Flight Review: American Airlines Premium Economy – Boeing 777-200 Munich (MUC) to Charlotte (CLT)

A trip in Premium Economy onboard an American Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 from Germany to the US.

Check-In

The check-in experience at Munich’s Terminal 1 is always special. I am not even sure if the employees there are actual AA employees. They also open the counters 3 hours before departure. Not one second earlier, even when they are already all there. This time it was even more strange. My flight was scheduled to depart at 9:15 a.m. but the night before, I already received a notification that the new departure time would be around noon. To be honest, I didn’t mind. That meant I could sleep in and show up a bit later at the airport. I showed up at around 10 a.m. and still had about 2 hours until departure. However, when I arrived at the counter, there were only two agents working and everybody had to queue in the priority lane. Also checking in in Munich takes forever. Even if you do have all your ducks in a row, the staff seems not familiar with the check-in process. It took me forever to get to the agent to check in. I also checked how much they would charge for an upgrade to Business Class. It was €900 at the check-in counter. When I checked again at the gate how much they would charge now, I got told that all seats were now sold out. Seems like a few people used the opportunity. I don’t blame them. If you had booked my itinerary in Business Class, it would have been over $8.000. The Premium Economy ticket was under $2.000. You would still save a lot going that route, but it is also a gamble. If the seats sell out ahead of time, you have no chance of upgrading.

After finishing all the documents, I received my boarding pass and went off to the security checkpoint right next to the check-in counter.

Airport Security

Security in Germany is stricter. Especially because I am so used to TSA Precheck. You must take all your laptops and tablets out of the bag. Heck, they even made me take the laptop out of a thin cloth cover I had over it for protection. Really guys? Do you think X-rays can penetrate bags but not a piece of cloth? I left the rest of my electronics in my carry-on bag as I always do when I fly. They wanted to split the bag down even further and took everything out of the bag and put it in separate bins. Luckily, they only wanted me to open my camera backpack to swipe the contents and do a test instead of taking everything out and turning it on. Remove the caps from extra lenses to do a see-through check and so on. Also, I asked the guy if I should remove my boots. He said, “No you are good.” I was skeptical as I was wearing my Lowa “travel boots”. Sure enough, it beeped when walking through the metal detector. They did the usual pat down and I had to remove my shoes to put them on the X-ray machine. My boots never set off a metal detector ever. The funny thing is that everyone stepping through the metal detector set it off. Must have had a glitch. I collected my belongings and put everything back in my bags and continued to my gate.

As you continue you must go through passport control before you get into the secure airport area with the gates and shops. I was able to use the fast-track line for EU passport holders, which is similar to a Global Entry kiosk. You only put down your passport to be scanned, have your picture taken and you are good to go. Very fast and convenient if the passport readers would work a bit better.

After that, I visited the Airport Lounge World. The entrance to the lounge is just a few steps after you pass through passport control. One of the meals at the lounge was Thai Curry Chicken with rice. Oh…so delicious.

Boarding

To get to the boarding gate you have to go to an annex building to the main terminal. They will check your boarding pass and they might send you again through another security check. I got lucky enough to have to go through the additional security check right before the gates only once in recent years. I showed up a little bit late at the gate, as I really enjoyed the food in the lounge. When I got to the gate, they were already boarding Group 4 and because of my status, I would be eligible to board with Group 1.

But it doesn’t really matter anyway here. As it will be a bus transfer to a remote stand to get on the plane. Which I hate so much. Yes, you board the bus first but board the plane last out of this bus load. Makes no sense to rush to get on the bus. Getting to the bus is also bad, as how they designed the bus boarding area outside. You must drag your carry-ons over steps to get past them to get to the back entrance of the bus if the front is full. Just a bad design. Not even a ramp there and they know that 99% have carry-on bags with wheels. Once on the bus, you must wait until it is full. Unfortunately, they don’t turn on the A/C and the little fan doesn’t have much air circulation. It gets pretty warm in there if you have to wait for a while. Once the bus finally takes off, you get to the remote stand.

