I love flying to a country on its national airline and today we were trying out American Airlines for the first time on our flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.  Not only that, it would be our first time on the B787-9 Dreamliner which I had heard so much about and couldn’t wait to experience.

Airline and Flight #

American Airlines | AA0072

Aircraft

Boeing 787-9 JET (Dreamliner)

Airport and Terminal

Departure: Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney NSW Australia | Terminal 1 International

Arrival: LAX Los Angeles, California USA | Terminal 4 (Tom Bradley)

Scheduled Departure Date and Time

Friday 4th May 2018 | 10:15am

Flying Time

13hrs 50 mins

Luggage Allowance

• One carry on bag up to 7kg
• Two checked in bags up to 23kg each

Fun Facts

• American Airlines is the world’s largest airline when measured by fleet size, revenue, scheduled passenger kilometres flown and number of destinations served
• American Airlines is a founding member of the Oneworld alliance
• American Airlines has its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas

Website

• To select your seats log on to the American Airlines website www.aa.com and select My trips/Check-in.  Enter your first name, last name and airline booking reference.  Your flight details will come up with the option of allowing you to select your seats.  Some Economy seats you have to pay for including those with extra leg room and priority boarding ($143-$171) and also those seats categorised as preferred.  These include aisle and window seats up towards the front of the plane and these cost between $86 and $93.

Check-in 

• As we had already checked in at Canberra Airport, there was no requirement to check in again for our next flight to Los Angeles.  For passengers commencing their flight from Sydney, check-in can be done  on-line 24 hours to 90 minutes prior to departure.  Just log on to the American Airlines website  and under My trips/Check-in enter your first and last name and then your 6 digit record locator which will then bring up your trip.  You can also check in at one one of the self service kiosks, download the AA app, or by the more traditional way at the counter inside the terminal.  Passengers should be at the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure for enough time to check-in and collect boarding passes if necessary, drop off any checked luggage, pass through security and make your way to the lounge.

Seating

• The American Airlines Dreamliner B787-9 is a wide bodied jet with a 3-3-3 configuration in Economy.  As this type of plane has a rather narrow fuselage, the 3-3-3 configuration results in narrow seats and narrow isles.  A 2-3-2 configuration would be more comfortable. The aircraft has 285 seats divided into 30 Business class seats, 21 Premium Economy seats, 36 Main cabin extra seats and 198 Main cabin (Economy) seats. We were seated in row 36 of 39.
• On our seats was a pillow and blanket wrapped in plastic.  There were no head sets but cabin crew handed out ear buds prior to take-off. The blue seats with grey headrests in Economy were made of leather.  The strip of red on the top of each seat completed the red, white and blue colour theme for American Airlines.  There were adjustable winged head rests and the arm rests could be raised but unfortunately there were no foot rests.
• Seat pitch 31 inches (78.7 cm), seat width 16.2 inches (41.2 cm).  Legroom was poor on this aircraft and it felt quite cramped.
• Trays were folding which enabled you to leave them half folded if you were only using it for a drink and small snack.
• Windows on the Dreamliner are large allowing a better view for the person with the window seat as well as other passengers.  They also have no shutters but are instead electronically dimmable with five settings to choose from.  Each setting gets bluer until you can no longer see out.  Upon takeoff and landing, the dimming is automatically controlled so it is bright upon takeoff and dark upon landing.
• The overhead compartments were large making it easier to fit your carry-on luggage inside.

Blue and grey leather seats of the American Airlines B787-9 Dreamliner.

The 3-3-3 seating configuration inside American Airlines B787-9

Folding tray tables on American Airlines B787-9 Dreamliner

The five settings to dim the electochromatic windows on AA’s 787-9 Dreamliner

Loved the large dimmable windows on board the Dreamliner.

