Mr Kevincm Returns to Washington - AA735 Manchester to Philadelphia

Mr Kevincm Returns to Washington – AA735 Manchester to Philadelphia

In this… well.. mess:

AA735 Manchester Airport Terminal 2 to Philadelphia International Airport
American Airlines, Seat 9H
Airbus A330-300
20 Tier Points Earned, 859 Base Avios Earned + 1,718 Tier Bonus.

Boarding the plane, I was welcomed aboard. I turned right and to my home a few rows in from the door. Whilst it’s not an ideal row in some respects – it is close to immigration. That would play into my hands later on.

So lets look at the cabin – and the first thing to note – compared to a few weeks ago is that the plane has been refitted with new seat covers, new carpets and new bulkhead covers.

Sadly, whilst there are new seat covers, they haven’t replaced the seat.

So you’ve still got a fixed headrest across the pond.

That… to put it nicely.. Is sub-optimal.

Trying to get a decent sleeping position on these A330s with these seats is pretty tough – having no adjustable headrest would mean my head would be friends with the bulkhead wall.

Again.

Legroom was more than suitable – and was improved with no-one sitting next to me for the long haul segment across the pond.

Taken later in flight.

The next door neighbour Ryanair Boeing 737-800

Boarding continued slowly with no urgency in the boarding. Considering we were running late at that point, I found that curious.

Departure was then delayed for late connecting passengers… pushing us to over 40 minutes late. Then came announcement from the flight deck there were issues with closing the cargo doors.

The flight itself… quiet…

Oh dear.

Thomson Boeing 787 taxing past.

To get things going whilst on the ground, headphones for the IFE system were handed out.

And for everything else, there’s Mastercard.

The safety video played as the plane was held.

Ooh. The new safety video. Better than the mish-mash of a AA and US Airways safety video.

Whilst there was a delay, the crew did a ground service of snacks and water.

The delay went on to two hours – and my connection between Philadelphia and Washington DC was pretty much in the bin at this juncture. That would have to be looked at when I landed in Philadelphia as there was nothing that could be done before then.

There’s not a lot you can do about these sort of things, but it is annoying. On reflection – this wasn’t too bad as I had to deal with Philadelphia Immigration. But more about that later.

With the plane buttoned down and the cargo doors shut, we finally pushed back two hours late.

Off we go!

The taxi was thankfully short to the runway as the engines of our A330 spooled up and barrelled down the runway, and taking AA735 into the sky.

Climbing out

There’s a bit of blue somewhere…

Blue skies finally.

Take off was a little choppy, but soon enough, the plane climbed through the cloud layers and into the sky, settling into the long flight over the pond.

So, let’s look at the IFE system. Like a few weeks ago, I was sat in front of a Panasonic ex2 IFE system. Unlike a few weeks earlier, the IFE system wasn’t in a crashed state and worked throughout the flight.

A little thing that irks me: Not bothering to localise the arrival/departure data for the countries you are travelling to/from. Exactly why I need my departure information from Manchester in French is beyond me.

To the left of me, embedded in the armrest was a USB Charging point. Considering I have an iPhone that requires courage to use (or is it courage to remove the headphone socket), this is a useful thing.

USB Power socket aboard AA735.

The catering trolleys soon rolled out, with lunch and drinks ready for enjoyment with a choice of chicken or pasta.

I went for the chicken option.

Tray

Saladd

Crackers and Bread

The cake is a lie

Amazingly, I can stick to soft drinks and don’t need vodka in everything.

Not a bad tray meal at all – the chicken was a sweet and sour chicken, and wasn’t over cooked. The salad was fresh at least, whilst the rest of the tray is pretty much par for course. At least Manchester Airport catering doesn’t seem to louse up meals unlike some airports in the world.

With that, I pulled the blinds down to try to get some shut eye as I knew that I was going to have minimal amounts of it over the next few days.

Conferences can be very busy times, especially if you’re working and networking during them, so getting some rest now would be “a good idea”.

Did it happen? I napped back and forth, back and forth. Nothing resembling a solid sleep (although to be frank, I doubt I would have had a solid sleep that day even if I had booked a flat-bed).

Some time during dinner, a desert service followed of Ice cream and water.

Wait… in economy class? Apparently so. The service standards I would say are much more US Airways International than American Airlines International service – so it was a surprise and a delight to see Ice Cream at 35,000ft.

Never argue when there’s ice cream – even in Economy Class.

I’m thinking back as I write this when I last saw Ice cream in economy class. It was… some time ago I think.

With ice cream in me, I delved deeper into the IFE system – and who should I find…. of course, it’s the BBC Travel Show

I swear I can’t escape them.

Moving on, with another hour or two down, there was a snack service. If there was one thing this crew were trying to do – they were trying to keep everyone fed and watered after the delayed departure.

During this time, I got on with the admin side of the flight – The US Entry Paperwork. It seems more of a a pain than not to do these days with Automated Passport Control Machines that handle the I-95W and Customs form… but you never know what you’re going to encounter when landing in the USA. Sometimes it’s best to do the paperwork and be done with it.

With time coming around to the arrivals service, the crew of AA735 suggested that we raise our blinds to allow more vitamin D to be produced in cabin – or to put a bit of light in the cabin rather than darkness.

It’s nice to see that sometimes.

The outside view.

Arrivals service is the standard Monty’s Hot Box and drinks service.

The box

Being a boxed product is good for the crew – easy to warm up, dish our and clean up. On the minus side – I miss the pre-arrivals pizza.

Opening the box I was presented with a Grilled Cheese and a Blackberry Danish.

The opened hot box

Not a great hot box compared to some I’ve had in the air (mainly as there’s a lot of cheese in this, and cheese and me don’t get on too well). The Blackberry Danish was edible enough, which is nice enough.

With clear down completed, it was time to sit back as the plane begun its decent into the Philadelphia area.

Crossing the water towards Philadelphia

Soon, the cabin was secured for landing as our plane begun its approach to its home base.

The Philadelphia Metro area
Philadelphia.

The plane lined up, and slowed down for its arrival at Philadelphia. Two hours down, our AA735 touched the ground completing the long transatlantic leg.

Once we were on the ground, our A330 turned back for the A West Gates at Philadelphia Airport, taxing past a number of Airbus A330 aircraft. In my head – this was not good… it would mean a long delay clearing immigration.

American Airlines Airbus A330.

After a couple more turns, our Airbus A330 found a gate, and headed to dock – completing the journey.

The gate.

After the engines powered down, the seatbelt sign was released, and it was time to head off the plane. I thanked the crew and set off wandering what was awaiting me…

Overall: An excellent performance by American Airlines aboard AA735 in terms of onboard service on this flight. Well executed and friendly – with plenty of nice features for passengers. There are some major ding points however, with a two-hour delay which threw one heck of a major spanner in the works of this trip.

Next: A long Philadelphia layover featuring the US Customs and the TSA at their best.

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Mr Kevincm Returns to Washington – AA735 Manchester to Philadelphia

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