Flagship First Transcontinental: LAX – BOS: morning flight edition!

In a recent post, I discussed how American Airlines was eliminating its Flagship First Class product.  I noted how Flagship First is a special product beyond domestic First Class or lie-flat Business Class.  Flagship First only operates on select transcontinental or intercontinental routes from select hub airports, including LAX, DFW, MIA, and JFK.  Specifically, Chicago ORD, PHL, PHX, and CLT lack any Flagship First service.  The flipside, however, is that some non-hub airports do actually offer Flagship First flights (but no specialized ground services); these include SFO and SNA.

Since I am actively trying to fly Flagship First while it still exists, I decided to fly to Los Angeles to fly Flagship First from LAX to Boston (BOS).  When booking ahead of time, the premium for Flagship First over Flagship Business is often just $200.  Before check-in, Flagship First was showing as 4/10 taken, but by the time boarding was complete, the entire cabin was full.  I imagine a lot of people were non-revs or possibly operational upgrades.

The Flagship First class experience at LAX begins curb-side with the Flagship First check-in.  Outside the entry is a bouncer who confirmed my eligibility, which I had both thanks to my Flagship First ticket and my BA Gold Status.  This professional gentleman also became my escort through the Flagship First class experience.

He led me down a short hallway to the private check-in desks.  Since I had no bags to check, she simply checked my ID and printed a boarding pass for me.  I was then led into an elevator and taken to the front of the TSA Pre-Check security line.

Upon clearing security, I was dropped into the general Terminal 4 area (unescorted at this point) and then proceeded directly to the Flagship Lounge, which is located shortly past security. 

The Flagship Lounge entrance at LAX is shared with the Admirals Club, so after having my ticket checked, I was provided with a Flagship Lounge invitation.

The Flagship Lounge is open to anyone flying Flagship Business or Flagship First (on a transcontinental or international route), and Oneworld Sapphire and Emerald elites (American and Alaska Airlines’ elites only have access on qualifying international routes).  Before the pandemic, American offered Flagship First Dining at LAX, but it was closed and has yet to reopen.  With American eliminating Flagship First class in 2024, I’m doubtful that it will ever reopen. 

Flying Flagship First over Flagship Business from LAX, therefore, only gives the improved check-in experience.  If you have BA Gold or another foreign Oneworld Emerald status, it gives nothing extra on the ground compared to flying even economy.  That’s partly a testament to the power of Oneworld Emerald status and partly from the unfortunate state of Flagship First Dining being closed.

Immediately upon entry, I was offered champagne, which she topped up with some orange juice for my first mimosa of the journey.

The Flagship Lounge has great windows that always provide great views of American’s many planes.  At this point in the day, there were not many wide-body departures, however.  Waiting at gate 41 was an A321T getting ready to go to JFK.

The Flagship Lounge offers an extensive buffet that is a massive step up from the offerings in the Admirals Club, and this is probably my favorite lounge at LAX even more than the QANTAS First Class lounge, but I’ll need to visit that lounge again to be sure.  This was the first time that I had arrived at the airport early enough to leisurely enjoy this lounge because I wanted to get a full sense of American’s Flagship First ground experience for this review.

The lounge has several seating areas, but my favorite one is the one by the buffet, which consists of tables and chairs and lounging chairs.

The breakfast buffet menu consisted of chilled and warm breakfast options, as well as pastries and breads. 

For those wanting a simpler option, there was even a simple bagel bar.

I selected a small combination of warm and cold items to get a general sense of the food.  It was all very good but definitely buffet food.  But I am definitely someone who enjoys buffet food a lot.

About 30 minutes before departure, boarding began, and I left the lounge.  American has 9 boarding groups, which is insane, but this aircraft is so sparse (it only has 102 seats on it) that boarding was complete in barely 15 minutes, which is very impressive. 

I selected seat 1F for myself in the hopes of getting views of the Grand Canyon during the flight.

Waiting at my seat were a lot of accoutrements, including bedding, a menu, noise-cancelling headphones, a water bottle, and an amenity kit.  Despite being row 1, this seat doesn’t actually have much additional space compared to the other seats in the cabin because the space that another seat would slot into is instead basically a big counter.

The Casper bedding provided on this day-time flight was extensive: a large pillow and blanket, as well as a lumbar pillow and a lighter day blanket.

The Flagship First seat on this plane is largely comparable to the Flagship Business seat on American’s 777-300ER, but I think I actually like it better because it’s a bit less angled. When I last took a similar flight in 2021, I commented that it was no better than United’s 787 Polaris seat even though it was marketed as First Class instead of Business Class, and I think I’ve changed my mind on that. The Polaris seats are private but very dense, whereas these feel much more spacious, and, United has recently had very high prices for its transcontinental services (i.e. more expensive than AA’s Flagship First service).

Something I noticed on this flight that I had never noticed before is that the aisle in Flagship First is actually much wider than on most aircraft, likely due to the fact that this seat was not specifically designed to be on a narrow-body aircraft and so is not as space-efficient as new designs.  The inefficiency of this design also helps explain why it’s been hard for American to turn a profit with Flagship First-equipped aircraft. 

This Flagship First class seat had everything that one might want for a 6-hour flight. 

The seat had a personal reading light, multiple types of headphone jacks, a remote with screen, and very extensive seat adjustment options. 

There was lots of space available at the seat for existing but not a lot of designated storage areas.

