AA Flight and 1st Night at Heathrow

It is always a little weird flying a different airline after being so used to flying UA. But AA First was great! We had 3 amazing flight attendants, Bob, Kevin, and Frank who each had 25+ years of service and always like to work the day flights JFK-LHR. Kevin brought us champagne right away when we boarded because he "was feeling the love today" and then all 3 provided great service all flight.

One of the coolest things about the AA hard product (i.e.: the seat) in First is that the seats swivel, so you can turn to face each other in the middle section. AA is also now the only US airline that gives out PJs so it was fun to get a pair of those.

Here is C seated across from me and you can just see the centerpiece on the left that our awesome FAs made out of napkins, a champagne flute, and a doily.

The food on AA was pretty tasty. We both had a chicken quesadilla for brunch (after eggs at every meal on Sun and an Egg McMuffin at 5am we were ready for something lunch-y even at 10 am). They served a cheese plate as a mid-flight snack and then a light meal before landing. A had a southwestern soup and C had a quinoa salad with scallops and mussels. All in all the 6.5 hour flight went by in a flash.

I know many people feel Heathrow could qualify as one of the rings of Hell so spending the first night of your honeymoon at a Heathrow airport Sheraton may not seem like a good idea. But it seemed better than spending the first night of our honeymoon on a too-short red-eye flight (6ft 6in totally flat bed notwithstanding) and we made it through immigration in no time with our fast track passes and soon made it to the hotel bar where we spent an entertaining evening talking with a Nova Scotian oil driller on his way home from a rig in the North Sea.

The next morning it was back to Heathrow for our onward flight on BA to Brussels. We were able to check in at the private First Class check in area in Terminal 5 which was quite tranquil with couches and plants and then there was only 1 person ahead of us at security (where I could leave on my hiking boots but had to take out my Kindle- interesting how every country does security a little differently).

With One World Emerald status (thanks to our United 1k status being matched to American Executive Platinum) we were able to use the BA Galleries First lounge in Terminal 5 which was one of the larger and nicer airline lounges I have been in. There was a large buffet with pork belly, short ribs, pasta salads, curry, etc. plus table service for other hot appetizers and entrees. This is also the only place we have seen serve-yourself Johnny Walker Blue Label. And there was an entire Champagne Room (with no sex in it).

Champagne Room

Scotch

Our 40 min flight to Brussels was the usual intra-Europe configuration where business class is just the first few rows of coach with the middles blocked, but there was art on the bulkhead wall and they did manage to serve a whole cold lunch service with hot towels and hot rolls. If I have to choose I prefer the big recliner seats US airlines have with no meal service but it does point out how unnecessary it is that US airlines won't serve any food in domestic first (i.e. Business) for flights less than 2-3.5 hrs (depending on carrier). On our quick flight to Brussels we could see the white cliffs of Dover as we passed over the English Chanel.

Art on the bulkhead