I took a one-week vacation to Japan, and I wanted it to be a bougie flight experience in First or Business Class to or from Japan. And I failed. But! Flying Japan Airlines in the back of the plane was pretty great! Check out my review of Japan Airlines A350-1000 in Economy Class below!

Flight Info

Summary

• Brand new aircraft so the cabin and seats are still in great condition
• Japanese service and hospitality shine through the cabin crew’s professionalism
• Seat features are top-notch

Booking Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

I had a little bit of a rough time booking this flight. My ultimate goal was to book Japan Airlines First Class on their shiny new A350-1000 aircraft that they took first delivery of in 2023 and have slowly been acquiring more. And … I didn’t luck out this time. What’s crazy is I saw First Class availability on other routes but for their B777-300 aircraft, which I’ve already experienced (and will hopefully re-share here one day). I really want to try their new First Class because of the new innovations, privacy, space, and typical JAL service and hospitality.

Flight benefits…maybe?

So my backup plan was to utilize my flight benefits. My airline started acquiring Business Class standby agreements for employees with a growing list of airlines this year, and I thought maybe I could utilize one of them to get to Japan. But! That might have required me to go to Australia, Philippines, Finland, or Germany. Wild options, I know. For a week or two, I was monitoring flight loads (like how open the flight is with available seats), and Australia or the Philippines seemed viable. However, to make this all work would’ve been costly with all the taxes and fees as well as time spent in the air and layovers.

The other option was to utilize my own airline to fly to Japan. However, Business Class seats were quickly evaporating in availability with increasing competition amongst other fellow employee travelers.

In the end, after much consideration and research, two nights before departure, I decided to fly Japan Airlines—still on their A350-1000 but in Economy as my airline doesn’t have a premium cabin agreement with them.

To do this, I utilized an internal website/portal where airline employees can book and list for such types of air travel (ZED travel for my fellow airline employee readers). To fly from DFW to HND was $109.40 in taxes and fees. Not bad considering that booking this flight last minute with a paid ticket would’ve been something like $1400!

I booked this flight the day before departure.

Packing for Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

With Japan trips, I know I’m often tempted to bring checked luggage in order to have space to bring stuff back. I used to do this when I was going back and forth for work pre-COVID.

For this trip, I decided to bring my carry-on rollaboard and backpack—my usual setup. And this setup was in keeping with Japan Airlines’ carry on policy.

I packed enough clothes for the week in my rollaboard, and my backpack still had space to expand if I brought stuff back with me. Also, the upcoming week in Tokyo was going to be cold, so I packed some long sleeves and other things to keep warm.

To make this flight more comfortable, I made sure to bring my typical eye mask, my AA Business Class slippers to change into, my Bose wired noise-canceling earbuds, Apple AirPods Pro’s with noise cancelling, and some packets of electrolytes to mix with water in my water bottle. I also packed my backpack such that electronic stuff I’d like to use during the flight were within easy reach (like power cords, my Nintendo 3DS, headphones, etc).

DFW Airport Check In and Security/Customs

Due to being gone for a week, I opted to keep my car at my house and just have my parents drop me off at the airport. They dropped me off about 3.5 hours before departure at DFW Terminal D, though I had them drop me off at the American Airlines counters knowing I had some time to kill before Japan Airlines opened up their own counters.

This being the weekend after Thanksgiving, it was pretty busy at the AA counters and adjacent TSA PreCheck checkpoint.

Checking in at the Japan Airlines Counter

The Japan Airlines (JAL) counters were located at counter numbers 60-65 as you can see in the picture above. I’m not sure if this switches around because the counters are all generic.

I arrived about 10 minutes before JAL opened their counters, and when they did, I got in line. 

Because DFW is an international outstation for JAL, I wasn’t surprised to see contract agents working the ticket counter. 

When I checked-in, I told the agent that I was a “staff traveler”. This seems to be the universal phrase to indicate that I was flying nonrevenue standby on another airline that isn’t my own airline. And the agent, indeed, understood what I meant.

The agent verified my passport, saw my itinerary, and printed me off a standby card that I could use to get through security. She also pointed out that the standby card showed when to show up at the gate to get my seat assignment (about 9:35AM). She did not weigh or measure my carry on bags.

After checking in, I made my way over to the adjacent TSA checkpoint.

TSA and Security

When I walked past the General checkpoint by the Grand Hyatt entrance, I saw that it had a 16 minute wait. Lots of people–mostly AA passengers, I thought, since at some point in 2024, DFW Terminal D made it such that security checkpoint by the AA counters was just purely PreCheck.

Because there aren’t many morning international departures with other airlines at DFW, the international TSA checkpoint wasn’t that busy at all—just a two minute wait! And I think it only took me about two minutes! So easy.

