Greetings! We just got back from one of our most epic trips ever. We left on June 9 and flew from LAX to Naples, Italy via Chicago (here’s the flight review). From there, we took a ferry to the island of Ischia for four nights, then returned to Naples to board Sun Princess (I’m still working on that review so stay tuned. But here’s our review of Enchanted Princess from a couple of years ago). The cruise took us to Sicily, Crete, Istanbul, Mykonos and Athens. We spent a couple of nights in Athens at the Grand Hyatt.
Next, we flew to New York and stayed overnight at the TWA Hotel at JFK. The following morning, we took a Lyft to LaGuardia and flew to Nantucket (here’s our review of 76 Main, where we stayed. From there, we returned to LGA to fly to Toronto to visit Natalie’s family for three weeks. Instead of flying straight home through Chicago like we normally do, we spent four nights in the Windy City and had an incredible time.
Everything went smoothly. After we finished our last tour in Chicago on Thursday, a wicked thunderstorm rolled in and was expected to return the next afternoon. It was serious enough that American Airlines and United both issued travel waivers so passengers could change tickets for free to either extend or truncate their trip.
When I saw the notification in my reservation, I checked earlier flights than the one we were booked on just to avoid the thunderstorms. Bad weather can seriously disrupt airline operations.
I noticed that one flight a few hours before ours was the only widebody of the day and happened to be American’s newest aircraft, the Boeing 787-9. I checked the seat map and, to my surprise, there were plenty of seats available in Premium Economy (pictured above).
American mainly uses this plane for international flights, but they added ORD-LAX during the day since it flies to London at night. I actually wrote about this aircraft on June 7, the day it entered service. I went to LAX to tour it with a couple of other travel bloggers.
There’s no doubt it’s a beautiful plane, but I’d heard it had some serious issues with delays and cancellations. The AA app wouldn’t let me change online, possibly because the first leg of our trip was international or because we used miles.
The first agent I called wasn’t helpful or friendly. He told me elite status passengers (Executive Platinum or Platinum Pro) couldn’t sit in Premium Economy for free. I explained that that isn’t true for domestic flights.
Since he refused to move us and the app now showed those seats were taken, I decided to stick with our original flight. Then I told my wife Natalie and she said she’d love to get home earlier so we could run errands like going to the post office before it closed for the weekend at 4pm.
I warned her that it was a gamble. I checked the flight’s history and saw it had been canceled four times in the last seven days (see FlightAware screenshot above). But it had flown the day before and was due back from London 18 hours before our departure.
When Premium Economy seats opened again, I called back. This time I got a knowledgeable and friendly agent who switched our flight and placed us in Premium Economy. It’s like domestic first class, only better. The seats have a leg and foot rest and recline more than those on a 737 or A320.
Before confirming, I checked the morning weather forecast and saw no storms. We woke up super early for our 5:30am pickup. Traffic to ORD wasn’t bad from our hotel, 21C Museum Hotel (review coming soon) and took just 37 minutes.
Check-in was quick since I did it online and used AA’s baggage drop kiosks for the first time. We had three 68-pound bags and checked them all. Security was a breeze thanks to TSA PreCheck. There’s no CLEAR in Terminal 3, but there is in Terminal 2.
We were through security by 6:18am and went straight to the lounge since we were all hungry. I have the Citi/AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard, which gets us lounge access.
Everything looked good until 6:33am, when I got a notification that the flight was delayed by an hour and ten minutes. Not ideal but not a disaster. I checked with the agents, since the plane had arrived the day before at 3:45pm. They said it was in the hangar for mechanical reasons.
To make a long story short, the delays kept piling up. I had a bad feeling but I couldn’t switch to another flight since all that remained were middle seats, and I wasn’t about to split up from my kids (ages 5 and 8).
There were two agents at the desk. One was not friendly. I went to her first, then came back an hour later and spoke to Susan, who was much more helpful. She even called the gate, who called the hangar to check on the status of the aircraft. She said the plane was definitely flying and I trusted her.
The lounge was great. We had a comfortable seat with runway views, plenty to eat and drink and books to keep the kids occupied.
We were there so long we had both breakfast …
… and lunch.
The kids made friends in the kids club and didn’t want to leave, but the rolling delays made it hard to get any real work done.
When we finally boarded, the captain came on the PA and was very apologetic. He said we were ready to go but were still waiting on catering. They had said 10 minutes but it had already been 30. We ended up waiting another hour because, according to the captain, there wasn’t even a cup on the plane.
Meanwhile, the skies darkened and it started raining. I thought we were about to get delayed again or canceled. We eventually landed five hours and eleven minutes late at 4:12pm, missing the post office and other errands.
Still, we made it home comfortably. The seats were great, the plane wasn’t full, passengers could spread out and our bags arrived quickly.
The predominant point of this story is to give you a heads-up. If you’re considering flying on American’s new 787-9, be prepared for delays or cancellations. One of the agents even told me this aircraft is always late. I just checked the status of today’s flight and it arrived just four minutes late.
By the way, just before takeoff, the captain or purser announced that the aircraft has highly sensitive smoke detectors that will detect everything including vaping in the lavatories. I wonder if they’re the same type used in this hotel.
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