TRIP REPORT: American Airlines AA87 London Heathrow – Chicago O’Hare (Main Cabin Extra)
New Aircraft, Old Friends
Time for the first flight of this trip, with a relatively new Boeing 787-9 in a Premium Configuration over the Atlantic. Can American Airlines get a premium configuration right, even in the back of the aircraft?
In this Trip Report:
- Well, this year has been a pile of toilet so far
- Take the National Express, when your life is a mess, it will make you smile
- Heathrow Terminal 3 Lounges, featuring The Cathay Pacific and American Airlines Business Class Lounges
- AA087 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare – Main Cabin Extra
- Into the USA and the joy of Licensed Taxi Drivers
- HOTEL: Holiday Inn Rosemont
- HOTEL Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Airplane Art Extra from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
- Playing with the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Camera around Chicago
- Back to O’Hare Terminal 3
- American Airlines Flagship Lounge
- BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow, World Traveller Plus
- Buses and Buses
- The way old friends do
Heading down the jetway, it was time to join the wonderful queue to board.
Down we go.
AA87 London Heathrow Terminal 3 to Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5
American Airlines
Boeing 787-9 (78P Configuration)
Seat 23L, Main Cabin Extra
3,953 Miles Flow, Revenue Value £208.78
1,671 Avios earned, 209 Tier Points earned
I was welcomed aboard the 787-9 by the crew and directed to take the right-hand aisle down the aircraft.
This is one of American Airlines’ newer aircraft – this 787-9 is in its Premium Configuration (A 78P in American Airlines parlance), featuring the Aident Business Class seats, Safran Premium Economy Seats and Collins Aerospace Ascend Economy Seats.
Aident Business Class Seats
Premium Economy Seats by Safran
Economy Seats by Collins Aerospace
These are finished in the current American Airlines scheme of navy blue and a brown that… yes, let’s not go there. It looks “fine”, but I suspect they could have chosen a colour other than brown as an accent colour and it would look a lot better.
I found my spot next to the emergency exit and settled in.
With my items in the overhead bin, I got ready for my pre-flight. During Check-in, I swapped my seat for the one a few rows from the exit for the exit row. Being in an exit row seat, there is slightly reduced width in the seat, and I found I had some space to play with..
The blanket and pillow were nothing to write home about – instant static in a bag, whilst the pillow was more of a back bolster. The seat was finished in eLeather – which is fine, providing you don’t get too sweaty.
As I was three weeks off a COVID case, my body temperature was up and down like a yo-yo, thus I was very grateful for the air gaspers up top to keep me cool and a “fresh” breeze.
Not so dirty vents. Dirtier to come. Trust me.
As the seats next to me filled up, the flight attendant asked for a verbal confirmation that we were happy to carry out the safety procedures if required. With a verbal confirmation, we were seated for our flight to Chicago.
Whilst there’s also been talk of empty aircraft, this flight was packed out with all seats occupied as far as I could see in all classes. Then again, I suspect an early flight to O’Hare is no bad thing for a lot of people – it gives you an afternoon to meet, settle in and so on.
With the aircraft fully loaded, our 787-9 pushed back, and we were on our way.
The safety video played, with the current American Airlines family one being used.
Whilst this was playing, the aircraft manoeuvred out of its gate at Heathrow and slowly began the taxi out. By the time the video finished, we were clear of the main gate area at Terminal 3 and starting turning to the taxiway that would lead us to a departure towards london.
Is this london or an American hub?
Virign 787-9
Cathay 777-300ER
Sous le dôme épais, Où le blanc jasmin, À la rose s’assemble…
British Airways A350-1000
Of course, I was flagging a lot at this point, so I got some photos in the can… and completely missed the point where the engines powered up to take us into the sky.
I’m getting old. Or I need better sleep. Probably the latter.
I woke up to miss the intro speech, but still climbing. It was therefore time to explore the IFE system. This is a Thales Optiq panel – something I’ve seen in trade shows, but the first time “in the wild”
Once I worked out how to extend the arm of the IFE system. Little things
As expected for a modern entertainment system, it was fluid to use, with fun features like sharing your screen for a watch party (and syncing your IFE together), as well as live information updates.
Interesting,
In terms of maps, American Airlines has stuck with FlightPath 3D being the provider. I’ve been keeping an eye on the product for some time (which I’ve written about and played with more than a few times).
In terms of content, films remain where the American Airlines library remains strongest, and film was where I started with The Lord of the Rings where I started.
And this is a very deliberate choice. It’s a film I can dip in and out of, as well as fall asleep to. Let’s face it, with the amount of sleep I had the night before… it wasn’t a bad idea.
In terms of connectivity, Viasat was providing connectivity aboard this Boeing 787-9.
Pricing was.. Where I suspected it would land, with $ for two hours and $28 for the full flight.
Now, normally, I would have pulled the trigger on in-flight internet. But after 10 weeks of Windows 11 updates in my face, I was more than happy for once to be in my own little world and be disconnected from the internet.
Sometimes, it’s nice to just disconnect and let the world do its thing for a few hours. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
I’d find that out after I landed.
