As the days drew closer to our outbound travel date Simon decided we would be better off going via Chicago than via Dallas because the loads in F & J were lighter and, given we were after a premium cabin, we were happy to travel via any route that secured us F or J on the trans-Atlantic sector. The other relatively minor issue was that the loads on the domestic ORD-SAN leg were such that even getting an economy seat was looking dodgy. We subsequently learned that there was major conference in San Diego that weekend, hence the packed flights! No worries though, we were happy to fly into SNA (John Wayne Orange County) instead since that was only an hour’s drive away from Jon’s house in San Diego. Incidentally we could have taken the direct midday AA flight LHR-LAX but that would have got us to LAX at such a time that the drive from there to San Diego would have taken hours, so we were quite content with the SNA option.
The day before we travelled Simon emailed us our boarding passes, well in fact they were ‘Priority Verification Passes’ which hold good for getting through security. They’re essentially boarding passes, just without a seat allocation.
We’d booked Purple Parking at Heathrow and, after an extremely quick drive from our home in Sussex up to Heathrow we called by McDonalds on the Bath Road to kill some time rather than faff about phoning Purple Parking to bring forward our ‘meet & greet’ slot. Onward to T3 we went where a smartly dressed, purple clad rep was there to meet us and whisk the car away. There was no queue at AA bag drop where our cases were tagged to SNA via ORD and receipts issued.
No queue at security and once through we headed straight to the No. 1 Lounge courtesy of our Amex Platinum provided Priority Passes. This was our first time in the T3 No. 1 Lounge having only frequented the Gatwick North one previously. The Gatwick one we felt was the bees knees…well the T3 one is even better! Not a VS Clubhouse by any means but absolutely a lovely haven to while away the time in prior to a flight. We had eggs benedict in the waiter served restaurant area and then settled down on the leather sofas for bloody marys. The wireless worked faultlessly and all in all we had a great couple of hours here.
Whilst in the No. 1 lounge, through a combination of up to the second Expert Flyer searches and ‘live’ WhatsApp updates from Simon, we resigned ourselves to ending up in J as opposed to F. This was because a load of pax in J were moved forward due to their AA points status. Over a period of an hour in the No. 1 Lounge we saw the seven spare seats in F dwindle down to three. We also knew that there were a couple of AA employees on ‘D1’s who get priority over us lowly D3’s. Thus they would have two of those three spare seats in F. The good news was that we knew we’d be good for seats in J. We also knew that, should we somehow fail to secure F or J, we’d be OK in Economy as it was only booked to 88 out of 194 so essentially ‘wide open’! Before we knew it the AA47 was showing as boarding at Gate 34 so off we trundled.
Our information was all correct and the gate agent explained that we could either have a seat in F and J or be both together in J. We went for the latter although must admit we were tempted to toss a coin and for one of us to go in F! Our Priority Verification passes were swapped for Boarding Passes, seats 9E & 9G, the middle & right of the first (bulkhead) centre row of seats in J. At the point we were also issued with our Priority Verification Pass for the ORD-SNA sector and had it explained to us that our luggage would go on this flight regardless of whether or not we got on! No surprises there as it’s happened to us before flying standby in the USA, ie. cases go but you don’t. Clearly a ‘bag sans pax’ scenario is strictly forbidden in Europe so I’m somewhat astonished that this practice is commonplace in the States. It’s not just the security issue with the flight itself but the fact that your luggage end up on the floor of the baggage hall (that being domestic is open to Joe Public!) unattended for hours until you eventually make it there! Anyway, rant over.
Boarding was all very civilised, no scrum at the gate – indeed nobody even got up to form a queue as normally happens when passengers in a gate area reckon the agent is just about to call people forward! Business & First boarded first so up we got & on we went. We were welcomed by name as we found our seats and sorted out our stuff. Business Class amenity kits were in the one of the various stowage cubby holes in front of us. They contained Dermalogica lip balm, active moist & hand/nail treatment as well as the usual socks, eye mask & toothbush/paste.
AA’s 777 J cabin has 37 seats in a 2-3-2 layout, all shell style so no issue with people reclining in to you. The seats were of the ‘nearly’ lie flat type which I personally quite like as feel less stuffy & enclosed at the pillow end when sleeping. The seat was multi-adjustable in many directions, I think from memory more adjustable than VS. There was a laptop power port too. Where I feel AA let themselves down was in the ‘greyness’ of the cabin interior, nothing to write home about! It was absolutely clean and damage free though and everything functioned properly. Each seat’s stowage area also had a duvet provided along with pillow and slippers.
