If it wasn’t for the fact that I love doing airline reviews so much (and I want to try as many airlines as possible), there’s no freakin’ way that I would’ve picked American Airlines 777-300ER business class for this flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles.
Not that I’ve got a thing against American, but I can think of a lot more exotic ways to fly between Hong Kong and the United States.
But you know what? Now that I’ve done it, I can say (without a doubt) that this was one of my best long-haul international business class flights ever. No foolin’!
AA192 Hong Kong (HKG) – Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Monday, October 23, 2017 Aircraft: 777-323/ER Registration: N722AN Duration: 12 hours 14 minutes Seat: 8J (business class)
American Airlines 777-300ER side view illustration by NorebboStock.com
Our route from HKG to LAX this evening as AA192.
My full review of American Airlines 777-300ER business class from Hong Kong to Los Angeles
I arrived at terminal 1 approximately 3:30 PM to catch this 6 PM departure. I wish I had arrived earlier.
You see, HKG is a proper airport with proper airline traffic, and it’s very hard not to be mesmerized by it all without even noticing. It goes without saying that those 2 1/2 hours of wandering and planespotting went by in a flash.
Did you ever hear about the guy who lived in the CDG airport terminal from 1988 to 2006? I feel like I could totally do that here. There’s food, shelter, and plane watching galore…everything anyone would need for a happy life!
Oh wait. I was standing next to the wrong airplane in the previous pic, so I had to do again with my ride home to LAX this evening. Much better.
A better picture of this 777-300ER without any annoying travel bloggers blocking the view.
Gate 29 was ours this evening. Check out that 20 minute early departure time!
The boarding process
Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for watching this airport at work nearly caused me to miss the fact that they adjusted our departure time 20 minutes earlier than originally scheduled. This doesn’t happen often in my experience, and I’m not sure why they did it today.
I’m ready (even 20 minutes early). Sh*t, to be honest, I was ready six weeks ago.
It’s a good thing that I happened to be near the gate when they announced the boarding process. Once the initial shock wore off I was in line and one of the first on the plane. After the first class passengers of course.
All the lowly business class passengers such as myself had to wait until first class was fully onboard.
After a brief stop by security agents who seemed eager to rummage through my dirty underwear, I was released and set free down the jet bridge.
Friendly greetings for all as we board flight 192 to LAX.
Business class seat overview
My first impressions of the American Airlines 777-300ER business class product was very positive. However, I was slightly disappointed to see that the seats were very similar to what I had recently experienced in Delta One on the A330-300.
The seats weren’t exactly the same, but it was very close and I was feeling a whole heck of a lot of déjà vu as I was settling in.
Spacious enough to get up and walk around in. That’s my kind of business class seat! Yeah, I think I prefer business class on the United 777-300/ER instead, but this’ll do. This’ll do nicely.
Plenty of legroom here – I almost wished I was taller.
Oooh! Cool gadgets to play with later.
One look at this pillow and duvet sitting on the foot rest, and I knew they were going to be all over the floor on take off. Unfortunately there was no other place to put them except for the overhead bin.
Once everyone was seated, I popped my head up like a curious meerkat and snapped this pic of the cabin. Quite stylish I must say (the cabin, not me).
Here’s a wide angle view looking forward towards the bulkhead. Yep, still a good looking cabin from any angle.
And if you’re curious, here’s a picture of my view from a seated position. The privacy is quite good in these seats!
Popping my head up one last time for a quick look directly forward. OK, I’ll sit down now.
The amenity kit (and pre-departure service)
Champagne and orange juice were distributed on trays within minutes of sitting down. It was a nice complement to perusing the menu and amenity kit which were already on the seat upon arrival.
Perhaps there’s some antibacterial spray in the amenity kit that I can use to defend myself against all those germs from the guy hacking up a lung in the seat behind me…
Nothing but the finest tap water from China for me!
Every interaction from the cabin crew up to that point had been really good – not quite Korean Air A380 business class good, but close. It was a good start.
