American Airlines has officially begun removing Flagship First seats from its fleet, introducing its new Business Plus experience on wide-body aircraft, and has started flying its A321XLR aircraft on its premium transcontinental routes. It looks like the end really is coming for Flagship First after several years of “being phased out”.
That being said, while it still exists, sometimes you can find great deals on Flagship First transcontinental flights! Flagship First still exists on JFK-SFO/LAX/SNA, and BOS-LAX for now. Specifically, I had a trip back from Boston back in June.
Bottom-line up front
The ground experience
When you start in Boston, Flagship First only gets you access to the Admirals Club. Normally when I leave Boston, I stop at the Chase Sapphire Lounge, but this flight was early enough (7 am) that I didn’t want to have to arrive to the airport early enough to make it to the lounge (and then back to the gate). The breakfast on offer in the Admirals Club was decent; they had the basics that you’d expect at a generic hotel breakfast. I made a smoked salmon bagel, which is one of my favorite breakfast items in Admirals Clubs.
Our flight ended up being delayed right before boarding. There was some mechanical problem (that they were certain could be fixed at least), which ended up creating a rolling delay. After the second time the flight was delayed, I returned to the lounge. The lounge attendants were absolutely horrified that I returned to the lounge instead of staying right beside the gate (which was literally next door to the lounge) because there was no guarantee that I’d get a notification when it was time to board.
Not only did I get a notification when it was time to board, but they also made an announcement in the lounge. So I really don’t know what they were on about.
The seat
There continues to be something special about seeing a narrow-body aircraft in a 1-1 configuration. Although Flagship First is going away, the new A321XLR Flagship Business Class will also be in a (much denser) 1-1 configuration. Looking at competing airlines’ business class offerings, it’s my understanding that other configurations can fit 12 or 14 business class seats in the same space that these 10 Flagship First seats take up.
Waiting for me at my seat was a set of bedding, headphones, and an amenity kit.
I had pre-ordered the smoked salmon frittata, but as is standard on American, the pre-order menu did not include any information on the starters or desserts. Since this was a morning flight, the only dessert option was the cheese board, and there was no soup course offered. I don’t really know what distinguished the first class meal service from the business class meal service.
That being said, the Flagship First seat is noticeably better than the Flagship Business seat (even the new one).
The in-flight service
Since the flight was so early in the morning, I opted to take a nap after takeoff and so requested to hold off on breakfast. I took a similar strategy on an early morning DeltaOne transcontinental flight last year. After a couple hours nap, it was time for breakfast, which started with some bread and fruit.
The first course was served with the tray and then the main course came separately. It was served with an iced coffee and a breakfast smoothie (which must’ve been healthy considering how bad it tasted). The tray was cleared after I finished the frittata, and then I was given the cheese/fruit plate directly onto the tablecloth (which worked for me).
As we approached Los Angeles, we got some excellent views of the American southwest.
We ended up landing about 30 minutes late as a result of the mechanical issue, but I had plenty of time before my connecting flight to San Francisco. I actually ended up hanging out with some friends in LA before heading up to San Francisco.
To try to make up somewhat for my poor lounge experience in Boston, I made it a point to visit the Flagship lounge. Note that you don’t get to use Flagship First check-in on a connecting flight apparently (not that I had a bag to check anyway).
The ground experience part 2
The most important part of Flagship lounges for me is the dining (by the time of my connecting flight, It was dinner time), so I made it a point to check out the buffet.
I grabbed a selection of small plates from the buffet and a glass of champagne (which is offered to everyone upon entry).
Soon after dinner, it was time to head to my short flight to San Francisco.
In summary, this flight itself was very good. Having only the Boston Admirals Club before a Flagship First flight (and the curt morning Boston ground team) was pretty underwhelming (2/5). The seat continues to be very good, but it’s starting to show its age (4/5). The service on this flight was good, but nothing stood out (4/5). The meal offering was only ok, and it was unclear how it differed from the business class meal service (3/5). Free WiFi and good noise-canceling headphones means that the IFE gets a full 5/5. Overall, the flight gets a 19/25 (largely due to the poor ground experience in Boston).
I booked this flight for 40 000 AA miles. It was only about a 10 000 mile upgrade over business class (and about 30 000 miles more than economy when I booked it). Sometimes first class on this route can go for almost 150 000 miles, so I’d consider this a pretty good deal overall! Unfortunately, AA doesn’t give any status points for mileage bookings.
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