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AA733 Flight Report | ||
American flies out of Terminal 3 at Heathrow. The check-in area is very utilitarian and nothing to be amazed about.
Arriving a little less than 2 hours before departure, it was a fairly painless process to print out my boarding pass and luggage tag at the kiosk, then off to the bag drop. Heathrow's bag tags are well-designed so I just need to fold it and it'll stick automatically on the bulls-eye red dots in the back. There's no need to peel anything off to stick and find a garbage bin to throw out the extra bits. I didn't have to wait in line for a kiosk and barely had to for the bag drop machine. Heading upstairs, there was a short wait for security but with the new machines where I didn't have to take out my electronics, processing was seamless. I emerged into a very busy shopping mall with lots of fancy upscale retailers and restaurants, including a conveyer belt sushi restaurant.
The typical drug and bookstores were available with meal deal sandwiches, including a few discounted ones close to expiry going for a pound only. UK airports tend to sell very useful stuff in case you forgot, like your daily toiletries and even sunscreen if you're heading to Spain.
With an allocated gate 30, I headed to the distant pier and it was a very long walk as most travelators were down. The 3 gates in that vicinity were departing at around the same time with flights to Hong Kong and Miami next door, so it was quite busy. Of course, they didn't design this part of the airport with enough seats for 3 widebodies.
Browsing around the gate area, there were a few vending machines and a kiosk selling books.
A mass of people clumped around the gate but I was able to see where the line was going as the various groups were called. I was surprised it didn't end up to be like an Air Canada-style chaotic mess and settled into my seat with plenty of time to spare for the 12:15pm departure.
I picked a window seat at the back of the 777-200 where the 3 seats become 2. It wasn't a spacious seat as a huge part of the armrest cushion from the seat in front extended out back, intruding into my legroom, and the seat looked a bit low. The headrest couldn't rise so I couldn't sit too comfortably given my height. A blanket and pillow were already placed on my seat, although there were some residual food chunks on the blanket corner. I wonder what happens to them after each flight - do they get washed or just repacked into another plastic bag? We pushed back slightly behind schedule at 12:29pm and made a long taxi across the airport to the eastern end for take-off. As we inched towards our position, I got a nice view of the Concorde parked there.
We took off towards the west at 12:53pm and the initial climb was fairly bumpy. We quickly reached 36,000 feet and the skies below were shrouded in clouds. They cleared as we sailed across the Atlantic. I didn't hear a pilot announcement but I was settling in and checking out the IFE. With a flight time of just under 8 hours, this transatlantic crossing in Economy seems bearable.
Each seat has its own PTV and the IFE system can be managed by a very responsive touch screen. There is quite a lot of selection available with many episodes of Big Bang Theory. The map has many viewing angles to my satisfaction.
I picked the chicken dish for lunch, which came with a wet rice, bread roll, some sort of fruity jam cake, and small salad. Presentation-wise, it didn't look appetizing but it tasted fine. After, they came around asking us to lower our shades, which seemed a bit odd given it's an entirely daytime flight and we were flying during the afternoon.
The crew also placed a snack basket outside the rear galley with pretzels, mint chocolate cookies, and more. The lavatory lines never were long and the interiors were kept clean.
A few hours later, the crew came around offering ice-cream and pro-actively asked if I wanted to top up my water.
About 5 hours in, we reached Newfoundland and I opened my shade every now and then to check out our progress. The weather was quite good over the Maritimes.
Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest province.
As we progressed towards New York, I kept my eyes out for Manhattan's skyline but the haze made spotting the city quite difficult even though we flew fairly near it to the west.
I also couldn't really see Philadelphia shortly after leaving New York.
By now, the crew were offering wraps for a snack, which was just a big pack of flour and just a shade of filling. At least the can of ginger ale was normal sized, not the really small ones the other airlines offer. For a flight of just 8 hours, it's nice they offer a full meal and a snack, which is a fairly international norm.
Meanwhile, there was a good mix of development and nature below as we made the final stretch.
Unfortunately, we would land from the south and had to loop around east of the city, so my left window could not see Charlotte's downtown skyline on final approach.
We touched down at 3:54pm, slightly ahead of schedule. Checking the schedules the day before, it didn't seem there are that many international flights into Charlotte. But we were a fairly full widebody after all, and the immigration hall had a huge line that snaked around multiple times. To make matters worse, the building smelled old and dirty so it wasn't the most pleasant wait. The line did move steadily but it took me almost 40 minutes to get through. Exiting into the baggage hall, there were no signs on which belt to pick up my bags. I had to listen to the audio announcement to find my way, and by then, the belt had stopped rotating and my bag was already there. It's a long walk to the actual exit itself but I was hopeful to make the 5:04pm bus. The Sprinter Route 5 runs every half hour and takes about half hour to reach Uptown. Charlotte's airport is quite close to the city.
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