#70 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
598 reviews
Hello and welcome to the 5th and final review in this series of Australian Flight-Reports.
We usually try to take advantage of our son's breaks from preschool to take a trip. We hadn't been back to Australia for 8 years, so winter break in February was a perfect time to leave the northern hemisphere winter for summer down under!
After a wonderful holiday, it was time to go home to Southern California. On our last weekend in Sydney, we stayed in the Rocks, which is central to much of the main attractions of Sydney within walking distance.
Day or night, there's always something going on in the Rocks with tons of bars and restaurants, outdoor markets, and street animations.
We also enjoyed a nice 3-hour lunch cruise around the harbour, which is a great way to see the city in its beautiful natural setting.
The Sydney skyline has noticeably changed since our last time here in 2016, when we also did a harbour cruise.
Reviews in this series:
On checking in on the app the evening prior to the flight, I noticed that the flight was showing delayed….by over 8 hours! Originally scheduled to depart at 11:15AM, the flight was showing due to depart at 7:30PM. There were no e-mails from AA or push notifications in the app, I just happened to see it in the app.
I went on Flightradar24 and verified that the flight was indeed running very late as the inbound flight hadn't yet departed Los Angeles. Not the end of the world, as it gave us more time to enjoy a Sunday morning and lunch in Sydney.
After taking our time with a leisurely lunch in the Rocks, we took a taxi to the airport and arrived at about 3:15PM. To my surprise, the AA flight to LAX was not showing any delay on the information screens! Once again, very poor lack of communication from American!
To make matters worse, there was not a soul to be found at the AA check-in counters. I had wrongly assumed that there would be at least one agent on duty throughout the delay, as most normal airlines would. There were at least a dozen other confused and displeased AA passengers waiting for the counters to open.
I contacted AA customer service on the phone and the agent was also surprised that there was no one at the ticket counters to assist as their information, and the AA website showed that the ticket counters should be open at this hour. The Elite desk agent made some calls and came back to tell me that the Sydney station office was unreachable. What an absolute joke!
I eventually found a knowledgeable Qantas agent who told me that AA were handled by Swissport contract agents in Sydney and that they normally didn't open ticket counters until 3 hours prior to departure, at least as far as she knew. Great, we get to sit around landside for another hour—stuck and unable to go to the lounge since we had bags to check. Fun!
The Qantas agent was correct, ground handling agents didn't start arriving at the counter until a few minutes past 4PM. By the time they had finished their team briefing, re-arranged the queue stanchions, and rolled out the signage, it was just about 3 hours to (delayed) departure. At this point there was a nice little queue of about 30 passengers waiting, most of which stated they had received no information on the delay from AA. Most either noticed in the app or were notified by their travel agents—way to go AA! Really "going for great" there!
The Swissport agents were very friendly and apologetic for the delay. The agent who checked us in said they normally have to work other flights throughout the day so there wouldn't have been anyone to stay at the counters, but was genuinely surprised that AA didn't communicate any modified ticket counter hours due to the delay. He mentioned that the counters were manned that morning for anyone who may not have know about the delay (which I assume was quite a few people given the utter lack of communication from AA).
The friendly agent advised us that we could access the Qantas First class lounge with our oneworld Emerald status and explained how to find the lounge. I already knew that of course, but I didn't want to cut him off as he was meaning to be helpful and friendly.
One of the silver linings of this delay is that the flight was departing at a quiet time for the international terminal so there was little wait at immigration and security through the First/Business class lanes.
Once airside, you have to make your way through the large duty free area before finding signage for the lounges.
After that it's a straight shot to the Qantas lounges, which are centrally located.
Once upstairs on the mezzanine level, the First Lounge is located right off the escalator and the Business Lounge is located to the left.
There is an attendant at the entrance to the First Lounge checking credentials and guiding anyone who may be mistaken to the Business lounge.
It was nice to see this beautiful living wall again after so many years–a nice familiar sight that hasn't changed.
Continuing past the living wall in the entrance lobby, an escalator leads upstairs to the First lounge where this old-style flight information flip-board display greets you coming off the escalator.
A friendly agent checked us in at the front desk. She asked if we'd been to this lounge before in case we needed some information, to which I'd responded that we had.
The First lounge is huge and light-filled with a chic and timeless design that has stood the test of time.
There are smaller flipboard flight information displays throughout the lounge.
