Review: American New B767 Business Class Zurich to New York-JFK

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It was quite the chaotic morning.  We awoke in Lucerne and headed to the train station for our scheduled 7:05am train ride from Lucern to the Zurich Airport.  I was going to be simple and easy… in theory.

That was until our train broke down.

We had spent the previous week taking trains all over central Europe without incident.  But there we were at 7:30am — stranded on a disabled train — somewhere in between Lucerne and Zurich.

Eventually, we backtracked to the closest station and had to hop the next train to Zurich hbf where we had to catch another train out to the airport.  Long story short, we arrived at ZRH at around 8:50am for a 10:00am flight.

As we approached the American ticket counters, they were about to shut down for the day, but we were able to successfully check in, proceed through immigration / security and take the train ride out to the satellite International terminal at ZRH.  By the time we got to the gate, boarding was underway.

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Ranking the Different American Airlines Business Class Seats

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Product consistency?  Who wants product consistency?

Certainly that’s not the goal at the new American…. at least not as far as Business Class seats are concerned!  Due to its merger with US Airways, an aging international fleet and seat supplier issues, American now features no less than nine (9) different international business class products.

Nine.

Of those, seven (7) are on wide body planes used for the vast majority of international routes to Europe, South America and Asia.  Over the past year or so, I’ve been able to fly on each wide body business class cabin in the American fleet, so I figured it was time to decipher the differences and rank them — all in one post!

But first?  The candidates (along with my past and future reviews of these flights) – many of these flights were in the last few weeks or months, so are in my queue to either write and/or edit and publish reviews:

  • A330-200 and A330-300 “Envoy” Suite
  • B767-300 “old” configuration
    • MIA-MXP (upcoming)
  • B767-300 “new” configuration
    • ZRH-JFK (upcoming)
  • B777-200 “old” configuration
    • MIA-EZE (upcoming)
    • SCL-MIA (upcoming)
  • B777-200 “new” configuration
  • B777-300ER
  • B787-8 Dreamliner

Let’s go ahead and profile each of these types of Business Class seats!

A330-200 and A330-300 “Envoy” Suite

Envoy Suites class on US Airways A330-200

Envoy Suites class on US Airways A330-200

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Posted in: Advice, Airlines, American, Analysis, Award Travel, Business Class, miles, Travel, Travel Hacking, US Airways \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Review: American New 777 -200 Business Class New York to Rio de Janeiro

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I had about 90 minutes to kill in the American FlAAgship First Class Lounge at JFK, and I spent that time catching up on e-mails, and downing some Glinlivet prior to by overnight flight on the American new 777 -200 Business Class from New York to Rio.

I do always enjoy spending time in this lounge, as there are plenty of nice food and beverage options, so my time spent here went by pretty quickly.  I headed to the gate at the published boarding time – 50 minutes prior to departure, and the plane had already been pretty much fully boarded.  As such, I was one of the last people to board the plane.

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Review: American 787 Business Class Tokyo to Chicago

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After  leisurely three hours in the fantastic JAL First Class lounge at Narita Airport, my delayed departure time for my return trip back home had arrived.  I made the pretty long haul from the JAL First lounge all the way to the AA departure gate for ORD.  It was the very last gate in the main terminal.  As I got to the gate, it was apparent that there would be an additional delay, so I took a seat.

Thirty minutes or so later, the crew boarded.  Another thirty minutes later, it was time to board.  The queue lined up pretty long for Business Class and Priority Access — and the gate agent didn’t really do a great job in organizing the boarding process, but what else is new?  Anyway, after this somewhat lengthy delay, it was time to enjoy the brand new American 787 Business Class.

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Week in Review: Free Delta Flights, American Premium Bonus and More

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Here’s a 35,000 foot view of travel news from around the Internet and a recap of my weekly posts…

News Around the Interwebs

It’s been a somewhat slow week in the points and miles world, but here were some of the highlights of the week that I saw pass through:

Delta Free Flights for Displaced DC-NYC passengers

After various reports of $2300+ airfare from DC to New York, MJ on Travel reports that Delta Airlines has come out to honor Amtrak customers displaced by the effects of the May 12th Derailment of Amtrak Train 188. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Airlines, American, Analysis, Cathay Pacific, Delta, News, Ryanair, Travel, Travel Hacking, United \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

How to Book a Flight to Tahiti with American Miles

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American AAdvantage miles are some of the easiest mileage currencies to accrue.  On the other hand, redeeming them can be challenging at times.  One of the places that may be pretty challenging to use AA miles for if you don’t know how is to get to one of the most beautiful places on Earth — the honeymoon and bucket list mecca of Bora Bora.

You’ve seen them.  The lavish resorts featuring elaborate overwater bungalows that are set on top of crystal clear water in a sheer tropical paradise.  Many of these properties are located in Bora Bora or Moorea — both Islands in the Society Islands of French Polynesia, along with Tahiti.  In order to get to these island paradises, one must first fly into Papeete (PPT) — the only international airport in Tahiti.