The remote stand is a small building. It has an escalator going up to the jet bridge and stairs on either side. The problem is most people use the escalator as they have wheeled bags. Well, once the flow of passengers slows down, you have no more way to go, and you are on an escalator going up and no room up on top. The space on top fills up very quickly. I complained many times that there were almost incidents where people would pile up on top of each other as they can’t go anywhere on top. This almost happened earlier this year in January. During this trip at the beginning of May, they had a guy standing at the bottom to pull the emergency stop if the top gets full and people can’t go anywhere. This leads me to the assumption that something must have happened. There was never a guy at the bottom over the last few years.

Once you are on top, it’s straightforward. You walk down the jet bridge to the plane. A flight attendant at the door will tell you which aisle you have to take to get to your seat. From there it’s just a walk in the park. Find your number, stow your bags, and settle. To get to the premium economy cabin, you walk through a part of the business class cabin.

Premium Economy Cabin and Seat

This plane features 24 recliner seats in the premium economy cabin in the 2-4-2 configuration. The pitch is 38 inches, and the seats are 19 inches wide. A bulkhead wall separates Premium Economy from Business Class and the rest of the economy cabin. Furthermore, there will be a curtain between Business Class and the Economy after take-off. 

The seats have limited storage capacity. There is the usual seatback pocket and a literature compartment under the in-flight entertainment screen. Besides that, there is a small storage compartment under the inner armrest of each seat. These storage compartments are small than the ones you find on domestic First Class with American Airlines. Within these storage compartments, you find an international 110V power outlet, a USB port as well as the connection for the headset.

Speaking about headsets. Every seat in Premium Economy was supplied with a blanket, pillow, and headset wrapped in plastic. It was just a normal but full-size headset. Not one of these earbud styles but also not noise-canceling like in Business Class. These headsets also don’t get collected before landing, as they do with the premium headsets in Business. If you bring your own headset, don’t worry. You don’t need an adapter to use your headset, just a cable with a 3.5mm headphone jack and you can use any of the three outlets in which it fits and still get the same sound. 

Each of the seats also received a small amenity kit. The amenity kit was from Shinola.

The seat-back also has a hanger for your coat. There is one exception. If you sit in the first row of Premium Economy. These seats don’t have a hanger for your coat, nor do they have a seat-back in-flight entertainment screen. 
Seat-Hack: If you sit in the last row of Premium Economy, you can use your seatback as a coat holder. That’s what I did. As there is no screen and a bulkhead is separating you from the Economy Cabin.

The screens of the first row of Premium Economy are stored at the bottom inside of each seat. After take-off, you can pull it up by pressing on a small latch to release the arm on which the screen is mounted. Now you can pull the arm on which the screen is mounted up and rotate it for best viewing comfort. Unfortunately, the screen can be in the way if a passenger on the inside wants to get out into the aisle. However, once folded up, the spot where the screen was stored, makes an excellent water bottle holder which only the first row of Premium Economy gets. The rest of the seats in this cabin have an 8.9″ HD touchscreen installed in the seat-back. 

The infotainment system was loaded with a lot of movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, I had already seen all the good movies and TV shows before and others weren’t just to my taste. Heck – I fly too much to already watched all the current available movies. Besides movies and TV shows, you have access to music, games, and flight-related information which can be displayed on the screen. One downside about sitting in the first row of Premium Economy is that you must store your screen again for landing and taxing to the gate, while everyone else can still watch until parked at the gate. On the inside of each side is also a tethered remote to use with the infotainment system. There is a small button just above the remote, which will unlock it and then you can pull it out. On the backside of the remote, you find a small keyboard.

Every Premium Economy seat also comes with a footrest. Most of the footrests are installed underneath the seat in front of you. Only the first row of Premium Economy has them installed straight into the seat as there is no seat in front of you because of the bulkhead. In my opinion, the footrests installed underneath the seat in front are the most comfortable ones. At least for me with a height of 6’1″. 

I flew the same type of plane outbound from CLT to Munich and sat in Seat 13D. The bulkhead row of Premium Economy and also located on the aisle side of the quad-seat set up in the middle of the plane. 

On my return flight, I picked a window seat in the last row of Premium Economy. Even the day before departure, plenty of seats in Premium Economy were empty when I checked, including the seat next to me and I hoped it would stay that way and it actually did. This gave me a ton of extra storage space as I was now able to put everything on the seat next to me. I even used the tray table as a drink holder while keeping my tray table stored, except for dining of course. 

