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By Susan McKee
American Airlines
Dallas/Fort Worth – Maui Kahului Airport – Dallas/Fort Worth
Frangipani blossoms (called plumeria in Hawaii) were being broadcast in colorful profusion on the video screens in the First Class cabin as I boarded American Airlines Flight 7 from Dallas/Fort Worth to Maui in mid-November. It was a welcome reminder that I was leaving a chilly autumn and heading for the perpetual summer of our 50th State.
Boarding was fast, because First Class passengers use the Priority Access Lane and the gate attendants defer to this lane (no matter how many people are waiting in the other line to board economy). I always wonder why First Class passengers don’t board last: it’s somewhat discomfiting to sit in those comfy faux-leather seats sipping iced water while the passengers filing past to sit in the back stare at us, as they try to juggle their myriad carry-ons through the narrower aisles up front. (On the return trip from Maui, we were offered a choice of orange juice, sparkling wine, or water.)
In First, we had not only beverage service but a meal plus a snack in our future; economy passengers had to purchase their food either before boarding or from a flight attendant during the long trip across the Pacific.
The flying time on the Boeing 767-200 plane from DFW to OGG (Maui Kahului Airport) was scheduled for 7 hours and 58 minutes, but it ended up taking about 20 minutes longer because of strong headwinds. (The return was a much zippier 6-1/2 hours due to the same winds, now pushing us back to the continent.) American has two classes of service on these two flights: First Class (which elsewhere would be called Business Class) and economy.
I had flown to American’s headquarters back in 2006 for the press conference unveiling the new seat now in First Class, so I was anxious to try it out on an actual flight. Alas, there are problems even in paradise. One of the innovations was a two-part tray-table. Part folds down from the front of the seat “pod”, and part lifts out of the armrest. The two were designed to slide together, forming one larger surface, but years of use have misaligned the trays. After wrenching the front half down, and ratcheting the armrest half up, I could slide them toward each other, but there was always an annoyingly irregular partial gap.
At the preview back in 2006, we were told there’d be a portable entertainment unit mounted at the front of each “seat pod”. But, there was no such unit on this flight (or on the return). The flight attendant told me that those units were used only on international flights (the same explanation was given for the absence of the standard amenity pack). Instead, video monitors were mounted on the front wall of the cabin and more were hung from the ceiling. If you wanted to watch a different movie than the one shown, you would have had to bring your own DVD player. Seats on both flights were five rows in the 2-2-2 configuration for a total of 30 seats.
The seats (20 inches wide) had virtually unlimited position possibilities – I could even scoot my seat forward to write more comfortably in my notebook on the front half of the tray-table. When it reclined, the seat was almost flat (they’d told me it was 171 degrees instead of the completely horizontal 180). Under the cuddly quilt with my head on a comfy pillow, I slept most of the way across the water both times.
Unfortunately, the meals served on the two flights were disappointing. It’s clear that the era of elegant in-flight dining, even in First Class, is over. On my way to Maui, I opted for the Cheese Ravioli, but it was a mush of pasta topped with tomato sauce served in a bowl. On the return, I tried the Macadamia Nut Encrusted Chicken, but the coating was pasty and the chicken bland; the mashed potatoes tasted like reconstituted potato flakes. Surprisingly, the fruit salsa accompanying the chicken was fabulous: chunks of pineapple and watermelon with fresh mint.
Both times, the salads were enormous but pedestrian: a couple of handfuls of mixed baby greens garnished with strips of carrot, slices of cucumber and exactly two cherry tomatoes. Dessert on both flights was an uninspired scoop of vanilla ice cream with a choice of toppings: I had light mocha sauce on the way over, and strawberries in a thick sugary syrup on the way back.
The snacks before landing were a nice touch. On my way to Maui, we had grapes with cheese and crackers; on the return, it was a smoothie and a muffin.
We were about 20 minutes late on the flight from Dallas to Maui, but a few minutes ahead of schedule on the return to the mainland. Disembarking in Hawaii involves going through an agricultural inspection, but if you don’t have any fresh fruit (and a few other prohibited items), it’s no problem. On the return, one goes through such inspection before boarding. No bringing back plant clippings as souvenirs!
© December 2009 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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