I must preface this American Airlines flight review from Los Angeles to Honolulu with two small points. First, I was not planning to fly this sector with AA until flight cancellations meant I had no other choice.
Secondly, it has to be noted the catering shown here is no longer offered. This was the last day before the airline returned to the normal meal service. With all that being said, the Airbus A321neo and its seats are still the same.
A Little Time At LAX
I arrived into Los Angeles after a wonderful transatlantic flight with American Airlines from London. Next I spent a little time in the Flagship Lounge before heading to the gate and boarding the plane to Hawaii.
AA297 – Los Angeles to Honolulu (LAX-HNL)
12 April 2022
Airbus A321NX – N443AA
Seat: First Class 1F
Departure: 18:30 Arrival: 21:31
For a change I was one of the first on board, which allowed me to get a couple of pictures. There is usually a very short window to do this before there are passengers everywhere!
American Airlines A321NX Cabin
There are 20 first class seats over five rows and 170 in economy class, which are illustrated on the seat map here. I selected the first row as I enjoy not having anyone reclining into my space.
Flying Los Angeles to Honolulu
Once everyone was on board, we headed off for the long overwater flight to Hawaii. In the air, hot towels were offered and collected, then drinks service began. I elected to have a Champagne and the ubiquitous American Airlines hot nuts came with it.
Let’s Talk About Dessert… And Those Seats!
Having had not one but two ice cream sundaes on the transatlantic, I was looking forward to one here. However, it was not to be and instead it was a Häagen-Dazs cup. Not exactly the dessert of kings! As mentioned before, the service reverted to normal the day after I flew.
As I was tired, I decided to try to sleep, which brought up some questions. Who chose these seats? Were they offered at a discount or something? Which tester with a far flabbier posterior than me is responsible for thinking these were a good idea?
These are truly some godawful seats to sit in for the guts of six hours, let me tell you. All the smart frequent flyers know to take Hawaii flights out of places like Dallas to get long-haul aircraft and now that I’ve done this, it’s obvious why. Hopefully I’ll never have to fly in these seats ever again. Eventually we descended and landed into a balmy Honolulu on time.
Overall Thoughts
Would I fly American Airlines from Los Angeles to Honolulu again? No. I didn’t want to fly them in the first place, because I think their domestic first class on board product is somewhat below par. That’s my polite way of saying I think it’s pretty crappy.
Having to spend one to two hours in these seats is fine, but twice that or more? Never again. I usually find no issues with airline seat comfort, in fact, I barely mention it in my reviews at all. This was notably bad and won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
What do you think of the American Airlines Airbus A321NX first class seating? Should I have flown in the Main Cabin instead? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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No blankets or pillows available to sit on? I’d probably have got my sweatshirt out of my cabin bag and used that for padding if needed. Pity that the premium seats are that uncomfortable.
You can see that in the first pic laid on the seats in the plastic wrapping, so things were quite that bad. They did provide the usual amenities you would expect, it’s just an annoyingly bad seat.
Allegiant Flies the 319 and 320 NEO. No First Class. The seats throughout are very thinly padded and thick vinyl. The floors are covered with school bus rubber / outdoor flooring. All of their flights are direct and less than 2 1/2 hours so therefore tolerable. Beyond that, no way. I really like Allegiant. They do not pretend to be a Premium Carrier. I cannot imagine flying American, or any other high-cost carrier in First / Business Class on a NEO for over 2 hours. It is obvious all passengers fling American will continue to be subjected to “The American… Read more »
We probably have the equivalent of Allegiant here with Ryanair, though Ryanair is more like Southwest and has carpeted cabins. With those airlines you know what you’re getting.
Hopefully you’re flights with American Airlines will be good. I recently took them from JFK-LAX and I found the Flagship Business Class to be fine, so there are almost two different airlines. Domestic and the Flagship products. Thanks for the comment!
My dear friend, let’s call her “Grizelda” has, shall we say, an ample behind. Average height and all but just, big bottomed. She will not fly AA without her “Tushy Cushie” as she calls it. My bony butt would declare war for that many hours and I’ve done AA STL-MIA-GCM v.v. not so long ago. In E+. She’s right, and I was on the dreaded 319 on 3 of 4 flights. My sympathies Trent.
She sounds like a smart woman if she’s bringing along her “Tushy Cushie” 🙂 I would have been quite happy with one on this flight. Oh well, it was only one flight, I suppose!
“all the smart frequent fliers take flights out of dallas” why on earth would a smart frequent flier fly LAX-DFW-HNL when LAX-HNL is going to save them at least 6+ hours on that trip. Ain’t nobody adding 6 extra hours to their holiday to get a lie flat seat. Lets get real. Could you imagine if that flight was on a europe-configured narrowbody, hey at least the middle seat is blocked!
Hahahaha! Not from LAX! I should have qualified that. I was coming to and from Europe, so the wisdom is LHR-DFW-HNL for example. Or East Coast USA to HNL direct or via DFW – basically avoid the West Coast ports where narrowbody aircraft are deployed. Hey, at least in Europe you’d get a smile from the crew and some decent food 🙂
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Oh come on. They aren’t that bad. I did AA from LAX to LIH and they were fine. Great? No. Comparable to a TATL lay flat? Heck no. But I’ll take it over Y any day. Sure… fly in F from DFW to HNL in lay flats that’s great but you’ll pay for that privilege too! Probably double the cost.
And as for leg room… Don’t book the bulkhead seat if you want to stretch out. I’m sure you know that. I’m 6′ and had the 2nd row and again, it was fine.
Usually I’m able to stretch out fully in the bulkhead row (I can on British Airways, Alaska Airlines, Aer Lingus, Qantas) so I guess those couple of missing inches is what really made the difference here. I’m sure I’ll find myself on an AA flight with these seats again, so perhaps row two is the way forward to minimise the discomfort. Fair points you make there, thanks for the comment!