The IFE was switched on from the moment we boarded until the plane parked at ORD. The screens looked similar in size to VS and were touch screen. I watched The Hangover 2 later in the flight – very funny film! The provided Bose noise cancelling headphones were great.
The flight attendants introduced themselves to us, one covering my aisle and another covering the other aisle and centre seat of three, thus we were each taken care of by different FA’s through the flight. This wasn’t an issue as everything happened at the same time with meals & drinks. Menus were handed out at the same time as we were offered pre-flight Champagne, today’s choices were as follows:-
To Start: Warm mixed nuts
Appetizer: Shrimp confit & crab salad accompanies by vegetable brunoise & mixed greens
Salad: Fresh seasonal greens and an assortment of fresh vegetables offered with Greek vinaigrette or premium extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Bread basket: Assorted gourmet breads
Main Course: Grilled fillet of beef enhanced by a red wine & shallot sauce, offered with haricots verts and mustard mashed potatoes
Breast of chicken flavoured with coriander and lime, served with pumpkin sauce, tomato couscous and stir-fried vegetables
Grilled salmon topped with an onion pine nut confit, accompanied by spinach mashed potatoes, sautéed peppers and zucchini
Lasagna with eggplant, root vegetables, bell ,peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and béchamel sauce topped with grated Italian cheese, arugula, sweet herbs and pesto.
Dessert: Chocolate fudge brownie ice cream
Fruit & Cheese: A selection of gourmet cheeses offered with fresh seasonal fruit and assorted crackers
The menu also explained the ‘Dine Upon Request’ option: You choose one of the featured entrees to be served with an appetizer and dessert, presented all at once, at any time you wish.
The Champagne was Collet Brut and there was a choice of three reds and three whites along with dessert wine and vintage Port.
We both enjoyed our meals, I’d opted for the chicken and Steve the salmon. What intrigued me was that people ordering the steak were asked how they’d like it done and people were ordering rare, medium…etc. I’d always figured you couldn’t have a rare steak served up on a flight but the chap sitting next to Steve most certainly did and said it was delicious!
All in all this was a good flight, by no means the ‘fun’ VS experience…yes we did miss the social bar time! We found the service to be more ‘formal’ than VS but that was OK. The crew were all on average much older than a typical VS crew, I reckon all the flight attendants on board were in their fifties, all clearly with decades of experience behind them.
We arrived at ORD 5 mins early at 4pm, in plenty of time for our 6.40pm connection to SNA. J pax disembarked after F and we soon made it through to immigration where the queue was not too long but we still waited for around 40 mins. I’d noticed all the people in front of us were having prints of both palms and both thumbs but we each only had one palm done with a processing time of what must have been less than 30 secs!
Bags were on belt, through customs and bags re-deposited on the transfer belt.
We got down to the next gate where our names were already on the screen showing priority order of standby pax, we were listed as 8 & 9. There was another screen showing all the upgrade requests, around 15 people listed all requesting miles upgrades to First. We’d been told by Simon to not expect First Class on this sector since it would be full to the brim with folk on miles upgrades!
To cut a long story short we ended up sitting separately each in the middle seat of three on a clapped out 757. It had to be air started on stand as the APU wasn't working. None of the reading lights worked and the old fashioned 'central monitor' video system failed to work too meaning that those pax who had purchased headsets had their money refunded. The flight was packed – I think around 4 spare seats. Leg room was good though and we both managed to sleep on this sector.
Four hours later we landed on time at John Wayne Orange County at 9pm. Bags already on belt and over to Hertz desk where there was a sign directing Club Gold customers straight to the parking garage over the road. We have Club Gold thank to Amex Platinum and this was the first time we’d booked car hire through Hertz having typically used Dollar or Alamo in the last. When we got to the Hertz parking area there was a large digital board with a load of names and parking bay numbers and there was my name listed! I asked the girl at the counter if we need to give her anything and she simply said no, go get in the car and drive off…..which is exactly what we did! No credit card check, nothing other than showing the guard at the exit the rental agreement (which was hanging on the rear view mirror) and driving license. From getting off the plane to exiting the airport in our rented Toyota Camry (£129 for nine days all in!) must have taken no more than 15 mins, incredible!
One hour and 10 mins later we were at Jon’s in San Diego where we spent 5 fun filled days before heading for the desert and Palm Springs where I’m now writing this TR. For our return journey we decided not to risk standby as the loads this weekend are looking decidedly ‘cosy’! Instead we’ve booked a one way Premium Economy on Air New Zealand! The flight came in nearly £400 each less than VS PE on the same day, we also get to sample the new 2-2-2- ‘Space Seats’ on ANZ! Watch this space for the next trip report!
