Spring Transatlantic Adventures
AA90 Chicago O’Hare Terminal 3 to London Heathrow Terminal 3
In this Adventure
- So, 80 more Tier Points. Always demanding more, British Airways…
- To the joy of Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 with FlixBus
- British Airways Galleries South Lounge and T5B Lounge
- British Airways BA295 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare in World Traveller Plus
- Into the USA and the avid Hotel, Des Plaines
- The Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Airplane Art Extra from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- A Simple Burger Night at Chilli’s
- Deep Dish Pizza Special at Pequods
- A Monday Morning Adventure around Chicago
- Back to O’Hare, The American Airlines Flagship Lounge
- AA90 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow in Main Cabin Extra
- Luggage Trolley Drifting – Rushing to the bus
- The Other Shoe Drops. Was it worth it?
AA90 Chicago O’Hare International Terminal 3 to London Heathrow Terminal 3 (Sold as BA1541)
American Airlines
Seat 13L, Main Cabin Extra
3.953 miles flown
20 Tier Points Earned,£180.97 revenue spent, 1448 Avios Earned.
As usual, there was a queue to get through the jetbridge. Nothing changes at all. The aim was to get on the aircraft and start heading home.
Jetbridge queues
Pick an aircraft type.
Eventually, I made it onboard and was welcomed by the crew, heading to my home of 13L for the night.
At this time, boarding was still going slowly, so the two seats next to mine looked empty. It wouldn’t be like that for long.
As such, the rucksack and popcorn went in the overhead bin and the Pan Am bag down below.
This aircraft uses the Safran Cabin 5751 (formerly Webber) seats. They’re passable enough, with reasonable comfort in the base and back, with a reasonable recline. This is helped with Main Cabin Extra’s seat pitch of 35”, even if they’re constrained due to the instance of airlines putting 3-3-3 seating in Economy Class in 787.
Eventually, the two seatmates came – a parent and a child, heading off on Spring Break. They got comfortable, too. I was just glad I made it a little early so I could get organised.
A loaded cabin for the evening flight. There was only one spare seat that evening… and I suspect that went.
Headphones were handed out by the crew as part of the cabin service. These are in-ear headphones that make the knock-off Apple Earbuds look (and sound) like quality times.
They need the Dankpods treatment of Meeting the Maracara Cracker 9000 (warning: loud).
With the cabin filling up, it was looking like we would be making an on-time escape from O’Hare.
Eventually, the aircraft pushed back, departing terminal 3 at Chicago for a short taxi to the runway. The safety demo then started, with the current iteration of the American Airlines video.
Am I? Really?
Safety card – taken later in-flight.
As the taxi on the ground was short to the runway, there was just enough time to get the video done, do the final cabin check and dim the cabin lights before the aircraft neared the threshold of the runway.
Passing traffic
And the late-night service by BA back to London
With the engines spooling up, our Boeing 787-9 climbed into the night sky, crossing Illinois, then Wisconsin… and then over the lakes on its way out of the USA, Canada and the North Atlantic.
As we climbed out, Chicagoland, Illinois and Wisconsin were lit up in lights.
I love the reflection of the lights in the wing.
O’Hare on the right
As the cabin lights came up, it was time to explore the IFE system
In front of me was a Panasonic ex3 screen, which is perfectly serviceable. The screen itself is reasonably clear.
However, it seems American Airlines is sticking to the traditional Panasonic Voyager 3D software for maps, rather than going with something a little more modern (such as ARC maps).
Content was a mixed bag – Some fun things, other things that I didn’t recognise. I settled with some Futurama (in colour) to get things on the road.
It was new to me.
As for Wi-Fi, I’m sticking to my policy of not buying Wi-Fi for a night flight, mainly as I want to be disconnected for a little time. For international travellers who might be rejoicing about Free Wi-Fi coming to American Airlines, it’s for their Viasat and Intelsat aircraft. Most of the widebodies are fitted with Panasonic equipment… and you’ll be paying.
Not tonight, kiddo.
While there’s a USB-A Power port in the IFE system, sadly, it’s a low-output power port; thus, the phone was trickle-charging back to the United Kingdom.
It’s not ideal, but it works.
First service followed by drinks, with the meal being a choice of chicken or pasta. Who’s ready for a tray of disappointment?
On the tray with have chicken with large couscous, and carrots. Moving along, we have a bread roll and butter (which American Airlines seems keen to remove), a bottle of water, a salad with cheese on it (because everything has to have cheese, it seems), an olive oil pouch and some crackers.
And yes, dear reader, there’s a cutback – no dessert or cake. There is only so much optimising of a meal service you can do. This just feels like cutting back for the sake of cutting back.
The Chicken entree was fine, with some flavours in the gravy pulling it together. As for the salad, I would have preferred it without grated cheese, but at least it adds texture. The crackers with the cheese buried underneath were ok, too.