The lounge was very quiet, with only a few other passengers in this large space making for many empty sections to explore.
There used to be a small children's play area on this far end of the lounge, but it's been gone for a few years now.
I like this quiet library corner.
There are also several private rooms like this that can be reserved. I hear these private rooms are also where VIPs and celebrities are often accommodated.
There is a spa offering complimentary treatments on the other end of the lounge, which is always nice if you have the time. If the lounge is busy, make sure to reserve a time slot as soon as you arrive.
We headed to the dining section for an afternoon snack. Staff are always very friendly and attentive here, taking time to have a little chat when it's not too busy.
There are beautiful views of the Sydney CBD and runway action from the lounge.
Starting off with some champagne. That day an Ayala was being served.
Cheers! Love that view on a beautiful day like this.
The menu, while not quite the same, was similar to that in the Qantas First lounge at LAX. Some items are found in both cities, such as the signature Salt & Pepper Squid, which I always enjoy.
Gua Bao with braised pork, chilli paste, sesame and pickles
Delicious and fresh with strong Asian flavours.
Also had to have the Salt & Pepper squid, which we shared. Very good, as always.
Spicy cumin lamb noodles with sesame, cucumber, and chilli oil.
Delicious and flavourful once again. A creative marriage of Thai flavours with a decidedly Aussie (and Kiwi) protein.
There were plenty of shower suites open for use on this quiet afternoon. It was nice to freshen up before the flight after a day of exploring Sydney in the late summer heat.
Though the AA app still showed a 6:40PM boarding time for a 7:30 departure, it was getting close to that time and the inbound aircraft hadn't yet landed.
It's always fun to watch the ballet of arrivals and departures as we wait.
6:40PM came and went and the aircraft had still not landed…but of course AA hadn't updated the times in the app. Knowing better, I knew there was no point in going to the gate for "boarding" with no aircraft. Not to mention it would take a good hour at least to deplane and clean the big 777-300ER once it did arrive.
Our aircraft didn't land until 6:47PM, getting to the gate closer to 7PM.
There she is finally!
We stayed in the lounge another 45 minutes or so, then headed to the gate.
The AA gate was on the other side of the terminal so it was a bit of a hike.
Caught a glimpse of our plane on the walk to the gate. This would end up being the only good view we got as gate 51 is in a corner with no windows looking out to the aircraft.
The gate is really tucked away in a corner…
Which isn't great when you've got a full 777-300ER with over 300 seats. As usual with AA, it was a disorganised mess with everyone crowding the gate and blocking access to the Priority lane.
Group 1 was called shortly after we arrived at the gate so we had to slalom our way through the crowd to board. Clearly most people standing there were in later boarding groups as barely anyone budged when Group 1 boarding was called.
Funny enough, the departure time was finally updated in the app right as boarding began….7:30 definitely wasn't going to happen considering it was now 8PM, hah.
8:30PM sounded a bit ambitious, but we shall see!
Along with the rest of the Priority boarding groups we ended up being held in the jetbridge as the aircraft was not quite ready… #BoardingNotBoarding
Once we were allowed to go on board, it was like a mad stampede…Hey now, settle down. We have seat assignments people…this ain't Southwest Airlines!
The first impression of the crew was that they already seemed exhausted. They were smiling and friendly, but those at the boarding doors looked out of breath while other members of the cabin crew were stressed still running around finishing up readying the cabins. I have to give it to them, they sure did a good job rushing to get everything ready considering the aircraft had only arrived an hour prior—that's a fast turnaround time for a long-haul international flight!
And the cabin was thoroughly clean! I fully expected to find some garbage, or at least crumbs, here and there from the quick-cleaning job, but nope….perfectly clean with everything in its place!
As usual, I'd reserved our seats in the last row of Business for better privacy. But on the other side of the aircraft his time, to change things up, haha.
This cabin may be over 10 years old, but the seats are still in very good shape. The Cirrus model remains a very competitive long-haul Business class product offering a good amount of space and privacy with direct access to the aisle for all passengers in a 1-2-1 configuration. The seats lay fully flat converting to 78" (2m) long beds.
Already on the seats upon boarding was the very comfortable Casper bedding set, which includes a mattress pad, full-sized feather pillow, and soft duvet cover.
The food menus and amenity kits were also pre-placed at each seat.
Along with a bottle of water and the great high-end Bang & Olufsen noise-cancelling headphones.