Getting to Papeete from North America is pretty straightforward when using American miles.  There are exactly two options:  Hawaiian Airlines and Air Tahiti Nui — both partners with American, and both are great partners that allow you to fly to Tahiti with American miles. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Advice, Air Tahiti Nui, Airlines, American, Analysis, Award Travel, Bora Bora, Deals, Hawaiian Airlines, How to Guide, miles, Tahiti, Travel, Travel Hacking \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Review: American B777-300ER Business Class Hong Kong to Dallas / Ft Worth

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We spent about an hour in Cathay Pacific’s “The Bridge” Lounge at Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok International Airport after arriving from Singapore earlier that morning.  After a few drinks and a quick bite, it was time to head to the gate to board our flight on American Airlines’ new B777-300ER in business class.

But let’s back up for a second.

Unlike my outbound trip from Dallas to Hong Kong, I did not clear the eVIP Systemwide upgrade for this flight several days ahead of time.  In fact, we did not actually clear this upgrade until 25 hours prior to the flight.  This flight was extremely elite heavy, so there were quite a few (dozens, actually) of Executive Platinum customers on this flight who didn’t clear the upgrade.  We had the advantage since we were on a connecting flight from Singapore (up until late April, connecting passengers had priority on the AA upgrade standby list — that is not longer the case).  Luckily, the three of us appeared to receive three of the last six seats in business class.

We arrived at the gate to see one of the longest lines for the Executive Platinum boarding group that I’ve ever seen.  That group was seriously rolling 75 people deep.  The boarding line was delayed even more by security checking everyone’s carry on bags before boarding.  All water bottles were taken away – that’s always an annoyance when flying back to the States from Hong Kong.

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Posted in: Airlines, American, Cities and Places, Flight Reviews, Food, Hong Kong, Mileage Runs, miles, Status, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Review: American Business Class Dallas / Ft Worth to Hong Kong

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I arrived in Los Angeles from my very nice trans-continental flight from New York on the new American A321T and hurried a few gates down where my flight to Dallas was already boarding.  I was the last first class passenger to board, so I took my seat and had a glass of water.  At that point, I was pretty exhausted, as it was about 1am Pacific time — early in the morning on my eastern time zone body clock.

I fell asleep before we even left LAX and didn’t wake up until we were landing in DFW — a short, sub-three hour redeye flight.  Pretty much the most miserable timing ever.  But I was okay with it.  I made my way to the D terminal at DFW and met a friend who had just come in from San Francisco at the American Express Centurion Lounge.  We had four hours to kill before we boarded our flight to Hong Kong.  I was able to access the lounge as his guest, as he has an AMEX Platinum card (I do not have one — shocking, I know).

For those who haven’t been, the AMEX Centurion Lounges are hands down the best domestic lounges in the country.  And DFW’s version is no exception.  I was dragging pretty significantly at this point, so I put my name on the list to take a shower and freshen up.  The shower was ready in no time, so I took a long shower and changed clothes.

Bam!  I was a new man.

Lunch selection at AMEX Centurion Lounge - DFW

Lunch selection at AMEX Centurion Lounge – DFW (from a previous visit)

Lunch selection at AMEX Centurion Lounge - DFW

Lunch selection at AMEX Centurion Lounge – DFW  (from a previous visit)

AMEX Centurion Lounge - DFW

AMEX Centurion Lounge – DFW

For the next few hours, we had some breakfast, a few drinks and I had a free massage in the while awaiting our flight.  My third friend joined us later that morning, so we naturally had some bon voyage drinks before making the short walk to our gate to board the longest flight that American Airlines flies:  Dallas to Hong Kong.

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Posted in: Airlines, American, Flight Reviews, Food, Hong Kong, Mileage Runs, miles, Status, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Review: American Business Class New York-JFK to Los Angeles

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After an easy flight up to Toronto and a short hop in first class on an American CRJ-700, I found myself at New York’s JFK airport with three and half hours to kill before my evening flight across the country to Los Angeles.

This flight to LA was, of course en-route to Singapore.  Via Hong Kong.  Via Dallas.

Yes, I was flying from New York – to Los Angeles – to Dallas – to Hong Kong – and finally — to Singapore.  Just to spend two nights there and head back home the same way.

Why?  Because I wanted to maximize the miles from my routing.

Mission accomplished.

Anyways, I found myself at JFK in the American FlAAgship First Class Lounge where I had a light dinner and quite a few single malt scotches.  Eventually it was time to head to my gate to board my brand new A321-T for Los Angeles. Continue Reading →

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A Weekend in Southeast Asia: Introduction

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Last December, there was an interesting airfare to Singapore from Toronto with American Airlines.  The base fare was low enough to grab my attention, as it included the newish, long segments from Dallas / Ft. Worth (DFW) to Hong Kong on the new B777-300ER.  I had several newly acquired American eVIP, system wide upgrades burning a hole in my pocket, so I decided to see what I could do.

With an open weekend, I decided to try to put together the most convoluted routing possible to get me to Singapore.  The impressive part was that I was able to convince a couple of my travel junkie friends that this was a good idea, and they decided that a night in Hong Kong and a couple of nights in Singapore were completely reasonable for a weekend trip. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Airlines, American, Analysis, Asia, Cathay Pacific, Cities and Places, Flight Reviews, Hong Kong, Layovers, Mileage Runs, Singapore, Status, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , ,