Booking the Trip: A Southeast Asian Path to India
Review: American Airlines Admiral’s Club LAX
Review: American Airlines Flagship Lounge LAX
Review: American Airlines 787-9 Main Cabin Extra Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita
Review: Japan Airlines Sakura Business Class Lounge Tokyo Narita
Review: Japan Airlines 777-200ER Economy Class Tokyo Narita to Singapore
Review: Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class Lounge Terminal 3 Singapore
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Singapore
Review: Singapore Airlines SilverKris Business Class Lounge Terminal 2 Singapore
Review: Thai Airways A350-900 Royal Silk Business Class Singapore to Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse E Bangkok
Review: Eva Air Infinity Lounge Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways 747-400 Royal Silk Business Class Bangkok to Mumbai
Review: GVK Domestic Lounge Mumbai
Review: Jet Airways 737-800 Economy Class Mumbai to Pune
Review: GVK International Business Class Lounge East Wing Mumbai
Review: Thai Airways 747-400 Royal Silk Business Class Mumbai to Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse D Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse C gate C1 Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounge Concourse C gate C2 Bangkok
Review: Singapore SilverKris Business Class Lounge Bangkok
Review: Thai Airways A350-900 Royal Silk Business Class Bangkok to Singapore
Review: Qantas Business Class Lounge Singapore
Review: Qantas A330-200 Economy Class Singapore to Sydney
Review: Qantas International Business Class Lounge Sydney
Review: American Airlines 787-9 Main Cabin Extra Sydney to Los Angeles
YOUTUBE: American Airlines: Los Angeles to Tokyo
YOUTUBE: Japan Airlines: Tokyo to Singapore
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Singapore to Bangkok
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Bangkok to Mumbai
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Mumbai to Bangkok
YOUTUBE: Thai Airways: Bangkok to Singapore
YOUTUBE: Qantas Airways: Singapore to Sydney
YOUTUBE: American Airlines: Sydney to Los Angeles
After spending time in the Qantas Lounge, I headed to my gate which was in a sectioned off part of the terminal since we were on a US-bound flight.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get many other views but here’s what views I did get:
There was my plane waiting, but there were certainly no good views.
Finally boarding began with business class passengers, followed by OneWorld emerald members, then Sapphire members and that’s when I boarded the aircraft.
SYD-LAX
Boeing 787-9
8/2/18
So interesting things happened. I had selected seat 13L which is a main cabin extra seat and it was free for me because of status. I wanted 12L which had significantly more legroom in my experience from my LA to Tokyo flight on AA. But seats 12 J, K, and L were blocked by the airline the whole time leading up to the day of the flight and I was monitoring the seat like a hawk and it still never opened up. At check-in, still did not open up. At the gate right before boarding…still blocked?!?!?!?! Finally once on board, I waited to see who would show up at those seats since I was right behind. Eventually, someone took the aisle, but no one took the middle or window. After the doors were shut, nobody took 12L so I moved up into it. Score! Below is seat 13L. It still has a lot of room, but not as much as what a bulkhead seat has.
Now I already reviewed AA’s economy hard product here so I won’t go into too much detail other than to say the seat is fairly hard.
And here were the morning views from Sydney.
I wasn’t expecting this but we were also given a menu for the flight to LA today. I was not given a menu on the flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo so I’m left to assume menus must be a 12+ hour flight thing for AA.
Finally, our pushback began and we would be underway very soon en route to Los Angeles.
We had a fairly quick taxi to runway 34L where we would be departing from and we were on our way soon after.
Unfortunately, the wing obstructed good views but there were good views that I saw upon departure.
After the seat belt signs were turned off, the crew came around with a hot towel for everyone.
Then pretzels came about 20 minutes after takeoff.
After pretzels came sparkling water which was served 30 minutes after takeoff.
I’m so happy they had actual sparkling water and not club soda.
About an hour and 10 minutes into the flight, lunch is served.
The bread served was pretty decent.
The main course was a big no no. Firstly, the photo may be deceiving because this photo was up close and the bowl was quite large, but the quantity was actually very little. The potatoes were tasteless and not seasoned properly at all. The beef had decent taste but it was cooked to death. The steamed vegetables were alright but it’s pretty hard to mess that up. So overall, count me dissatisfied with the main course.
On the other hand, the chocolate mousse that was served for dessert was nice, airy, sweet and delicious.
I was very tired at this point so I took the blanket and pillow they provided, took one picture, stretched out with the nearly unlimited legroom I had, reclined a bit, and went to sleep.
When I woke up roughly 6 hours later, it was fully dark outside, so I had missed the sunset which is fine. But there was also no chance of seeing anything including stars because the crew had remotely locked the windows.
Mid flight snack was eventually served which included a toasted chicken panini which was nice. It also came with a mango ice cream bar which was the same one that we were served on the previous flight from Singapore to Sydney.
Eventually I connected to the network which was painfully slow, and checked our flight progress.
The rest of the South Pacific flights, Hawaii flights, and us were coming up pretty quickly on LA.
Finally breakfast began with 1 hours 15 minutes left in the flight. Since my seat was at the very front of the economy cabin and the divider curtains were pretty much transparent, I was monitoring the cabin and Premium economy & business were already done with their service at this point.
The main course had eggs, potatoes, ham, and a tomato. The eggs were quite nice with the cheese and chives it had in it. The potatoes were also nicely seasoned this time around. The ham was also tasty as well and not too salty. I didn’t eat the tomato because I hate tomatoes but nothing wrong with AA on that part since that’s a personal preference.
The muffin served was tasty but a bit too bready in the sense that it was too dry and did not have that proper moist balance that you’d expect in a muffin.
The yogurt was smooth but too sweet so I only had a few bites of it.
And as always it’s good to have water.
The crew on this flight were also really kind throughout the whole flight so that was a big plus as well.
Finally the crew took the control off the windows upon beginning descent and I managed to take some photos.
And here is the lovely home Los Angeles.
We touched down roughly 20 minutes ahead of schedule on south side runway 25L
And We parked at gate 42.
And there was the tail of a Singapore Airlines 777-300ER arriving from Seoul.
And here’s a final picture outside the aircraft.
Overall, this was another decent flight across the board. The food is a hit or miss, and the seats could do with some improvements as well, but not a bad flight on AA overall. I was overall happy with the flight. Now I will say that having a bulkhead row 12 window seat made the experience significantly better and much more durable for the 14 hour flight back. I would say if you had any seat behind row 14, the experience will be medium to sub-par because of the tightness of those seats. But I had a decent experience here.
One thing that I can say common for all is that AA is definitely upping the experience especially with having menus in economy, pillows and blankets that are soft, hot towels, just little things like that. Now I regret to say but on a Singapore Airlines flight about 10 years ago, they already had all of the above things I mentioned, but it’s good to see that AA is at least finally catching up with that respect.
As this trip comes to an end, thanks to all for following along this long and fun journey. I had a lot of fun flying all of these flights and writing all of these reviews. But now onto a couple months of hard work ahead and my next trip maybe to Iceland or Turkey this coming winter. We shall see. In the mean time, enjoy the rest of the reviews above if you missed any, and at anytime contact me if you have any questions. Cheers!