Over to the side are the in-flight entertainment remote control, the seat controls, a reading light, a 110v universal power outlet, and a USB port. Note that the headphone jack is actually located inside the storage cubby with the headphones, which can be a bit hard to find—you just have to feel around for it as it's facing away from the seat.
In another convenient storage area was a pair of slippers, which are only provided on a handful of premium long-haul routes.
Legroom is obviously very good with this type of spacious seat.
There are a total of 52 Business class seats on the AA Flagship 777-300ER. There is a 2-row mini-cabin just behind the First class cabin, which I would have preferred, but it's obviously a very popular area so there weren't 3 seats together already at the time we booked more several months prior.
Seats are laid out in a 1-2-1 reverse-herringbone configuration, which faces away from the aisle for better privacy vs. older aisle-facing herringbone configurations, which are rare these days.
The flight attendant working the right side of the cabin was working double-speed to get all pre-departure beverages out as quickly as possible in an effort to minimise the delay. Boarding was going surprisingly fast for a full flight…we might make that 8:30PM departure time after all!
Let's have a look at the menu as boarding wraps up. There are 4 choices of mains for both the dinner service (originally meant to be a lunch) as well as for the pre-arrival meal. More choice is always nice, but it also increases the chance that someone's choice will not be available by the time the last rows are served. Luckily, meals can be pre-ordered on the AA website or app up until 24h prior to departure (At least the main meal, the pre-arrival meal cannot be pre-ordered).
Those who are familiar with my flight reviews know I often lament the lack of diversity of proteins in British Airways business class, which I fly most often. I often specifically mention that seeing lamb or duck would be a nice change from the usual beef, chicken, or fish.
Well, wouldn't you know it, on this flight, both were on offer—way to go AA!
Pyjamas were distributed at the end of boarding. Again, an amenity that is only seen on a handful of premium routes. Unlike the flight from L.A., there were no issues finding one my size this time.
To my surprise, boarding was completed quickly and doors were even closed a few minutes before 8:30! I guess the mad Southwest-style boarding stampede really did speed things up.
We pushed back from the gate at 8:27PM.
The safety video played as we taxied to the departure runway.
Lights were dimmed for takeoff, bathing the cabin in pleasant blue mood-lighting.
Right after takeoff the map was originally showing a flight time of 13:36, but it ended up being almost an hour shorter than that.
Right after takeoff, there are informative messages on the in-seat and overhead screens.
AA's 777-300ER fleet is outfitted with Panasonic Satellite Wi-Fi, which isn't particularly fast, but speeds were improved in 2023 making it a little more usable that before.
Wi-Fi prices are on the high side, but can be a better value on these longer flights—I definitely wouldn't pay that much for an 8h transatlantic flight.
A little further into the flight, the flight time was updated accounting for favourable winds. We'd now arrive into LAX at 2:44PM instead of 3:36PM.
Checking out the in-flight entertainment, there's tons of content including hundreds of movies, TV series, documentaries, music and other audio content, games, and children's programming. Unfortunately, the system was very slow and buggy, just like on the outbound flight.
I could search the content, but for some reason, several movies I tried to watch would not play…I would just get a black screen. I advised the flight attendant when she came by for drink orders. She restarted my screen (along with several others having issues), but the same issue persisted—basically any of the new films like the new "Hunger Games" would not play. She even restarted my screen twice, but still nothing. I could play older content but not the latest movies so it sounds like there were issues when loading new content. Sigh
About 45 minutes into the flight, the in-flight service began with a hot towel and pre-meal drinks. AA usually serve warm nuts before meals on most flights over 3 hours.
Rather than offering a choice of different appetisers, there is a tapas style tray with multiple small dishes, which is an interesting and different way of doing the first course, though some may not care for it if they don't like one or several of the options.
For me everything was fine, and I especially liked the scallop, which was perfectly cooked and tender, not easy to do on a plane. It's nice to see more premium proteins like this on the menu.
Scallop with Mango Salsa
Seared scallop with mango-melon salsa and citrus vinaigrette
Cauliflower Panacotta
Savoury cauliflower panacotta, gorgonzola cheese, apple jelly, sherry glaze
Baby Cos Lettuce & Red Chicory salad
I had pre-ordered the lamb and was pleasantly surprised with the quality. It was very tasty and tender and perfect with the Moroccan-style spicy sauce. I would have preferred lamb more pink, but hey, we're on a plane, that never really happens, so this was perfectly fine. It was also a very generous portion, but that's always the case on AA. For once we have quantity and quality at the same time!
