Los Angeles International

Once in the terminal I headed for the Admirals Club. I had not yet access to the club due to my frequent flyer status, but American Airlines offers to buy access into it. It is possible to buy an annually pass, which has got a quite hefty fee of more than 500 USD, but it is also possible to buy a 30 day membership for 99 USD or a day pass for 50 USD.

Since I had a few flights and American Airlines had at least one club at the most airports I decided to buy into an American Airlines Admirals Club 30 day trial membership. My Priority Pass would have gotten me access to lounges at the most airports and would be the other option, but I wanted also to see how the American Airlines Admiral Clubs compare to the lounges of their competitors.

At the entrance to the lounge I was greeted by a friendly agent. I could have bought it over the internet earlier but I had not yet up my mind, if I really wanted to buy a membership for 30 days. He asked about my AAdvantage number and I showed it to him on my phone, since I did not have the card handy. He immediately noticed that I was one of the few persons using a Huawei Ascend G615 and asked me if I was satisfied with the phone as he had been working on a research project with Huawei earlier at university. We talked a little bit about the advantages of the phone (UMTS Pentaband) and not belonging to the many users of iPhones. He printed the membership pass and also wrote my American Airlines AAdvantage Membership number on the pass to make it easier for other lounge agents as they did not have to ask for the membership number themselves. I also confirmed that the flights should be credited to British Airways, what he simply acknowledges by saying this would make more sense from an European point of view.

I took the elevator up to the lounge which was located on the second floor. The lounge was quite big with different parts which were not all that busy. The main part in the centre of the lounge located close to the bar and TV-screens was busy and quite full, though it was possible to find a seat. The areas in the side wings were less busy and there were more empty seats available. It was also the more quiet area. A children’s playroom was also available and shower facilities.

I got a glass of water and started my laptop to make use of the free WiFi to check my e-mails and check the status of my flight on flightaware. I left the lounge prior to the scheduled boarding time and walked to the gate 49A. It was the same gate where I had arrived earlier from Las Vegas, but it was a different plane.

Boarding had not started yet and there were two passengers in wheelchairs and two blind people with dogs. All four people needed more time to board the plane. The blind passenger could walk with their dogs onboard and had the first row in the Economy Class Cabin so the dogs could lie in front of the wall dividing the Economy Class Cabin from the First Class Cabin.

06 October 2013
LAS – MCO
[Los Angeles International – Orlando]
AA 204 (American Airlines); Boeing 737-800 (N818NN)
Gate 49A
21:50 – 05:30 (+1) [effective 21:53 – 05:27]
First Class
Seat 04 F

Boarding was scheduled to start at 21:05 but delayed to 21:20 since the above mentioned passengers needed more time. But finally the boarding announcement was made and the gate agent invited passengers in First Class and AAdvantage Executive Platinums and Oneworld Emeralds to board the plane using the Priority Access Lane. I was among the first persons to board our plane which had the old American Airlines Livery. Thus I had no problem to store my hand luggage in the overhead bin and my smaller laptop bag under the seat in front of me.

Pillows and blankets as well as headsets were placed on the seat. In Economy Class headsets were available for 5 USD. A large bottle of water was also placed on the seat. The plane filled with passengers which was full in both classes. A pre departure drink was not offered and also my jacket was not hung, so I and my fellow seat mate hung them ourselves.

The crew welcomed us on board and announced the safety video which was shown during push back. We taxied to our runway 25R and at 22:05 without need to queue took off towards the Pacific Ocean before we made a turn to the South and then to the East and climbed in the dark sky above the Greater LAX area.

The crew began the service app. 10 minutes after we took off, while a bit later the flight deck gave us information about the flight time to Orlando, which was calculated with 4:31 and we would be on the ground around 05:28 and at the gate at 5:33, but he would update us as soon as we began our approach into Orlando. In the meantime, we should sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.

This Boeing 737-823 was also quite new and delivered to American Airlines right from the Boeing factory on December 11, 2009. The plane was leased from GECAS, which stands for GE Capital Aviation Services (the former GE Commercial Aviation Service) and belongs to General Electric; it is one of the biggest airplane leasing companies and based in Stamford (CT). The cabin layout was the same as on our plane from Las Vegas.

Twenty minutes in flight the service started with a hot towel service.

Later the orders for the meal service were taken row by row, if the passengers were awake and wanted to eat. One third of the cabin had already lowered their seat and decided to sleep. I decided to eat. On this flight I had not make use of the option to pre order my meal, which is available on the American Airlines manage my booking page and a nice feature.

Lemon marinated chicken with goat cheese,
served chilled, over fresh seasonal greens with sour cream and herb dressing.

The options on this flight were Creamy wild mushroom soup with sourdough garlic croutons, garnished with Parmesan cheese and Lemon marinated chicken with goat cheese, served chilled, over fresh seasonal greens with sour cream and herb dressing.

I went with the grilled lemon chicken, which was brought 15 minutes later and served on the tray together with cutlery. It came also with a roll, butter and salt and pepper. The assorted nuts, which are usually served prior to the main meal, were also on the tray. It did make sense to make it this way, as this would reduce the time required for the meal service and offer more time to sleep to those passengers, who wanted to have a meal service on this flight. I went with a Tonic Water to go with the meal instead of choosing a wine. The meal tasted surprisingly quite good and it was also nice to have the whole can of tonic water instead of just a glass. The flight attendant serving first class was okay. Of course passengers were not addressed by name but at least he looked if he handed over the tray with the meal or the beverage. And he was attentive and cleared trays as soon as one had finished the meal so that one could recline the seat and try to get some sleep.

And this is what I did. We had over 3:30 hours to go as I reclined my seat and noticed that the legrest could not adjusted if the backrest was reclined, which was not as worse as I thought as I noticed this for the first time. I was tired and get interrupted sleep for the next 3 hours or so. The lights in the cabin were already dimmed.

At 05:11 Orlando time the captain woke me up with the announcement that we were about to begin the final approach into Orlando and we should be on the ground at 05:27.

The crew began to prepare the cabin for our arrival into Orlando and collected remaining items and gave back the jackets, which we had hung ourselves in the back. Surprisingly he noticed to whom the jackets belong …

We touched down in Orlando in the early morning at 05:27 and had a short taxi to our gate, where we arrived at 05:32

I was among the first passengers to disembark and entered the not very busy terminal, which was no surprise given the time of the day.

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