Beginning another circumnavigation of the world with Oneworld. First leg: Dallas-Fort Worth to London with American Airlines’s long-haul flagship, the 777-300ER. Since 2013, the airline has deployed its 20-strong fleet of the big Boeing widebody on high-demand intercontinental routes, with London being a frequent destination. Currently, LHR sees AA 77W service from Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.
Server: Solo
Airline: American Airlines
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Origin: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Grapevine, Texas (DFW)
Destination: Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom (LHR)
Flight Number: AA50
Route: KDFW-EGLL
Seat: 8A (Flagship Business)
Time En Route: 9 Hours 10 Minutes
Mid-afternoon at the D Gates in Dallas. We’re going to be headed across the Pond on this aircraft’s second leg between DFW and LHR today.
Beginning our taxi after pushing back from Gate D33. We’re in one of the older 8F/52J/28W/216M-configured aircraft. These have the older Safran Cirrus II seats also seen on most of Cathay Pacific’s 777-300ER fleet, although these have noticeably more wear on them than the typical CX jet. It’s likely that this aircraft is coming up on its scheduled renovation and upgrade to the 37J/24W/212M configuration AA has rolled out in the past years. Nevertheless, this is still a very good seat, leagues ahead of the Concept D ones on some of the 777-200ERs.
Holding short of Runway 18L as American’s AirCal heritage jet starts its takeoff roll to Minneapolis as AA3133
Leaving Dallas as we climb skyward on our way to Heathrow. At the D Gates is a newly-returned sight to DFW, a Qantas A380-800, which will be going to Sydney in a few hours as QF8.
Climbout over Dallas as the GE90s rumble and roar. We’re reclining our seat and pulling up one of the movies on the IFE system. Amenities are pretty basic, with only a toothbrush and toothpaste, earplugs, a small eye mask, some lotion, and a pair of slippers.
Cruising over Upstate New York shortly after dinner and before getting some sleep as we head northeast. We had the smoked mozzarella manicotti, served with sautéed kale and fresh arugula with pink peppercorn sauce. The food was okay, not the worst we’ve had, but not the best, even on American Airlines. To be fair to the cabin crew and the catering service, it’s been a busy Thanksgiving week, so it’s understandable that they’d be running off of pure inertia. Now to get some sleep on our long, comfortable bed that the seat reclines into.
Starting our final descent north of London. We slept like a rock from New York to the Irish Sea, only being woken up by the announcement that we were going to be starting our descent. As an aside, the reddish pre-dawn glow on the clouds is quite beautiful and an appropriate hue for this time of year.
Landing in London as the first light of dawn appears on the horizon. On the south side of Heathrow, a British Airways A320-200 is departing to Berlin as BA974.
Taxiing to Terminal 3 with Heathrow Tower to the right as we clear the runway
Disembarked from our aircraft at Gate 330. While this wasn’t a bad flight in the least, there wasn’t much that stood out as especially good, either, in comparison to the competition or even American’s own standards. At the same time though, we’d have no objections to flying in this seat on this aircraft again, particularly if it wasn’t when the airline is not stricken with the twin diseases of gottagoitis and getthereitis that afflict the entire industry around this time of year. So, it’ll be a see you later to the older 777-300ER Flagship Business instead of a goodbye.