There's gotta be a oneworld way - AA710 Chicago O'Hare to Dublin

There’s gotta be a oneworld way – AA710 Chicago O’Hare to Dublin

In this epic:

Boarding the plane, I was greeted and directed to my seat in the economy cabin. Boarding the plane, I could see the forbidden zone of Business class up front, and my home of Economy Class.

The forbidden zone of AA710 for me.

Economy Class cabin – note the US Airways interior.

Seat

The seat (and the interior) itself is the old US Airways seat (considering its an exUS Airways bird, this isn’t surprising). Sadly, this means that there is no adjustable headrest on this seat. Which is a pain if I’m honest.

Seat view

The seat itself had plenty of room (thank you Airbus for designing a plane that fits 2-4-2 in the back), with legroom reasonable.

Leg room.

Whilst waiting for departure, the fading light gave a lovely display.

Soon it was time for our A330 to push back and head to the Emerald Isle – and my luck held out – I would be having a good old-fashioned two-some seat to myself for the flight over the pond.

It may not be much space compared with a business class seat – but you can’t underestimate how much extra space you have when the seat next to you is empty.

The safety video played… it being a mash-up of the old US Airways safety video and old American Airlines safety video.

What a mashup.

Whilst waiting for push-back, I was asked to test power on this A330-200. There’s no mains power, but there a USB port. You do have to hunt for it…

It’s in the armrest.

It’s a standard USB socket – I’d say delivering 500mha of power judging how slowly it charged anything.

With the formalities complete, our Airbus A330-200 begun its taxi.

American Airlines Boeing 737-800

More 737s…

United Airlines Boeing 777.

With a short taxi, our Airbus A330 lined up for take off for the 6 and a half hour flight to Dublin.

With a gentle take off and turn, our A330 took to the sky, climbing up over the Chicago, over Lake Michigan and an away..

Chicago grid

See you in 6 months Chicago!

Let’s explore the IFE system. This system is a Panasonic ex2… and this one was having a bad day, with a lot of the screens offline. Mine was one of the few working units.

Supplied headphones. Sponsored by Mastercard.

Eventually, the crew decided to reboot the IFE system to try to solve the problems. This would mean 30 minutes or so without IFE – perfect timing to conduct the meal service.

Cabin during cruise

The crew worked quickly to distribute the meal. I went for the chicken, and wasn’t disappointed with it being a Chinese chicken of some sort.

The salad

The chicken

As cocktails are chargeable in economy class, I had a Sam Adams. It was drinkable. Just.

In addition – there’s a game you can play with your place-mat in Economy Class. Look at the placemat – you’ll find a city in the background…

There – that killed a minute…

Meanwhile, the IFE system decided to splutter back into life…

I settled into some bad comedy of some sort – but I’ll be honest – I lost track, and fell asleep. The next thing I knew the lights were starting to come up and the breakfast boxes were being distributed.

American Airlines Breakfast box.

Breakfast box – Muffin topper, a cranberry medley and yogurt… along with some coffee and orange juice.

Considering how poor the breakfast offerings can be across the pond, this is actually an upgrade of a breakfast offering. It’s well presented, and even though it’s pre-loaded sugar, its something to nibble.

Heck – compared to what I would get a few weeks later on a different airline – this is the height of luxury….

The lights in the cabin were brought up as clear-down and preparation for landing begun.

Outside, the morning light was beginning to show, welcoming the world to another day.

With the clear-down done, the cabin was plunged into low light in preparation for landing.

The plane tracked past Dublin, and out to the Irish Sea, before turning back for the airport

With a gentle touchdown, the A330 flight AA710 completed the 6 hour 30 trip to the Irish capital.

The plane turned off at the Echos at Dublin Airport, and begun the long track-back to the terminal area

Turning off the runway.

Aer Lingus A320 landing

Inbound traffic

Rush hour

Arriving at just before seven in the morning has a little issue – Dublin Airport is turning into rush out as the morning European bank of flights are fighting to get out of the airport.

As such, we had a small delay whilst waiting for traffic to clear before we could get to the terminal.

Eventually, our plane was let past, and it continued its taxi to Terminal 2, where we came to a rest at the gate.

With the seatbelt sign extinguished, everyone begun the fight to get off the plane.

And getting off the plane – there are bits of US Airways heritage everywhere you go…
From the classic…

To the really classic.

Overall: AA710 was not a bad flight at all. It was well catered, with reasonably comfortable seating and attentive crew. However, there are niggling things – the seat headrest and the IFE system that had a mind of its own. But for a night-time flight where all you want to do is sleep in peace – it did the job – in spades.

Next: I try waking up as Irish eyes are waking up… and head to a very old haunt of mine.

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There’s gotta be a oneworld way – AA710 Chicago O’Hare to Dublin

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