Trip Report: American Airlines First Class | B737 | New York – Miami
Previous parts of this trip:
- Introduction: USA, September 2019
- Trip Report: TAP Portugal | Airbus A330 | London Heathrow – Lisbon
- Trip Report: TAP Portugal | Airbus A320 | Lisbon – Geneva
- Hotel Review: Crowne Plaza, Geneva Airport
- Trip Report: Iberia | Airbus A320 | Geneva – Madrid
- Trip Report: Iberia | Airbus A350 | Madrid – New York JFK
- Hotel Review: Crowne Plaza, HY36 Midtown Manhattan
- In Pictures: New York
- Trip Report: American Airlines First Class | B737 | New York – Miami
At around 08:00, I made my way down to the lobby of the hotel. I had prebooked a transfer for 08:15, and read online that they nearly always run early. Sure enough, the shuttle did arrive a few minutes early. And sure enough, it turned up early on this occasion too.
As such, I arrived at LaGuardia a lot earlier than I anticipated
I made a brief pass of the American Airlines check in area before heading through security.
This took a few minutes and then I was off to sample the delights of the C gates. There was a sign for an Admirals Club, but it looked a little disappointing to say the least!
I went to see what else the terminal had to offer, but was a little underwhelmed.
So I decided to take a look at the main lounge, and was informed that I was able to head over to the real lounge at the D gates via a shuttle bus.
The lounge
The lounge was accessed by heading up one level via an elevator, which opened straight on to the reception area.
Once there, the lounge definitely had an interesting décor.
Luckily it wasn’t too busy, meaning I could find a quiet corner to catch up with a few bits. One major positive with this lounge was the WiFi. Very fast!
The food options were typical American Airlines Admirals Club
The views were good!
With around 30 minutes until boarding, I made my way back over to my gate. One thing you can rely on with American Airlines is that they start boarding when they say they will.
On board
When I booked this flight, I was the only person in First. As is always the case with flying in the US, the airlines don’t like having empty First cabins. Therefore, come the flight itself, the first cabin was completely full, mainly due to upgrading their top status holders. This is a common practice across most, if not all US airlines.
Don’t quote me on this, but I think this aircraft was fitted with the project Oasis seats. It certainly seemed a lot tighter than previous American Airlines 737’s I’ve flown on.
Pre flight beverages were offered although I was the only taker.
Departure
We pushed back around ten minutes ahead of schedule. Although despite this, as we had to avoid hurricane Dorian, we were scheduled to land around 45 minutes behind schedule.
To further add to the hold up, once we made it to the runway, we sat and waited for around 10 minutes. After which, the flight deck came over the PA and said that the portion of airspace we were due to depart into had been closed due to heavy traffic. This meant a further 15 minute wait.
We finally got going 55 minutes after leaving the gate. Makes Heathrow seem easy…
Service
The onboard service got started with drinks and warmed nuts being offered.
Not too long after, the main meal service started. This consisted of either a cheeseburger or a salad. I’d pre-ordered the cheeseburger.
Lets just say this was far from the greatest burger I’ve ever eaten. The whole thing was dripping in fat – bun included. The meat wasn’t exactly top quality either. Still, it filled a hole.
The service was finished with warm cookies.
IFE
The in flight entertainment on this particular aircraft was provided by streaming to your own device. Whilst a lot of US based travellers don’t seem to like this concept, being used to getting absolutely nothing in Europe, I found it just fine.
WiFi was also provided. But much like the IFE, I didn’t use it. Whilst it is becoming more common in European skies, it’s still a relatively new concept. Therefore I can’t really miss what I never had in the first place! Prices seemed reasonable however, at $8 for an hour or $14 for the whole flight.
I couldn’t tell you too much more about the flight as not long after I’d finished eating, the previous few days worth of travel caught up with me!
Arrival
I woke up with around fifteen minutes to go. As we approached, there were some great views of the Miami area to be had through the clouds.
After a few turns, we were on to finals and landing on the cross runway. We made a short journey over to stand and pulled in 53 minutes behind schedule.
Following this, it was through the terminal on to three trains to head to the hotel.
My thoughts
I’ve flown American Airlines many times domestically over the years. Mostly all have been consistent, and this flight was no different. The delay was a little bit of an annoyance but these things happen I suppose. I didn’t have any urgent plans on arrival. The meal service was very weak. I’ve had burgers on planes before and whilst they weren’t the greatest, they were still better than what I had here. Having said that, I don’t recall having any meal on American Airlines domestic first that has completely blown me away. The crew were fine however. There was clearly plenty of experience there!