I’ll note that… because of the way I booked, I don’t think my Known Traveler Number got passed along so I wasn’t able to use PreCheck. Not a problem. I only had to remove my laptop, and the line moved decently quickly.

Lounge at DFW

Knowing that my departure gate was going to be at Termainl D, I decided to see about hitting up their Admirals Club here. 

Now, I actually wasn’t sure if I would have access because I wasn’t flying an AA flight. But after double-checking the Admirals Club access rules on AA’s website, I saw that for passengers with the Citi AAdvantage Executive card, access is granted if you’re flying even on a oneworld airline, which JAL qualifies. There was also the matter of me flying standby and not having a confirmed seat, but that wasn’t an issue to get in.

When I checked into the Admirals Club at Terminal D, I asked the club agent, and she went over this same info and let me through.

During check-in, I also saw Japanese men carrying around the Flagship pass that allows access to the Flagship Lounge adjacent to the Admirals Club. This pass is only for passengers with high status or flying in a premium cabin. Man, that used to be me! lol 

My backup plan if I didn’t have access to the Admirals Clubs would have been to try and use my Priority Pass benefit and check out The Club DFW maybe. Or go do some morning drinking at a bar.

Once inside the Admirals Club, I looked around for a place to sit and luckily found one right by the windows overlooking D25, which had a beautiful AA B787 parked at it in preparation for the Shanghai flight.

Food Offered at the Admirals Club

Today’s food offerings included corned beef hash and breakfast potatoes for the hot food (see pic below). The potatoes didn’t look appealing to me so I opted for the hash and paired it with a muffin and raspberry chia pudding.

The hash was kind of salty, but otherwise it was good. The best part was the chia pudding—not too sweet with a good tapioca-like texture. On the other hand, I was most disappointed with the muffin as it was dry. To wash this all down, I had gone to the bar and requested the sparkling wine/brut and splashed it with orange juice from the drink area for a mimosa.

With it being a Saturday morning of Thanksgiving weekend, I didn’t find the Admirals Club to be super busy, but more and more people trickled in as time went on during my 1.5 hour stay. 

One thing I observed is that multiple passengers BROUGHT THEIR DOGS. Leashed and not in their carriers! I heard a few barks periodically. I…think I’m “Team No Dogs In Airline Lounges” because these places never have pet relief areas.  But at the same, I’m a dog guy and don’t really have a problem if the dog is well-behaved. No one got bitten today, which was good.

Other than that, it was a good, relaxing time in the lounge wherein I looked out the window a lot, enjoyed my lite breakfast, took notes for this flight review, and texted friends.

Boarding and Departure for Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

I left the Admirals Club around 9:00AM because I wanted to see if I would run into a coworker (also departing for Japan but with AA…. Narrator: He did not meet with his coworker), and to also make sure I was at my departure gate around 9:35AM for my seat assignment as instructed by the ticket agent and my standby pass.

When I arrived at Gate D14, I saw that the gate agents were busy making preparations and the cabin crew was gathering and having a meeting. Gate D14’s seating areas are spread out so it was hard to tell if the people around were really for this Japan Airlines flight or not. An hour before departure, there were still plenty of seats available to sit in. I decided to sit in the seats close to the blue art installation that the surrounding gates kind of encircle.

As departure time drew nearer, the gate agents made several announcements, especially looking for a handful of passengers that they kept paging over and over again (not sure why). From where I sat down, I could hear the PA announcements very clearly.

Just after 9:35AM, I walked up to the gate agent and asked about my seat assignment. As the gate agent was typing away, I indicated that I’d like an aisle seat if available. After some more typing, I got my confirmed seat assignment: 46D! And apparently this came with Group 5 boarding, which is the last boarding group.

It took me a little while to see and understand that everyone was lining up according to their group numbers and corresponding stanchions the gate agents had set up. I saw that Group 4 and 5 were combined on a single stanchion over by me, so I let the line fill up a little before jumping in. One thing I noticed is how all these boarding lanes got filled with people, and I couldn’t help but wonder where everyone was hanging out prior to getting in line!

Boarding time!

Boarding started a few minutes early with the preboards, but it took a while before Group 1 (First Class I think) was called to board. That happened around 10:11AM.

At 10:25AM, I was able to do the biometric scan (where they scan your face vs boarding pass) to board the aircraft. I did end up behind an elderly woman who was in a wheelchair, so things moved slow down the jet bridge and on the aircraft as she got wheeled in then seated.

For more information about Japan Airlines’ boarding priority, check this out.

Just before getting on the aircraft, I saw that JAL had posted the sign pictured above that lets passengers know which side of the aircraft to go to depending on their seat number. I thought this was brilliant because it saves the flight attendants from having to check and verify with each passenger getting on the plane.

