Review: American Airlines Main Cabin – B777-200 (ORD-PVG-ORD)
American Airlines is now the largest airline in the world after its recent merger with US Airways. The tail of new American planes, and those being modernized, displays a symbolic representation of the flag of the United States of America. If you ever fly on American I encourage you to open an AAdvantage account to earn miles for the flights you take or you can earn those miles/points on other oneworld airlines if you choose to do so. The Boeing 777 is the worlds largest twinjet and it is also the first entirely computer-designed commercial aircraft, the triple seven is also one of the safest aircraft’s in the world.
This post will review the round trip experience of a flight from Chicago, IL (ORD) to Shandhai, China (PVG). Images of the food consumed will be posted for both segments of thee flight.
Boarding: Boarding seemed smooth, the flight was not too full. Boarding on American is done by groups, starting by first class & business, elite flyers (including oneworld elites) and then groups 1-4. Upon boarding the plane I proceeded to stow my carry-on luggage and take my seat. My seat had a blanket and a pillow for comfort throughout the flight, most airlines do this on long international flights.
In-Flight Amenities: Like I previously said, once you sit down you will notice that you get a nice blanket and pillow to use during your flight, some passengers actually keep these for future personal use. If I keep them they usually end up with my puppy. Upon reaching an adequate altitude, flight attendants came around and handed out some nice headphones for the inflight entertainment program. The headphones are quite nice and you are allowed to keep them if you wish. I sure did.
Main Cabin Seats: Though there is obviously a big difference between the main cabin seats and the seats in first/business class, regardless, it was a comfortable flight nonetheless. The B777-200 has 194 standard seats, the dimensions are 31-32 in length and 18-18.5 in width. In addition, this plane had a first class and business class with lie flat beds/angle flat beds. American is one of the few airlines that has lie-flat beds, as for their main cabin seats, the size was standard.
Inflight Entertainment: This was probably one of the worst flights that I have taken in terms of inflight entertainment enjoyment. Every seat has its own TV screen (its behind the seat in front of you), the biggest drawback is that the TV’s look very old and outdated when compared to Delta or other major airlines. The remote holder is on your armrest making it inconvenient if you push a button by mistake – the remote is also very old. For the most part the movie selection was not the best, far less movies than Virgin Atlantic and Delta Airlines. The second biggest drawback is that shows/movies start on a scheduled basis, in other words you cannot choose when to play them and if you have to go to the bathroom you will miss part of the show or movie. On the return flight, my TV did not work at all so I sat for 12 hours without any entertainment. I tweeted @AmericanAir my complaint about their outdated inflight entertainment system and this was their response:
@aadam_flyer We’re in the process of updating our fleet. We hope your next fight is on one of our new planes. http://t.co/vjYnHzwIEn
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) February 20, 2014
On another note, there is no inflight WiFi because the flight leaves the United States and goes over international water and into a foreign country therefore it is prohibited by federal law. I personally have not looked into this law too much.
Food & Beverage: A few minutes into the flight the flight attendants came around with complimentary drinks and a bag of pretzels and nuts. Approximately 45 minutes later they served dinner which included chicken, rice and vegetables with salad, a delicious brownie and some bread with butter. Wine and Beer is usually complimentary (FREE) on most international flights on American. They occasionally came around with water, tea or coffee. A few hours later they came around with a ham & cheese sandwich and more drinks. About an hour and a half before landing they provided us with another meal, this time it was a cheese pizza (very delicious) and dark chocolate biscoff. You can order unlimited amounts of wine and beer throughout the flight but they do have the right to cut you off if they think you’re drunk or are acting up.
Food on the way to Shanghai, China:
Food on the way back to Chicago, IL:
Inflight Service: The inflight service was not bad. They came around with hot towels twice during the flight so we could clean our face and relax a bit. The flight attendants were very nice and for the first time ever, when I pressed the call a flight attendant button someone actually answered! The captain gave us a brief summary of what to expect once we were above 10,000ft and then again when we were preparing to initiate our descend. There was some turbulence but nothing too crazy. The bathrooms were usually clean and stocked with toilet paper, power towels and tissues.
REVIEW SCORE: 7.8/10 [OKAY: The inflight entertainment needs a serious makeover]
