Review of American Airlines flight from New York to London in Economy

【 Counting Sheep 】

Hello and welcome to another Flight Report (FR)!

This is the final FR from my trip around the world in September/October 2025. After a month of travelling around Thailand and flying a 15-hour flight across the Pacific and North America, it's finally time to head back home to London. This route between New York and London is by far the busiest transatlantic route. Including Newark, it gets almost triple the number of flights to the next busiest, which is Los Angeles to London. It's pretty crazy how many direct flights there are between the two cities.

With so much competition on this route, airlines will often match the lowest price offered by their competitors, allowing passengers to choose based on their preference/loyalty. In my case, I picked American Airlines for… literally no reason - if you look at my profile on this site, you'll quickly see that I have zero loyalty (I fly so many airlines/alliances I will never get any reasonable status/points on one). It was essentially a coin toss on who I fancied on the day of booking. 

The funny part is that I actually booked on British Airways (using their codeshare). It actually cost me a little more than direct with AA. Now, before you look at me like I'm crazy, there's a method to my madness. If you pay with a British card (and a UK address), AA's website will force you to book on their UK site, which is in British Pounds (this is an 'issue' I've found with most US carriers). Now, while I don't have any loyalty towards airlines, I do have a Hilton card, which rewards me with points. It gives me double the points if I pay in a foreign currency, so it's much better for me to book with BA as they will let me pay in USD. As for the actual price, I paid $374, which is price-matched with all the other airlines. 

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emissions from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard.

【 New York John F. Kennedy International Airport 】

On the subway to JFK. The airport isn't served by the subway, so you'll need to either take the E/J/Z to Jamaica or the A to Howard Beach before catching the AirTrain. I find New York's subway to be rather confusing with all the express/local/half-local-half-express trains but honestly, that's a pretty good thing as it shows you how well connected and developed the city's public transit network is, especially if you compare it to the rest of the US. 

Jamaica AirTrain station. It takes 7 minutes to get to the airport, but the train takes a loop around all the terminals, starting at Terminal 1. American Airlines, along with British Airways, uses Terminal 8. This is the last stop in the train's loop, so it takes an extra 5 minutes. 

And here we are at the terminal. It's pretty empty as we are one of the last flights of the day. 

The check-in area. It took less than 5 minutes to check in using one of the self-service desks. 

The airside area. 

There aren't a lot of people, and most shops have already closed. 

So let's head to the gate. 

Here's a photo of our plane.

Some info about our plane:

Type: Boeing 777-300ER
Registration: N725AN
First flight: 7 July 2013
Age: ~12 years
Config: F8/C52/W28/Y216

This is the only config in AA's widebody fleet fitted with Flagship First. It's also a very premium-heavy cabin with Flagship Business taking just under 1/2 of the cabin. Just from looking at this config, you can see just how high the premium demand is on this route. 

【 The Flight 】

Boarding started on time and here are the seats. 

The IFE (which we'll have a look at later) and the tray table. 

On each seat is a blanket, no pillow unfortunately. 

One thing I noticed during boarding is that there's a large number of Jewish people on this flight (like, over 50% of the passengers). Not sure if there's a special reason for that, but it's interesting to note.

View out of the window with a British Airways Boeing 777-200ER also heading to London (LHR). 

The crew also came around with earphones.

Push back 5 minutes early, which is nice. 

Taxiing past Terminal 1 with an Air China Boeing 747-8 heading to Beijing (PEK) and a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777-300ER heading to Istanbul (IST).

Terminal 4 with its army of Deltas.

Takeoff!! Bye bye USA!

We essentially did a 180° turn out of JFK's runway 22L, which gave us amazing views of the city. 

The airport can be seen at the bottom. 

One last photo of New York before we climb through the clouds. 

Shortly after takeoff, the crew came around with dinner. They spent around 30 minutes prior handing out (what I presume to be Kosher) meals to over half of the cabin. It's the first flight I've been on where the special meals outnumbered the 'normal' meals. 

Another thing, the tray table is really, really low. It's actually lower than the arm rest (see right), which is rather annoying. 

