This last week has been weird and exciting. For the first time in 20 years I have decided to fly with a USA Legacy carrier on an international flight (Last time was 1990 from JFK to LAX with TWA).
I flew American Airlines (AA) from Dubai to Detroit.
Well, the first flight was DXB to LHR a code share with their One World Partner British Airways (BA), I suppose we all know about their Flight Attendants' call for a strike over the Christmas/New Year season and the ensuing drama. I fly with BA several times a year, but that was different. The crew were very professional, courteous, poker face, fake smiles and cool, well more like cold, lucky it was a night flight and I slept.
Then came AA, now I am used to American Eagle Flights between Chicago and Detroit, commuter aircraft, very short and very informal. AA at LHR were friendly, my boarding passes issued and sent on my way to their Admiral's Club. I liked their lounge in LHR the layout was nice, much better than BA's T5 lounges. The one in Chicago was great but other than a voucher for a free bottle of water everything else is chargeable.
Now AA must have a great profiling software for additional security screening. In the last 8 months I got profiled twice for extra screening, I suppose a Jordanian, residing in the USA traveling back and forth to Dubai does raise some concerns to somebody in AA, so you get a bunch of SSSS typed on your boarding pass. In Detroit the TSA made sure I understood that it was "my airline requested extra screening", in LHR the security personnel told me SSSS was for special, I actually laughed. I don't mind it.
I love travelling in B777, it is a great aircraft and the Business seat on AA is so complicated, they have a video clip on how to use it, pretty cool. The entertainment system is not as extensive as BA's just a few movies, but I loved their Audio especially the Classical Music.
The food was not bad, imaginative and tasty (Chicken on a bed of couscous with tomato sauce, not bad for a Legacy Airline) and the chocolate ice cream was divine, I was impressed.
The crew was professional and aloof. The Purser told us not to leave our designated zones, congregate around toilets and not to approach the galleys and she meant it. WOW.... very clinical almost surgical, of course the Captain's announcement to us that if we see something unusual, it is probably unusual and tell your FA.
All in all, it was a great Atlantic crossing, surprisingly
