American Eagle LAX Expansion Trip Report April 5, 2011

[Carfield]

Compared to my other two reports on RJ and SQ, this trip report is definitely a bit less interesting, but I think “American Eagle” deserves some recognition on the brand new CRJ-700s, and it is an interesting expansion project, despite its ranking as the US worst regional airline with the most mishandled bag and second most delayed flights. I hope their West Coast expansion will be more successful and all four flights have pretty good flight attendants, and at least all of them are willing to serve a pre-takeoff beverage in first class, unlike their colleagues working Mainline. To be honest, the better weather in the LA basin area should improve the on time statistics, and these new CRJ-700s are much better than flying those aging Boeing 757s and MD-80s, and I sincerely hope American Eagle will take good care of them.

Here is the list of all the inaugural flights.

April 5, 2011
AA 3809 PHX-LAX Lv0625 Arr0750 Canadair CRJ-700 N522AE
AA 3799 LAX-OKC Lv0910 Arr1400 Canadair CRJ-700 N544EA
AA 3798 OKC-LAX Lv1440 Arr1545 Canadair CRJ-700 N544EA

Full photo link to all the photos I took:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...8QbNHDNy5bqTLo

Booking:
This ticket was quite a bargain and I got a $250 all-in ticket roundtrip from Phoenix to Oklahoma City via Los Angeles same day return. My upgrades were clear all at the 100 hours mark, which was quite unusual but also said something about the loading. First class was not full in all four segments.

AA 3809
Inaugural from Phoenix to Los Angeles


It was an early morning for me, and I arrived at Terminal Three at 5:10am, and the airport was very busy this morning. American Airlines counters were not busy and there was no one using the kiosks at the Premium line. I was able to get all four boarding passes for the day, and I proceeded to South Concourse. While the Delta TSA lines were extremely busy, the American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines side was very quiet. I was able to get through TSA within ten minutes and the priority line was provided at PHX.

Check-in:


Gate 2 seems to be the future regional jet/CRJ-700 gate at PHX for now.
N522AE, a CRJ-700 built at 2004, was resting here at Phoenix.



Celebration was limited but at least there was some mentioning of the inaugural flight. Granola bars and orange juice were available for passengers this morning! Balloons were later placed at the gate!



Boarding began at 6:17am, as the loading was very light this morning. I was the only one in first class, and the F/A Bobbi immediately welcomed me to switch to any seat I like and provided me a pre-takeoff beverage, which was a pleasant surprise. I was in plenty of mainline flights that F/A did not bother with pre-takeoff beverage even when catering was done and there was a light load. An inaugural gift bag was also passed out to each departing passengers, which was basically a bunch of California planners and magazines – nothing airline specific, so I just took the AA bag home and a California map. I left the magazines on board.




Boarding was completed shortly after, as our load was one F and twenty-four Y. Nonetheless, our departure was slightly delayed, as there was paperwork issue. PHX was a new regional jet station and the ground staffs were not too familiar with usage of the special RJ jet way and various procedures. Adding to the trouble, the printer on the RJ was not working this morning, so the PHX staff ran back and forth with the correct paperwork. Finally at 6:54am, door was closed, and we pushed back three minutes later. We took off at 7:07am and flying time was a short fifty-seven minutes at 28,000feet.

Leaving Phoenix



Bobbi immediately offered me a choice of beverage after takeoff and I got a cup of tea with some Biscoff cookies.
I was pleasantly surprised that real coffee mugs were used and the biscoff cookies went well with the hot drink.

[Carfield]

Seating:
American Eagle has just recently introduced first class seating, and the first class seats are quite comfortable. I like the 1-2/three abreast seating arrangement, and the seats are pretty nice with adjustable headrest, tray table in the armrest and beverage console. Row one was my favorite because it had a bit of extra legroom and the window was aligned with the seat. Row 2 and 3 were fine but the window was misaligned.

Here are some of the first class cabin pictures:




Seat 1D – my seat on the first flight:


Headrest:


Seat Console for tray table:



Overhead panel:


Seatback pockets:


Bulkhead wall:


Descent began soon at 7:39am and seat belt sign was turned on at 7:45am. Bobbi than came around with mints, and we landed on a rather foggy LAX R/W25L at 8:04am and parked at gate 44J in the American Eagle’s remote terminal at 8:11am.

