American Airline Economy Class Food Review: NYC to London

It was 7pm, June 21^st. T-minus 15 ½ hours to take off.

A email popped up.  “You’re flight has been cancelled.”

My heart began thumping and palms started sweating. Adrenaline kicking into high gear as my sympathetic nervous system clicked into survival mode. How funny to have the same bodily response to a flight being cancelled as being stalked by a predator. I wonder what our ancestors would make of that?

 I scanned through the American Airlines rebooking options. No non-stops. Damnit. I looked at other airlines and pinpointed a non-stop JetBlue. I dialed up Chase to see if they could switch me over. If there was a “slowest talker award”, my operator would take home gold. I put the new flight in my cart and had everything ready to go.

Another email came up. “You’ve been rebooked…”

I quickly opened it just to see if was the exact same flight, just a different flight number.

The relief was shrouded by skepticism. I checked-in, and my heart finally settled to a sensible 60 bpm once my boarding pass was sitting comfy in my Apple Wallet. I went to sleep with a 5am alarm set hoping this wouldn’t be an indicator of the travel day ahead.

Let’s dive into my journey from NYC to London, with a review of the American Airlines economy class eats along the way.

Getting to the Airport

I took the G to the E to the Air Train to terminal 8 in JFK.

The journey was as smooth as one could hope, yet it still took 80 minutes. Security was a breeze, and I made it to my gate with 50 minutes until boarding. For me, that’s perfect timing. I snagged a coffee and breakfast sandwich, and happily played the New York Times games to pass time.

Boarding began right on time, and the plane taxied out promptly at 9:30am. My last couple flights have been drama filled (read about the journey from Australia to Virginia HERE!) Making it from my front door to airplane seat without any hitches was a welcomed relief.

Meal 1: Lunch

As soon as the plane reached altitude, the flight attendants were hurrying down the aisles serving lunch. The options were vegetarian chili or chicken. I opted for the chicken. In classic American Airlines economy class fashion, it was pretty bad. (The food on my American Airlines long haul flight from the US to Australia was abysmal. Read about it HERE.)

The entree consisted of a chicken smothered in a gravy along side a pesto pea mix and grain of sorts. I wouldn’t say it was good, but it was edible. The “salad” was a tiny sprig of iceberg lettuce with some shredded carrot on top, and the “sides” consisted of crackers (which were fine) with cheddar cheese (which was bad) as well as a roll in a plastic bag.

The best part was dessert: a “cinnamon Aztec bar”. AKA, a brownie. It was fudgy and chocolatey with a crumble topping. Delicious!

Meal 2: A Light Snack

An hour before landing, the “light snack” was handed out.

It was a little tub of vanilla chobani yogurt with granola and a granola bar. No qualms here!

The plane landed ahead of schedule, and I made it through the airport, to the tube, to the hotel with zero problems.

I can’t say the American Airlines economy class food options were stellar, but the journey as a whole was as good as it gets.

From the moment I left my apartment at 6am EST to arriving at the hotel at 10:15pm BST, I encountered zero hiccups. No big lines at either airport. No crying kids sitting next to me. The flight was smooth and the plane landed early. Plus, no long waits for any of the 5 trains I had to take.

Cheers to kicking off the next adventure: a 10 day roadtrip RT London all the way up to Oban, Scotland.