Meal Service

The main meal service in this cabin started about 45 minutes after takeoff. Two carts pulled up on either aisle. The first one had drinks and the second one the meals. We had the choice between Chicken with rice or a vegetarian dish. I don’t know how many chickens they served on my side of the plane, but I was the last one able to select the chicken. The passengers across the aisle from me only had the vegetarian dish left over. On some flights, flight attendants come out to Executive Platinum passengers first, to give them the full selection before serving the rest of the cabin. Not on this flight. I was still lucky enough to get the chicken, but I also had a ton of chicken at the Airport Lounge World earlier.

For Premium Economy passengers also, alcoholic beverages are complimentary like wine, beer, and liquor. 

Almost 3 hours after the main meal service was done, another cart came through the aisle offering vanilla ice cream and water. Water was the only beverage selection this time. 

Just over 1 hour before landing another meal service was done. Again, two carts pulled up. One offered their full range of beverages and the other one served the snack plate. This time, there was no choice. Everyone received the same plate. There was fruit, bread, cheese, breadsticks, and salad with nuts. I don’t know what it was, but it was good.

In-Flight Service and Amenities

Additional snacks were available in the galley at the very end of the plane. The selection was not very broad. Mini pretzels, chips, and some kind of cookie as well as water. It was a self-serve spot. You only had to walk up and grab what you wanted. 

According to TSA regulations you have to use the lavatories in the cabin you are booked in. That meant all of Economy shared the same lavatories, this included Premium Economy and Main Cabin Extra. Economy Cabin had a total of five lavatories. Three on the right side of the plane and two on the left. Half of them were located mid-cabin, just past the wings, and the rest of them at the aft of the plane. 

The lavatories were standard-sized. Easy to get in, do your business and get out. Of course, they could always be bigger, but I absolutely can’t complain about the size only about how nasty some passengers are and don’t clean up after themselves. 

Flight attendants walked through the aisles multiple times throughout the flight to collect trash and other service items. 

Just before landing after the last meal service a flight attendant came up to me to tell me about my connecting flight information. This was super nice, and I think only done for Executive Platinum passengers, as I was the only one to whom this information was provided in person. Nonetheless, I already checked my connecting flight information in the app. If you connect to the in-flight Wi-Fi access to AA.com and usage of the app is complimentary. 

Arrival and Immigration

This was easy peasy for me. Thanks to Global Entry. There are a few kiosks set up and almost nobody was using them. Just me and another guy. They are so advanced now; you don’t even need to scan your passport anymore. You just go to the kiosk, touch to start and they will snap a photo. Follow the lane and you get to an immigration officer, and he will hand you a laminated card that shows that you have Global Entry. This card needs to be handed to the customs agent while exiting the immigration & customs area after you claim your bags. Going through immigration was a breeze. It took me less than 2 minutes. The worst part was waiting for the bags. I waited almost 20 minutes for my bags to show up. Once outside, people with connecting flights can go straight ahead and re-check their bags and then exit upstairs to go through security once again to get to the gate of your connecting flight. Passengers with final destination Charlotte, stay on the same floor to get to ground transportation or passenger pick-up. Just check the signs to guide you to the right spot. 

Conclusion

Overall, a very good flight. Everything went well. It started to rain just as we boarded the plane and had a few bumps while climbing out of Munich. There were the occasional other small bumps here and there throughout the flight and a few more while descending into Charlotte. The service was great as well. I noticed that the plane was only about 70% full as there were so many empty seats in Economy Class. Some people lay down over all four seats in the center of the plane. I was happy that the seat next to me was unoccupied. 

Yes, the flight itself was delayed by almost four hours. But as mentioned earlier I didn’t mind. I was able to sleep in, enjoy some more time with family, and had an easy trip to the airport. The cause for the delay was the inbound flight from Charlotte. It must have been a technical issue as there were no weather issues either in Charlotte or Munich and no Air Traffic Control restrictions. But this is another plus on this journey, as I will now receive €600 because my flight was delayed over three hours and I was flying more than 3500km. This is due to the amazing traveler protection of the European Union. 

I flew the same route a bunch of times in the last few months. So far only in Business Class. This was the first time I was in Premium Economy. Business Class might be better if you travel from Charlotte to Munich as it is an overnight flight, and you get a lie-flat seat. However, flying from Munich to Charlotte is no issue at all. Especially sitting in Premium Economy.