Atlanta, GA to Rome, Italy on American Airlines

After running the The Mayor’s 5K on the 5th Runway, we returned to the Holiday Inn Express Atlanta Airport-College Park before returning to the airport to catch our flight to Rome via Dallas.

We stopped by a small Admirals Club before boarding out flight from Atlanta to Dallas.

Coffee with nuts were served first in first class on our flight from Atlanta to Dallas.

Coffee and nuts on our ATL-DFW leg.

For a small snack, we were also given a choice of a fruit plate or a hummus plate. Katie opted for the fruit while JT chose the hummus.

Fruit plate in AA first from Atlanta to Dallas.
Hummus plate in AA first from Atlanta to Dallas.

Once in Dallas we headed to the Admirals Club for a quick meal in the Flagship Dining room.

We arrived at the gate a few minutes before boarding was scheduled to begin, but boarding was already to group 6. The business class cabin was busy and almost full when we arrived.

We had been excited to use our system-wide upgrades on the Atlanta to Rome 777-200. JT had checked that there were no backwards facing seats – since that is a tell-tale sign that a 777-200 has the terrible Zodiac seats that rock – before applying the system-wides. So imagine our surprise when we boarded and saw there had been an aircraft switch.  Instead of the excellent BE Aerospace Super Diamond seats we had the terrible Zodiac seats that are paired and hence move when the person in a paired seat moves.

We settled into our seats, and Katie immediately began having issues with her neighbor rocking the seat frequently and substantially.  She politely informed him that his frequently movements were rocking her seat, but he did not improve at all.

Menus were waiting at the seats. Katie had pre-ordered the shrimp and JT had pre-ordered the beef.

Amenity kits, headphones, and water were also waiting at each seat.

Drinks with nuts were served shortly after take-off.

Appetizers of cantaloupe with cheese and orzo pasta with pomegranate seeds and olives were served next.

Katie’s paired-seat-neighbor continued to jostle the seat frequently. Expecting a long flight of little sleep due to the inconsiderate neighbor, Katie asked the flight attendant to speak with him. She agreed to speak to him, but never said anything to him.

Katie had pre-ordered the shrimp dish – get when the flight attendant reached us for departure meal service, she claimed there was a ‘mis-count’ and no shrimp dishes were left. Katie settled for the chicken dish (which ended up being pretty good), but it was disappointing for a pre-order to not be honored.

JT pre-ordered – and received – the beef dish. The beef was red in the middle.

After finishing her main course, Katie made sure to ask for dessert when the flight attendant took away her plate. She ordered the caramel ice cream cone, which was actually the flavor of the ice cream.

After the departure meal, Katie tried to go to sleep.  But due to her neighbor rocking the seat frequently (at least every five minutes), she tossed and turned for a few hours.  JT eventually offered to switch seats with Katie. Katie then slept wonderfully for the rest of the flight (including through breakfast) until a pilot announcement that we were landing in 10 minutes abruptly woke her.

Katie sound asleep in JT’s seat.

JT ordered breakfast after he gave up sleeping in the rocking seat. Unfortunately, the greasy sausage gave him stomach problems later in the day.

The rocking seats were bad enough, but the service made the flight perhaps the worst we’ve had on American Airlines. The flight attendants botched Katie’s pre-order meal, served bread directly from a plastic bag, and failed to have any discussion with the man in row 2 after we mentioned how strongly he was rocking the paired seat. In short, they were indifferent about everything.

We both love flying, but on this flight we were happy to reach Rome and escape from the plane.

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