Once everybody was situated, the flight attendants began coming through the cabin and taking dinner orders even before pushing off the gate. I had totally forgot that I pre-ordered the duck entrée on the American Airlines website a month and a half ago, and was kindly reminded of that by the flight attendant when he got to my seat. Thanks, bro!
After the meal orders were complete, pajamas and newspapers were distributed. I passed on both. Hopefully this attentive service was a sign of good things to come!
The departure
Although they started the boarding process 20 minutes early, we were only five minutes ahead of schedule by the time we pushed off the gate.
Pushing off the gate under near complete darkness. Welp, there goes any opportunity for spectacular sunset departure shots. Oh well.
American Airlines 777–300ER safety card. Unfortunately, there’s nothing in here regarding how to deal with a very sick passenger behind you hacking up a lung.
What was once the dominant aircraft here at HKG, the Boeing 747 is now relegated to the cargo ramp out of sight from the main terminal.
My home for the next 12 hours. We haven’t even taken off yet and I had a feeling this was going to be very comfortable flight.
It was too dark to get any decent departure shots, but I would like to take this opportunity to show you this pic of the pillow and duvet spilling over my feet during take off. I told you this was gonna happen!
The first meal service
The attentive service by the cabin crew continued immediately after take off. I had a steaming hot towel in my hand within 10 minutes. Not only that, I hadn’t even finished wiping my hands before another flight attendant swooped in with a tablecloth in preparation for the commencement of the meal service.
“At least they aren’t ignoring me” I thought, which ended up being a bit ironic considering they never came back to pick up that hot towel.
She must work out.
The pre-dinner snack service: warm nuts and ice cold water. Hopefully the guy behind me was drinking orange juice. Come to think of it, I should’ve been drinking orange juice as well, because I needed all the vitamin C I could get in order to be sure that I wasn’t going to catch whatever it was that he had…
OK, now we’re getting to the good stuff. Here’s the cover of the American Airlines flagship business class menu.
Dinner and snack options on the left, with a welcome message on the right. I wonder if anyone actually ever reads the welcome message? I vote for using that space for more food items.
The full spread, showing breakfast options on the right. Choices choices…
Dinner was served in courses, and that duck was spectacular. Thems the facts.
I have no idea what “Halloumi” is, but it was quite tasty and a nice complement to the fresh green salad.
I can’t remember the last time I had duck, but I’m quite sure that this was some of the best that I’ve ever had.
I really need to learn how to look like I’m enjoying my meals more. Just sayin’.
The only time that I ever eat ice cream is on airplanes, so I might as well continue with tradition and take the opportunity to be a total pig.
And like I usually do on airplanes, I ate way too much. More than I would even think about eating at home. Considering what the food was like in American Airlines Flagship First Class, I should not have been surprised by this.
In-flight entertainment
The déjà vu came roaring back once I started playing with the video entertainment system. Everything from my American Airlines Flagship Business Class experience came roaring back to me. Everything (the size of the video screen, the quality of the screen itself, the user interface) was exactly the same.
I’ll tell you what, American Airlines has one of the better A/V systems in the sky. Cathay Pacific totally kicks their a** in this regard of course, but still. I like how clean and simple the user interface is.
Feeling fat and ashamed, there was nothing else to do after dinner but to sit there and watch video. Thank God for the handy remote control – bending forward to reach the touchscreen would’ve been painful with such a full belly.
Despicable Me 3 happened to be my movie of choice this evening, followed by a stand-up comedy show that wasn’t funny enough to keep me awake for more than 30 minutes after my meal tray was taken away.
The in-flight map is always fun to watch. Here we are coming up on Korea just after the meal service was complete. “Annyeonghaseyoooooo!”
The business class lavatory
Dedicating an entire section of an airline review to pictures of the lavatory means one thing: it surprised me. Really! I wasn’t expecting it to be so large. And stylish. It felt like a proper business class lavatory.
Guys. Are you seeing this sh*t? American Airlines actually knows how to build a proper lav!
I’m almost disappointed that the toilet isn’t gold plated.
When was the last time I posted three pics of an airplane bathroom in the same review? I was quite liking this one.
