By Nick – Random Segments
Let me preface my comments by saying that I am 6’5. Thus I am a lot more sensitive to legroom than many travelers. So if you are shorter, take my comments with a grain of salt.
Overall, the flight was exactly as I expected, mediocre food, crushing legroom, and an average flight crew. For my flight out, I was able to secure two seats to myself on a 777 by paing the premium seat buyup of $39 (fortunately I won’t have to pay that again). I was able to get the side seats at the front of Economy, so I was early on in the service order, ensuring I would have my choice of dining. But for those of you wondering, this is the legroom:
As you can see, it is not a pleasant experience for someone of my height. Fortunately there was nobody in the row in front of me, so I did not have to worry about someone reclining in front of me. One big thing that I observed drawing complaints was that AA was still charging for all drinks, even with the meal service. Especially since this was an overnight flight, and I know many people want to have a drink or two in order to get some sleep since we were to arrive in London at 10:30am.
For this flight, they offered full meal service, with a beef dish or Cheese Ravioli. I actually went with the beef dish, and really feel that is is appropiate for the flight. The beef was edible, and the mashed potatoes were flavorless. However the crime was in the vegatables, which I found quite inedible.
After watching through the Advanced Video Streaming system (Its not AVOD because you have to wait for a new show to start on each program, though it is more options than the old looping film systems. Shows start about every 15 minutes, but it really is far behind the competition. Made even worse by AA advertising this system as a Video on Demand system, I really don’t see how this could save money, especially since the 777 is a relatively new aircraft type for American.
I was able to get a couple hours of sleep, mainly by taking over both seats in the row. About an hour out from LHR, they offered a light breakfast made up of a croissant and jelly. While nothing major, it is something to put on the stomach before landing.
The blankets were decent, not as good as the old United blankets, but right on par with the new Delta blankets (in fact the main difference is lack of embroidery and a burgandy color instead of red), but certainly better than the blankets currently being given out by United now.
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