Review: American Flagship Business 777 to Madrid Was A Delight

This trip report examines American Flagship Business 777 to Madrid service on a red eye. In recent years, I’ve flown American Airlines many times domestically within USA I had steered clear of their long-haul flights due to less-than-pleasant past experiences.

My last time was a trip to Rio De Janeiro back in 2014. It was a 767 that looked like it came straight from the 80s. While the seat was surprisingly comfortable, the outdated entertainment, lacklustre food, and subpar service left me with lasting reservations about AA.

Fast forward 9 years and it felt like time I gave American a try again. This presented itself as my return from New York, I selected this American Airlines Flagship Business on the 777 instead of Iberia or British Airways options. I’m aware American launched a semi-decent hard product since 2014, but otherwise curious to discover what awaited me !

Flight Particulars

Route: New York JFK – Madrid
Flight No:  AA94
Date: 03.10.2023
Departure Time: 19:02
Flight Duration: Blocked 7 hours 33 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200 ER
Seats/Suite: 8L

Check-In

I arrived in JFK a full 3 hours prior to flight even though I was all checked-in with a mobile boarding pass.

British Airways has now officially moved into the newly renovated and expanded Terminal 8, and the check in areas for both airlines were not very busy with many kiosks available to speed you up too.

I made a straight dash for security.. where it looked like there might be a log jam..

As I moved a little further in, the line separates for those flying Business or First Class. Therefore I was actually through in less than 10 minutes !

Lounge In JFK

With British Airways and American Airlines consolidating their operation out of Terminal 8, they have invested heavily in their new shared lounges.

There are now 3 premium lounges to chose from for Premium OneWorld flyers out of JFK ( depending on class of service/ status). I visited the rebranded Greenwich Lounge reviewed here. It was an impressive offering!

I will save the Chelsea & Soho Lounges for future trips!

American Flagship Business Boarding

I proceeded to my gates not long after my flight was supposed to start boarding into a busy gate area.

While not immediately apparent, boarding was organised with the standard groups that American Airlines has.

When it become clear we will not be boarding so soon, I had a wonder and tried to grab a photo of our actual aircraft..

This was the best photo I could get. About 10 minutes later advance boarding began for those with mobility issues and younger children.

And 20 minutes later, they were ready to board Business Class passengers…

I had a friendly welcome at the door, with a quick pointer to my selected seat.

American Flagship Business 777 To Madrid

I turned right into an unassuming cabin. American 777-200 series Flagship Business cabin is split into 2 cabins. With a bigger cabin of 21 seats between door 1 & 2 and then a smaller 16 seat cabin right behind door 2..

I intentionally chose the second cabin hoping it would be much quieter in this short night flight where I wanted to maximise my rest. While the cabin itself is not anything special to look at, there are many things going for it that makes this more than a competitive product today.

I chose 8L, as my preferred option, 10L was already taken right at the back..

If the seat looks familiar it is because these are based of Collins Aerospace Super Diamond reverse herringbone seat shell. Now rather common amongst many airlines including British Airways, AeroMexico, WestJet etc

Aesthetically it was all rather too grey and dull for my liking but that does not take anything away from the substance of the product.

One of my immediate impressions was thinking how huge the IFE screen was, the high definition screen would not have looked out of place in many First Class products just a few years ago !

Not only that, the entire seat just felt much more spacious than other airlines version of it. American also offers Safran Cirrus II based Business seats on 777-300ER (used by airlines such as Cathay Pacific ) which some may prefer more. I personally prefer this.

This is the newest American product currently offered on all 787s and 777-200.

There are plenty of storage options here. The larger of the two side compartments houses the IFE controller, and charging ports..

And the other smaller one is still big enough to store small books/phones/wallets/other personal essentials.

Then there is also another storage compartment on the other side by the side of the side, where a water bottle was placed..

Already placed on my seat was an oddly triangular shaped Shinola Amenity Kit. It was a nice leather pouch in deep blue but I found the shape rather odd if you have very small carry-ons as it takes more space !

The contents were solid, with good quality eye shades, flights socks with lip balm and hand/body lotion by local New York brand Radio Bombay.  There was also a dental kit and a pen.

The crew were quick with the welcome drinks rounds. The choices were either water, orange juice or sparkling wine. I opted for the juice, as I had a few drinks in lounge already..

During boarding I could not help staring out at the beautiful glow of the sun setting on New York..

Despite the later than expected boarding, our aircraft pushed back from the gates bang on time !

We took off with a full mini business cabin, and almost full bigger cabin.

American Flagship Business Service

During boarding I had a chance to peak through the onboard menu and was suitably impressed. American Airlines partners with the James Beard Foundation to offer an elevated dining experience curated by it’s award winning chefs.

There was a very notable omission however, Flagship Business product no longer serves real champagne! On first thought this may seem a rather disappointing cut back, considering how expensive Business Class tickets are these days !

Not more than 20 minutes after take-off the crew quickly sprang into action starting with hot towels to refresh again..