The entertainment screen popped out, which meant that it was supposed to be stored for taxi, take-off, and landing.  However, that rule was not particularly enforced.

The seats on this aircraft are beginning to show their wear, especially at the entry/exit corner. It’s likely part of the decision to eliminate Flagship First Class was the need to refresh the seats.

Waiting at my seat was a black Flagship First menu and Bang & Olufsen headphones. I was offered a pre-departure beverage of champagne. In the seat’s cubby was a water bottle and an amenity kit. I believe the amenity kit is the same one that they use in international business class.

The purser in charge of Flagship First Class on this flight was named Tricia, and she was wonderful.  She was extremely friendly and attentive and truly provided the best service I’ve ever had on an American Airlines flight.  She responded within seconds to the flight attendant call button, and she even opened the bathroom door for me.

I love how sleek these black menus look.

Before takeoff, I was provided with a welcome drink of champagne.  On this flight, they offered Duval-Leroy Brut Réserve, which I think costs about $40/bottle.  The champagne and all the snacks were served with plain white napkins, which is fine, but I would’ve liked to have had flagship napkins like in the lounge.

In Flagship First, American offers a dine-on-demand service.  Immediately after takeoff, Tricia came through with drinks for everyone.  I asked for a cinnamon roll to go with my drink (champagne), and two were quickly brought out.  About half the cabin had breakfast immediately after takeoff, and the rest of us ate about halfway through the flight. 

After the first round of breakfast was served, Tricia came through with mixed nuts and a biscotti cookie. 

I took a brief nap after the amuse-bouche.

About halfway through the flight, I had breakfast.  I had looked through the meal choices before the flight, and nothing sounded particularly of interest to me.  I looked through the travel blogs about what the special breakfast meals would be.  I settled on the kosher breakfast.

Everything was served at once, and it was covered and wrapped, as is standard for a kosher meal.  The service was massive and took up the entire tray table.  It consisted of several courses, including bread; another cinnamon roll; cereal; an omelet with hashbrowns, tomatoes, and an apple fritter; and canned fruit.  It was also served with orange juice, which I combined with the champagne to have another mimosa. 

The kosher meal came in two containers: one with the cold parts and one with the hot parts.

The cold side consisted of corn flakes, milk, blue berries, and both a brown roll and (another) cinnamon roll, as well as two slices of canned fruit (peach and pear). 

The hot side was in an opaque aluminum foil-wrapped pan.  Inside was a vegetarian omelette with a baked apple side dish (as described on the tin) and some cooked tomatoes.   

I was very impressed with the spread once it was all unpacked (which was not easy, haha).  It came with plastic utensils, but Tricia was happy to switch them out for metal cutlery.  The omelette was a bit dry and bland, the cold parts were pretty basic, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the baked apple.  The other meals served definitely looked better than this one, so I can’t fault them.  I’m not really a big fan of breakfast to begin with.  I had gotten good food in the lounge so this meal wasn’t important to me.

After the meal, I was provided with a cheese plate.

The cheese plate was much better than the one I had last time.  It consisted of three cheeses, 2 types of fruit, a few types of crackers and bread.  Everything tasted (and looked) like it came out of a box, so it was all just fine and unmemorable.

Finally, about an hour before landing, I was given a warm cookie. 

The cookie was also fine and unmemorable.

Something interesting on this flight was that AA now offers free wifi for a short 15 minute period if you watch an ad, which I think is a great offering (and probably will whet many peoples’ appetites).

When the captain announced we were about 25 minutes from landing, Tricia came around one final time to collect the headsets.  I still find it really tacky that American does this, but Tricia is so nice that I can’t fault her for following policy.  I was offered a pair of poor-quality earphones as per usual. This time, I was prepared; I brought with me an adapter for my Bluetooth headphones. 

I definitely would consider this flight to be a step above my recent flight on United’s Premium Transcontinental Business Class. 

In summary, I will be sad to see Flagship First go.  I understand that American can’t economically justify keeping the service around because it’s unprofitable, but I really do think they could’ve enhanced a few things to make it more aspirational and made it work.  The ground experience at LAX was great, but with Flagship First Dining still closed (probably forever), there is nothing that distinguishes this flight from a Flagship Business flight as a Oneworld Emerald elite (4/5).  Having a 1-1 configuration on a narrow-body aircraft is always a great treat, and I’m so happy to fly it once again (5/5).  The meals and snacks on this flight was extensive, much more so than when I flew it during the pandemic.  It was the best breakfast I’ve had on a US airline, but that’s just not a high bar (3/5).  The service on the flight was the best I’ve ever had on American Airlines and on par with British Airways’ First Class (5/5). The IFE was excellent, but the minimal free Wi-Fi and (non-skippable) advertisements on the IFE detracted from the overall experience (4/5).  Overall, this Flagship First flight was wonderful (21/25).  I highly recommend flying Flagship First on a transcontinental flight while it still exists. 

I paid around $1 000 on my Amex Platinum Card for this ticket to directly purchase this ticket in Flagship First, which is much cheaper than a premium (business/domestic first) ticket on United or Delta would have cost substantially more.  I credited the ticket to British Airways, which earned me 9 139 Avios and 210 tier points.  The “upgrade” from Main Cabin was about $750, which came with 185 extra tier points and 5 222 extra Avios.  I earned around 14 384 redeemable points off this flight, which are worth nearly $200, for a return of around 19%.