One of the joys of being a struck with wanderlust is that you often find yourself venturing out on trips just for the heck of it. I found myself doing just that this week when I left the sweltering confines of Chicago and crisscrossed the nation on my way to a long Memorial Day weekend in Honolulu, Hawaii.
My ticket was on American Airlines (AA) and due to the generous donation of a system wide upgrade (SWU) by benolaa on the travel website Milepoint.com, I was upgraded to first class all the way to Honolulu. In order to secure the lowest price on my little adventure, I had to purchase a ticket that involved flying from Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Houston Intercontinental (IAH) before flying to Los Angeles (LAX) to catch my connecting flight to Honolulu (HNL). This meant that I’d be having a meal served to me on each flight, providing me with breakfast, lunch, and dinner all on the same airline.
I figured this would be a good examination of the domestic meal offerings provided by AA in their premium cabin. Two of the flights were taken on AA’s regional carrier, American Eagle. These flights feature a First class cabin but the planes do not come equipped with ovens. This means that my breakfast and lunch were served cold. Dinner was served on an AA 763. This plane is equipped with international business class seats and the plane does have an oven. This flight provided the most elaborate meal service.
Breakfast ORD-IAH
The flight attendant, Jean-Luc, offered two options for breakfast on this early morning flight to IAH - oatmeal or a Monte Cristo sandwich. I’ve had the oatmeal before while flying with AA, and to be honest it’s actually a very solid breakfast meal offering and has good flavor. I hadn’t seen the Monte Cristo sandwich being offered previously though, so I selected this for my meal.
For a beverage I asked Jean-Luc for a hot tea with milk and sugar which was presented very quickly. I’m not much of a coffee drinker and prefer tea, however, on an airplane this causes problems because many FAs bring you the mug with the tea bag already steeping and don’t provide you anywhere to place the bag once its finished. This time I was brought my mug without a tea bag and the milk and sugar already added. I really appreciated that he thought through the process and didn’t leave me holding the (tea)bag or putting in on my tray table.
Soon enough the Monte Cristo sandwich made its appearance. As I mentioned above, American Eagle CRJ’s do not come equipped with ovens, so almost all food served in First class is chilled. Typically this isn’t an issue, as some of the best meals I’ve had on a plane were on AA’s CRJs. Unfortunately the Monte Cristo sandwich will not be added to that list.
I’m not sure if it was the temperature or the odd, mushy consistency of the entire product, but I wasn’t thrilled with this dish. The raspberry jam that accompanied the sandwich was tasty but without a warm sandwich to spread it on, seemed almost useless. Cold jelly applied to a cold sandwich just didn’t work for me. I ended up leaving the sandwich on the plate and eating the blueberry yogurt with a few slices of the melon and calling it a wrap.
Lunch IAH-LAX
I boarded this flight to discover Jean-Luc at the door welcoming passengers. Apparently I’d be taking the same CRJ from ORD onward to LAX today. Considering how friendly and thoughtful Jean-Luc had been, this certainly wasn’t a bad thing in my opinion.
The lunch meal service started with a beverage run and some warmed mixed nuts. This time I skipped the hot tea and simply ordered a ginger ale.
After snacking a bit on the mixed nuts Jean-Luc stopped by to offer me my choices for lunch today – an Italian wrap sandwich with potato soup, or a shrimp caesar salad. Concerned for my waistline and knowing full well that I had another free decadent meal being served to me on the LAX-HNL flight, I opted for the salad.
I was actually fairly impressed with the size of the shrimp served on the salad. I was expecting some puny, shriveled things when in reality they were plump and decently sized. I’m not a big fan of tomatoes, so after removing them from the dish I was able to pop the top off the dressing (always open the container facing away from your face or you risk being splashed with dressing due to the pressurization) and dig into the salad. I’ll admit, I had a bit of envy when I saw the size of the sandwich and bowl of soup being offered to other passengers, but the shrimp caesar salad was a filling portion and was quite tasty. AA deserves a big ”thumbs up” for providing fresh, crisp lettuce without any wilting or aged leaves. The Stacy’s pita chips were taste (I’d prefer a small container of humus to accompany these, though), and I skipped the dessert bar since I do not eat chocolate.
Dinner LAX-HNL
Sadly I had to bid “adieu” to Jean-Luc at LAX. My plane from LAX to HNL was going to be a 763, which meant that I was seated in the premium cabin of a plane that uses AA’s international business class seat. This is a nice touch when you’re on a domestic flight, especially considering many other flights from LAX to HNL are flown on planes that feature domestic First class recliner-style seats, which are a huge downgrade in comfort and space.
Dinner service started with printed menus on this flight:
This was soon followed by the FA (not as friendly as Jean-Luc but a solid service nonetheless) dropping off my requested Diet Pepsi and one of my favorite things that are served on AA flights - tropical mixed nuts.
Generally I prefer things that are sweet over things that are salty, so the playful mix of candied pecans, salted almonds and cashews, and dried papaya and pineapple works much better for my palette than the traditional mixed nuts served on other routes.
After the purser wandered the cabin offering free refills on the tropical mixed nuts (YES PLEASE), the salad cart was rolled out and I was asked what my choice of dressing would be – balsamic vinaigrette or miso cilantro. I debated for a second and decided to stay true to my Japanese roots and give the miso cilantro a try. While I enjoyed the flavor of the dressing, there were too many vegetables included on the salad that I didn’t particularly care to eat. I managed to eat around the offending veggies and still enjoy the salad. A hot bread basket made its way around the cabin and I asked for a Hawaiian sweet roll.
For my entrée I was a bit torn between the two options. I certainly would prefer to have the teriyaki salmon, but the menu clearly indicated that carrots would be the side dish. I’m rather fly in coach than eat carrots. While the lasagna roll didn’t appeal to me as much and would certainly be much less healthy, it did not include any pesky carrots. Taste won out over health in this instance and I asked for the lasagna roll to be brought out to me.
The flavor of this dish was fairly good, the only downside was that the sauce was watery. If you look carefully at the sauce on the side of the dish in the picture you can tell just how watery the consistency of the sauce was. It almost felt like I was eating lasagna with minestrone soup on the side. Overall though, it wasn’t too bad of a dish. I snuck a peek across the aisle to the teriyaki salmon and while the fish looked good it was, indeed, littered with disgusting carrots. I made the right choice.
Dinner meals to Hawaii typically come with an ice cream sundae, and this flight was no different. The FAs rolled the dessert cart down the aisle and when they arrived at my seat asked me what toppings I’d like on my sundae. The last time I took a flight to Hawaii on AA in First, the topping choices included a sweet coffee sauce. This is my all time favorite sundae topping on AA. Sadly, today the sweet coffee sauce was replaced with mango. I opted for the strawberry topping instead with some chopped nuts (pistachios). I also grabbed a hot coffee with cream and sugar to help ease the ice cream into my tummy.
Conclusion
Overall this was a solid day of dining with American Airlines. Airplane food is difficult to execute properly, and during these three flights AA had a predictable number of hits and misses. The size of the shrimp on my lunch salad, the tropical mixed nuts, and the ice cream sundae were the highlights of the day. If I had the choice again, I wouldn’t order the cold Monte Cristo sandwich on the American Eagle flight since the oatmeal is a much better option in my humble opinion.
Service on my Eagle flights by Jean-Luc was outstanding - a great mix of polished service and friendliness. At the end of the day, this wasn’t a bad way to arrive into Honolulu at all. A good job to American Airlines on these flights and for serving some pretty nice meals in the air.