First DONE4 trip report

[djfuzz]

Hi all

Thanks to some terrific advice from these forums and the coincidence of the Oneworld tenth anniversary sale with our honeymoon, we finally took the plunge and booked an ex-ICN DONE4. My wife is starting off as a QFF NB, and I have taken Dave Noble's advice and started an AA platinum challenge - so we should have Sapphire status after arrival into JFK and she will have Emerald towards the end too.

The itinerary is ICN-NRT-JFK-SFO-DFW-LAX-LHR-DXB-LHR-SYD-MEL-AKL-MEL-HKG-DAC-HKG-ICN. We will be back in MEL in June and will head off to AKL in November, followed by the final leg in December/January.

Our positioning flights took us from MEL-HKG on QF in premium economy and HKG-ICN in Y, returning in January.

Our lack of status screwed us somewhat on the MEL-HKG leg. We submitted a points upgrade to J, which was not declined (not unexpectedlt as the flight appeared pretty full). However, we had preallocated seats 37J and K in order to have some (limited) privacy on the flight, and because I am a 'fidget' and drink too much water / go to the loo too much on long haul flights. I called a number of times for various reasons and reconfirmed these seats. Arrived at MEL to find that they had given them away and put us into seats 34E and F, which are the middle of the middle 4 in the bulkhead row - in my view the worst seats in PE due to the bulkhead limiting foot space, no storage space and of course climbing over two people on the aisle on either side of us. Not exactly the dream start I had hoped for our honeymoon, but she enjoyed it anyway. Other than drink on boarding, no drink service prior to dinner. Food service was pretty good, had a nice barramundi, desert was just a muffin. Breakfast muesli was decent but of course nowhere near as satisfying as a full J breakfast.

Stayed in HKG at the Peninsula - cannot speak highly enough of that experience, particularly the spa. Ate at Felix and Yan Toh Heen, and had yum cha at Dragon-i, all of which were great.

Tried to see if we could pay to upgrade the HKG-ICN leg, but it became too difficult so we stuck in out in Y. My first time on the new CX economy, which I quite enjoyed - I like staking a claim to the personal space in front of me, though I can see why people might find it gruelling on long haul as the forward 'recline' position was not stellar. IFE was pretty good though, not quite new QF standard, but better than most I've seen so far. If they fixed the recline issue and made the seat a wee bit more comfortable, I would not hesitate to fly CX Y (even longhaul) again.

On the tripadvisor recommendation, we stayed at the Ibis Myeong-dong, which was interesting. Basic hotel, as advertised, but clean, efficient and well located near a great shopping district (though access by airport bus was a little tricky to figure out at first, but pretty easy once familiar with it).

I am currently writing this using free WiFi in the JAL lounge at ICN awaiting our first flight. Did not get a chance to check out the CX lounge here as I had hoped, but the JAL Sakura lounge is nevertheless quite nice and cozy, with a nice view onto the tarmac where our 777 awaits. Food selection is a little wanting, with some good (but small) sandwiches, miso and instant noodles. Asahi is on tap which is nice, but grog appears to be limited to Chivas, Absolut vodka and a bottle of wine. I'm a little surprised by the size, given that I would have thought JAL has a few flights per day into ICN, but it is only sparsely populated at the moment, and there are at least two flights boarding in the next little while.

Looking forward to the service on JAL and to trying to find a good lounge in NRT for the two hour layover prior to the AA flight to JFK. Will update as we go along.

[djfuzz]

JAL flight from ICN to NRT was great, we were the only people in the second J cabin, and the service was wonderful. Bento box lunch was great, as were the seats. We both thought it was a great way to start.

Now sitting in AA lounge at NRT about to head of for JFK. The AA lounge is pretty packed, I can see three AA tails nearby, and seating is pretty much at a premium. I think our flight is full up in J as we couldn't select any alternate seats. Other than the Asahi on tap, the food and drink doesn't seem that extensive - a few more spirits than JAL at ICN, but food limited to finger sandwiches and sushi.

Walked past the lifts to the CX lounge but couldn't see the Sakura lounge anywhere - again have heard varying reviews of both so figured we may as well stay put until the flight is called, which is pretty soon.

[SnowYeti]

Great report so far! Keep it coming Asahi, mmmm! my fav beer.

[Evan]

Have fun maybe a pity you missed some time in Japan but if you have not seen it and want to then do doubt you could do it on the return trip when you finish your DONE4

[djfuzz]

Absolutely Evan, we really wanted to go to Japan - didn't in the end due to a number of factors, including amongst others the fact that the AUD was so weak when we booked we couldn't afford to do some of the things we'd hoped to (if only we'd known!), and also because I couldn't change the routing of the first flight (AA codeshare ICN-NRT-JFK) without being hit up for the full non-discounted price plus penalty. So we're hoping to use the miles from this trip for a future sojourn to Japan.