AA 3799 Inaugural Los Angeles to Oklahoma City Wills Roger World International Airport

Disappointingly there was no sense of celebration at LAX. It was possible due to the morning hours and the remote terminal was not too busy. The remote terminal was a bare structure with some seats and for some reasons, 3G receptions are rather poor, and there are just a beverage and sandwich shops. If you need real food, you need to take the bus to the main terminal. With my late arrival, I decided to stay at the main terminal, and my aircraft for the OKC flight, N544EA, was already parked at gate 44E. A quick search at the rzjet came out with a surprise. N544EA was a brand new plane delivered to the Eagle. It was delivered on April 1, 2011, and the plane was three days old featuring the Next Generation cabin. You can compare the cabin pictures later. First Class cabin was not that much different, except real overhead bin was on top of the A seats – well not bins, but small closets for some really small items, instead of nothing on the older cabin. Economy Class features brand new seats with new design and the overhead bin was a bit nicer. Overhead panel was updated, as well as most of the galley equipment.

[Carfield]

Boarding at LAX:
First sight of N544EA


Boarding began at 8:44am, and Patrick was the first class F/A for this segment. The loading was 4 F and 60%Y, as it was quite acceptable for the inaugural and a Tuesday flight. Patrick offered us a glass of water as pre-takeoff beverage:


Patrick was quite busy in the first class galley area, as there were plenty of items missing. He had to request items like hot towel and more sodas (and less juices). I think April 5 was the first day with CRJ-700 serving the LAX market and AE’s first class catering is a new item for most of the catering staff. Thankfully, Patrick was a Chicago-based F/A and was familiar with the new service. Anyway, door was closed early at 9:06am, and everyone was quite excited as the aircraft still has the new car smell, and the pilot welcomed everyone on this three days old plane. We pushed back at 9:08am and took off from R/W25R at 9:15am. Flying time was two hours and twenty minutes, and we cruised at 37,000feet initially and then 39,000feet.

American Eagle has recently introduced meal services in first class and of course, they are different from mainline operation, as there is no oven onboard these CRJ-700s. Only cold meals are served and no warm bread/cookie or whatsoever. They also adhere to a stricter meal window than mainline operation. On flights like LAX-DFW, which is a similar flight length as LAX-OKC/IAH, mainline flights offer meals on pretty all flights from 5am till 8pm, except late night and redye flights. However, American Eagle only serves meals at mealtimes, so my return OKC-LAX flight at 2:40pm features no meal service. Nonetheless I am surprised at 9:10am flight yields a lunch service, rather than the continental breakfast.

Mixed nuts were served first with choice of beverage. Ramekins were not used because they could not locate them before the flight. Patrick asked for it but the catering at the remote terminal could not find them.


Lunch order was then taken, and there were a choice of Corn beef sandwich or Chicken salad. Hot towelette was then serve – not real hot towels, but those nasty towelette stuff. Hot towels are nice but if you are going to serve them, please use the real things. We are not asking for the thick hot towels used by top airlines, but at a minimum, please give us the normal US airline hot towel.

I chose the grilled chicken salad with crumbled feta cheese, strawberries and fat free raspberry vinaigrette dressing, which was very nice. It came with the usual Pita chips with roasted red pepper hummus, Lavosh crackers, and double crunchy brownie. It was a nice lunch and better than some of the nasty hot meals on mainline flights.





Beverage was refreshed after lunch service, and all the crews were quite happy to refresh beverages and service was actually pleasant, if not better than my recent American Airlines mainline flight.

Descent began at 1:15pm and Patrick passed out some mints. We landed on R/W17R at 1:35pm and parked at gate 4 at 1:38pm.

The nice Oklahoma City Wills Roger Main Terminal


Gate 4 at OKC:

[Carfield]

American Airlines flight 3798
Inaugural Oklahoma City Wills Roger World International Airport to Los Angeles
AA 3798 OKC-LAX Lv1440 Arr1545 Canadair CRJ-700 N544EA


Interior of OKC







Flight information display



The atmosphere at OKC was much better, and the gate agent, Bryan, wore a tuxedo to celebrate the inaugural. AA also launches DFW flight on April 5, and there was some local media coverage earlier in the day. The staffs were more enthusiastic and the passengers were in cheerful mode. You can note all the balloons and different decoration at the gate. There was even a cake to celebrate the inaugural flight, and for a non-meal flight, the cake was welcoming. There was a small trivia pursuit on the gate, but the gift was a snicker bar. Nothing like Jetblue or Virgin America, but at least there was something!

