American Airlines B777-300ER business class LHR-LAX

Wednesday newsletters always feature a hotel and/or flight review.

Today (February 19, 2014): Trip report: American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER Business class London to Los Angeles.

*** FOR A MORE RECENT BUSINESS CLASS TRIP REPORT ON AMERICAN AIRLINES’ BOEING 777-300ER (LAX TO LHR), WITH BETTER PHOTOS AND A YOUTUBE CLIP, CLICK HERE ***

On January 15^th 2014, I flew in a new Boeing 777-300ER of American Airlines (AA) from London (LHR) to Los Angeles (LAX). The 777-300ER planes are currently being introduced in AA’s fleets to replace the older wide-bodies, and AA currently operates them on selected routes to and from the United States. The overall experience was brilliant, confirming that this is currently the single best business class product to fly across the pond.

American Airlines features in my top 10 list of best airlines for longhaul Business Class.

• Trip:  LHR-LAX
• Airline: American Airlines
• Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
• Flight Number: 137
• On time departure: yes (12.15 pm)
• On time arrival: yes (3.30 pm)
• Miles: 5456
• Flight time: 10:15
• Seat: 7A
• Class: business (D)

In this review (below the slideshow):

• Business Class cabin
• Business Cass seat
• Amenities
• Meals
• Other inflight experiences (crew, bar, lavatory, WiFi, entertainment, views)
• Our verdict (score)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

*** Click here to travel with a heart & sponsor cancer research for free! ***

1. BUSINESS CLASS CABIN

When entering through the massive boarding door, you immediately notice the nice Business/First Class bar. Turning left leads to the cockpit, First Class cabin (8 seats) and a small Business Class “mini”-cabin (featuring 8 seats), while turning right leads to the main Business Class Cabin (44 seats), Main Cabin Extra cabin (30 seats), and Economy Class cabin (220 seats).  Thanks to the herringbone layout in a 1-2-1 alignment, all Business Class seats have direct aisle access (no more jumping over people’s feet here) and a significant amount of privacy.  The Business Class seats on the sides are angled toward the window (about 2 windows per seat, offering great views), while the seats in the middle are angled towards each other.

Click here for the seat map of AA’s Boeing 777-300ER.

2. THE BUSINESS CLASS SEAT

Each Business Class seat has plenty of storage space for all your personal items, as well as a smaller storage compartment that contains a mirror, a bottle of water, an amenity kit and American’s trademark noise-canceling Bose headphones. Oddly enough, however, the place to connect those headphones is also ‘hidden’ inside that cabinet. Next to the seat are the seat and entertainment controls, reading light and power port (each seat features a universal AC power outlet and USB port). Every part of the seat, including the seat back, head and leg rest are adjustable. The seats feature a large tray table in addition to a work surface so you can eat and work at the same time, which given the nice, extended meal services is a productive and nice touch. There’s a large footrest in front of every seat. When tired, you can recline the seat into a very comfortable, fully flat-bed (this is one of the best flat beds in the skies).

What are the best Business Class seats on AA’s B77W?

• The seats in row 3 and 4 are located in their own little private cabin and are therefore highly recommended.
• Solo travelers should go fo the window seats.

What are the worst Business Class seats on AA’s B77W?

• The window seats in row 5 and 11 are missing a window and should therefore be avoided.

3. AMENITIES

Each seat comes with a nice blanket, a good pillow, a pair of slippers (AA being one of the few airlines to offer these), and an amenity kit. The latter comprises essentials like an eye mask, earplugs, wash cloth, toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, skin lotion.

4. MEALS

Just under 45 minutes into the flight, I was served an assortment of warm nuts. I ordered a sprite with ice and lime.

Soon thereafter, lunch was offered, all served on a single tray. Food was ok but not memorable: it was better than expected for an US airline but not as great as compared to the gastronomic delights of Singapore Airlines or Austrian Airlines. The starter consisted of smoked salmon with spring peas & cream cheese, and a green salad with asparagus & pesto bocconcini. As an entrée, I choose the seared scallops, enhanced by lime champagne sauce, leek rice pilaf and mushroom and asparagus sauté. Scallops were, unfortunately, totally dried out and tasteless. For dessert, I ordered American’s trademark ice cream Sundae with berry toppings and whipped cream (delicious).

90 minutes prior to landing, we were served a light lunch, with the choice between Uno’s Four Cheese and Pesto Pizza, or Tandoori Chicken with potato salad (which I choose, and was quite nice). Chocolate caramel mouse was served as a dessert.

5. OTHER INFLIGHT EXPERIENCES

# CREW: the crew did a great job and was extremely friendly. Kudos to all of them! In my opinion, AA has the most service-minded crew of all US Airlines and I hope that will not change with the US Airways merger.

# BAR: after the main meal service, a walk-up bar stocked with snacks and refreshments was set up in the galley for business and first class passengers. It was a very nice spread of a large assortment of snacks (a visual delight!) that was constantly replenished during the 10 hour flight.

# LAVATORY: American has put a lot of effort and money into the design of its premium cabin lavatories with porcelain sinks, wood siding, granite floor texture and luxurious toilet products.  All lavatories were kept clean during the flight.

# INTERNET: WiFi is available for purchase once on board the aircraft, where you will be able to use any Wi-Fi-enabled device to purchase one the following passes: 2 Hour Pass for $12, 4 Hour Pass for $17, or duration of flight pass for $19. I found the WiFi speed to be relatively ok, actually faster than expected. B

# ENTERTAINMENT: the Panasonic inflight entertainment features an impressive catalog of 120 movies, 150 TV shows, and more than 350 audio selections. You can select what you want by scrolling on the touch screen.

# VIEWS: we enjoyed some tremendous views while overflying the snow-covered National Parks of Yellowstone and Grand Teton, as well as Salt Lake City.

6. VERDICT

While food was just ok (and could definitely have been better), I loved AA’s new reverse herringbone seat, their WiFi, and their always hardworking and friendly crew.

• Seat : 9/10
• Food:  6/10
• Inflight entertainment : 9/10
• Service: 8/10
• Cabin: 9/10
• Overall experience: very good : 8,2/10

Editorial note: photos were taken with my iPad and quality of the those images is not great. As a consequence, I also uploaded some photos from the official AA website (which perfectly represents the experience). This is my first trip report after all, and I will do a better job for future trips when I take a camera with me.