Have to say that after the luxury of an empty short flight with JAL to a packed long haul flight with AA, the difference is quite noticeable. Seating was at a premium in the AA lounge and the food and drink was limited as mentioned above. On boarding although I thought the general design of the AA J seat was decent, I immediately found some sort of sticky substance in the inside storage well, which soiled my book. I had hoped to clean it up with the towelette, but that didn't actually arrive until well into the dinner service which was itself quite late.

You see, once we'd taken off, the captain didn't extinguish the seatbelt sign until about two hours into the flight (despite a smooth ride, he cited concerns about 'upcoming turbulence' which never materialised). I know it's his discretion to better be safe than sorry, but it really reminded me of the stories I'd read here of US carriers preferring to leave the sign on for liability minimisation than out of concern for passenger safety. I wonder where the line is between overcaution in anticipation of turbulence (I figure most people would be somewhat concerned about this given recent news) and passenger health (on a long haul flight complete confinement obviously has consequences for DVT and bladder control).

In any case, I found the service itself to be reasonable - we had a very nice flight attendant, the food was pretty good (especially the warm nuts and ice cream with cookies). My wife became sick for some reason we haven’t yet pinned down (possible reaction to something at the lounges or drinks on board – have heard theories about the ice, but did not share them), and the attendants were reasonably helpful with that too.

Despite my reservations and other concerns noted above, the seats were pretty good (if a little strange in transitioning between set positions). We both managed to get a fair amount of sleep which was nice, and didn’t have any real difficulties in finding a comfortable position for relaxing or sleeping. Having said that, AA has really shot itself in the foot by not having goose neck reading lights. We were incredibly impressed by the sturdiness and illumination provided by JAL’s, but the AA longhaul was a complete contrast with half the cabin lit up during the ‘night’ period by people working under the overhead lights. It didn’t really feel like a dedicated sleeping period at all, unlike for example the QF sleep periods with the coloured LEDs and a spattering of personal LED lamps operating unobtrusively.

Inflight snacks were a little wanting, and the toilets didn't feature any special touches. I also found a little offputting the fact that there was no cabin separation from economy directly behind us (not even a curtain - similarly in First, though they had the separation of the galley) - more because its nicer (in any class) to have a little bit of cabin privacy so you forget you're packed like Sardines in a big metal tube. It's not nice to be able to see straight through to both ends of the plane and realise how small it really is.

The IFE was decent, even though the selection has nothing on QF. I have been wondering, whatever happened to Super Mario on IFE? I recall Krisworld used to have it, but these days you have pretty stock standard arcade games - it would be lovely to have some good platformers that you could really while away the time with. I liked the Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones that were handed out, though again due to the prolonged initial seatbelt sign illumination, we didn’t get them for quite some time – and they do have some down sides, as they can be a little harsher on the ears than overear headphones, like QF’s. I also liked the fact that the IFE and flight map could be kept on until landing, deliberately or not.

Baggage service at JFK was extremely prompt which was gratifying after the long haul we’d had from Seoul.

All in all, it was a decent flight, made unfortunately worse by my wife’s sickness. Having said that, the flaws identified above could so easily (and cheaply I imagine) be remedied and lift AA’s service that much higher in comparison to its OW partners at the very least. It felt like the overall service was intended to be of a high quality, but was let down a little in execution – and just a tiny bit more care would have abridged that. The length of seatbelt sign illumination did start me thinking about whether to switch our subsequent longhaul legs to BA, and to hell with the mileage, status bonus and EQMs. Still giving it some thought.

Writing this from our room at The Plaza courtesy of some help from some FTers. Managed to get WiFi working in the room for free as a member of the Fairmont President’s Club, which is great (otherwise, the Apple Store is across the road with free WiFi 24/7). Don’t fly again for another week, so will check in then.

[djfuzz]

I am sitting at the gate at SFO about to start a red-eye mileage run from SFO-DFW-LAX (which neither my wife or I have been particularly looking forward to), so I thought it a good time to start writing up the TR for our last leg.

The flight was JFK-SFO on the only remaining daily 2-class AA 763 service (selected in order to maximise SCs and mileage). Prior to arrival the flight was delayed, it was delayed again when we checked in, delayed again at the gate, and finally delayed again once we boarded the aircraft – so there was a lot of waiting. Unfortunately, unlike our other flights (including presumably our future QF domestic J flights), we did not have the luxury/convenience of using a lounge prior to boarding. Not a big deal, but a little touch that seems to illustrate the opposing approaches of different Oneworld airlines.