[Carfield]

Another sign


N544EA at Gate 4




Balloons



Cake to celebrate the inaugural flight



Nearby EMB-145RJ to ORD


Boarding time:
Prom night gate


Another plane shot:


Boarding commenced at 2:30pm with a fresh crew welcoming us aboard. Rebeca and Tony were our flight attendants on today’s flight over to LA. Pre-takeoff beverage was offered again and Rebeca was another cherry American Eagle flight attendant. She was definitely extraordinarily friendly and spent most of the flight time chatting with fellow passengers. It made the three hours flight went by quickly. She was one of the best F/As in the whole AA system. We chatted everything from the flight to various CRJ and other regional jet types, as well as her travels with family. Door was closed on time at 2:42pm and we pushed back two minutes later. It was relatively quiet here at OKC, and slowly taxied towards R/W17R.

I spotted this interesting plane next to R/W17R


We took off at 2:53pm and our flying time was two hours and forty-one minutes with a cruising attitude of 36,000feet, and later we descend to 30,000feet, as there were a few chops across the desert and mountain ranges.

[Carfield]

Leaving OKC


We were given another inaugural gift bag, which was much nicer. It had many stuff from AA credit union and my favorite was a Oklahoma City notepad.






Unlike other mainline DFW-LAX on afternoon non-meal flight, no meal service was offered. Mixed nuts were also not loaded, so we were given the usual premium snack mix. Beverage was served, and Rebeca kept refilling all our beverages throughout the flight. Definitely a top-notch performance!



Next Generation Cabin:
Here is just a detail photo selection of the new CRJ-700 next generation. In general, the cabin was very nice. Of course I still think the EMB-170/175/190/195 had a better cabin with better headroom.

First class Cabin

[Carfield]

Newer Overhead bin at solo “A” seats in first class


New overhead bin


Economy Class Cabin




Regular economy class seats


Seats on last row



Best Y seats, but note the narrower seat width
Bulkhead economy seats



Emergency exit row


New Overhead panel

[Carfield]

New light


New Window shade



My favorite seat row – Row 1 with aligned window and better legroom


However there was one thing that I really dislike on the CRJ-700. Only one lavatory was available and you have to go all the way to the back, and on a full flight, it is hard to find a place to stand and wait for your turn. If airlines are going to use these planes on flights above two and a half hours, please use the larger CRJ-900 or EMB-175/190/195 or install another lavatory in front. There is another curious announcement too. Oxygen mask and generators are removed from the aft lavatory due to TSA directive. Anyone know why! Maybe TSA worries someone will remove the oxygen tank and creates some attacks. I am just curious why TSA is so worried about oxygen tank on a bathroom on a CRJ.

Bathroom picture:





Arrival:
Descent soon began at 5:09pm and seat belt sign was turned on at 5:20pm. Mints were passed out again, and we landed on R/W25L at 3:34pm, and parked at gate 44E at 3:40pm. It was another nice flight, and the aircraft would continue on to San Diego before the next assignment in the evening.

Plane at LAX

[Carfield]

Next Generation designation – if you want to see if your CR7 has the new plane, just check here!


At my arrival, there were balloons in the LAX remote terminal, as well as free coffee! I assume all the celebration focuses on the Shanghai flight.




In conclusion, the new American Airlines expansion at LAX is an interesting experience. In compared to my Delta’s CR7 flight from LAX to PHX the day before and after, AE is comparable, except Delta Connection uses the main terminal and no need for bus ride, and Delta offers the snack basket service with more variety of snacks on this short flight. I think this expansion may work and I wish AA all the best of the luck. This trip report will end my trio report this weekend, and my next report will not be out till May.

Thanks for reading!
Carfield

[KeithMEL]

Thanks for the write up Carfield! These new American Eagle cabins do look a lot better than what I remember from flying LAX-LAS with Eagle almost 3 years ago.

[sqdazz]

Nice report - will have to try a CRJ with F on my next AA run, they look quite pleasant.. thanks!

[DeltaFlyingProf]

Carfield, thanks for your report!
I have been using AA for a little less than 2 years and frankly though I heard many reports about AE being so badly rated, I prefer them to DL's regional carrier BY FAR!
They are not perfect and I do hate planes without F. But the aircraft you took with F service is fine and I usually find the flight attendants to be quite nice on them.
In addition I love the Oneworld Emerald status rule that gives me access to the first class lounge in LAX no matter what class I fly. That is the one benefit that Oneworld has over the other alliances! You do not get it if your status is with AA but thanks to my BA gold, I use all and any of the AA lounges and I must admit I am addicted to that benefit!

Being based in DEN, I am glad that after 5 month of Y only service they have brought back F service on LAX-DEN-LAX!!!

PS: If anyone flies AA in the US and wants to access an AA lounge, email me to see if my schedule matches yours!

[hsf]

Love the little flap of fabric! So cute.

[Kyo]

Thanks for the TR!