When I got to my Economy Class seat, I saw there was plenty of bin space around me. I did learn that my rollaboard luggage didn’t fit in the bookend way as is typical for say AA domestic flights. No one ended up using the bin besides me, which was weird and really nice haha.

I had other observations during the boarding process…

The temp of the cabin seemed cool, likely due to it having been a colder morning.

By 10:30AM it seemed like most everyone had boarded.

And by 10:34AM the cabin crew stood at their stations AND THEN BOWED. Then it was time to prepare for pushing back, which we did right on time at 10:35AM. This was crazy to me because most of the plane didn’t start getting on until 10:11AM. And we had an A350-1000 to fill!

So there wasn’t really a delay in the boarding process. Somehow.

The one annoying thing about boarding is that the men on either side of me (one across the aisle, and other on the opposite aisle seat) were both on their phones. With their speakerphones on. Ugh. Luckily, their calls didn’t last TOO long, and both had hung up their calls before we pushed back.

Overall, the boarding process was incredibly efficient and smooth. Somehow we boarded the plane and all flight attendants were done with their duties within like 25 minutes. If only US-based airlines could be this efficient!

Takeoff

Before taking off, there was a little bit of a noticeable pause as we idled at runway 36R-18L for a while. I figured that we were waiting on ATC. I did have the tail and nose cams on the IFE system on during this time. See below for more info about that!

Summary of timings during boarding and departure:

Japan Airlines A350-1000 Aircraft

This flight was actually not my first time flying an A350 aircraft. That honor belongs to SQ 23 – the World’s Longest Flight from JFK to Singapore. However, Singapore Airlines utilizes a special variant of the A350-900 for that flight. So technically, this Japan Airlines flight was my first time flying the A350-1000 variant.

In preparing this blog post, I learned that the -900 is more suited for long range routes, and the -1000 is better for long-haul premium routes.
The aircraft for this flight was registration number JA-10WJ. Apparently, this was the 10th A350-1000 for Japan Airlines! And I flew it 2.5 months after they received it!

Cabin and Seats in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

The cabin in Economy Class on Japan Airlines A350-1000 had a tasteful modern look to it. The sidewalls were a light gray, and the carpets were dark red with black accents. During boarding, the lighting was set to a white light so I could really appreciate the colors of the cabin. The picture shown below gives some of an idea of what the cabin looks like.

As far as wear and tear in the cabin, I didn’t really see anything obvious. Like I mentioned above, this aircraft is pretty new–only a few months old. Also, I know Japanese culture does a much, much better job of taking good care of things. With all that said, I can say the same thing impeccability about the cleanliness of the cabin. 

In Economy Class, the configuration was 3-3-3, which is pretty standard for A350 aircraft. For wide bodies, I’m familiar with the similar configuration on B787 aircraft, but the A350 aircraft is wider than a 787 so that allows the seats to be a little wider. For Japan Airlines’ layout in Economy, there were 155 seats total—all in one cabin.

As for the overhead bins, I don’t think they were Airbus’ XL bins. My rollaboard didn’t fit on its side with the wheels facing away so I had to lay it hotdog style for the bin to close. I also suspect that for the most part, carry-on luggage in Japan are smaller than the standard American ones. 

Overall, I thought the cabin noticeably looked sleek and new. Additionally, I thought it felt spacious with 9 abreast seating. Looking at the overall layout, I initially thought that the lavatories closest to me were only for Premium Economy due to the curtain placement, but this wasn’t the case for most of the flight.

While writing this review after the flight, I learned that Skytrax, which runs the world’s largest passenger satisfaction survey and gives awards to airlines, awarded Japan Airlines with the Best Economy Airline Seat in 2025. I’m not really sure if that award is specifically for the A350-1000 Economy Seat, but I’m willing to bet a sushi roll that it is.

Economy Class Seat on Japan Airlines A350-1000

My seat was 46D. It was a left-hand aisle seat in the center section of the cabin. 

The seat model was a Recaro CL3710 according to Aerolopa. Japan Airlines configured it with a good handful of notable features:

• 33” pitch
• 18” pax width
• 5” recline (I feel like it was a little less than this)
• 13” 4k touchscreen (Panasonic?)
  • Headphone dual RCA jacks
  • USB C
  • USB A
  • Seat controls for light, call button
  • Volume and power 
• Bi-fold tray table with separate cup holder
• Literature pocket (upper) … with magazines!
  • Skyward (JAL’s inflight magazine)
  • Instructions for how to use features of the seat
  • Instructions for WiFi
  • JAL Shop (JAL’s shopping catalog)
• Literature pocket (lower)
  • Safety card
  • Motion sickness bag
  • Two mesh outer pockets for small things/devices
• Universal power port
• Armrest audio jack — this is nice in that your cord doesn’t get in the way!