Having said that, watching the situation unfolding at the gate for the first time on an AA flight was certainly interesting. AA appears to be a strange beast – incredibly organised and transparent (eg making both standby and upgrade lists available on viewscreens in order of priority – I often wondered how FTers knew where they were on the list), while completely carefree on the other – despite the two lanes for priority and main cabin boarding, boarding calls were unclear and haphazard as was management of the boarding area – they called first class passengers first, but given the hoard of people standing by waiting at the priority lane, it was impossible to tell who was waiting in line to get in and who was simply waiting for the next call (as a result we were the last to board in the first cabin and had someone take our overhead bin with an oversized bag, which was not so pleasant with our post-NYC carry ons (more on that later).

This time we finally had a couple of seats to ourselves (almost impossible not to, given the 2-2-2 config), and by the H, J window in row 5 of 6. I selected row 5 in order to make the most of the FEBO principle for meal service (given that the flight had an odd number). I’m not sure I noticed service commencing from the back at all, though I may have missed the order of the main meal service which may have started from the rear. In any case, the seat was cleaner this time, which was a relief. There was no screen or PMP embedded in the seat back as I had expected, but the FAs brought out Archos PMPs and Bose headphones shortly after takeoff. The table was slightly smaller than on the international 777 and the storage areas noticeably smaller (despite no removable IFE controller). There was an amenity pack on my seat, but I’m not sure if it was there in error, as my wife didn’t have one nor did I see anyone else with one. Again there was no curtain separating first from economy, but given that we weren’t in the very rear row, it wasn’t as annoying this time.

Going back to something I mentioned earlier, despite reading about it earlier, I was quite shocked at how small the AA cabin bins were. Surely they must be smaller than on other airlines, because we really struggled to fit our modestly sized carry on items in, while others with the aforementioned oversized bags had to squeeze them in tightly. How is it that the Europeans have the tighter carry on restrictions but large overhead bins (as assumption based on an admittedly small sample size), but in the US there are forgiving size limits but unforgiving bins?

The service was pretty similar to the flight before – the FAs were friendly in a homely kind of way, however following the end of the meal service they retreated to the galley to chat amongst themselves before doing a final cleanup of dinner – amongst other people, I had to leave my secondary table open most of the flight because the FAs hadn’t cleaned up the desert glass (quite annoying when either of us wanted to go to the loo). Now I know I could have pressed the call button, fair enough, (I didn’t due to a mixture of tiredness and awkwardness), but I would’ve thought cleaning up dinner trays and glasses to enable passengers to sleep was a natural function of an FA’s duty, as opposed to reading the minds of passengers who want more drinks.

The food service again was quite homely – an entrée of chicken pieces on corn and beans, main of meatloaf and mash or four cheese ravioli in tomato sauce, the regular ice cream and fudge desert as well as the freshly baked cookies (definitely a favourite of ours). We were also given a water bottle, which we hadn’t on the previous long haul international flight.
It’s strange that AA run a 2-class service and call this first class, since it is their regular business class product in all but name, unlike the service on smaller aircraft against which there is no similar comparison.

Baggage handling was our only real complaint – the premium tags didn’t amount to much because our bags came out close to the end, which wasn’t great after such a delayed flight meaning we had little useful time on our first night in SF.

We stayed at the Intercontinental on Howard Street, which is two blocks away from Market Street and then Union Square, so quite convenient. Despite the shortness of our stay, they looked after us relatively well, giving us a room on the top floor with an amazing view, and complimentary late check out. No free WiFi, but I guess that wasn’t factored into the relatively low price we paid for the room – having said that, we’ve found that free WiFi (even if only for loyalty club members) is one of those nice touches that really distinguish a hotel. But with an Apple Store around the corner again, it wasn’t a huge deal

Following on from our baggage experiences, I was tempted in SF and LA to buy a decent carry on bag - I know there are a variety of views on this around these forums. Had a look at a Tumi lightweight carry on and a Victorinox - some decent prices here too (barring the CA sales tax), not sure how dear they are in Oz. In any case, it was too late and we will have to go on without it, but will keep it in mind for the future or compare the local Oz prices.

Wrote this report a few days ago and since had a very tiring overnight mileage run from SFO-DFW-LAX which I will write up soon. Leaving tonight on LAX-LHR on AA and onto LHR-DXB on BA so will keep you posted.

