Flight Review - American Airlines Transcon not on a Transcon Plane - LA to Charlotte in 'First'

The things I do for you, dear viewer.... Instead of flying back to the East Coast on a lie-flat equipped A321, I chose to travel on a "regular" A321 to show you the differences in the experience. And those differences are stark!!! It's by no means a bad experience - hey its "First Class" after all, but it isn't quite the same experience....

⭐ #flightreview #AmericanAirlines #MattsPlanet ⭐

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⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1.39 - LAX Terminal 4
6:06 - The Plane and Seat
8:27 - The Service
11:03 - Conclusions

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. This video may not be copied or reproduced without written permission.

[gordonyuen]

a glass of Piper-Heidsieck at 6am? you're hardcore😂

[okeesmokee]

The U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets minimum standards for aircraft operations and safety, it does not have a requirement about shades. Instead, it leaves the decision to the discretion of individual airlines to enforce it—and most don’t. On the flights I have been on, the only shade that must be open is for seat 1A, so the gate agents can look in. Great video as always.

[matthewgordon-banks]

This cheered me up & made me smile, after a 3hrs 'on ground' delay for missile avoiding re-routing to the Mid East overnight; only helped by being in BA First & avoiding the choldren going on hols.
It's your little 'details' that make Matt's Travel unique - 'disability section' films indeed!

[steve-marsh]

Great video as always, but sounds like I’ll also need to be revisiting Matt’s Oceans soon? :)

[Joe-lbqn]

I wondered how you got into these lounges and now i know. I missed that one going in the opposite direction as i had a layover the night before, so even going business didnt do it, but going back the other way, LA-ORD-LHR in one go, because the final leg was business international all on the same ticket, that did get me entrance at LA and ORD.

[rebornitsybitsy]

Love watching these types of trip review videos, I wish they were a bit longer, 12 minutes seems a bit short.

[dr_jonathan_whelan]

10:08 I wonder if the confusion on distance is a nautical miles vs miles thing ? Although 1900nm is about 2185 miles so still doesn’t quite balance up. 😂

Glad you got the 140 tp though :)

Great video as always.

[thevirgintraveller]

I've flown on 3 Delta Airlines flights over the past week, 1 long haul international, 2 short haul, on all 3 flights the crew allowed the window shades to be pulled down for take off and landing.

[markuskuhl]

Very good review - as usual. Thank you a lot!

[red.guevarra]

And that Flagship Lounge at LAX is also...OK! Those 2 separated lounges used to be 1 big Admirals Club and now ended up as 2 smallish lounges. Speaking of the tier point chart, on my 1hr First Class flight on AA under 500mi, BAEC gave me less Avios BUT more tier points, than what was officially listed for the appropriate class and booking code under AA. I let it go because it won't count anyway, as this was on 27 March. Just wanted to test the waters! Also my IB Express flight on 10 Apr didn't count toward Avios nor tiers. Ugh!

[mikewarde]

Great video, I am doing a non transcon redeye, SFO - MIA in Nov as part of a TPR. It will be an "experience", your video succinct and objective as ever.

[ianp]

Matt I always when possible walk round to the Qantas lounge at LAX as I think the AA Flagship lounge leaves so much to be desired compared to Chicago and Dallas Flagship lounges where a chef will cook you a good omelette etc Happy travels and keep up the good work Ian

[rtb]

Informative as ever. I am very much enjoying this series - though I will join the crowd asking for the videos to be a shade longer. Hoping once the series gets back to London you'll have a 'there' and a 'back' video. To me, tier point runs are both fascinating to plan and fascinating to dissect on return - especially if you've had any irregular operations along the way.

Now that you've flown AA domestic first - do you prefer the way the US handles domestic business class seating or the way the EU handles business class seating?

[BillyKeegan-yi]

I have 4 of these flights in November as part of a 9 day TP run 1520 tier points in total to keep Gold

[barbarawissinger]

No lounge access for domestic first-class. Very useful info, as I was considering booking first class SAT to DC as a treat. Cattle class will do
& I’ll use the savings for a better hotel.

Nice to see you looking well.

[kindastolen]

As others have mentioned the US airlines don't care about window shades, but weirder to me is that when I was landing at Heathrow on United, they didn't care either - I would have thought the rules of the country you were in would have been what counted.

[RandomLifeProductions]

I like this seat, I think the leg room is good, trying to get my head round around the online entertainment system was a pain but I got there in the end..

[andrycruz]

I thought that a domestic first class with AA would get you lounge access as long as there was a long haul business /first leg on the same ticket and taking place on the same day as the domestic flight. Isn’t that right? I want to know as I’ll find myself in that situation later this year.

[olly]

Cheers Matt, an enjoyable, albeit brief, introduction to AA top shelf product, though I would not have been bowled over by it myself. As for the availing oneself of the "beverages", I would have to say that although it was 6am... 'ish there, the old adage of it being "5pm somewhere in the world" would come into play, as you have got the expensive tricket allowing you the priviledge. Chin chin 😉

[wilfbanfield]

yes, that would be perfectly good for me on a day time flight. I'm interested to know what your routing was to DUB...