American First Class JFK-LAX

At around T-45, we headed out for the long walk to the satellite concourse.

7pm on a Monday and AA can only sell 2 First Class seats max, 1A and 2A?  And they don't release award seats any more so the cabin winds up being filled with employees.  Real smart AA.

Although this cute employee was dressed to the nines for her free F seat to the coast.

Mrs. SFO777 liked this plane and seat, at least at the start.

The AA amenity kit.

Double meh.  Yeah, that's exciting.

Crew eventually got around to offering a pre-departure beverage, choice of water or cheap champagne.

Tonight's menu.

I hope they are paying Sam a lot of money to put his name on this menu, because no one is going to think "this meal was great, let's visit one of Sam's restaurants"

And then there's the laughable wine list.  Why not just go with Charles Shaw?

I takes a while for the system to reset. 0 hours and 0 minutes to destination...

... and 167 feet below sea level.

Showtime AA style.  LOL.

Starting with the plush AA towel.

Last year, AA used to place a table cloth and each item on the table individually but not any more.   Why go to all that trouble when it's mostly fellow employees on free passes?

The Spicy Crab starter with sushi rice, avocado and wasabi aoili was actually pretty good.

But it was downhill from there.  Salad with zesty chive vinaigrette was meh. 

For her main, Mrs. SFO777 chose the Pan Roasted Coconut Lime Chicken.  When I asked her for opinion, she said "it tasted like airplane food".

For my main, I went with the Beef Oscar.  Looked great on paper with crab, asparagus, béarnaise sauce and smashed potatoes.    In the real world, it was gross and inedible.  The sauce did not even remotely resemble béarnaise, the crab was unrecognizable and no doubt fake.   The Australian Merlot was wretched. 

But the worst part was the "beef", a disgusting cut of industrial grade meat of some sort, cooked beyond well done.   A couple of bites was all I could take and I sent it and the wine back to the galley.

On the other hand, the raspberry tart was delicious.

The snack basket came in handy mid-flight.

It's no wonder American can't sell many First Class tickets with this kind of service and catering.   Even Mrs. SFO777 wants nothing more to do with this, insisting that she wants JetBlue Mint next time.  And so it is as we are headed back in two weeks and have booked Virgin America on the outbound and JetBlue on our return.  Thanks for following along this report.