Seat and cabin comfort
I was able to sleep really well despite the cabin being illuminated by mood lighting. They never turned the lights off, which is OK by me because I quite like the ambience of a dimly lit cabin for sleeping.
Adjacent to the lavatory was this self-serve snack bar, which was very similar to the one inAir China 777-300ER business class. I’m glad more and more airlines are starting to do this.
Not everyone was asleep tonight. There were some night owls over there on the other side.
Several hours later, I turned on the video screen for a quick location check. Still a long way to go this point.
A quick peek out the window revealed the very early stages of a beautiful sunrise out there over the North Pacific. I was dead tired at this point, but getting any more sleep now was hopeless. The photographer in me was starting to get excited about nabbing pics of that big engine right outside my window all lit up by a beautiful sunrise.
Slowly but surely it’s getting lighter out there!
Well, I was hoping to see the inside of the engine lit up by that low morning sun, but this is as good as it got. Check out that wing flex though…
In range of the continental US now. Almost home! A little breakfast first would be nice first…
The second meal service
The lights were turned on with an hour and 40 minutes of flying time remaining. There was no smooth transition into the breakfast service unfortunately.
Rise and shine! They just flipped the lights on, so that means breakfast must not be very far behind. Either that or somebody’s got a really fat finger.
There were no hot towels and tablecloth placements this time. The flight attendant simply showed up at my seat with the tray, set it down, and walked off. Ok then.
Breakfast is served.
I sat there in silence picking at my lukewarm but decently tasty breakfast…which wasn’t technically even breakfast considering that it was late afternoon in Los Angeles at this point. A sandwich or some soup would’ve been more appropriate I think.
Don’t bother me. I’m not awake quite yet.
The descent and arrival into LAX
Flight attendants came through the aisles with hot towels about 10 minutes before we began our descent into LAX, and from there I converted back into AvGeek mode and had my nose to the window all the way in to Los Angeles.
On the descent into the LA basin.
An awesome view of LAX in it’s entirety. I remember my days of being a hardcore aviation photographer, standing up on Imperial Hill watching transpacific flights like this on approach into LA from out over the ocean. I’ve got a lot of great memories from LAX over the years!
Making the turn back to LAX in order to get lined up for our 24R approach.
This may look like a self-portrait of a enthusiastic traveler feeling the anticipation of arrival, but the reality was that I was concentrating 100% on the GoPro in my other hand trying to get that ultimate airplane selfie. Getting content for my airline reviews is annoying sometimes.
That’s downtown LA in the distance.
Welcome to Los Angeles!
Pulling off the active runway, but this flight isn’t over yet. It’s gonna be a long trek over to the other side of the airport.
Some familiar tails out there now. Almost there…
That’s it. American Airlines flight 192 from Hong Kong has arrived.
The good news is that I didn’t feel overly exhausted as I was walking off the plane and into the terminal. Hong Kong to Los Angeles is a very long flight, and I knew for a fact that I would’ve been completely wrecked if I was stuck back in economy class for the past 13 hours.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. A lot more than I thought I would.
I could easily deal with an 8hr layover at ICN if it meant flying OZ. My favorite airline! Anyway, yes, AA is extremely competitive on the LAX-HKG route and it’s well worth the miles if you can find availability. Good luck!
Nice review, convinced me to try and use my miles for my planned hkt/hkg/lax/san trip next oct, now to wait out the days till booking opens up.
I used oz last month for the same route, the 8hr lay over in icn is a killer
I could easily deal with an 8hr layover at ICN if it meant flying OZ. My favorite airline! Anyway, yes, AA is extremely competitive on the LAX-HKG route and it’s well worth the miles if you can find availability. Good luck!
the 8 hr sounded ok till it was a reality
too early in the a.m. to go to near by places.
American Airlines Boeing 787 start fly to Hong Kong in 2022, aa192 take 777-300er change to 787-9 aa132 take 777-300er change to 787-8.
Looking forward to the change!
I am booked on this flight last day of oct (2019) hows chances they still hand out pajamas ? ( my kids like them)
It’s hard to tell with airlines cutting amenities left and right. Even if they don’t hand them out, definitely still ask about it – you never know.