Quick Look at my Flight from Miami to London and an Amenity Kit Giveaway

Last week, I decided to blow through some miles and take an overnight trip to London.  In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best use of miles but I took that trip for two reasons.  The first reason is to prepare for additional international travel.  I’ve only held a passport for six-ish months now and I’m taking baby steps in terms of using my passport for international travel.  The second reason for this trip was to earn some SPG Starpoints.

I did get to spend nine hours in American Airlines’ retrofitted Boeing 777-200.  Rather than write up a detailed report on an otherwise underwhelming flight, I’ve decided to just go ahead and share a few photos.  Additionally, at the end of this mini-trip report, there’s some info on a small amenity kit giveaway.


American Airlines’ Boeing 777 Retrofit, Business Class

After a pretty awful three and a half (maybe four) hours of sleep at the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, it was off to Heathrow’s Terminal 3.  I checked in for my flight, proceeded through Fast Track security, and after a quick visit to the lounge, I boarded the nine-hour flight.

In-Flight Cuisine

The flight consisted of two meal services.  The first was lunch and the second was a snack service.  The meal service reminded me a lot of the service I received on Virgin Atlantic last September.  I’d even say this meal service was better than the one I received on Virgin Atlantic.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how tender and flavorful the lamb chops were.  The snack service was a little underwhelming, but, all-in-all, the meal service was great.

The Seat

American sends their retrofitted Boeing 777s between Miami and London.  Almost every Boeing 777-200 in the new configuration features American’s Zodiac business class seat.  I’m a pretty big fan of the Zodiac seat as it provided a lot of privacy and is fairly comfortable.  The seat does have a few flaws, most noteworthy is the seat’s narrowness.  However, narrowness aside, I slept maybe an hour and enjoyed every second in seat 7L.

My favorite part of American’s retrofitted Boeing 777 (as well as their Boeing 777-300) is the onboard bar.  On the retrofitted 777-200, the onboard bar is located between the two business class cabins while on the 777-300, it’s located between first class and business class.  The onboard bar is an unstaffed snack bar essentially, typically featuring an assortment of soft drinks, snacks, desserts, sandwiches, and occasionally self-serve wine.

On my flight from London to Miami, I found the onboard bar spread to be comparable to the setup on my flight between Miami and Los Angeles last summer.  There was a nice assortment of snacks including desserts and sandwiches but unfortunately, you had to act fast as the snacks went fast.  Additionally, the only self-serve beverage was water.  However, the pre-packaged snacks on this flight were heftier than on the Miami to Los Angeles flight.

Overall, the flight didn’t seem remotely close to nine hours.  The flight crew was phenomenal and made sure each passenger was comfortable throughout their flight.  Drinks were never empty and flight attendants did their best to provide additional amenities and snacks throughout the flight.

I’m pretty sure American Airlines stole Virgin America’s mood-lighting….


American Airlines’ Amenity Kit Giveaway

Upon returning home, I only just now realized the insane amount of American Airlines’ amenity kits I’ve collected over the last two years.  I’ve flown a lot of transcontinental flights in First and Business Class and each flight, I’ve taken the amenity kit home.  Additionally, I’ve begun to fly internationally and I always nab the amenity kit off the flight.  I’m currently in possession of maybe nine of so Cole Haan amenity kits as well as ten or so heritage collection amenity kits.

I’ve decided to raffle off both an American Airlines’ Cole Haan Internationa Business Class amenity kit as well as a transcontinental first class heritage amenity kit featuring the America West branding.  Both kits are of course, unused and the America West kit hasn’t been opened.  (I had to open the Cole Haan kit to get it through security)

Here’s how this giveaway will work.   I sent a tweet that has pictures of both amenity kits.  Please retweet this tweet to enter.  Additionally, if you follow me on Twitter, that will count for a second entry. If you don’t have Twitter, unfortunately, you will not be able to enter.

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