On my return flight from SFO I'm connecting via ORD and I'm flying on a 763 for 8 whole hours ORD-LHR, from looking it up it seems like a pretty dire aircraft compared to the rest of the AA fleet with no power, WiFi or even AVOD IFE (Which is especially annoying since the flight to ORD from SFO has all three!). Has anyone experienced the AA 763 in economy? Would be very interested to see if the overhead screens are any use/if the seats are comfortable.
Hi Alex - welcome to InsideFlyer! I don't have personal experience so can't say for certain, but I do remember my brother mentioning he got stuck on one of those last year - and he wasn't exactly complimentary unfortunately... The phrase, "worst flight ever" was thrown around, but he was travelling with his 5 year old and they didn't get through security in the US until very late at night, so that might have had something to do with it too!
Thanks, not exactly comforting information! I posted a similar question on the InsideFlyer.com forums and didn't get much complimentary feedback either, here's hoping the flight gets cancelled and I'm rebooked on SAS
The seats are okay but as noted above there is no individual IFE. My advice would be to take a book/ipad. It's also fairly likely they will show the same movie(s) as on the flight from SFO to ORD! Most people will eat before they get on the plane too. AA catering leaves a lot to be desired. The 767 is a nice aircraft and it's a shame AA haven't upgraded their economy section.
Yep - ORD to MAN last tuesday. "Worst flight ever" might be a bit strong, but certainly disappointing for long haul booked with BA. No films/tv to watch, tired seating and not great food. I had my trusty kindle so could entertain myself for most of the time but if you're not a bookworm then you'll be crawling the walls.
It's an interesting point you make. I have said before that I now very much feel there is such a divergence in Business Class products (I'm thinking BA, Lufthansa etc versus the Middle East 3, in particular) that you're basically looking at a whole level up in comparison. The same can often be applied to Economy too - not least with many airlines updating only certain aeroplanes, and others (Middle East 3 again) spending a fortune on lifting long haul Economy beyond the mere cattle class. What's the solution? It's not like you can give each airline a hotel-style star rating (for what that's worth, anyway) as the quality of Business/Economy will vary enormously even within individual airlines. Certainly, from my perspective at least, I no longer simply look at booking in "Economy" or "Business Class", but rather which airline it's with, what the plane is, whether it's been updated etc etc. It's getting pretty complicated, although sticking to certain trusty operators (Etihad being my very favourite), you can be guaranteed a quality product, in any cabin. Of course, the use of codeshare partners makes the situation even more confusing.
Absolutely Tom - I suppose it doesn't matter so much on relatively short day-time trips (I'm fine with just a seat and a book), but anything longer than about 8 hours or overnight and the plane you get (let alone the airline) makes a huge difference. Even Etihad aren't perfect- I got 'stuck' with the Jetihad experience last year (in Business on an ~8 hour flight so it was hardly a disaster), and wasn't impressed at all (service was good actually, but apart from that it wasn't great).
