Flew American Airlines from SYD to LAX, hard product is fine, no complaints up front, but the service is so average.

Flew American Airlines from SYD to LAX, hard product is fine, no complaints up front, but the service is so average. Crew didn't know items on the menu, attention to detail lacks, tend to be too familiar with touching shoulders calling you "hon", amateur hour in my view, really disliked the service, hate the fact that you are paying a lot of money and still get served pre-take off drinks in plastic - they say so you can hang onto drink during take-off, well that's a stupid excuse, food was average, check-in not up to par. They need to learn about the premium product. Out of 5 they get 2.5 in my view.

Why do some airlines serve plastic drinkware and others real glass for pretake off drinks. Plastic cheapens the entire Business/First experience.

crosscourt,

AA is great, when the price is right.

On markets across the Atlantic it works fine. On markets across the Pacific, where they don't compete directly with CX it's also passable.

But at premium prices ex-AU then the value proposition is squrely in the "That is just dumb" bucket. Add to that a code-sharing arrangement with QF, then it upgrades it to the "WTF were you thinking?" category.

It depends on priorities.

For some people, Business Class is all about the seating and being able to get a nice sleep. AA wins hands down there because like QF they have PJs, but they also have direct aisle access and more privacy.

For soft product, QF nukes them from orbit.

You get QF's lounges at both ends though, so that helps even out AA's lacking soft product - eat edible food in QF lounges before you depart.

Ceteris paribus I'd probably take AA ex-SYD myself, and get myself stuffed and hammered in the lounge before getting on the plane. But as soon as QF updates their A380 biz class, AA's product loses its only real advantage.

That said, AA improved their service on the SYD leg in order to come to some sort of parity with QF. One wonders if AA is going to roll this out over all of their international routes.

Out of interest, which cabin were you in, crosscourt? First or Business?