Here in the US, there’s two types of “First” class: the first type is an attempt at creating a real First Class experience, while the other type is just a slightly bigger seat, more drinks and food to make travel for bankers / consultants who don’t need to pay businesspeople more comfortable. However, American Airlines felt that “customers were not buying first class seats”, and so will be mostly eliminating them in favor of stronger business class seats (with doors!). In light of this, I thought it would be appropriate to take one last ride on Flagship First with the A321T.

Booking

There are only a couple flights with true Flagship First in North America: JFK to LAX + SFO + SNA, and LAX to BOS + MIA. Don’t confuse it with “First Class”, which in general is just a slightly bigger seat, food and alcohol. Prices for Flagship First are about $1,500, although I did spy some for a bit less if booking in advance.

Flight: AA 2652

Departing: New York (JFK)

Arriving: San Francisco (SFO)

Operated by: Airbus A321 (Sharklets)

Cabin: First Class

The Sharklets (or more accurately Winglets), are a way to reduce drag on the wings and thus increase efficacy on the airplane - I like to think it’s to make the airplane look cuter.

Check In

I was expecting something more First Classy, but sadly the check-in area was undergoing some renovations, and so I was checked in by someone at a desk. To be honest, this set the tone for my overall experience: the bones were there, but there was always something…off for a true first class experience.

Check in was smooth, and the agent was surprised that I was here so early (spoiler, it’s for the food).

I got my first class ticket, and then it was off to the races…or more accurately the TSA Pre-Check line. Others have said they got escorted through the line, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case with me #firstworldproblems.

Thankfully, I did get a more premium experience upon stepping into the Admirals Club in Terminal 8.

Lounge

Or maybe not. The millions American pours into it’s lounge network, and a paper sign is how they announce their hours of operation.

Fortunately, the inside was much nicer, with tones of light wood and soft lighting. And as soon as the American attendant saw my Flagship ticket, she printed out my Flagship Lounge access, and kindly lead me there. On the way, she did tell me that they were revamping the lounge, and so you will likely get a different experience (link here).

My first impressions of this lounge within a lounge was wow. Firstly, the décor would not be out of place at a 5 star hotel, with plenty of polished marble, ample seating and expensive looking pictures. But more importantly, the place had a gorgeous view of the tarmac.

I will admit, sipping champagne and watching planes go by was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon before going back to the real world. However, I quickly got back to the main event, which was the extensive and exquisite dining menu.

Sadly, the Krug did get replaced with Laurent Perrier Grand Siècle, which is still a respectable choice. I was confused at first, because I didn’t actually like Laurent Perrier Brut (it’s Air Canada’s champagne), but I REALLY enjoyed this one. A worthy “flagship” drink for “flagship” first class.

On the food side, I ordered crab croquettes, and being fat, also ordered the lamb shank and the beef tenderloin. The food understandably took around 20-30 minutes to come out, which gave me plenty of time to contemplate life while high on champagne.

The croquettes were delicious, with plenty of crab and a wonderful mustard. I did find it funny that the menu described it as “herb salad”, but I suppose this was technically it. Next up was the lamb, which my lord was fantastic.

The lamb, despite it’s size, was amazingly tender, melted in my mouth, and had the perfect sauce to meat ratio. This was also the first time I had polenta (cornmeal), and it complemented the dish quite well.

Next up was the tenderloin. To be honest, this one was still good, just not mind-blowingly good like the lamb. I did feel the potatoes could have been cooked a bit more, but that’s just nit-picking at this point.

I will say the service was quite good, although there were only like 3 other people (who were all old caucasian dudes LOL) which made the server’s job easier.

Not content with terrorizing the Flagship Lounge, I went and checked out the rest of the Admirals Club. This club was surprisingly not crowded, both due to it’s size and the fact that this was a weekend. From what I understand, this lounge has just been rebranded to the Greenwich lounge.

I did get a chance to see the food options - between American and United, I think American wins, although I have only seen United’s business class lounge. Air Canada doesn’t even feature on this battle, mainly because I find some of their food is a bit flavorless.

I did take a few bits, and I felt that the Garden Vegetable Fricassee was strong, along with the Mini Desserts. However, the “sushi” was basically gas station sushi, meaning that the rice was flavorless, the fish was frozen and overall generally disgusting.

To make up for this, the lounge offers endless Piper-Heidsieck, a mid range champagne that I think is a bit too dry.

There was also a bar near the food section, as well as a build your own Bloody Mary bar deep in the lounge.

The lounge is massive: I would say this felt about the same size as Air Canada’s Toronto Maple Leaf Lounge, but was much better appointed. That being said, small mishaps, such as the one below, diluted the premium experience feeling.

I didn’t get a glimpse at the lovely A321T (sorry!), but rest assured she looked gorgeous against the Manhattan skyline.

The Seat

Beyond Flagship Dining, the seat is the main thing that separates First from Business class. I will start with the positive: the seat is massive, and has great functionality (though not as great as my Emirates one!).

The first class cabin is a 1-1 configuration - as someone married only to my laptop, I love this, but for couples / families, it might actually make sense to downgrade to business class to sit next to each other.

The Business Class cabin looked like the First Class cabin, at least for bedding - this is a theme that I think this review shows, and partially explains why American is eliminating it’s First Class.

