Monday 5 February 2007

American Airlines to Argentina

The American Airlines 777 has seating 2-3-2 in business class. The flight is very full. The seat adjustments fooled me for a bit, cos it's old style without electric motors to move things! Individual video screens swing out of the seat arm. They supply an excellent Bose QC3 headphone. Even if you don't want to listen, the reduction in engine noise when wearing them is impressive. The cabin service is friendly, the food excellent. We pushed back about on time at 10:10 p.m. but spent about 45 minutes working our way to the runway, because of the number of departures around this time. It was already dark when we left but they served a good dinner before subduing the lights and expecting us all to go to sleep. I watched a couple of episodes of CSI:New York. Incidentally, whilst I was in New York, I was surprised to see major poster advertising all over the subway for CSI:NY.

It's quite a long flight - well over 10 hours, made longer by our delayed take-off. Some people deliberately take night flights to economise on hotel bills. For me, it's more convenience of timing, plus maximising daylight time at the places I visit. They served a good breakfast about 90 minutes before landing at the surprisingly small international airport in Buenos Aires. Then we stand for ten minutes or so waiting for another flight to leave the stand. Arrival formalities are surprisingly brief, my bag turns up after about 10 minutes, so I'm soon in the terminal, where I find the lady from the tour company and the driver for the 30 minute drive into the city.

I've liked American Airlines before and this trip was also good.