In the picture above, you can see the 13″ screen, but it doesn’t do it justice as to how nice of a screen it was! Also, just below the screen were the controls, the ports, and below that was the upper literature pocket.

The seat features a bi-fold tray, which means you fold it out twice–once for a half-table and again for the full table. This design is typical when seat companies want to be able to offer more features or bigger screens to the back of the seat. Unfortunately, I found my tray table to be dirty when I unfolded it…but! I easily fixed it during meal service.

The bottom literature pocket has the universal power port, safety card, motion sickness bag, and extra mesh pockets. These mesh pockets came in clutch during the flight as this was where I stored my phone, AirPods case, and other small things when I wasn’t using them.

As shown below, Japan Airlines included a pillow, blanket, and cheap headphones as amenities for the seat. There was no amenity kit.

I didn’t use the headphones at all, but I did use the pillow and blanket. The blanket didn’t feel cheap—it was fleece and felt like it too! The pillow wasn’t anything amazing, but I felt like it was a little more firm than what I’m used to with long haul flights on American Airlines.

Also, the guide pamphlets (found in the upper literature pocket) for operating the features of the seat and how to connect to the onboard WiFi are pretty detailed in case you need help with those. See the pics below! But…does anyone really read these? Haha.

As for wear and tear on the seat, I didn’t see anything. Again, much like the cabin, the aircraft is relatively new to Japan Airlines’ fleet, and Japanese culture takes better care of their stuff.

For cleanliness, the only glaring thing was seeing some hard candy and residue on my tray table after deploying it (obvious in the picture above). Luckily, I was able to wipe that off with the oshibori (wet towelette) provided during the drink service. I was surprised to see that this was missed in cleaning the aircraft, but this didn’t merit me having to go complain to a flight attendant.

Looking back, I had a few favorite features of the seat. First, that 18” pax width was noticeable. Prior to this flight, I had flown to Santiago, Chile in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin, and I think those seats are an inch less wide. It didn’t take much for my hips to touch the sides of the armrest. Here on this flight, I felt like I had decent space. The touchscreen monitor was very nice—I really think it was the star feature of the seat! See below for more details. I was also impressed that the seat featured two literature pockets! And both are utilized by the airline. And lastly, the mesh outer pockets on the lower literature pocket was really handy in holding my phone and smaller items for easy access convenience.

Inflight Entertainment in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

Like I mentioned above, the 13” 4K touchscreen monitor was probably the star of this Economy seat on Japan Airlines A350-1000. At 13”, I believe this was one of the larger sizes for an Economy Class IFE screen. The interface was pretty easy to navigate–just needed to touch or swipe depending on what I wanted to do. I found it super easy to use, but I did also get lost in its menus, which some seemed redundant or required seemingly too many taps to get to the function I wanted.

The content is feature-packed though! The major content areas offered were:

• Movies & TV Programs
• Audio
• Reading & News
• Flight Map
• Aircraft Camera
• Inflight Shopping
• Inflight Menu

For movies and TV programs, I saw a lot of older Hollywood movies, but not many recent releases. Oddly, I didn’t see a lot of Japanese content so that made me wonder if JAL does route-specific content loading? 

Later in the flight, I utilized the Audio section and started listening to chill jazz music to help me sleep. And towards the end, to help me get in the mood of being in Japan, I found an album of anime songs. Overall, there were various full albums of varying genres, podcasts, and audiobooks available for listening.

I didn’t really bother with the Reading & News section so I just assumed it had pre-loaded books, maybe manga, and live news channels.

Frequently throughout the flight, I had the Flight Map autoplaying. I thought it was pretty slick and intuitive to switch around with different views and information about the flight. 

Now…the Aircraft Camera was probably my most fav part! The quality of the cameras were actually pretty dang decent as I’ve seen this feature on older aircraft on other airlines but they were sadly very grainy. There were two options: front camera which I think was forward of the nose landing gear, and tail camera with a great view of the top of the aircraft.

For Inflight Shopping, I didn’t really thumb through it but I know the idea of shopping on a plane for duty free items is a popular thing for Asian airlines. I didn’t have any interest in purchasing anything while on board this flight.

My favorite features

As far as cool features go, there were a few that stood out to me. Again, I really liked the external camera feeds, especially because the camera feeds weren’t super grainy like I’ve seen on other airlines. When using the system for the first time, it actually asks you to select one of three modes: personal (which is paired with the JAL app), default, and kids. I’m not a Mileage Bank member, and I am not a kid so I selected the default mode. However, if I was a Mileage Bank member and tied the system to my JAL app, the system can remember where I last left off in movies and TV shows! That’s pretty cool! I’m not sure if this works on JAL’s older IFE systems on their B777’s and B787’s though. 

