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American Airlines Business Class 777-300ER LAX-MIA Review
The review of American Airlines Business Class 777-300ER LAX- MIA came to existence because I let my Hundos ROLLLLLLL! In case you aren’t familiar with letting your Hundos roll it means you don’t use any other forms of securing an upgrade…like points or cash + points, etc. On routes that feature lie flat seats it’s inevitably very difficult to land an upgrade with 500 mile upgrades. First off, once your Executive Platinum or Concierge Key you don’t even apply these upgrades because you’re already prioritized by your status and date you requested an auto upgrade. After all these high level elites are served their upgrades they’ll give upgrades to those who are using points and cash, etc. So the odds of landing an upgrade using lowly 500-mile upgrades as a Platinum are slim to none.
Somehow favor rained down on Miles with showers of lie-flat wonder
But without further adieu here’s the American Airlines Business Class 777-300ER LAX-MIA Review…with a broken seat
THE DEETS
- When: July 1 2016
- Airline: AA
- Flight: AA68
- Class: Business
- Seat: 4J
- Route: LAX-MIA
- Duration: 5hr 5mins
The entire business class cabin had boarded when they announced my name
The sweetest sound you can hear at an airport is the sound of your name ringing out across the loud speakers when you are eagerly waiting an upgrade. They were beginning to board the main cabin when they announced my name, and I couldn’t have been more excited. I got my boarding pass and saw my seat number: 4J
4J?! What?! Not only Biz but also mini cabin????
Yessssssssir, dreams do come true. I boarded the aircraft and TURNED LEFT! ZIP BAM BOOM! Oh, wait…
MY SEAT WAS INOPERABLE. KRIKEY!
Before I could even get to my seat I was intercepted and told of the situation. Sir, your seat does not work and once we get airborne and after meal service we can manually help recline your seat, PLEASE DO NOT USE IT. Apparently the plane had just come in from Australia and needed to be repaired, buttttttt they didn’t have time to do it. In fact, my flight was supposed to go on to Madrid from Miami, but after we landed in Miami we were told that passengers heading on to Madrid now needed to deplane as they were going to do an aircraft switch.
The broken seat was a bit of a bummer. Look, beggars can’t be choosers, but I MEAN!!!!!!!! A broken seat?! AY YA YAIIII no wonder I got the upgrade lol. Looking back at the sitch, it ended up working out well because AA gave me some bonus points for my inconvenience… byah byah byah!
This was a true business class experience…international or not.
My other reviews in business class were on long haul, transatlantic flights that offered all features of the business class product: hard and soft. If you were to score a domestic business class ticket that flies an internationally configured plane the odds are that you will only receive the hard product. But, because this was a 3 cabin flight that was sold and marketed as such, the hard and soft products were both offered commensurate to that of an international flight.
I hadn’t yet flown the interior seats anywhere on the the AA 777-300ER business class. I’m not a fan. I find them to be far more open, less private, and the ottoman doesn’t have any storage under it.
The only thing I do prefer is the storage behind the seat, and I supposed if you were flying with another person you could converse a lot easier. It’s pretty much the same set up as on Cathay Pacific business class which I flew the middle seats twice from Joburg to HKG to Tokyo
Pretty much the same amenity kit as AA offers on an international flight
The power socket and tray table make work easy peasy
Pillows, blankets, water, and food are all included in this TRUE business class experience
Business Class Menu
Miles and his warm nuts
Steve Carrell’s face pretty much summed up my first impression and how I felt about my broken seat . And then Miles’ face summed up the rest of my lie-flat wonderment.
CHAMPERS!
If you can’t beat us…hummus?
GIMME SOME OF THAT LOBSTA!
After the meal presentation a flight attendant came around and adjusted my seat so that it reclined about half way down. This ended up being perfect. I wasn’t intending on sleeping, but I do have a bad back, and an upright seat was starting to tire my back out. While it wasn’t ideal and I had to precariously climb in and out if I needed the bathroom, it all worked out fine. Afterall, I was supposed to be in eeeee sorry eeeeeeeeeeeee ugh I know I can do it eeeeeeeconomy. AHHHHHHH it barely even made it off my fingertips.
Overall the flight was great. The seat became more of a joke at some point and I was so much happier sitting in 4J than 76Z…or wherever I was originally sitting.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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