Cabin Comfort

• The air in the Dreamliner is taken from outside the aircraft and passes through two filtration systems before it enters the cabin allowing for fresher air inside the cabin.  The air is also at a higher pressure (pressurised at 6000 feet rather than 8000) and due the composite materials the air can be made more humid, reducing the effects of dehydration and jet lag.
• The Dreamliner is quieter than its predecessor due to quieter engines and better soundproofing making  the flight more comfortable.
• Ride dampening technology is used to detect and counteract turbulence.
• Meals are timed in such a way as to reduce jet lag.
• Big overhead bins make finding room to store your luggage easier.
• The tall ceilings give the feeling of spaciousness and alleviate any feelings of claustrophobia.
• Mood LED lighting provides an aesthetically pleasing ambience as well as having the ability to mimic natural sunrise and sunset, and hence reduce the effects of jet-lag.
• Seats are narrow and leg room is minimal making a long flight such as this quite cramped.

The blue LED lighting on board the American Airlines 787-9 Dreamliner

The orange LED lighting was used in the morning to simulate sunrise

Lights and air vents above your head to adjust to your comfort

In-flight Entertainment

Electronic Devices

These can be used on board until advised by the flight crew but mobile phone calls aren’t allowed during the flight.  During taxiing, takeoff and landing small devices such as phones must be put on flight mode.

Power

At each seat directly under the screen in front is a headphone jack and USB phone charger socket.  Underneath to the right of the remote control is the universal power socket for charging your devices.

Reading Material

In the seat pocket were two magazines, one in English and one in Spanish along with the flight safety card.  There was no duty free magazine on board nor the ability to purchase items duty free on board.

WiFi

WiFi was offered on this flight at $19 USD for the duration of the flight.  You could log into American Airlines WiFi for free if you just wanted to screen movies and TV shows after downloading the AA app.

Entertainment System

Seven inch responsive Panasonic touch screens with remotes are installed in each Economy or Main Cabin seat.  These screens are used to view the safety demonstrations prior to take-off  and offered a wide range of options.  These were:

Hospitality: This feature wasn’t available but I think the concept is to show meal options that aren’t listed on the menu.

Communicate: This allowed seat to seat chat or chat room.

Connect: News articles could be viewd from here.

My Flight: There were three options which were:

• Flight map – this provided a very comprehensive display of all sorts of data relating to the flight including distance travelled and distance to destination, time to destination, time since departure, local time at present position, local time at destination, ground speed, air speed, altitude, outside air temperature and headwind or tailwind.
• Airport map – this allowed you to look around the airport and view your connecting gate.
• Arrival & Seats – showed American Airlines videos for different locations.

Favourites: Here you can save all your favourites from audio, movies and TV.

Disney: Contains a selection of Disney audio, movies and TV.

eReader: Allows you to read the two inflight magazines on the screen plus an extra magazine called Celebrated Living.

Entertainment: Provides a great range of movies, games, TV, Live television and Audio.   One thing I found annoying with the movies were the adds that played before each one and took too long.  Otherwise, there was plenty to keep you occupied throughout the flight.

Ear buds were handed out by cabin crew prior to takeoff

Catering

Menus

Menus were handed out early on in the flight.  They came in the form of a long piece of white card containing blue writing and a blue border.  At the top was written SYD TO LAX and next to that was the American Airlines logo.  On the front were the food items on offer along with an estimation in hours of how long into the trip these would be served.  The menu contained three choices of mains with one of the choices being vegetarian and a dessert.  7-8 hours into the flight, a hot snack and ice cream bar were on offer and breakfast was a choice of traditional American breakfast or a seasonal fruit plate, both served with yoghurt, granola and a muffin. On the back of the menu was a list of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.  Alcoholic drinks included a range of beers, spirits and wines. Whilst the menus were slightly on the plain side, their simplicity was effective and made them easy to read.

Food/Drinks

Once the seat-belt sign had been turned off, cabin crew handed around hot disposable towelettes followed by a 21g packet of pretzels and at 11:10 cold drinks.  By this time I was pretty thirsty.  About an hour into the flight dinner was served.  There was a beef, chicken and vegetarian option.  I had the beef  stroganoff with herb potatoes, green beans and carrots whilst hubby went for the sesame chicken with tabbouleh salad and sesame soy dressing as he doesn’t like mushrooms.  The meals came with a bottle of water, bread roll and butter and a salted caramel mousse.  The meals were reasonable.