Roasted Lamb Shoulder
Gravy, pearl couscous, roasted pumpkin, baby zucchini
I was so stuffed from the meal that I asked for the smallest dessert they had, which I enjoyed with a nice Port.
Torta Caprese
Chantilly cream, drunken strawberries
I was pretty tired from the long day by this point, and since most movies I wanted to watch weren't working, I went right to sleep and ended up sleeping for most of the rest of the flight—almost 10 hours! Man, I love these long transpacific night flights for catching up on sleep, I never get this much at home!
I woke up as we were about an hour and a half from landing. The mattress pad and pyjamas make a big difference for sleep comfort and quality.
Although it was technically early afternoon in California, the service was meant to be a breakfast with the original arrival time of 6:20AM.
As with the outbound flight, the service began with a tasty fruit smoothie.
Of the 4 options for breakfast, the only 2 left by the time they got to my row were the American Breakfast and the Continental Breakfast—funny how I couldn't get the American breakfast on the outbound flight after it ran out, and now it was the opposite, as it was basically all that was left.
American Breakfast
Scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, streaky bacon, herbed tomato
Served with seasonal fruit and Greek yogurt
The pre-ordered child meal for my son was slightly healthier with chicken sausage instead of bacon and more vegetables with mushrooms and spinach.
As we began our descent, a video on U.S. customs and immigration procedures was shown.
We arrived over land to the south of our destination over Orange County.
Shortly before landing, cabin crew distributed chocolates and thanked all passengers for flying American by name, which is always a nice touch.
Even though I've lived in the US a long time, I still find it odd that US-based airlines are not required to have all window shades open for landing.
Nice views of downtown Los Angeles and the endless expanse of urbanisation that is the L.A. Basin.
Hollywood hills in the distance.
We ended up landing shortly after 2:30PM.
It was a short taxi as we parked at TBIT, which is right there off the runways.
We parked next to this Italian beauty. This is one of the rare times I've seen the ITA Airways livery in person and it was absolutely gorgeous in the SoCal sunshine.
Deplaning was quick as the jetbridge was connected immediately.
It was a relatively short walk to the CBP facilities from our centrally-located arrival gate. Once there, it was super quick with Global Entry, despite a number of kiosks being out-of-service, which seems to be common in a lot of US airports.
Even baggage delivery was surprisingly fast. Normally AA are notorious for long waits for baggage delivery, but it looks like we were arriving at a quiet time so they must've had enough available ramp staff for a quick download.
Welcome home…almost. Still have a 2h drive down to San Diego. Good thing we got a lot of sleep on the plane!
In the end, about an hour of the delay was made up in flight. Though we departed over 9 hours late from Sydney, we arrived a little over 8 hours delayed into LAX.
You must be asking yourself…"Surely AA provided some compensation for this 9 hour delay!" …. Hahahahahaha….Nope!
Unlike in the European Union, and many other countries, there are no regulations in the US requiring compensation for long flight delays, except to reimburse the value of the unused portion of a ticket in case a passenger decides not to travel because of a delay. Everything else is purely voluntary or "good will" on the part of the airline.
Whereas a smaller more customer-focused carrier like Alaska Airlines will often proactively compensate passengers for much smaller delays and inconveniences, AA does no such thing.
After writing in to express my concern over the complete lack of communication from AA during this massive delay, including the lack of staff to assist at Sydney airport, I received a lame predictable canned apology with a whopping 7,500 miles as a gesture of good will. Wow, a whole 7,500 miles, gee thanks!
In Europe, such a long delay would have warranted compensation of 600 EUR per passenger.
It's the consistent lack of care like this that has pushed me to leave AA's loyalty programme after a decade. I'd managed to maintain oneworld Emerald status most years in the past decade, and Sapphire the rest of the time (Covid happened), flying mostly in paid premium cabins. Though these two transpacific flights were quite good, delay aside, I will avoid flying AA whenever possible in the future as they are just terrible at handling irregular operations.
Although I wasn't happy about the 9 hour delay, and even less with AA's lack of communication or pro-active apology, the departure time in the evening, instead of the original time in the morning, made for a more restful flight as we were able to get a full nights' sleep with this now being an overnight flight rather than a day flight.
