Background
I often fly from New York to the Los Angeles area, and one of the products I fly the most on is the American Airlines A321 Transcon in both Flagship Business and Flagship First. I’ve written more extensive reviews previously on this blog, but this time, I’m going to do more of a summary “Takeoff Points” style post with highlights from my most recent AA Flagship First February 2025 experience. I flew outbound from New York (JFK) to Santa Ana (SNA) and flew inbound a week later from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK).
If you want to see some of my past reviews styled more like a product review, here are some of my recent posts below:
- AA Flagship First Review Los Angeles-New York (September 2024)
- AA Flagship Business Review Orange County to New York (April 2024)
In short, I still really enjoy the Flagship First product, particularly the access to the New York First Class Chelsea Lounge. However, I wasn’t particularly pleased with how American handled our 7 hour delay on the outbound leg.
Takeoff Points: American Flagship First February 2025 Edition
Chelsea Lounge Breakfast in New York (JFK) is Great.
I normally visit the Chelsea Lounge in the afternoon or evenings, but I hadn’t tried the lounge during the breakfast hours until this trip since my flight was leaving at 8:30 am. I was excited to try the breakfast offering and was impressed by the menu. For breakfast, I ordered the Eggs Benedict, and it did not disappoint. The fruit plate was pretty good, and it felt like I was dining at a fancy hotel.
After landing on my return flight, I had dinner at the Chelsea Lounge, and it was quite good as well.
Rotating Champagne at Chelsea Lounge: One Day Dom Perignon, the other Laurent Pierre Grand Siècle.
On the day of my outbound flight, they had Dom Perignon, which I like. The day of my return flight,t the lounge had the Laurent Pierre Grand Siècle, which I don’t like the taste of (but that’s a personal preference). I have been to the lounge before when they have served Krug, which I also enjoy. I have yet to try the Cristal champagne, but I heard it’s also on rotation.
The aircraft interiors were in relatively good condition.
My Flagship First February 2025 experience with regards to the cabin condition was solid. There have been many reports of how tired the A321T cabins are, as American isn’t really putting in any effort to renovate the premium cabins on these aircraft since they are going to be removed and converted to more high-density economy seating once the new A321XLRs are delivered.
I’m not sure if they try harder with the Flagship First cabin, as my last Flagship business class flight had a cracked in-flight entertainment remote. But both my flights this time around were in solid condition, though the IFE always had to buffer after watching a movie or a show for a while. And I’ve learned to pause the show you’re watching, rewind a bit, and press play to solve the issue. However, no one should have to go through that trouble.
Food offerings onboard were decent. The pasta dish was nasty, though the Lo-Mein was amazing! And of course, American has the best Ice Cream Sundae.
On the outbound, I ordered the Beef Bolognese, and it was quite bad. The sauce tasted a bit odd, and the pasta was all glued together. It’s almost as if Chef Boyardee would do better.
On the inbound, I pre-ordered the Lo-Mein Noodles, and it was amazing! The tofu was great, and the noodles delightful. This is my new favorite Flagship First main dish!
For those curious, below are the main entrée offerings for lunch on the LAX-JFK leg. We didn’t get printed menus for the JFK-SNA leg due to our aircraft replacement.
- Harvest Vegetable and Grain Bowl: Roasted garlic dressing, roasted vegetables, pickled onions, lentil salad, green beans, roasted shiitake mushrooms. Grilled salmon is available upon request.
- Cumin-Rubbed Pan-Roasted Chicken: Free-range, organic bone-in chicken breast with Zinfandel grape sauce and creamy polenta
- Beef Filet: creamy mushroom sauce, sautéed mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, honey-glazed carrots
- Lo Mein Noodles: Served with teriyaki-glazed trumpet mushrooms, fried tofu, and sautéed peppers.
The bedding was Comfortable.
Despite having Casper bedding on this product for many years, I enjoyed the updated bedding. American now collaborates with inflight textile company John Horsfall to develop bedding made with recycled materials. It contains a duvet, a cool-touch dual-sided pillow, and a crepe weave blanket.
The delay in New York could have been handled better.
On my outbound from New York (JFK) to Santa Ana (SNA), we initially left on time at 8:29 am and were stuck on the runway due to an engine issue. It couldn’t be fixed, so we went back to the gate. Some maintenance staff came on board to try to troubleshoot, but they couldn’t get it fixed, so they let us deplane. At this point, they delayed our flight to 11 am and said they weren’t sure if they would fix it or send a replacement. Then, they got us a replacement plane (yay!) and delayed our departure to 1:57 pm. Up to this point, I didn’t really have any qualms, as these things happen.
Replacement Plane
I started to get annoyed that our new flight was supposed to leave at 1:57 pm, but the replacement plane from Charlotte was scheduled to get to JFK at 1:35 pm. Is that enough time to get catering and everything all prepped and ready to go? So all of us are waiting at the gate, and 2 pm comes along and then it was delayed to 2:30 pm, then 3:15 pm since they said there was a catering issue.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just delay it from the start, as it seemed so unlikely that they would be able to load catering and everything in 22 minutes. Anyway, I went back to the lounge to rest a bit, and then the app and flight boards said there was an additional delay to 4 pm. It’s all right with me since I’m in the lounge anyway at this point.
Boarding Time Gets Pushed Up
I constantly checked the app and flight monitors in the lounge for updates, and around 3:20 pm, I decided to check with the lounge attendants, and they said “Oh my, the flights already boarding; you need to go!” The app still showed 4 pm, and the flight monitors in the lounge & airport did not reflect that the flight was boarding. I walked very briskly to the gate, and there it said that the departure was pushed up to 3:40 pm. As I got to the gate, the gate agents were exclaiming, “Final call, final call!”. I told one of them that the app should be updated with the new departure time, and she barked back, saying, “You think that’s my job?”. Just wow…
As I stepped on the plane, the app was finally updated to a 3:40 pm departure time, when it was already 3:30 pm. Talk about last minute. There were a few late stragglers like me that boarded, and the flight attendants closed the aircraft doors at 3:35 pm. Make sure to track all delayed flights diligently because they can move up the departure time on a delay.
A week later, another delay
On my inbound flight back to New York, I flew LAX-JFK and it was on-time. I was curious how the SNA-JFK flight was doing that day, so I checked online. I’m so glad I didn’t book the SNA-JFK flight because it was delayed 5 hours. Plus, it got to New York at 2:30 am AND was downgraded to a Boeing 737 MAX without Flagship First or Flagship Business. Yikes!
The Verdict
Overall, my Flagship First February 2025 experience was enjoyable. Flying on AA Flagship First still remains one of the nicest ways to fly coast to coast. The access to the Chelsea Lounge at JFK is the major highlight. We will see how long it is before the A321T gets phased out as the A321XLRs enter into service. However, I do wonder a bit about the reliability of the A321T aircraft as the SNA-JFK route had issues on both my outbound and on the inbound.
Did you fly on Flagship First last month? How was your Flagship First February 2025 experience? Comment below!
Cheers,
Ty
Have any questions? Comment below or email me at takeofftotravel@gmail.com. I’ve also started working with a travel agency, Fora Travel, and can assist in booking hotel stays or planning trips. You can also view all my other posts here! Thanks for stopping by!
