Round The World and other travels

Well, well, well. After a miserable experience on the ORD-ANC flight, I'd been ready to write off AA as a dysfunctional outfit. I had not been looking forward to this short overnighter even when I booked it  and had much more recently been half-dreading it. Guess what? It was a different experience altogether. How so? Let's start with first impressions again.

First of all, I was warmly welcomed aboard and one of the FAs assigned to the F cabin made a point of having a friendly chat with each of the F passengers as they settled down in their seats. While the cabin appearance was still on the elderly side, it was clean. Not spotless, mark you, but reasonably and acceptably clean. We were offered pre-departure drinks : water or orange juice pre-poured, but with the FA reminding everybody that they could have whatever they wanted. There was even time for the drinks to be topped up. I already had that all-important feel-good factor

For my flight up to Alaska, I'd expected to be awake all the time and had selected 1A to remove the 'recline risk' otherwise presented by the passenger in front. On this flight, I was hoping to get some sleep and had selected 5A to remove the risk of having a restless, fidgety bundle of energy behind me. On this occasion, the tactic seemed to be working well - I so hate having my back constantly prodded by clumsy passengers, almost invariably male, seated behind me. Another factor on this flight was - dare I say it? - that my fellow passengers in the F cabin were a much more polite and reserved bunch.

The doors were closed at 2140 and we pushed back five minutes ahead of schedule at 2142. We taxied past a variety of parked 747 and MD11 freighters to one of several runways that appeared to be in use. Take-off was at 2151 and seconds later we were passing over a beautifully tranquil looking inlet. The Captain announced the expected flight time as 5 hrs 44 mins, which seemed quite short. As we climbed higher, we were soon passing (very close!) over snow-capped peaks in the rapidly fading daylight.

The cabin service started with drinks and warmed nuts and, fairly typically, I had Champagne. My little napkin contained a written personal greeting from the two FAs! The meal was to be a cold supper, rather than dinner, which was probably a good thing given the lateness of the hour. (I had already advanced my watch by three hours to Central time ) The choice was turkey croissant or chicken & pasta salad and I opted for the latter, sticking with Champagne and ice water to help wash it down. The tray also contained a few crackers and some cheese, and a pack of cookies.

To my absolute astonishment, I slept for nearly four hours once the meal things had been cleared away! Not a particularly deep sleep, but who's complaining? It reminded me of travelling in BA's World Traveller Plus (Premier Economy) cabin. I wasn't even aware of a bottle of water being placed beside me. Some orange juice was distributed with less than half an hour to run. We touched down in DFW at 0636 and made it to our stand by 0642.