CHECK IN
American Airlines operates from the newer Terminal 2 at Dublin airport. On the ground floor are all the check-in desks, and American is located near the lifts. Opening, at three hours before the flight, AA operates the now familiar pre-check-in security. Although I managed to print my boarding passes at home, I still went through the security procedure here rather than at the gate. (This was so that AA could let me know which lounge they use at DUB.)

After check-in you have to go up an escalator to get to the security checkpoints

SECURITY
There is a FastTrack line to the left of the security area. My boarding pass allowed me to use it. The line was short and it fed in to two security lines for separate machines. Liquids, laptops, belts, jackets all came off. The delay was only about 15 minutes.

LOUNGE
American uses the the Aer Lingus lounge at T2. It offered a range of coffee, tea, juices, pastries, yoghurt and cereals. There is a Wi-Fi code available at reception. Although the lounge was very full as I arrived, it emptied as soon as the early bank of flights left.

PRE-CLEARANCE

Dublin offers US pre-clearance. After entering the security area you have to go through a further electronics/shoes search before entering the US immigration queues. These can be lengthy and slow, so everyone tells you to get there early. However, once past US Immigration there is nothing to do but wait.

BOARDING
American boarded on time, offering pre-boarding for business class and US military passengers.
The Business Class cabin is 4 rows of 2-2, so 16 passengers in total. It was full.

SEATS
The seats on the 757 we AA’s horrid angled lie-flat.I find it hard to get comfortable in these. There was a duvet and large pillow on each seat.

SERVICE
As the flight was a fairly early departure, some passengers wanted to eat right away whilst others fell sleep. The staff accommodated this pretty well, matching meals to peoples requests.

I had pre-booked my entree, as American allows, 30 days before departure.

Starter and Salad
Prosciutto and Mozzarella, with melon
Seasonal greens with balsamic pears, beets, almonds and blue cheese

Entree
Blue Cheese Crusted Beef Filet

Jalapeno Chicken with Cream Sauce
Tomato and Olive Crusted Tilapia
Vegetable Korma

As Business Class is so small the choice of entree diminished fairly quickly so I was pleased that I had pre-booked.

Dessert
Traditional Ice Cream Sundae

Gourmet Cheese Plate

The second meal, about an hour before we landed at JFK was a choice of
Grilled Vegetable Flatbread

Charcuterie Plate
Chocolate Chip Cookies

ENTERTAINMENT
The seat back videos offer a very small selection of videos in comparison to the 777’s and newer systems on the 738’s or A321’s. I watched a few TV shows and slept for a little.

ARRIVAL
The flight arrived at the midfield terminal and we were fairly quickly off the plane an in the terminal on the way to the Flagship Lounge.

FLAGSHIP LOUNGE
The lounge had it’s lunch service in operation for the couple of hours I was there.