Flagship First on my favorite route in reverse! BOS-LAX

After my great LAX-BOS flight in Flagship First, I decided to do it again in reverse!  I’m of the opinion that upgrading on the westbound transcontinental flights is the better deal because the upgrade usually costs the same as the eastbound version but the flight time is longer, so the cost per time is lower.  And in the case of a special aircraft like this one, you get more time in a special cabin.  My outbound LAX-BOS flight had a time in air of a full hour shorter than this flight, but the ticket cost is the same (ignoring the chaos that is plane ticket pricing).

Although I was able to use the Sapphire Lounge, normally Flagship First/Business Class passengers on this route only get access to the Admiral’s Club in Boston.  The Admiral’s Club isn’t bad, but it’s definitely not special like the Flagship Lounge. 

Continuing on my mission to try out all 10 seats, I selected seat 2F.  The only seats left that I haven’t tried out now are 4A and 4F, so I’m almost there!

Waiting at my seat were headphones (both noise-cancelling and standard ones), a menu, a water bottle, and an amenity kit.  In addition, there were two sets of bedding, one on the seat and one in the footwell.

Fascinatingly, in the bedding in the footwell was an additional amenity kit.  I wonder if it was just a business class bedding kit.  I haven’t flown Flagship Business on this aircraft type since 2020, so I’m not sure.

But I was very happy to be on this plane.

The view from 2F was pretty much the same as from any non-row 1 seat.

I ordered a pre-departure glass of champagne and even posed a picture for my readers.

Let’s check out the menu!

At some point, I should try to get a Flagship Business menu off one of these flights and compare them directly.

Service began shortly after takeoff.  Because this flight was during the winter, we took off after sunset.  So I decided to start with a Bailey’s, which was served with olives and nuts.

Since I had eaten in the lounge, I decided to put off my meal in favor of getting some work done.  A few hours later, I still wasn’t hungry, but we were more than halfway through the flight, so I went ahead and requested the meal. 

First came the starter and the salad.  I ordered the seared tuna.

Next came the soup course, which was spicy tortilla soup.  It came with tortillas on the side, but it was not spicy.

Next came the main course.  I ordered the vegetable tagine.  For a vegetarian option, this was great.  But since I wasn’t very hungry, I didn’t really get too into it.

Finally, I had an ice cream sundae for dessert as I always do.  Though I’ve definitely started going simpler with them, and I just got the chocolate syrup.

At this point, I decided to just sleep away the rest of the flight as best I could.  So, I opened all that bedding from before (and kept my bonus amenity kit) and settled in.  Having two pillows was excellent.

As is standard on American, they came around 40 minutes before landing to collect the headphones.  Realistically, at this point, the headphones are old enough that no one is going to take them because they’re simply just not cutting edge any more. 

In summary, American’s Flagship First Transcontinental service is still my favorite way to cross the country.  Admiral’s Club access is not particularly impressive, but the Chase lounge was great.  I’ll give this aspect a 4/5 to balance out those two parts.  The 1-1 configured seat on this flight was wonderful as always (5/5).  The service was what you’d expect on a flight from Boston (4/5).  The meal service on the flight was decent; it just wasn’t really my vibe (3/5).  The in-flight entertainment was typical, and the WiFi was expensive as always (4/5).  This flight gets a 20/25, which is slightly lower than the outbound, but that makes sense because Boston is an outstation for American.

I booked this ticket as an award ticket for 51 500 Avios, which a great use of Avios in my opinion, but the Avios prices for flights in the US have increased dramatically since the start of the year.  The same flight now costs over 80 000 Avios, which is an insane increase.