Onto catering. In the main cabin, it was a choice of Chicken or Pasta. Nothing changes there. In detail, I went for the Peppercorn Chicken. This was with mashed potatoes and carrots in the main entree. On the side, there was a salad, a cake slice, crackers and bread.
Branding is everything.
This was a reasonable choice, with salad fresh, the chicken warm and flavourful, and the mash was passable.
And this was washed down with a bottle of water on the tray, and some Gin and Tonic, with American Airlines sticking with Aviation American Gin.
I swear I do not time my photos.
There’s one little bonus. Whilst exit row window seats don’t have much storage, the flap where the safety card was stored could also fit some gin, a can and the little EOS R50, giving me a little more space.
And with a little space and not a care in the world, I settled down to fall asleep.
It worked and did the job, helping me to slow down and finally close my eyes. I think I got around 2 hours or so. It was welcome, whatever it was, as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King seemed to have ended. I rewound a bit and watched more of it.
I moved on to The Two Towers, with the mid-flight service arriving. On this day, Salted Caramel ice cream and pretzels were offered, along with a drinks run. This is where I traditionally switch to Coke Zero, and this flight was no different.
For me, I sat back and drifted in and out of consciousness. The seat was doing a good job of supporting me, even with the slightly reduced width, and the bulkhead was doing a lot of lifting to support my head. The hearest was fine, but sometimes, having the bulkhead as a partner is no bad thing.
So listen up, here’s a story about a little guy to lives in a blue world. And all day and all night, everything he sees is blue like him.
Switching to Star Wars, Episode 2 (a passably good cartoon, an iffy second chapter), then Episode 3, the arrivals service followed. This would be drinks and a choice of Monty’s Bakehouse pastries – either a cheese and tomato or a beef one. I went for beef.
For the Brits here, think Greggs sausage roll, but more liquidy. A steak bake in a roll. For my American audience, think of a hot pocket in a long form.
It’s not too bad, like any pastry – it’s pretty hard to mess up a pastry.
DO IT!
With the service cleared down, the cabin was started to be prepared for landing. I took the opportunity to visit the small room before landing.
Down the cabin
Crossing Michigan
Something was on my mind, telling me that things might not be as they seemed when I landed.
Now, Main Cabin has 161 seats (with a small number of Main Cabin Extra). That’s fine. Except for a grand total of four toilets in the middle of the cabin, between main cabin extra and main cabin.
And yes, no toilets at the rear of the cabin. Thus, they were heavily trafficked through the flight.
For those who need to stay in shock, American Airlines went for the “slimline toilets. How slimline? Well. This was shot on a wide-angle lens.
Not the best place to swing a cat in
When I got back to my seat, the Gate information for onward connections was being loaded
Our descent was through a lot of grey clouds, with the aircraft making its way across Lake Michigan.
Starting the descent
Perhaps the archives are incomplete….
With the IFE screen put away, I kept an eye on the screen in front, which was positioning the aircraft for an arrival from the west, with the aircraft crossing past Chicago and into Illinois itself, before turning for landing.
Except this time, I remembered to turn the camera on for landing.
That is very murky.
As I turned on my data coverage after the plane taxied off into the murk of Chicago O’Hare, I saw my bank had been texting me and emailing me about possible fraudulent transactions that had hit it.
That’s exactly what I need as I’m in a foreign country.
Thus, most of the time that the aircraft spent taxing around, I spent the time fighting through my bank’s contact details trying to find a telephone number that would work, as I would need to talk to someone on this one.
Thankfully, my old tariff allows for international calling, texting and data without an extra fee up to 12Gb. Small blessings,
Our aircraft took a long taxi around O’Hare, taxing across the field at least once, as it doubled back into a pattern that the Boeing 787 could make towards Terminal 5.
And yes, it was wet. That always makes for a fun taxi ride around O’Hare,
Eventually, the aircraft started seemingly heading towards Terminal 5. By this time, I had fought with the bank’s phone system once, only to drop the call. And thus fight all over again.
Gotta love a mobile signal on an airfield.
By the time the aircraft had got onto the jetbridge, I was on my second call, fighting through the menu system. I gathered my items together as I wanted to try to give myself a reasonable start in entering the USA.
And if I made it through the call system, at least a comfortable place to have that discussion.
I thanked the crew and headed off.
Overall
The hard product is a big improvement – let’s not beat about the bush. Even this implementation of the Collins Aspire for Economy Class seems improved compared to the one I flew aboard last year. Along with some quite nice seats up front, and a fluid IFE system, lots of good boxes have been ticked. Whilst the crew were business-friendly, they executed a reasonable enough service to keep the cabin occupied, even if they did rush to switch the blinds to dark on a day flight.
The only two moans I have – firstly, a few more rows of Main Cabin Extra would be nice, given that the are only three and a third rows of it installed. Whilst the minicabin concept is excellent, it comes at the actual Main Cabin Extra seats.
The other big moan is the toilet configuration in Economy Class. Four toilets for 161 people… is tight, to put it mildly. Especiallylly when they’re the kind of toilets which are “space optimised”
Next
Into the USA. Well, with a slight delay. And of course a taxi driver…
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