America Airlines is currently the largest world airline and a member of the onward alliance. There are nearly 1K aircraft in its fleet, as I flew on an American Eagle plane which is a regional carrier for American. This flight left from a tiny commuter terminal at LAX which was really hard to find and a long way from Terminal 4, the main hub for American Airlines.
Seat: As you can see there is not a lot of leg room in First Class. My knees were nearly hitting the end. There was no acknowledgment of my oneworld Emerald Status on check-in or during the flight. I also had no access to the American Airlines lounge despite my Emerald status, being that I am an Alaska Airlines status holder.
The seat is a similar seat to the rest of the coach class on this small plane. First class is a 1-2 configuration so I was sitting by myself in 1A. I had originally booked a seat in 4A but there was really no difference in room between the two seats. There are seat chargers on the seat but they did not work properly.
First Class Vs. Coach: First class has a meal compared to coach where you have to pay for drinks and meals. I found the meal quality to be incredible poor despite this, as was the drinks list which you will see. American Airlines advertises more legroom and room than the coach cabin but you don’t really see this as a passenger.
I decided to look through the in flight entertainment which was only provided by the American Airlines app. If you do not have the app then obviously you have zero entertainment.
I was impressed how poor the American Airlines drink list was. The wine options were horrible. They did have some basic spirits selection but not having a basic, palatable wine selection is really poor. Flying the same day in Alaska Airlines First Class there was at least some better wine choices. I would have liked to enjoy a glass of afternoon wine but that quite simply was not an option.
As I admired the very basic seat I saw that I was surrounded in filth. The seat itself was incredibly unclean and needed a deep cleaning desperately. Food was trapped all over the corners of the seat.
Service: Service was very slow. Some of the staff were trying to make the customers happy while others seemed like they could care less about providing service. This was consistent with what passengers experience in other US carriers. It was absolutely no surprise to me.
They did disappear for a long time in the galley and were chatting for much of the trip. It took a long time for my water glass to be refilled. Overall, I would give the service a D+, slightly ahead of Spirit Airlines.
Food: Food quality was incredibly poor. The wrap they had was essentially inedible and dry. I had a bite and then decided against any further torment. The bean salad pictured was mushy and also inedible. The plastic cutlery was poor and they just dropped the box on my lap.
I did not expect a great meal, but a hot meal on a 3 hour flight would be a nice idea. I was impressed how poor the overall food quality was in that nicely-wrapped box. It was like receiving a gift-wrapped box of half-eaten dog food for Christmas.
Bottom Line: Overall, this was a really unimpressive flight. I was somewhat looking forward to trying First Class on an American Airlines domestic flight, but the experience fell short in essentially every category. Some of the flight attendants were nice and seemed to be somewhat trying, while others sat in the galley and chatted the entire time. Food quality was incredibly poor. There was filth surrounding me everywhere on the seat. Unfortunately, these experiences seem to be endemic to essentially all US airline carriers were attitude, training, preparation and overall quality misses the mark by a landslide.