AA 267 (757-2) Seat:
5F
Depart: LAX 6:20 PM
Arrive: HNL 8:39 PM
With 30 minutes to go I started to make my way to the gate
only to see final boarding displayed on the screens, can’t be right I thought,
but sure enough as I settled into my old brown seat I noticed that I was the
last to take my seat in the front cabin. Was nice to see there were 4 soldiers
up front that had all been comp upgraded by AA as there were seats free. This
is the first time I've experienced first / business class to Hawaii on one of
the legacy carriers and I was impressed to see the additional level of detail
and service that they have on these flights to try and fight for what must be a
lucrative slice of air travel pie. Menus and preflight beverages (including
choice of “champagne”) were soon distributed and with an on time pushback we
were on our way.
Mains by Sam Choy
While we were climbing out of the Los Angeles basin chasing towards
the rapidly setting sun the FAs were already up and about taking meal and drink
orders.
I went with the Pinot Grigio as it sounded nice and would
hopefully pair well with my chicken, but first I had to eat my rabbit food.
Salad with delicious ginger vinaigrette
Honestly I have to say that AA has some great salad
dressings though, this ginger vinaigrette was definitely an all-time top 5 for
salad dressings anywhere! They should start bottling and selling a line of
signature dressings, could be a great revenue generator…
Sorry no photo of the main, the chicken was about 2/3rds
gone by the time I thought about it and no one wants a photo of what was on the
plate! J
A short break ensued allowing us to finish our wine from dinner
before it was sundae time; hot fudge, pineapple, strawberry, whipped cream,
crushed nuts…oh the choices but in the end it wasn’t hard. Hot fudge, pineapple
and whipped cream. I really liked how the FAs seemed to take extra care in
keeping all ingredients separate to avoid any cross contamination, especially
from the nuts for me!
Mmmm...Pineapple, hot fudge!
All the dishes were nicely garnished with a purple orchid,
seemed like a fresh flower each time and it felt almost like we were flying on
Hawaiian Airlines instead. I wonder if they still have an orchid on each meal
as they did in the good old days, seems like we’ll need to try their non-stop
JFK-HNL flight when we visit family next year and find out.
By this time we were well and truly losers in our quest to
chase the sun and were nearing Hawaii in complete darkness, it was great to see
the soldiers having such a good time and I later learned it was not only their
first time in first class but also some of their first times on a flight longer
than an hour or so! Again 2 thumbs up to AA for their support of our troops, we
can’t thank them enough and it’s nice to see companies be on board with that
too. We landed disappointingly on runway 4R therefore missing one of the best
parts of flying to Hawaii, landing on the reef runway. We were soon at the gate
and after deplaning I made my way to Avis to grab a car before going to see Dad
and Popo and try to enjoy the 14 hours I had in paradise.
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