2 Days in Sicily: American Airlines Economy JFK-MXP
The downside to the great <$300 to Sicily from JFK deal that came up recently was the crazy connections and the fact it was in economy. I didn’t need the EQMs to re-qualify for Chairman this year, so spending 8.5 hours in economy JFK-MXP (not even a Main Cabin Extra seat was available) was just a means of transportation, and I dreaded it.
I would be renting a car when I landed in Catania, which was a slightly scary prospect. Narrow Sicilian roads require focus, something an overnight flight followed by a 10 hour layover and airport change in Milan, Italy were not conducive to. So it was important I slept as much as possible, hence the dread.
The plane was a 767, which meant the inflight entertainment screens were in the aisle instead of the seat backs.
The seat was a basic economy seat with pillow and blanket for each passenger.
The lack of leg room was a little alarming though! It was a fairly full flight, so though some folks in the middle row had an empty seat between them, there were no options for me to move.
However, American Airline’s consistent recognition of their top elites, even in small ways, always does alot to make flights better. Before we took off, the purser sent a business class amenity kit to me to make the flight a little more enjoyable. 🙂
About an hour into the flight they started the dinner service, coming around first to hand out a snack and take drink orders.
Dinner options were chicken with mushrooms or a pasta. I picked the chicken and though it didn’t look great in the bowl, it was actually quite decent. There was also a fresh salad, wedge of cheese with crackers, and a snickerdoodle cookie. And I’d never seen this before, the wine bottles they were pouring from were tinted plastic instead of glass.
The flight went ok. There was a problem with the inflight audio that they spent the entire flight trying to fix but to no avail. Watching Frozen for the first time without sound is an interesting experience.
I managed to grab a few hours of sleep, but not enough. My inflatable travel pillow didn’t fit the seat as well as it had on last year’s transatlantic flight and the cabin remained pretty brightly lit the whole time. So even with a sleep mask, I just couldn’t really settle in.
There was only one option for breakfast, which was surprisingly good and on the healthier side. Granola oatmeal clusters, yogurt, dried fruit, and the one sweet bread option — a cranberry orange muffin top.
And I quickly forgot my tiredness when we crossed Mount Blanc and I saw the view of the moon and mountains as we were landing.
A decent flight, but tiring and I felt grubby when I landed. Going through immigration was completely painless. At 8:30 in the morning they had a lot of lanes open and it only took a few minutes to get through the line and hand the agent my passport. No questions asked, just stamped it and waived me on.
My next flight was out of Linate airport at 6PM and neither Linate nor Malpensa had lounges with shower facilities so I was glad I’d decided to splurge and get a day room for a few hours at the Sheraton attached to Malpensa airport.
More Posts On This Trip:
American Airlines Flagship Lounge in JFK
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There are lounges at MXP with showers.
None that I had access to 🙂
Interested in learning how you went about getting a day room. Thanks!
I recognized that 767 immediately. We had the “privilege” of flying one home from Paris recently. Our MCE seat in the mini economy cabin right behind first made it slightly more bearable.
But that IFE is rough. And the cigarette lighter charging is even less acceptable.