American Airlines 787 Flagship Suite Review: Chicago to London

By
Greg The Frequent Miler
-
11

On Saturday evening, my wife and I flew AA business class from Detroit to Chicago to London. Lucky for us, the route from Chicago to London now features AA’s brand new Flagship Suites. We paid only 45,000 Alaska miles — making this one of the best sweet-spot deals (or should I say suite-spot deals?) for flights to Europe (oddly, if you book direct from Chicago to London it prices at 55,000 miles, but with a stop in Chicago it frequently prices at 45,000 miles).

AA 787-9 Flagship Suite Bottom Line Review

While service on this flight was mediocre, the hard product — the suite — was very good. It wasn’t ultra-luxurious like Qatar Qsuites or Starlux, but it is a step or two ahead of anything currently offered by Delta or United. That said, I was a big fan of JetBlue Mint when I flew it from London to Boston and slightly prefer that over AA’s Flagship Suite (yes, even now that JetBlue locks their suite doors open).

My favorite feature of AA’s Flagship Suite was the fact that the seat is designed to be used in a chaise longue position (as shown in the picture above). With a pillow behind my back, this was comfortable and made the suite feel more spacious. I also loved various well thought out little touches like the slippers holder, multiple snack/drink trays, and a useful trinket tray. My only complaint is that the suite didn’t offer any storage space for a backpack or shoes. This doesn’t appear to be a problem, though, if you’re lucky enough to snag a bulkhead seat (a preferred suite), which offers tons of storage.

Would I fly it again? Absolutely! I’m looking forward to it!

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Comfortable cloth seats
  • Cabin kept comfortably cool overnight
  • Chaise longue seating
  • Two separate side trays for snacks and drinks (one illuminated with cool AA logo)
  • Slippers + slipper holder
  • Excellent seat position controls
  • Suite door slides easily open and shut
  • Wide armrest raises and lowers and includes a small storage space
  • Meal tray table well designed and attractive
  • Trinket tray very useful
  • Good power options: USB-C, USB-A, AC
  • Comfortable headrest pillow
  • Sconce light with touch control
  • Quality headphones (when working — my wife’s first pair didn’t work at all, but when we asked a flight attendant, he brought another pair right away)

Cons

  • Limited storage (except for bulkhead preferred seating which has plenty)
  • Amenity kit very basic
  • Wireless charger useless for many (this is a common problem, not unique to AA)
  • Mediocre service

Image Gallery

When I first arrived at my seat, I found slippers on top of a bag holding a pillow and comforter. An amenity kit and menu were on the side shelf. And, headphones were in the amenity cabinet. The trinket tray (on the right, with a red bottom) was surprisingly useful: it was big enough to hold my passport, reading glasses, and a few other small items that I wanted to keep close by.

My seat was directly behind the bulkhead seats which are called “Flagship Suite Preferred” seats. It’s hard to see in this photo, but these suites offer far more storage than the regular suites. Additionally, the Preferred suites come with a mattress pad, throw blanket, memory foam lumbar pillow, pajamas and an improved amenity kit.
The armrest is easily raised or lowered to your preferred position. And it includes a bit of storage space which was too small for my shoes, but a good size for storing a water bottle.
I love this: Under the side table is a slot that is designed to hold slippers.
Tray tables everywhere. In addition to the primary tray table underneath the entertainment screen, there’s a small snack/drink table on each side. This is perfect for when you want to use the tray table for a laptop but still need a place for drinks or snacks.
The side console includes a light-up snack/drink table, a wireless phone charger (which didn’t work with the shape of our iPhones), a trinket tray (shown in the closed position), a handheld entertainment controller, power outlets, and an amenity cabinet (shown in the closed position) which includes a mirror and headphones. The seat controls are lit-up beneath the trinket tray. I found the controls to be very well designed so that it was easy to get the seat into exactly the position I desired.
Here you can see that I had slid my suite door into the closed position
Primary tray table. This faux marble table easily slides out and pivots to the shown orientation.
Breakfast was surprisingly good.
My favorite feature of the AA Flagship Suite is that the seat is designed to optionally be used in a chaise longue position. You lie the seat all the way flat and then the headrest becomes a lumbar support cushion and a separate seatbelt is available for this position. Once I stuck a pillow behind my back, I found this position to be very comfortable. Additionally, it makes the suite feel more spacious since you’re backed up, well away from the entertainment screen.
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C J

I just flew from CLT to LHR on the 777-200 very cramped and not as pleasant as your 787

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C J

Think Chicago to London is 55,000 not 45,000

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Greg The Frequent Miler

Right. Thanks. I’ve updated that section. If you fly direct from Chicago it prices at 55K but if you fly from other cities through Chicago, it often prices at 45K. I flew DTW-ORD-LHR

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UnitedEF

Where do you find the time? JetBlue challenge and a flight to AA. Or is the AA flight a positioning flight in order to sell the Mrs. on the B6 challenge?

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Greg The Frequent Miler

I haven’t committed to doing the JetBlue challenge. When I considered it, I thought I was going to change this flight to a JetBlue flight to London, but when my wife and I backed out of doing the challenge together, I decided to keep this flight.

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Tony

thanks for the review !! Any pics of the Amenity kit ? just curious why you called it very basic . not a Leather pouch?

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NK3

From the one picture, it looks like it may be from the new Brandon Blackwood collaboration. I doubt that these are products in Greg’s wheelhouse. Or most AA passengers. For whatever reason, the First Class and Premium Economy kits are more interesting, with the business class ones having their flair in the lining of the kit.

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Greg The Frequent Miler

Sorry, no I didn’t take any photos of the contents. You can see the black amenity kit in the second photo in the image gallery above. It contained a dental kit, eyeshades, pholk hand & body lotion, and Buttah lip balm.

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Grant

Great review, Greg! So you normally store your passport in the side / trinket compartments? I would be worried I would leave it behind :/

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Greg The Frequent Miler

Yes, I do, but I always now check first to make sure there aren’t any gaps in the compartment (see this post for the reason why: https://frequentmiler.com/bangkok-bound-thai-1st-class-and-my-uh-oh-moment/)

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Ian

Americans (the group of people, not the airline) are some of the worst at providing service. They never get to see it, and if you don’t see it, it’s hard to emulate it.

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