hours catching up on email I headed to gate 42, where my flight to San Francisco was about to board. Boarding started shortly after 5PM with first class, business class, and Executive Platinum customers.

American 177
New York (JFK) – San Francisco (SFO)
Wednesday, January 25
Depart: 5:40PM
Arrive: 9:10PM
Duration: 6hr30min
Aircraft: Boeing 767-200
Seat: 10B (Business Class)

American, Delta, and United all have a premium transcontinental product between New York and San Francisco/Los Angeles, and in the case of  American they have specially configured 767-200 three cabin aircraft. There are two rows of first class, and then five rows of business class. Today I’d be in business class, though I flew the same route in first class a couple of years ago, so if you’re interested in reading about the differences, you can find the trip report here.

First class

Since my flight had an odd flight number I chose to sit towards the back of the cabin, since that’s where American starts taking meal orders on odd numbered flights.

The business class seats on American are somewhere between international business class and domestic first class seats, featuring about 50 inches of pitch. Each seat comes with a duvet and pillow. I will say that the seats are seriously lacking padding, probably because they haven’t been reupholstered in forever.

My seat, 10B

Legroom

Cabin shot

During boarding flight attendants came around with pre-departure beverages, and I chose some water.

As boarding finished up the dinner menus were distributed as well. Around this time the captain came on the PA and advised us of our flight time of 6hr10min, anticipating an on-time arrival in San Francisco.

Menu

After a quick pushback and taxi to the runway we were number three for takeoff. What has happened to Kennedy over the past few years? Going back a few years I don’t ever remember being less than number 20 for takeoff, but lately I’ve never had a substantial wait. It’s probably a combination of the recession and larger planes like the A380, but I figured the amount of regional jet service would counteract that.

As soon as we leveled off Samsung Galaxy Tabs were distributed, which feature an extensive selection of movies and TV shows. I watched a couple of episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Samsung Galaxy

Once they were distributed meal orders were taken. The dinner menu read as follows:

After that flight attendants came through the aisle with the cart, offering beverages and hot nuts. I ordered a Diet Coke with lime.

Diet Coke with lime and hot nuts

Refills were offered, and then the cart was rolled through with the salad and appetizers. A selection of breads were offered along with it, and I selected a pretzel roll. As far as I’m concerned American could serve nothing but pretzel rolls and they’d still have the best in-flight catering.

Appetizer and salad

After that the main course was served, though this time by tray and not by cart. The pasta was actually delicious, so I was happy to have gone with the “safe” option.

Main course

After that the flight attendants rolled around the dessert cart, and I went with the sundae, consisting of chocolate sauce, butterscotch, whipped cream, and nuts.

Sundae

On the whole, the flight attendants were “New York friendly.” In other words, they weren’t fawning over passengers asking if they may have the privilege of getting us anything else, but were nonetheless attentive without attitude.

After dessert I got out my laptop and worked for the rest of the flight. About an hour out of San Francisco chocolate chip cookies and milk were served.

Cookies and milk

We touched down in San Francisco a few minutes early, and I headed straight for the Westin SFO shuttle to get a bit of shut eye before my crack-of-dawn flight the following morning.

While I’ll have more details on my trip to Barcelona in a few days when I post the trip report, I do have a few comical/sad/ridiculous things I feel the need to mention now:

• I nearly lost it while checking in at Barcelona Airport. The pretty but demeaning 20-something year old American contract worker that checked me in asked me how many bags I was going to check in. I said “none,” and then she looked at my bag with pure horror. Before she had the chance to object I said “it’s a standard carry-on,” to which she responded “that’s much larger than the standard size.” I responded with “it’s a 22 inch that hasn’t given me any trouble for the past 200,000 miles on American.” At this point she looked over at her colleague, rolled her eyes, mocked me for suggesting it was a standard size, and then began talking with her colleague in Spanish as if I wasn’t standing there, including the use of “muy grande.” After a minute she was informed by her colleague that I was in business class, and said “oh, business class, well that’s completely different.”

• Aboard the flight from Barcelona to New York I talked to one of the flight attendants about American cutting the New York to Budapest flight. It goes without saying that this had something to do with Malev shutting down shop. While I often disagree with management cutting routes (as was the case with Chicago to Delhi), I loved this lady’s reasoning for why American shouldn’t cut the route – “who’s going to fly the poor people now?” Ah, yes, American’s obligation is to fly the “poor people” of Hungary. Good business model.

• I’ll leave out the commentary, or maybe you guys can guess, but the flight attendant on my flight from Barcelona to New York got one of these from me (pardon my chicken scratch, this is the first thing I’ve written by hand in months):

And now, after flying over 40,000 butt-in-seat miles over the past two weeks, I’m beat. W Bed at home, here I come.

It’s easy to get spoiled and think of business class as being very “bleh,” given that many of us are able to redeem miles primarily for international first class travel on foreign airlines. But it’s also important to keep things in perspective. In my case, I booked an $1,100 coach ticket from Tampa to Shanghai via Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in both directions, and confirmed upgrades for all flights. I’ll earn well over 40,000 elite qualifying and redeemable miles, so I’d be a happy camper even if my flights weren’t great.

But frankly, my flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai (that I just off of) was actually fantastic.

A few things to note in particular (I’ll save many of the details for the trip report):

• Headwinds are strong going west right now! The flight was blocked at 13hr50min (usually block time is about 30-45 minutes longer than the anticipated flight time), but our flight time was 14hr10min. As a result we arrived about 45 minutes late, though there were no lines at immigration, so I guess it balanced out in the end.
  
  
• Angled flat seats suck. They’re awesome when you upgrade from coach, but it really is pretty tough to get any “real” sleep in them. They didn’t used to bother me all that much, but I’m finding it harder and harder to sleep in them. Can’t wait for American’s new business class product.
• Empty flights are awesome. I’m so used to business and first class on US airlines being full due to how easy it is to upgrade, get award tickets, and the ease with which non-revs can fill the cabin, but as I posted about yesterday, this flight was pretty empty. Even after lots of non-revs cleared,  business class was only half full, and I had two seats to myself (window and aisle). This isn’t just useful for the extra space, but it also makes it easy to grab a couple of pillows to at least make the seat a bit more comfortable when trying to sleep.
  
  
• Who said service on US airlines can’t be awesome? Since the flight was so empty the service was attentive and quick. But beyond that, the flight attendants were awesome. The flight attendant working my aisle was Chinese, and I mean “authentic Chinese.” I mention this because I honestly felt like I was flying an Asian airline. She spoke very slowly because her English wasn’t great, but she was constantly smiling and so friendly. She provided a “Singapore Girl” level of service.And the “senior mamas” (I use that term endearingly)  — who all had 35+ years at American — working the flight were awesome as well. I accidentally pushed my call button once in the middle of the flight (was trying to turn on my light), and one of the flight attendants I hadn’t previously interacted with appeared in less than ten seconds, smiling and asking what she could get me. Kudos to the crew. If only I could have them on all my flights.

Anyway, now it’s time for me to fall asleep in the clouds… literally (the joys of a hotel on the 90th floor in smoggy Shanghai).