The last cool feature was being able to use my Bluetooth headphones with the screen! There was a button and instructions for it on one of the home screens. I was able to connect my AirPods to the screen, and that was really cool and convenient! I haven’t done that before as this was my first flight with that as an option! The screen still had dual RCA jacks in case I wanted to use wired headphones, whether with the cheap disposable ones provided or my own headphones with an adapter. 

Overall, I really liked the inflight entertainment system! The controls were responsive and intuitive, although the menus were a little cumbersome. The external camera feeds were my most favorite part, and the inflight map was really cool too. I did end up watching three movies and listened to a few hours of audio (see below for my Inflight experience), and those worked pretty well. My one major complaint with the system though is that my AirPods lost connection every so often in the first half of the flight, and it took a little bit to reconnect. I was not sure of the cause, but I just rolled with it and tested my patience, haha.

WiFi in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

WiFi was offered on this Japan Airlines A350-1000 flight from DFW to HND. But…not until well into the flight! I know Panasonic provides the service, but I am not sure of the nuances of how it works from a technical standpoint. Because I know some older systems require being at a certain altitude before the system works. Every so often, I checked my phone to see if the system was receiving a satellite signal, and it didn’t appear to have it until almost 2 hours into the flight! I mean..I was trying to test it out – for science! I wasn’t interested in doom scrolling all flight on social media.

To connect to the WiFi, there is a whole pamphlet with detailed instructions found in the literature pocket of the seat. But basically, you connect your phone to the WiFi signal and navigate to a particular splash page. On that splash page, it says the current status of the system, and if it works, it’ll give the option to pay for WiFi.

The different passes for WiFi were:

• Flight Pass (entire flight): $18.80 USD (I paid for this)
• 3 Hours: $12something USD (I forgot to take a pic! It doesn’t show you prices again after you’ve paid)
• 1 Hour: Free

I flew an American Airlines flight from DFW to NRT about 12 months prior to this flight, and that was $29 USD for 2 hours or $35 USD for the whole flight. So JAL offering a ~$19 USD flight pass was definitely a better deal.

WiFi Speeds

And as far as how fast the WiFi was:

• Download: 28.2 mbps
• Upload: 3.16 mbps
• Ping: 817 ms

I was impressed with these speeds because having a download speed of 28 mbps is pretty comparable to hotel WiFi speeds at most hotels I’ve stayed at. But…the upload speed was not great and the ping was terrible. That same AA flight mentioned above, I had 7.86 mbps download speed, and 4.12 mbps upload speed, and that was on an older Panasonic system on AA’s B777-200.

For reliability, I thought I had pretty good and steady connection once connected. I noticed I had issues about 7.5 hours into the flight as it seemed like it stopped working, but I realized that maybe my phone got disconnected from the WiFi signal onboard and just needed to reconnect.

Inflight Service in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

Note: I will say “cabin crew”, “cabin attendants”, and “flight attendants” interchangeably. JAL uses “cabin crew” or “cabin attendant” in reference to their crew.

I will just say, in general, Japan Airlines has a very professional cabin crew. They definitely look and act the part pretty consistently across the good handful of times I’ve flown them (even way before I started this blog), including this flight. They definitely conveyed Japanese hospitality and efficiency on this flight in Economy Class, though perhaps lacking a truly personal touch on this flight. I know if I were seated in First or Business, I’d likely be acknowledged by name. But still, even in Economy I was still convinced of their professionalism.

To me, what makes Japanese culture really cool is … the small details. For example, I noticed they used little sticker flags for people who have requested special meals and placed them at the top of the headrests so that other flight attendants were informed.  This made the distribution of special meals pretty efficient. I also noticed that the cabin crew used lint rollers after every service to help clean up crumbs and such in the carpeted areas of the cabin. Just wow!

For the meal services on this flight, I think there were about 5 or 6 flight attendants serving the Economy Class cabin. There were always 2 on each side whether they ran the drink and meal carts down the aisles, but I assumed there were a few more in the galleys doing prep work.

Service Timeline

Here’s a timeline of what happened during the flight in terms of the inflight service:

(hh,mm after takeoff)

• 00,20 Wet towellete distributed (oshibori)
• 00,26 Drink cart goes to Premium Economy
• 00,32 Drink cart arrives at me
• 00,46 Special meals delivered
• 01,00 Meal cart passes by (but not to Premium Economy; they must be catered differently)
• 01,03 Received my chicken entree and meal
• 01,29 Received my ice cream
• 01,34 Coffee and green tea served 
• 01,45 Tray taken up
• 02,14 Cabin crew do JAL Shop service
• 02,30?? Lights turn off
• Mid flight: Orange juice and water served
• 06,58 Lights turned on
• 07,04 Drink cart goes to Premium Economy
• 07,22 Drink cart arrives at me; midflight lite meal served
• 07,42 Lights off again
• 10,53 Lights turn on for pre-arrival meal service 
• 11,12 Received pre-arrival meal
• 11,45 Tray taken up
• 12,15 Handed out customs forms

I wanted to point out some interesting things here with the timetable. They did a coffee and tea service right after the main meal service with pitchers of either drink. The cabin crew also did a similar thing with orange juice and water in the middle of the flight when the lights were off, and they offered these drinks to anyone who was visibly awake. 

