POOR: American Airlines FIRST CLASS 777-200 Chicago to Miami

[Music] i'm paul lucas and i have the best job in the world i get to fly around the world and make videos for youtube reviewing airlines and train trips and going behind the media hype drawing back the curtain to find out what you really get for your money i don't work with the airlines and i pay for all my trips myself so you can be sure i'm giving you unfiltered unbiased opinion about how to travel who to fly and whether it's worth the money make sure you're subscribed and hit that notification bell to be notified of all my videos as and when they land on youtube [Music] hello and welcome to another video today i'm flying with american airlines on their boeing triple seven 200 it's just behind me it's not going to plan let's find out what the problem is and let's see if i get to miami today i'm flying in domestic first class one of the really annoying things about getting a big delay like this is that unless you're told otherwise by the airline you really should check in for the original departure time i'm not quite sure of the reason for the delay today i suspect it might be staff related but sometimes the delayed departure time can be brought forward so it will help if you bring your bag and check in on time so the plane doesn't go without you it is uh 9 34 at the moment the original departure time was 11 o'clock but it looks like i'm going to be here till 3 p.m so about 6 hours in o'hare airport today at least should be an interesting one so with check-in complete it's time to head airside by the way don't forget to take a glance at the old classic american airlines logo that is hanging near the check-in area if you pass through chicago o'hare what a great logo it is american uses terminal 3 which is well passed at sell by date but it still has a special place in my heart and here we are arguably the most recognizable airport concourse anywhere in the world well at least if you're in your mid-30s and we're weaned on home alone as most of you know american airlines operates two sorts of lounge the ordinary admirals club and the much fancier flagship lounge which i'm allowed to enter as a british airways gold card holder unless you have elite airline status or the right credit card domestic first class tickets don't get you into any american airlines lounge anyway the flagship lounge was and still is closed due to the downturn in premium travel so admirals club it is okay so i was going to show you that the flagship lounge here at chicago o'hare is currently closed captioning not at the airport available not wise to take some pictures there was a rather mean lady on the door so i'm heading off to the admirals club which is the regular american airlines lounge [Music] come on [Music] so [Music] this is one of the ways in which having airline status can really help i've had a really long delay here and being able to spend it in a lounge where everything is free sure beats being in a bar in the terminal emptying my wallet well i'll be honest i've had worse places to wait for a delay than the admirals club here at chicago not a bad spread at all [Music] delays happen they're a fact of life but when this video was filmed american was going through a particularly rough patch with reliability thanks to staffing issues around covid however soon enough our aircraft arrives about five hours late from london you can only board all right we are now four hours and ten minutes behind our original departure time uh but we're finally getting on board and finally hopefully going to miami now i really need to get there tonight sod's law that i would pick up a big delay the only time actually me to be somewhere this is a boeing triple 7 200 which first flew in 1999 and is 23 years old this aircraft like all american wide body aircraft has international long-haul style interior with live flat seats in business class or as the ticket is sold as today domestic first class [Music] so [Music] we know we've got lots of choices before you know it [Music] hmm so so [Music] here is the bizarre setup american have in business class while anything beats a regular recliner you'd normally get flying domestically in america these seats are not popular they're cramped narrow and half of them face backwards also each pair of seats is a single module so you feel your seat move with every movement of the person on the other side of the divide and that is a surprisingly weird and annoying feature in such a new and modern seat also as you can see these seats are not private it's a layout to avoid if you travel long haul although for this domestic sector down to miami it's a bit of a bonus really to have a live flat seat at all today's flight takes us 2 hours and 27 minutes to cover the 1199 miles down to miami let's look at this seat in a bit more detail there are no fewer than four power outlets in a single seat which is pretty extravagant although i wish i could say the same about the build quality this seat looks really badly put together and some finishes were loose and there was already a fair bit of damage not to mention the dirt that was on the seat it's only when you've flown a lot of the competition that you realized how weak this seat actually is the screen is small and difficult to stow when you're belted in because it's so far away and there's a surprising lack of storage the table deploys neatly but there's no way of getting up once it's set up okay i don't want to slay this seat too hard but yeah it's pretty bad and american have already started replacing them because they are so unpopular there are however individual air vents which is a plus and having the seat controls on a console far away from where your arm can accidentally nudge them is a pretty smart idea so it's not all bad service was fine drinks were served right after takeoff and the crew were totally okay although not overly friendly american airlines have since reinstated hot meals on flights longer than three and a half hours but sadly the meal i was served is still typical of the sort of cold fare you'll get going between chicago and miami [Music] this is one of the driest pieces of food i've ever had in a plane not great our route takes us over the ohio river and nashville but with darkness approaching it's time to check out the in-flight entertainment there are loads of choices thankfully and the flight isn't too long anyway although let me know if you're the type to read a book on a flight instead the triple sevens lavatories are pretty nice actually i do actually rather like this wood effect and it was very clean [Music] so with just over two hours of flying under our belt it's almost time to leave cruising altitude and make our very late approach into florida [Music] well it has been a long day and not what i expected when i got up at 7am this morning we're just about to start descending into the miami area and as you can see outside the colors are still absolutely fantastic not been a perfect day but coffee at 40 000 feet chilling out in business class it really could be a lot worse so thanks so much for coming with me i'll see you in miami [Music] and so another rather long travel day ends this wasn't a great experience even if i did have the consolation of live flat seats for the trip thankfully i didn't part with any cash towards the journey and instead used 22 000 davios and four pounds 30 in fees to book this flight from my british airways executive club account the travel situation in the u.s has changed a bit since this was filmed a few months ago meals are back on longer sectors on american airlines the punctuality has improved and things are just generally looking a bit better still you should always temper your expectations with american carriers the food and seats may not be world beating and not giving lounge access to first-class passengers without frequent flyer status sucks but my experience is u.s airlines tend to focus heavily on scheduling and convenience which makes sense given how essential flying is to getting around the country thank you so much for watching this video i'm back in the us later on this year but for now thanks and i will see you next time bye for now [Music] you

Channel: Wingin’ It! Paul Lucas

Views: 147,722

Keywords: american airlines, american airlines business class, business class, first class, flight review, aa 777 business class, american airlines 777 business class, american airlines 777-200 business class, trip report, boeing 777-200er, american airlines first class, american 777-200, american airlines safety video, american 777-200 business class, aa 777, travel vlog, american 777-200 business, american airlines chicago to miami, paul lucas, american airlines first class domestic

Id: 2FlP05FGE2U

Length: 13min 44sec (824 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 25 2022