Despite its age, the cabin has held up well with the exception of the very buggy IFE that barely worked on this flight, hence the low rating for Entertainment. As far as the catering, the first meal was very nice with nice premium proteins, but the pre-arrival breakfast was mostly meh. I'm also not a fan of the lack of a wine list, which just feels cheap. Cabin crew were initially stressed as they were rushing to minimise the delay but turned out to be super friendly and chatty. The main FA working the aisle on my side happened to be from San Diego as well, so that was a fun coincidence.
Overall a nice flight in and of itself, but the poor handling of the massive delay left a bad taste in my mouth.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Sydney (SYD) → Los Angeles (LAX).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Qantas avec 7.8/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 13 heures et 41 minutes.
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6 Comments
The SYD lounge looks awesome, and I loved the retro departure board.
Thanks for sharing!!
BTW your reports are not to be read when hungry!
Hah, yeah it's not because of the onboard product at all...AA's seats are great and the catering has really improved over the last few years. It's just they're terrible at customer service and communication whenever anything goes wrong. At least BA and IB will keep you informed through email, SMS, and the app when there are delays, and I've often received pro-active apologies for operational issues on BA/IB. And what's sad is that neither BA or IB are particularly good at handling delays/cancellations...it's just that AA are just terrible in general. Heck, they struggle to even put up their own cabin crews in hotels when there are irregular ops, just a few days ago, it came out that AA left hundreds of cabin crew stranded with nowhere to stay after weather-related delays and cancellations...they had to find hotels for themselves or slept in the airport...that's really just awful and very indicative of what a mess the airline has become after so much cost-cutting. I will only fly AA when there are convenient nonstops to long-haul destinations like these flights, otherwise, I'll avoid them whenever possible in favour of Alaska for domestic and BA/IB and other OW carriers for everything else.
It's a beautiful lounge, and just as impressive this time as the first time years ago. Though the champagne has definitely been downgraded...aside from that, it's one of my favourite oneworld lounges.
Thanks for your comments!
Thanks again for your comments!
Quelle merveilleuse nouvelle que votre petit soit déjà à l'école maternelle ! Et bien sûr, février apporte aussi ce jour très spécial (le 15, lorsque tous les chocolats sont en promotion).
La nourriture au salon QF F semble aussi délicieuse que d'habitude. Désolé d'apprendre à propos de ce terrible retard cependant ! C'est amusant, juste avant de venir lire votre rapport, j'ai regardé une vidéo qui détaillait à quel point l'industrie aérienne mondiale est dépendante d'un système informatique terriblement obsolète. Je pensais que le nouveau Secrétaire aux Transports avait mis en place un mécanisme de compensation pour les retards et les annulations, non ?
Mes meilleurs vœux à vous et à votre famille. Merci encore pour votre F-R !
Ce qui est fou c'est que ça fait presque 3 ans qu'il y est. Il avait commencé tôt quand il avait à peine 2 ans. Il est dans une maternelle Française ici en Californie qui suit à peu près le calendrier scolaire de France (Zone A), du coup il a des vacances à des périodes différentes des enfants américains donc on profite de meilleurs prix pour partir...et surtout de beaucoup moins de monde dans les aéroports.
Oui, c'est exact, la technologie de base n'a pas vraiment évoluée depuis les années 70 ! Apres il y a d'autres couches de technologies, plus ou moins modernes, au dessus avec des résultats différents de compagnie en compagnie.
En fait oui et non, ce n'était rien d'extraordinaire et cette nouvelle règle ne rentrera pas en vigueur avant 2025. Techniquement la nouvelle règle oblige les compagnies aériennes à donner un remboursement sur place pour les parties d'un billets non-utilisés en cas de retard ou annulation si le passager décide de ne pas attendre le prochain vol et souhaite annuler son voyage avec la compagnie en question. La plupart des compagnies US offraient déjà un remboursement dans ce cas, mais tardaient souvent à le faire ou offraient un crédit/bon à la place, valable seulement quelques mois ou un an "use it or lose it". Dans un cas comme le mien avec un long retard et aucune autre option de vol, obligeant donc à prendre le vol retardé, rien n'est prévu dans la nouvelle loi. Malheureusement donc rien de révolutionnaire.
Merci encore pour vos commentaires 😊
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