Post take off drinks followed by dinner preferences.

The drink of choice therefore was to be the Ferrari Brut, an Italian sparking wine !

The whole champagne vs sparking wine is a debate that very much depends who you ask and the circumstances around it. Personally, I think if you are going to serve a very cheap Champagne anyway (which American did before August 2023, as does United Polaris) then sometimes a good sparkling wine can be a very good alternative, if not even preferable !

The sparkling wine was fine. It was neither offensive nor something I would request if other choices were available.

I could not help but wonder why American would choose to serve an Italian sparkling wine? when it could have very well served an American sparkling wine? This surely would be a more justified branding choice to counter criticism for the champagne cut?

Moving onto the menu, I was struggling to choose my main, as I would have happily chosen 3 of them! Here’s the offering below:

Within 40 minutes of take-off, my tables were set and starters were served..

The the pictures may not suggest it, the Latin shaved beef was simply superb! It was fresh, full of flavour with a nice quick to the guacamole and was complimented well with the green salad.

For the main, I opted for the Macadamia Crusted Sea Bass with a citrus cream sauce, quinoa, toasted orzo and green beans ..

As you can see the dish was very nicely presented. It was also excellent. The toasted orzo is unusual. It’s not something I’ve had before but I found it a great alternative to pasta or potatoes.

If this was a longer flight or during daytime, I would have opted to have the cheese course, but I wanted to get some rest so opted just for a dessert.

The dessert choice had to be the traditional ice cream sundae !

I requested mine with all the topping and it was just fantastic.

Express Meal Service Choice

With this being a short night flight, American also offers an express meal where everything is served in one go, with a salad, main, cheese or sweet dessert.

I was glad to see this as an option and noted a few passengers did order this indeed.

Mid-Flight Snacks

What was perhaps even more impressive was for such a short night flight, American was offering a fully stocked selection of snacks should you want to grab a bite outside of meal hours!

It was a very elegant galley with the blue mood lights and flight maps on display !

American Flagship Entertainment & WiFi

Already placed in my seat was a Bang & Olufsen noise cancelling headphone..

I found them to be one of the most comfortable headphones out there and better quality than most First Class headphones.

With respect to the entertainment, the selection looked quite good. There was a decent range of movies, series and documentaries.

With it being a short night flight, I barely had time to check out anything else after 1 film, I was just happy to have the flight map on..

I should note though WiFi was available on the aircraft, there was no free connection at all, which is a real shame, since United offers free messaging even to Economy passengers!

Flagship Business Restrooms

3 restrooms were available for Business Class passengers on this 777, with one at the front and two in the middle of the cabins.

I only used the restroom once mid-flight after dinner service and found it to be well kept and clean..

There was not much amenities besides hand wash. Which is not really differentiating from regular economy ones. That said they looked nicer !

American Flagship Business Bed

With less than 4 hours to go after dinner, I quickly brushed my teeth and made my bed.

American provides solid bedding in Flagship Business with the Casper sleep set. You have a full sized decent pillow, mattress topper and a good quality duvet.

Somehow I forgot to take a picture when I made the bed though..

I found the bed to be fairly comfortable, and fell asleep within half hour.

The foot rest felt very spacious, and I did not notice any issues with the tray table getting in way (as I sleep on side and back)

With 15 minutes to landing I got rudely awoken from deep sleep as we were approaching Madrid ! That is precisely one of the reasons I hate these short East Coast to Europe night flights.

Tbh I wasn’t expecting to fall into sound sleep either for 3 hours and though I felt groggy for an little bit, it was nothing a coffee could not fix in Madrid.

Breakfast Service

I missed the breakfast service, as getting some sleep was my priority, so unfortunately I could not comment on this occasion.

The menu suggests it would be a very standard offering as with many airlines, so perhaps nothing to ring home about?

Overall Thoughts

I went into this with very little expectations and had a hunch it might be a very average Business Class experience. As I got off the aircraft and grabbed my first coffee in Iberia lounge, I thought of the different ways American managed to pull off a very solid offering.

The hard product, while nothing sexy at the core is great. I found the seat to feel rather spacious and comfortable. All the amenities on offer from hot towels to branded toiletries, excellent headphone right down to the bedding was superb. If this was a 10/11 hour flight, I probably would have slept for 7/8 of them and tried the breakfast.

In terms of service, I found the New York based crew to be very friendly and proactive. They genuinely seemed to care and enjoy their jobs, which undeniably shows.

American is due to release new Business Class Suites in 2024 which will be known as Flagship Business Suites. This looks great and should improve the product in many ways, though perhaps space wise it will not add anything at all. The product is based off Adient’s Ascent this is the product Qatar Airways has also selected for their mini-QSuites.

I’ve just flown this product with Qatar Airways couple of weeks ago. I can testify it will not be any kind of leap in comfort over this variant of American Flagship Business, besides being more stylish and having a more modern technology.