[docjames]

Nice TR djfuzz - keep it coming!

[djfuzz]

Thanks docjames.

So we spent a lovely day in SF (except for the cable car – vastly overrated) and then headed to the airport at night in preparation for our midnight departure through to DFW and then back to LAX after a short layover. This was the only part of our trip where we explicitly endured some temporary inconvenience in order to further our respective FF ambitions, and despite the difficulty it was probably worth it – in two flights I posted about 6700 AA miles while my wife notched up 240 SCs, which would have taken 12 MEL-SYD returns back home on Red e-Deals so not too bad.

Arrived at SFO on the BART and trudged to the AA check-in (it was quite some way to the side of the terminal, away from the central access point between AA and UA. Priority check-in was quite small, but still available. I was glad our bags were checked through to LAX without the awkward ‘are you crazy?’ questions I was expecting, but the agent failed to put priority tags on the bags which was a little annoying considering the delay for our bags into SFO. There was no Priority AAccess security line either, which meant a bit of a longer wait to get through the TSA.

The gate was not too far but was absolutely packed and pretty haphazard again – I don’t know who designed AA’s US gate lounges (or how long they’ve been this way) but they are very inefficient in terms of space and access. Again a long upgrade list and standby list – which may have ended up a lot worse as we were advised that due to weather conditions in DFW they were reassessing the weight load on the aircraft and would ‘try to accommodate as many people as they could.’

We boarded relatively on time, but again had the problem of lack of space in the overhead bins (it was an MD80). Even in first class, there was a fair bit of swapping luggage out and around in order to fit everything. I was expecting the seats to be a little dated, but was a little disappointed to see how shabby they were – the old blue leather was scuffed and the embroidered text quite dirty. The blankets shoved into the seatback pockets looked old and tatty, and were quite rough to touch. There was sufficient space for what it was, but I was not overly keen on the flimsy flip out drink stand, which looked like it would give way to the slightest turbulence or body movement (especially if tossing and turning while sleeping). I don’t know how long AA plans on keeping the MD80s in service, but they are in desperate need of an update in the premium cabin – I can’t imagine paying for a full fare first class ticket and getting that cabin. Perhaps it works for them given that they seem to upgrade so many elites so they probably aren’t making all that much money from premium pax anyway.

Not unexpectedly, there was no meal service on the red-eye flight, only beverages. The warm nuts were piping hot, almost too hot to touch. However, the cookie went down very well as always.

Really missed access to the Admiral’s Club during our two hour layover in DFW, however once we transferred terminals and arrived at our gate, we settled in for a little bit. A few shops started opening but we were more about rotating a few minutes of shut eye and charging up our iPhones. Boarding was a little less stressful as we were right at the gate, however we had to go through another TSA screening on the aerobridge which was a bit annoying.

Not much more to say about the DFW-LAX service. It was a 738, but clearly not one of the newly refurbished ones – our seats were pretty much identical to those on the MD80, perhaps with a bit more space on the centre console. The seatback pocket in front of my seat was broken so it hit my knees when the passenger in front of me recline – not quite a first class experience. We sat at the back of the cabin in anticipation of FEBO, but the drinks and nuts service commenced from the front – however the meal service itself did start from the back which was nice. The FA was again nice but not overly attentive – he got my breakfast order wrong despite me being the first one, but that’s forgivable so early in the morning and he was very apologetic. He also helped me out of a tight spot when deplaning, for which I was very grateful. Our bags took a while to arrive at LAX, but they were close to the first ones off the belt – which was more of a relief than anything as I wasn’t sure if they’d make the crazy connection at all!

All in all it as quite a tough night – I don’t think we could bear it in Y, but it was doable in first as we were able to get a bit of decent sleep. It’s the quirk of the DONE4 that allows you to get 240 SCs for two short legs for which you should only get 160 SCs and would only get a maximum of 40 SCs on a LONE4 or otherwise in Y. We did have to ‘work’ for that bonus by taking on some minor inconveniences, but it was probably worth it.

Sitting in the Galleries South lounge in LHR right now awaiting our flight to DXB (sadly no massages available in the spa, despite our five hour layover), so will continue the TR about the LAX-LHR flight (our final one with AA!) and the upcoming first BA flight shortly.

[MAX_1]

Thanks for posting such a detailed report. Look foreward to the rest. Have a safe journey

[NM]

... but the agent failed to put priority tags on the bags which was a little annoying considering the delay for our bags into SFO.

AA does not offer priority baggage services for domestic flights, so want a matter of forgetting to add the tags. Even if tags were applied it would not have any affect on the actual baggage delivery at the destination.