And here it is. The options were chicken or pasta. I went with the latter. It's a standard pasta with tomato sauce, which tasted ok. Along with it is a raw salad with some tomatoes - I think you're supposed to eat it with the vinegar dressing, but even with that it was bland and horrible. You also have a bun, some crackers, a salted caramel chocolate bar, and a bottle of water. All in all, a standard, meh, economy meal. Not bad, but nothing special. 

Over Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Let's have a look at the IFE:

First of all, the IFE is quite slow and is quite laggy, although that's a sign there's too much content for the system to handle. That is absolutely the case here. I usually have a quick scroll through before taking the pictures (to know what to expect), that 'quick' scroll ended up taking forever. Just for fun (and because I'm slightly crazy), I decided to count the number of entries in each category, which ended up being a terrible mistake. There are over 1000 movies from all over the world - it's a rough guess, as I lost count at 700, and it took me over 10 minutes to scroll through all of them. There are also around 800 TV shows (I spent another 10+ minutes scrolling and counting through them, though I lost count at 500 this time). Oh… did I mention that I spent another 10 minutes scrolling through the 500+ audiobooks/music also available? Yeah… I really spent 30 minutes of this flight counting (it's like counting sheep… except your arm gets a workout in the process - terrible idea, 0/10 do not recommended). Content-wise, I can easily say this is the best IFE system I've seen. You won't be able to scroll through all of it, let alone run out of stuff to watch. 

There's also a kids' section, which is much smaller and compact (I guess to save the kiddies' arms) but still has plenty of content. 

As if that's not enough, you can also order drinks via the IFE (I've never seen that before on any airline)…

… and news is also available, which I've also not seen, although I think it's more of a thing on US carriers. 

And finally, the usual moving map. All in all, this is the best IFE I've seen content-wise, although the screen is a bit laggy and can require a bit of patience. 

After that, I slept for around 4 hours and woke up as the sun was rising over the Atlantic. 

Around an hour before descent, the crew came around with a small 'breakfast'. This is standard for transatlantic flights. It's got a vanilla yoghurt, some nuts, and a fig bar. 

Starting our descent into London. 

First view of land.

As usual for a landing from the west, we have to overfly Central London, which can give you amazing views of the city on a good day. 

London City Airport below us. 

Banking right with a nice view South London. 

On final approach over Wimbledon/Richmond. I'm pretty sure Richmond Park is the green space on the right - it's a huge park and is one of my favorite places for a stroll while deer and plane spotting. ;)

Welcome to London! We arrived on time. 

View of Heathrow's control tower with Terminal 3 on the right. T3 is the Virgin Atlantic/Delta/OneWorld terminal and is where we'll be parking today. 

Two British Airways Airbus A380s, with the one in front heading to Miami (MIA) and the one behind to San Francisco (SFO). 

And finally, parked at the gate. 

【 London Heathrow Airport 】

Walking to immigration.

As usual, immigration took under 3 minutes thanks to the automatic gates, and here's the baggage reclaim area. 

And finally, taking the underground back home. If you're visiting London (and don't want to spend a ton on the Heathrow Express), I'd highly recommend that you take the Elizabeth Line and not the Piccadilly Line to Central London. This is because the Piccadilly Line often gets really, really crowded (and it takes 30 minutes longer than the Lizzie Line). Whenever I pick friends/family up from LHR, I never subject them to the pain of riding the Piccadilly Line with luggage. I'm only doing it because it's £5 cheaper (and I don't have a lot of luggage). I have my issues with the Lizzie Line, but I'm so happy there's finally an alternative for getting to/from LHR compared to the pain of the Piccadilly Line and the hir. 

Yes, the Piccadilly Line terminates at Cockfosters, which a lot of people find hilarious. Honestly? That's not the worst of the London place names… we've got Chalk Farm, Burnt Oak, Swiss Cottage, Elephant & Castle, Isle of Dogs (where Canary Wharf is), Theydon Bois, and my personal favorite? Mudchute! I can't ever say it without laughing haha. 

Anyway, I'll end this Flight Report here! Thank you very much for following me on this month-long trip around the world. Take care, and I'll see you in my next FR!