Another observation I had was during the main meal drink service. They had a drink menu with one side in Japanese and the other in English that they would show to each passenger to make a drink selection. I thought this was interesting, but I wish the drink menu had been available on the IFE screen like the food was. I’m not sure of the full drink menu, but I think the general sodas, water, juices,  teas, coffee, alcohols, and speciality JAL Sky Time drinks were available.

I forgot to check if they set out snacks and drinks in the galley as is often typical for long-haul flights. I’ll assume that they did, but I didn’t notice.

Food and Drink in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

For this 13 hour flight in Japan Airlines Economy Class on the A350-1000, the flight attendants served lunch, a midflight snack, and a pre-arrival meal. 

Like I mentioned above, the menu options for the lunch service and pre-arrival meal were available in the IFE system (though no pictures!). 

Lunch Service

The two options, again, were either an international plate that had beef goulash or the washoku plate with grilled salted rice malt chicken.

First things first–a moist towelette was handed out to every passenger. I just laughed because they say “JAL Business Class” as you can see in the picture below! And you know what–that immediately elevates this Economy Class experience on JAL! Haha.

While the cabin attendants were in the galleys heating up the food, they also did a drink service down the aisles. I selected a highball, which is a whiskey mixed with soda water. I didn’t want to go heavy on the alcohol at the start. I’ll also note that none of the drinks cost extra.

Since I wasn’t in the very back, and the cabin attendants had started from the front of the cabin, I still had the two choices. I selected the grilled salted rice malt chicken.

As you can see in the picture above, the tray was pre-set, and I thought the presentation was rather splendid. Everything fit, nothing felt super crowded. This stood out to me because typical long-haul American Airlines Main Cabin meals seem squished and crowded to me, often presenting a challenge to eat. 

I also noticed that the sides were served in a hard, reusable plastic–I don’t think they get thrown away. And I also noticed the entree was served in a styrofoam, which I guess makes sense because this is the food item that gets heated in the galley ovens.

Another impressive thing to me was the use of actual silverware! In Economy! I know American Airlines started using bamboo cutlery, but the use of actual silverware by Japan Airlines made  the Economy eating experience feel more premium! And of course, chopsticks were included with the silverware too.

Bear with me since Economy meals aren’t served in multiple courses so I don’t have pictures in-between to break up how the food was, lol.

The drink service came with rice crackers. Very giving pub-like since I had a highball. The rice crackers had a hint of sweet, but most certainly a savory flavor is what I remembered the most. 

After the cabin attendant set down my tray of food, she also asked if I wanted miso soup. I said yes, and she handed me a small cup of miso soup. I was amused that they served it from a pitcher into a little cup, but I thought this was practical in Economy Class (from previous experience in their Business and First Class cabins, they served miso soup in the typical small black bowl). The miso soup was savory and hot.

Starting with the sides from left to right in the picture above, I saw there was spaghetti (?!), potato salad, and barley salad (I think?). I honestly don’t know what the official names were, and I wasn’t entirely sure about the last side dish being barley. The spaghetti was cold (intentional), and it had a tomato flavor giving it a nice, slightly acidic taste. For the potato salad, I appreciated that the potatoes weren’t mushy, and I thought that the herb seasoning was good. The mayonnaise didn’t have a strong flavor either–just enough to convince you of its creaminess. Lastly, the barley (?) salad had a great, slightly savory flavor, and the chewiness added a nice texture. All these sides paired well with the entree.

Regarding the main entree, it consisted of the malted chicken, rice, and steamed veggies. The malted chicken was slightly dry to me, but it had a good light and savory flavor. When I think of malt, I also think of something kinda cereal-like but I don’t think the taste was convincingly malty (either that or my palate isn’t developed for that!). The rice was plain, but was pretty good on its own, which is to be expected in Japanese culture. And lastly, I thought that the steamed broccoli and carrots had no flavor. Honestly, this main entree was relatively bland, but I think this highlighted the necessity of the sides to add more texture and flavor to the overall meal.

I shared a pic of this meal to some former colleagues of mine, and one commented how it looked like something a gym bro would eat–chicken, rice, and veggies. I agreed! Haha.