At about 4:45 Sydney time a snack was served.  The chicken panini with tomato, capsicum and corn relish was hot and very tasty.  I was hungry again by this stage and enjoyed it a lot.  Weis ice-cream bars were also handed out.  To round it off, I had a Baileys and milk – a drink I enjoy but haven’t had in quite a while.  I was hoping it would help me sleep better too.  Not sure if it did that but it was enjoyable none the less.

The self service bar at the rear of the plane contained large bottles of water and cups, juice, potato chips, pretzels and individually wrapped Tim Tams – a well known Australian chocolate biscuit.  Not a big range of snacks but enough to stop you from feeling peckish between meals.

With just over an hour to go before we landed, hot towelettes were again handed out and breakfast was served. Unfortunately the hot traditional American breakfast which smelled delicious had run out so we were left with the seasonal fruit plate. Despite our disappointment, we enjoyed our meal and found it more than enough.  Both meals were accompanied by a cup of water, Chobani Greek yoghurt, granola and an apple and cinnamon muffin.  We also tried the Mr & Mrs Bloody Mary mix – a spicy tomato drink which tasted really good.

Restrooms

The restrooms on the Dreamliner have automatic taps and flushing offering a more hygienic experience.  The toilet seat also has little levers making it easier to open and close.  The mirror is large and the lighting excellent – great for anyone wanting to do their makeup.  There is lemon scented pump soap to wash your hands and the usual amenities you find inside an aircraft restroom including two rolls of toilet paper, disposable hand towels, a waste disposal unit, tissues, disposable toilet seat covers and a baby change table above the toilet.  The size of the room was not that large but the excellent lighting helped make it feel more spacious.

Service

I didn’t have a problem with the service on board our American Airlines flight.  Staff were friendly and polite.  It would have been nice to have received our first drink earlier though or for bottled water to be available upon boarding.

Pros

• The Dreamliner has in place a number of features to increase comfort including improved air quality, LED lighting to help with jet lag, larger windows, quiet cabin etc.
• The entertainment system offered a good range of the latest release movies and real time TV allowed you to watch any breaking news or current events taking place.
• Hot disposable towelettes were handed out prior to breakfast which was a nice gesture and a good way of minimising the spread of bacteria.
• Cups were larger and stronger than I was used to and soft drink cans were full sized rather than the mini ones I’m used to on other airlines.
• A small snack bar at the rear of the plane meant you didn’t go hungry or thirsty between meals.
• The cabin air was noticeably fresher.

Cons

• Narrow seats and restricted leg room unfortunately overshadowed the other features the aircraft had in place to increase comfort levels.
• It was some time before the first drinks were served leaving us quite thirsty.
• There were no foot rests on this aircraft.
• Pillow and blanket was not very good quality.
• The flight left about half an hour late due to maintenance problems with the plane we were supposed to be using and checks that were to be completed on the substitute aircraft.  The pilots managed to make up time however so we landed only 15 minutes after our scheduled departure time.
• No towelettes were given out prior to dinner which would have been nice.

Conclusion

I actually found flying American Airlines a better experience than what some reviews led me to believe would be the case.  The food whilst not amazing was certainly acceptable and I didn’t have any problems with the service.  And whilst Boeing has gone to great lengths to improve comfort on its Dreamliner, it’s such a shame that the seats are so crammed together that one of the biggest measures of comfort, leg room, is entirely inadequate.  And for this reason I would be reluctant to choose to fly long haul on the B-787 with American Airlines.  It would be interesting to see how the other carriers configure their seating to see if this is typical or not.  I did however appreciate the other features the Dreamliner had to offer including it’s large electrochromatic windows, fresh cabin air and aesthetically pleasing LED lighting.