I’m not going to go to the lavatory wearing just my socks. I love having slippers (and will sometimes bring disposable ones with me in my carry on bag on flights where they won’t be offered) so that I don’t have to put shoes back on to walk about the cabin. Shortly before departure two passengers came into the cabin to occupy those seats, and though I never took a peak at the manifest I assume they were nonrevs.Īt my seat was an amenity kit and bedding for the flight, including blanket, mattress pad and pillow. ![]() Just before boarding there were still two seats open in the cabin, the two middle seats of row two, and there was nobody listed for an upgrade from business to first class. You get more room per passenger than in business class. What the seats are, though, if plenty spacious. That’s inconvenient since you may need to get up during the flight to get things down from an overhead bin… that’s above another passenger who’s probably sleeping. There’s also virtually no storage space at the seats, and the center seats at row 1 (right below crew rest) lack overhead bins as well. Even when they were introduced a decade ago they were fairly uncompetitive. ![]() These aren’t suites and there are no doors. We were seated in row 1.Īmerican’s first class seats are completely open. We boarded somewhere in the middle of this group, but were the second, third and fourth passengers in the first class cabin which offers eight seats, arranged as two rows of four seats (1 at each window and two seats together in the center). That mean maybe five or six dozen passengers coming forward all at once. And every first and business class passenger plus any Executive Platinum members and their companions are group 1. She boarded first, and would eventually be seated across the aisle from me. They began by calling for Concierge Key passengers, and there was one on the flight. We made our way down to gate 157 just prior to the start of boarding. I returned to the airport with my wife and daughter, stopped by Flagship check-in for their boarding passes, and then took the T4-Tom Bradley Terminal connector to the Qantas first class lounge where we had just a short visit before it was time to board our American flight (leaving from the international terminal) to Sydney. I knew this roundtrip might be my last time flying American Airlines long haul first class ever! And with the introduction of new business suites with doors on new Boeing 787-9s, American will be eliminating Flagship First Class retrofitting their Boeing 777-300ERs to offer just business class. It’s been been several years since I’d done so. American’s first class isn’t much better than business, especially if you can grab the forward mini-cabin in business on the Boeing 777-300ER, but it’s certainly more spacious.Īnd I was actually excited to fly American Airlines Flagship first class. And where first class redemptions are available, American often charges just a 10,000 mile premium over business (though when the one-way business price is 450,000 miles first class is a 40,000 mile upcharge). However close-in lightly booked flights were as low as 78,000 miles per person each way for first class. ![]() In fact from September 17 onward the cheapest business class award price for 2 passengers Los Angeles – Sydney is 386,000 miles one-way through end of schedule with most dates 450,000 miles per person each way. 450,000 miles was a new top price established just before the pandemic, the highest unpublished level that was only supposed to be for last seat availability on the most peak of peak dates. Most of the year I’m seeing 450,000 miles each way for business class – whereas months ago the standard was 175,000 on off-peak days and 195,000 peak. There’s high variance in American Airlines redemption prices for Sydney. And then life changed again and I put together a last-minute trip to Oz, sans Fiji and Japan. After a series of challenges came up (Lenin once said that there are decades when nothing happens, and then weeks where decades happen) I cancelled the summer trip. I can just cancel most bookings and refund the points. One of the reasons I love redemption bookings is their flexibility. I had several of the best omakase meals reserved in Tokyo, along with a confirmed suite on points at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. I’d booked American Airlines business class to Sydney at reasonable redemption pricing, then would meander up to Japan via a long weekend in Fiji. ![]() Six months ago I booked a trip to visit my family in Australia after my daughter was done with school.
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