Crossing North America in American Airlines First Class

• Introduction – Big Family Cruise in a HUGE Suite

• Why We Chose Alaska For Our Three Generation Cruise

• Crossing North America in American Airlines First Class

• Vancouver Pre-Cruise Hotel Review – Fairmont Waterfront

• What to Expect with an NCL Haven Embarkation

• Our First Time Sailing Norwegian Cruise Line

• Comparing the NCL Haven to Sister Line Oceania Cruises

• Cabin Review – Three Bedroom Haven Garden Villa

• The Haven Experience on a Jewel-Class Ship

• Flight Review – Delta Airlines Anchorage (ANC) to Atlanta (ATL) in First Class

• Would we Sail NCL in Alaska Again?

Background

It should come as no surprise that, being based in Atlanta for 25 years, we’re Delta loyalists.  But sometimes that loyalty is tested, like when their flights are two or three times more expensive than their competitors in points and in dollars.  That was the case for our outbound flights from Atlanta (ATL) to Vancouver (YVR).  As nice as a direct on Delta might have been we just couldn’t justify the premium.  So we found ourselves exploring Alaska Airlines as we’d recently acquired a good number of miles through a credit card signup bonus at the time, but alas, coming from Atlanta meant really high redemption pricing and long layovers in Seattle on our way to Vancouver.  This had us looking at other options including American Airlines where we both had a decent cache of miles mostly accumulated through shopping portal purchases and the occasional business travel flights.  Well it worked out that AA had the best option in terms of mileage redemption rates and schedule.  So with that background out of the way, let’s start our flight review – Crossing North America in American Airlines First Class.

.  

Booking

Because we were collectively sitting on more than 400,000 AA miles and have a strong bias towards flying Delta we were open to burning some miles on this trip and that meant booking first class.  We had no chance at an upgrade with only low-level AAdvantage Platinum® status for me and no status for my wife.  For us the length of this flight (similar to what we’re used to flying to Western Europe from the East Coast of the US) and it falling during dinner time meant that the splurge would be worth it to us for the start of this epic trip.  We looked at booking round trip and found that Delta was actually requiring roughly 50% fewer miles for the return, meaning that one way would be preferred as we were still looking to renew our Delta Diamond Medallion status and the Anchorage (ANC) to Atlanta (ATL) would help with that even when booking with miles.  We explored booking Delta to Charlotte for our positioning flight to save on AA miles; however, AA was pricing the same with our without this short flight so it was a no brainer to stick with AA for both flights.

The price per passenger in AA miles from ATL to CLT to YVR in first class was 81,500 miles and $5.60 in taxes and fees.  The cash price was $1,118 per person so it worked out to an OK, not great, 1.37 cents per point, but still a much better deal than Delta or Alaska Airlines were offering in points at the time we booked.

American Airlines Experience at ATL

Delta is the 800 pound gorilla at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport with all other airlines are pygmy marmosets by comparison.  While Delta has six SkyClubs scattered throughout the airport, only two other airlines operate their own lounges.  These are United Airlines and American Airlines.  We’ve previously covered our brief experience in the United Club at the start of our Polaris journey on our way to our Oceania Vista cruise where we found the lounge was a bit better than we’d expected.  With the American Airlines Admirals Club in the T Concourse at ATL there was no suspense as we both have visited before and find it’s 90’s decor to be sort of charming as it’s been well maintained.

We were able to access Admiral’s clubs on this trip as my wife carries a Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® and I have an authorized user card.  We don’t use these too frequently, but often enough to justify the annual fee.

The current sign next to the decidedly vintage doors and massive soffit start the experience.

Fortunately things brighten up a bit inside with lots of light colored wood.

Food options were solid with hot and cold options and a decent number of Gluten Free options for us to nibble.

There was a self-serve area for non-alcoholic drinks as well as a small staffed bar.  Unfortunately the coffee machine was out of service, but this wasn’t a problem for our afternoon departure.

We were fortunate that our flight to CLT was departing out of a gate across the concourse it was a short walk to our plane.

American Airlines Quick Hop to CLT

Our flight to Charlotte was operated by an E175 with a small first class cabin.  There are no IFE screens on board but there were easily accessible power ports in the center arm rest.

