About a month before our flight out to Seattle, I found tickets in First Class on American Airlines for only 18,500 miles per ticket. Since this was my first daddy-daughter trip with Rory, I wanted it to be special. So I used 37,000 American AAdvantage® miles to book two seats in First Class from Chicago to Seattle. There wasn’t anything noteworthy about the aircraft itself, so this was just for the experience.

Check-in and Boarding

Our flight was scheduled to leave O’Hare Airport on Friday evening and it wasn’t very crowded at that time. We got through security very quickly and waited at the gate until boarding began. Being First Class passengers, we were in boarding group 1. We boarded quickly and were comfortably in our seats in no time.

We ended up not taking off for another hour. I think it was a combination of having to go through the de-icing process and waiting for people to board from a connecting flight. It’s obviously easier to happily deal with this kind of delay while in First Class, so we took it in stride.

Cabin and Seats

The First Class cabin consists of 16 total seats in a 2 by 2 configuration. The seats are 21 inches wide, making them a little more than three inches wider than the Main Cabin and Main Cabin Extra seats.

First Class Weekend: A Review of American Airlines' Boeing 737-800 from Chicago to Seattle

The seats themselves were spacious and very comfortable. I’m 6′ 1″ and there was enough room to comfortably cross my legs when I wanted.

When reclining the seat back, the seat cushion also slides forward. This configuration makes it so your personal space is not affected much when the person in front of you reclines.

Overall, this seat is great for medium-haul flights, but for longer-haul flights I’d much prefer lie-flat seats.

Amenities

Unfortunately this route didn’t have any special amenities. As with most American Airlines aircrafts these days, there’s no seat-back entertainment. Instead, you need to use your personal electronic device to watch TV or movies or listen to music. There’s a USB plug and a contraption to hold your device right on the seat back in front of you.

There’s one lavatory available to First Class passengers located at the front of the cabin. It wasn’t any different than a standard aircraft lavatory but it’s nice to have one just for the 16 people in the cabin.

Food Service

Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendants came by to confirm our dinner orders. After a hot towel, the meal service began. First they served drinks and warm nuts.

After the appetizer, they served dinner. I pre-ordered short ribs and mac-n-cheese while Rory ordered a cheese and fruit tray. Both the short ribs and mac-n-cheese were quite good! The flight attendants also came by with a bread basket offering three types of rolls.

Bottom Line

The only thing I could say that was a real negative was the passenger sitting across the aisle from me. He was coughing constantly before takeoff and had several coughing fits during the flight as well. He wore a mask most of the time and it was clear that he brought it specifically because he was sick. Part of me felt bad for him and I’m sure he felt embarrassed. However, Rory and I were fully expecting to both get sick from sitting near this man. We looked at each other several times as if to say “can you believe this is happening”? Luckily, we did not get sick.

Overall, we had a fun time flying First Class. It was nice to be pampered a little and the comfortable seats made it much easier to get some shuteye. There were lots of laughs, fist bumps and some core memories made.