Drinks were served after the meal was handed out. I asked for Vodka and Coke Zero, and ended up with tonic water, Coke Zero and vodka.
I’ll tell you a secret – the vodka is sitting on my desk in the office. I didn’t open it. I just welcomed the rest of the liquid at this point.
With the dinner service cleared down, the lights also dimmed in the cabin as the crew encouraged people to rest (as there was no second drinks service).
In addition, I had run out of Futurama episodes to watch (I could go on my rant about airlines loading 3-6 episodes of a season, and that’s it… but I’ve done that one to death for a while).
Therefore, I chose to load Lord of the Rings: Return of the King onto the IFE system and fell asleep to it. Certain movies fit that bill nicely – put on a DVD, Blu-ray or Stream, fall asleep and wake up exactly where I need to be in it (others include The Fifth Element, Star Trek (most movies apart from the Kelvin Timeline)
According to the watch, I managed the best part of 2 and a half hours of sleep across the pond. I’ve had worse, considering how much of this flight can be taken up with service.
Meanwhile, the two people next to me were up and about, changing seats and trying to settle and failing. Whilst a window seat in economy class is a pain if you want to go to the small room inflight, it provides the bulkhead to sleep against. And if you’re used to sleeping on your side or against something, it’s a wonderful thing.
Even with a reclined seat. Whilst these older Safran seats aren’t the most modern, you can get a reasonable sleeping position sometimes, with legroom and a bulkhead.
With the blues lightning a little outside, as well as the cabin lights coming up, it was time for the morning service. What wonder of delights would be coming?
Well, it arrived in a bag.
In it were some granola, a yoghurt and a cake thing.
I’ve seen worse, I’ve seen better over the pond.
Drinks were served – I went for some orange juice and coffee to keep me going. Least of all, I might not be able to stop for a coffee when I arrive at Heathrow.
Why?
I was keeping an eye on the map on and off to see where we were, but also keeping an eye on the arrival time once I woke up. I had originally budgeted that the aircraft would be arriving at the gate around 10 am – thus I had the 12:30 coach to Birmingham booked up (because Heathrow Baggage delivery can be… variable, and I didn’t want to rush).
With the aircraft due on the ground around 9:30 or so, new plans were being brewed in my mind… could I get home a lot earlier than planned?
Clouds through descent.
The cabin, ready for landing
Giant Aircraft Menaces Skies of Middle and Southern England! Film at 11! (I suspect we were over the Midlands at this point of descent)
With the cabin cleared down for arrivals, the Boeing 787-9 did two laps of the Bovingdon Stack (northwest of London) before it was allowed to approach Heathrow.
We be stacking here.
Exiting the stack, the aircraft carried past london, then turning for a river approach over East London, giving wonderful views of the city and Central London, as we closed in on Heathrow.
The Thames meandering to the North Sea.
The City of London and South London
Crossing the Thames – both banks of the river visible.
Parliament, The Royal Grounds, Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens and the West End.
With ease, the aircraft made its final descent, landing on the north runway at Heathrow at 09:35 GMT.
With the aircraft taxiing off the runway, I fired up the phone to confirm where the earlier coach was – somewhere on the M25.
Good enough.
And turning off the runway.
Taxiing around Heathrow Airport never seems a rushed affair, but we were taking the long way around the terminal, passing the usual gates American Airlines use in one of the piers the Terminal 3, and not entering that central area.
Terminal 5… count the BA tails everywhere.
Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
British Airways Boeing 787
Instead, we continued towards the Airbus A380 gates at Terminal 3, with the aircraft only making a turn at the last gate – Gate 301, the beginning (or is it the end) of the terminal complex.
Virgin Atlantic parked at the Terminal 4 pads.
British Airways Airbus A350-1000 passing by.
Approaching the far end of Terminal 3 and near Terminal 2.
At 9:50, the bongs went off to release us from our seats, with everyone fighting to get off. Whilst I was tempted to join the fight, I would be waiting for luggage at the other end – and that was what would ensure if I could make the early coach.
Let’s get this game on the road.
I found my items and, by 9:53, was making my way off and into the terminal.
I thanked the crew and exited the aircraft, with the stopwatch now running.
It’s time to make tracks.
Overall
Distinctly average is the name of the game, again. The hard product was passable as always (with the extra legroom a real bonus), with passable IFE to fill the flight. However, as we get onto the soft product, cost control is the name of the game with this airline, with cuts on the meal tray.
There was an effort at breakfast (which I’ll commend, compared to the cold sandwich you get on British Airways), but the feeling was “get them aboard, conduct service, get them to sleep and get them off the plane at London”.
At least the flight was early back across the pond, and there wasn’t a wait for a gate at Heathrow. That’s welcoming.
Next:
35 minutes to get a bus home. But there could be some trolley drifting ahead too…
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