We received a water pre-departure-beverage “PDB” and that’s all we received on this short flight blocked at 1hr24mins that felt like most of the time was spent taxiing.

American Airlines Connecting at CLT

Let me start by saying I have historically done everything within my power to avoid flying in/out/through CLT.  The airport feels undersized for the volume pushed through it each day, I have yet to discover a pleasant American Airlines Admiral’s club and my preferred airline Delta doesn’t have a SkyClub.  Living in ATL I have for years driven the 3.5-4 hours to Charlotte after my first time flying there as the experience for me has just never been a pleasant one.

Well…spoiler alert, this experience wasn’t great.

We were scheduled to have a 2 hour and 40 minute connection.  Due to a late departure out of ATL it was closer to 2 hours.  We thought this was plenty of time to check out the lounge.  We opted to go to the Concourse C/D club only to find that it was under construction, over crowded, and had a much more limited and sad food selection than the lounge in ATL.  Not what we were expecting for a hub.  I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of this story.

After circling looking for Gluten Free food and seats at which to eat it we went 0 for 2 and headed out into the terminal to look for food.  All I can say is I hope you like gas station grub because the pickens were slim and bordering on non-existent for Gluten Free options.  After settling for some beef jerky and kettle chips we made our way to gate C15.  This is how crowded it looked to board an A321.  I hope they don’t try and board anything larger here as it was packed.

After a series of rolling delays we were finally able to board our A321 for the 5hr50min flight to YVR.  We had booked ourselves in seats 2D and 2F.  We had also pre-ordered Gluten Free meals.  Fingers crossed…

American Airlines CLT to YVR in First Class

While NYC to LA/SFO are what most people think of as transcontinental flights in North America, there are others like this one that are quite a bit longer, but not nearly as long as the ANC to ATL that ends our trip.  So going west we are crossing North America in American Airlines First Class.

Like our first aircraft this A321 that was going to take us to Vancouver also lacked IFE screens; however they did have the option to connect to their in-flight Wi-Fi to stream content on our own devices and a holder for your personal device as well as a USB-A port for charging.

We were greeted by a very friendly flight attendant and offered a pre-departure-beverage.  We shared a glass, or rather plastic cup, of white wine.

After everyone had been served their pre-departure beverages the flight attendant working the first class cabin came around to take dinner orders.  We were relieved when she confirmed that our pre-ordered Gluten Free meals were confirmed and had been loaded on the aircraft.

After a quick taxi and takeoff the flight attendant came around with hot towels and took our drink orders for our meals.

Quickly our drinks and warm nuts were served.

Service continued at a good pace with our dinner coming quickly on one tray.  Ours were served with the protective plastic wrap over the top of the two different salads.  This seemed to only happen for us so I’m guessing this was due to the special Gluten Free meal.

The portion size and variety of our Gluten Free meal was really generous and included additional pre-packaged Gluten Free bread, a cookie, and some delicious cheese straws making up for the fact that we couldn’t partake from most of the options in the snack basket or the bread other passengers were receiving.

It always makes me feel better that I’m actually being served the Gluten Free meal when it has a sticker somewhere on it.  In this case it was a hand written label attached to the cloth covering the tray.

I have to say this American Airlines meal on a intra-North American route is better than some of the Delta and United trans-Atlantic Business Class meal’s we’ve had.  It certainly wasn’t fancy or loaded with expensive items but it was really fresh and tasty with a variety of different flavors.  I was getting full and wanted to save room for an ice cream sundae so I punted on the last half of the very dry roll served with margarine.

The sundae with caramel, strawberry sauce, whip cream, and chopped pecans was excellent!

I have to admit that after eating a bit too much I took a nap and before we new it we were on approach into YVR.

Final Approach

I’m a bit conflicted on the overall experience.  There were some highs like the food and friendly crew on the flight from Charlotte to Vancouver and the on the ground experience in Atlanta.  Then there were some lows like the ground experience at Charlotte Douglas International and the fact that the A321 didn’t have IFE for a nearly long-haul flight.  Overall I would take this route again if the pricing were favorable.  If the price were the same on Delta or Alaska I might opt for one of them instead.  That concludes our flight review – Crossing North America in American Airlines First Class. – Michael