April Europe Weekend/Review Trip! Part 5: Los Angeles to San Francisco

There is one final flight to report on from the April trip! A simple connection from LAX to SFO.  I’ve done flights between the SF Bay and Los Angeles any number of times before (mostly on Alaska and Southwest), so I was looking forward to seeing if anything was any different on American Airlines. 

My flight from Helsinki arrived into Tom Bradley International Terminal.  I cleared Global Entry immediately and collected my checked bag.  I had checked a bag in Budapest to make my transit through Helsinki easier.  Nothing in my bag had actually required that it be checked, so I skipped the bag recheck counter at LAX.  I exited TBIT and then re-entered through American’s Flagship First Check-In.  I then proceeded directly to the American Flagship Lounge.

I had a great view of my Finnair aircraft from across the tarmac.  I already missed it.

It turned out my connecting flight was actually going to be departing from the international terminal, so I headed back there.  I passed by the LAX Centurion Lounge on my way to that gate.  At some point, I’ll have to check out that lounge now that it’s reopened.

I continued past the lounge to my gate. Waiting for us was an A319. Unlike on Delta and United, American still only has 8 First Class seats on their A319s. On the one hand, it makes the cabin feel somewhat exclusive. On the other hand, it means that the forward cabin often sells out well in advance on many routes (e.g. RIC-MIA) and that few upgrades are available, even on a short flight like this one.

American’s standard domestic first class product is very consistent and virtually identical to their long-haul premium economy product. This seat choice makes a lot of sense to me from both a supply chain perspective and from the perspective of setting an expectation for service.

On a short flight like this one, service is minimal. Shortly after takeoff, we were served drinks and a bag of mixed nuts.

For a point of comparison, Alaska Airlines offers a selection of snacks on this route.

In summary, this short connecting flight was a good wrap-up to this journey. I love the Flagship Lounge at LAX, and I was happy to have a mainline aircraft on this short leg. The ground experience here earns 5/5 between Flagship First check-in and the Flagship Lounge. The seat was good expect, and I do like the small cabin, even if it makes upgrades hard (4/5). The service was good (4/5), but the food selection was minimal (1/5). The IFE was standard for AA, with streaming entertainment options (3/5). Overall, the flight gets a 17/25, which is largely to be expected for a short LAX-SFO hop.