For dessert, there was a chocolate chip cookie that came with the tray, and a small Haagen-Dazs dulce de leche ice cream came later while everyone was still eating. I noticed that the cookie is from 85 Degrees Cafe, which I know to be a popular Asian bakery. The cookie was kinda hard but chunky, and I noticed and tasted bits of oats and cinnamon too. Pretty good though! The ice cream was the worst part of this meal–it was TOO frozen when they handed it out, and I had to wait for it to melt enough to actually eat it. Otherwise it was a great, sweet finish to this Economy Class meal!

Overall, I thought this was a well-designed tray of food for Economy Class. Like, I felt the intentionality shine through in its presentation and offerings. The sides, entree, and desserts gave a variety of things for my palate to enjoy. Most of my long-haul experiences lately were American Airlines Main Cabin meals, and sometimes those feel haphazardly thrown together with a bunch of pre-packaged things so the JAL experience definitely stood out. Was this the best Economy Meal I’ve had? Maybe!

Mid-Flight Snack

For this service, there wasn’t really any announcement to foreshadow what was to come as the lights turned on about 7 hours into the flight–a rude awakening for the passengers who were asleep! But…I was awake watching magical movies (see Inflight section below).

Other than choice of drinks, there were no other options besides the standard snack for everyone: a chocolate croissant.

For my drink selection, I tried to order JAL Sky Time, which is a mix of peach and grape juices. It’s Japan Airlines’ speciality drink! But unfortunately, they told me they don’t serve it for the mid-flight service. So I settled for a hot green tea instead. 

The chocolate croissant, similar to the cookie from the lunch service, was also from 85 Degrees. It was soft, and there were good chunks of chocolate inside. I kind of wished it was less of a pre-packaged thing, but I suppose that’s what Business Class is for!

I loved the simplicity of this service. Something quick and easy to help break up the long flight. As soon as the cabin crew did their trash run afterwards, the lights went back off to let everyone go back to bed.

Pre-Arrival Meal

Lastly, the pre-arrival meal in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class was served about 11 hours into the flight or 2 hours before arrival.

There was only one option for this meal, and it was more Western-like. The meal consisted of a frittata with bacon leeks, pork sausage, roasted tomato, spinach, fruits, and a cheesecake slice.

For my drink selection this time, I selected coffee. I wanted some caffeine to help me stay awake and aware enough knowing that I’d be busy running around after landing. Also, I know JAL also serves better onboard coffee (their current offerings), and I definitely tasted the difference.

The meal itself had a simple and organized presentation, and there was a little more space than the lunch service since there weren’t as many sides. 

For the food, I thought it was a good lite meal to have before landing. It wasn’t gross enough that it would force me to go hunt down egg sandos at 7-Eleven as soon as I landed. The fruit plate was a good mix of melons and pineapples. I thought the frittata was fluffy and not salty, which I know tends to be a struggle with egg bites and frittatas elsewhere. The pork sausage was not dry and not super salty either. Thank goodness the roasted tomato wasn’t mushy, as I know that’s also a struggle for onboard tomatoes. The spinach was weird to me, lol. But it wasn’t bad though it was probably the strongest flavored thing on the tray. Lastly, the cheesecake was light and airy with a hint of something more than vanilla, and it tasted pretty great.

Lavatories in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

I struggle a little bit saying how many lavatories there were for Economy Class in Japan Airlines A350-1000. From Aerolopa, it’s obvious that the 3 in the aft section of the cabin are for Economy Class. However, the back of Premium Economy has 2 lavs too, and during the flight, these lavs were mostly available to Economy as well except for the periods of time they closed the curtains. So it’s either 5 lavatories or 3 lavatories depending on how hardcore JAL enforces the use of lavs within your own cabin.

Because I was seated in 46D, technically the Premium Economy lavatories were closest to me though the ones in the aft section weren’t too far of a walk.

The left-hand Premium Economy lavatory was an accessible lav, so it had almost double the space of a normal one so that someone who needs a helper or wheelchair has room. Because of this fact, it was the most spacious lavatory.

Otherwise, the lavatories are fairly standard but Japan Airlines equips their lavatories with BIDETS!!!! 

In the middle of the flight, I also used the aft lavatories. They look like this:

I also saw that the lavatories are equipped with more motion sickness bags and paper cups. 

Personal Potty Timeline

Here’s a timeline of my use of lavatories, which one I used, and their state of cleanliness:

(hh,mm after takeoff)

• 00,57 LH Accessible Prem. Econ.: decently clean, some under surfaces of the toilet seat seemed dirty; no wet spots on ground
• 02,08 they shut the curtains between Premium Economy and Economy
• 02,30 RH aft: decently clean, tighter space, lovely finishes, no debris or water on ground
• 04,53 LH aft: spotless!
• 08,25 LH Accessible Prem. Econ.: a little bit of paper debris
• 11,52 LH Accessible Prem. Econ.: some wet spots and debris on the floor, and unflushed seat cover too

I feel like they do a better job keeping the lavatories spotless in Business Class, but honestly the Economy Class lavatory experience was still pretty good and decent (i.e. much better than a US-based airline).