However, the First Class seat does has more functionality, and for those who care (you’d be surprised), more air nozzles.

Given this wasn’t an overnight flight, I did not try the pillow / mattress pad. However, it seemed (from touch) sufficient for the job, which was a good thing given I did not like how the actual seat felt. Maybe this was done on purpose to ensure that people would stay awake and work.

In keeping with the theme of American Airlines, there was plenty of room for me to put my stuff. As a 6ft 5’10 person, I had no trouble fitting in, and enjoying the seat. The entertainment console was interesting, as it felt like it was from the 90s: the TV swung out to meet me at the push of a button.

The extra TV reminded me of he early 2000’s tour buses - this certainly did not reinforce the premium feeling that American was going for.

One thing I did notice was that there was still a bit of dirt around the seat. Think of spending thousands on a seat, and getting this! And while it is possible that the workers were lazy, it’s more likely that management just didn’t give enough time to workers for cleaning to maximize the time the plane was in the air.

Amenities

One key point differentiation between the business and first class is the amenities, although in American’s case this means the amenity kit that was only provided to first class passengers (unlike in international business class flights).

Shinola, a lifestyle brand based on Detroit Michigan, was on the label of the kit. And while I admire this company uses US manufacturing, the kit was a bit lackluster.

A real First Class kit comes with pajamas! Even Qatar’s Qsuites came with them, and Emirate’s First Class gave me some of the comfiest pieces of clothing that I own today.

Next up on the thing to complain about is champagne. I was offered a pre-departure drink of champagne or orange juice, and chose the champagne. I instantly regretted it, as it tasted as bad as it looked.

I believe it was Piper Heidsieck, but unfortunately I couldn’t tell you because there were no menus provided. Seriously, the flight attendant had to recite everything from memory. Which was an impressive trick, but I would have preferred getting an actual menu lol.

We took off 30 minutes late - it was a treat watching the Manhattan skyline recede against a starry night sky.

Meal Service

American’s hard product wasn’t that competitive, but would it’s soft product save the day? Alas, the spoiler alert is no, unless you really like sugary treats (which I do, but not that much).

The meal began in a civilized manner with a hot towel that the flight attendant Allen served with tongs.

The starters were champagne, olives and warm nuts, which I unfortunately didn’t get to enjoy promptly. To the left, you can see my laptop, of which I was pouring my hopes and dreams into job applications. Consequently, I did ask the Flight Attendant to serve my meal a bit later (more on that in the service section). I will say that while the olives were a tad too salty, the warm nuts tasted great.

The smoked salmon appetizer was tasty, and in true American fashion was massive. I will say I am impressed by the fact that the butter was relatively warm, and easy to put on the bread. Definitely a solid 9/10 starter relative to Air Canada.

Next up was a chicken soup, which to be honest was unremarkable, and didn’t have enough chicken. 6/10, it felt a bit out of place in the menu.

Next up was a stuffed chicken with vegetables and cheese, accompanied by tomatoes and carbs. See, when you don’t get a menu you can’t make the dish sound good. I will say the presentation looked great, and the chicken was cooked right! The only issue was the cheese stuffing, which overpowered the rest of the dish. 7/10, with the extra point being given for presentation.

To end things off, there was a cheese plate. Stuff like this is thankfully hard to screw up, and American didn’t. That being said, I am giving it a 6/10, mainly due to the fact that it was less extensive than others.

That being said, the person next to me ordered American’s famous made-to-order sundaes, and it looked amazing. To supplement the sugar mountain, the flight attendant later walked around with warm backed cookies in the middle of the flight as well. But as if to make up for that sugary goodness, the snack box was…disappointing in the fact that it contained basically all veggie chips and thus was a 2/10.

In summary, the food on the plane is alright, and I would definitely enjoy Flagship Dining and ESPECIALLY THE CHAMPAGNE beforehand. The dishes on the ground were easily 9 or 9.5 / 10s, while on the flight most dishes were 6 or 7 / 10s.

Bed and Bathroom

While I didn’t sleep on this flight, I did try out the bed. As mentioned earlier, I actually preferred Air Canada’s business class seat, and so wasn’t to impressed with the mattress.

Nevertheless, it is always great to lie flat on a longer flight, especially if that seat has plenty of space. Also, one interesting thing is that you can move parts of your seat in lie flat mode, while keeping others upright (see below).

Moving onto the bathroom, it did look like a regular plane bathroom. That being said, the one major thing (compared to the business class bathroom) was that the sink was automated.

The bathroom was clean, but unfortunately devoid of amenities found in most other higher class cabins.

The Point

As an MBA student who knows everything, I think the main reason that American Airline’s customers aren’t buying this is that there isn’t enough differentiation between First and Business Class, and indeed might even be value destroying for groups who cannot easily sit next to each other. The ground food is MUCH better, air food is slightly better, you get a more closed off cabin, the seat is a bit bigger, that’s it. I certainly would spend the several hundred dollars in cost savings on a nice, on the ground restaurant. That’s not to say this was a bad experience, it just wasn’t as good as it should be. I would have installed a hard product WITH doors, and tried to elevate the first class experience as a real experience, not just a slightly upgraded business class route. Regardless, I will be sad to see American retire the America’s last “true” First Class, for it is the end of an era.