In-Flight in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

Besides eating, drinking, and sleeping, I did a few other things during the flight.

During lunch, I watched The Naked Gun (2025). Oh man, I miss the 90’s style parody movies, and I thought that this was a good return to such comedy. However, I was largely distracted from actually watching the movie because of taking active notes for this flight review as well as trying to eat! Lastly, this was also the movie I was having some intermittent issues with the Bluetooth connectivity between my AirPods and the monitor. My AirPods would disconnect, reconnect with my iPhone, and then had trouble reconnecting with the monitor. I fixed this by keeping my AirPods case open and pressing the connect button kind of near the monitor.

After the lunch service, I decided to try and sleep for a while (see below). And when I woke up around 5 hours into the flight, I used the lav, came back to my seat, tried to go back to bed, couldn’t, then ultimately decided to start another movie. And that movie was Now You See Me! Prior to this flight, I had just seen Now You See Me, Now You Don’t (which is the third movie) in theaters, so I thought it would be good to rewatch the first two. Since I had already seen this movie, I also decided to bust out my Nintendo 3DS and play some Pokemon White, which I have slowly been trying to level grind my final team for the Elite 4.

Once I finished Now You See Me, I immediately went into Now You See Me 2 as the midflight snack service had just started.

Other than the movies, I mostly watched either the external camera feed or the flight map. And at various times I also listened to audio content.

All throughout the flight, much like every other flight review, I was taking detailed notes.

Sleeping in Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

I wanted to make sure that I did get SOME sleep so as to be functional enough when I landed since I planned on going to Mass (it would be Sunday when I landed) and getting myself over to my hotel to check in.

The seat came with a blanket and pillow, so I definitely used those to help me be more comfortable. Beginining in 2025, I started bringing my eye mask AND Business Class slippers that I obtained from some American Airlines flight I flew in 2024 whenever I fly long-haul Economy Class. Bringing my eye mask and slippers let me be more comfortable in an Economy Class situation by blocking out light and letting my feet not feel constricted. And that was no different here. I also sometimes used my backpack as a sort of footrest to elevate my legs a little. Otherwise, I pulled my backpack as close to the bottom of my knees as I could so that I could utilize the underseat space in front of me to stretch my legs out fully.

Between 2.5 to 6 hours of the flight was my first attempt at sleeping. I didn’t get a good amount of sleep–perhaps drifting in and out the whole time. At some point, my AirPods ran out of battery so the noise cancelling function stopped. Additionally, the gentleman in the opposite aisle seat (46G) kept fidgeting while he was trying to sleep, and the man behind him had the entire row to himself behind me so he tried sprawling out and fidgeting. In doing so, he’d kick my seat inadvertently at times, thus waking me up.

After midflight snack service, I attempted to sleep again from hours 8 to 10 of the flight. At this point, I had a headache so it was difficult for me to relax. I suspect I was dehydrated and the lack of sleep from earlier also contributed to the headache. However, I think I was able to fall asleep for a bit right before they turned the lights on for the pre-arrival meal.

I don’t think at any point towards the last bit of the flight did I feel refreshed or rested. If only I was seated in a lie-flat Business Class seat so I could get some decent and actual rest much like on the World’s Longest Flight!

Arrival at HND

Though I’m writing this several weeks after the flight, I’m having trouble remembering if it was the captain or the purser who made the arrival announcement. I’m leaning towards the purser. Either way, the arrival announcement was made at 12 hours and 44 minutes into the flight with about 40 minutes left until landing.

The purser sounded so official. She said there were 3 pilots and 14 cabin crew total operating this flight. I appreciated that the purser came on and said this as it made it seem like “yeah! We’re a team!” 

While on approach to landing, I noticed a few things. There wasn’t any turbulence, which was great. I also couldn’t really look out the window because most of the shades were down, but at least I had the external cam feeds to watch. The best part was seeing Mt. Fuji show up at a distance in the background of the feed! And it was really cool to see Honshu island come up on the approach to Tokyo, too.

As far as how I was feeling, I mentioned in the Sleep section above that I didn’t get a lot of quality sleep. But I was able to get a brief nap before the pre-arrival meal, and I felt somewhat refreshed yet still tired from that. Also, I did feel slightly bloated, likely due to dehydration. Because of all the sitting in an upright-ish position all flight, I did feel some slight aches on my butt and shoulders.

Finally, the landing was…not smooth. Lol. During taxi, the purser came on and apologized that we would be one minute late for arrival at the gate–ONE MINUTE LATE. Apparently there was a strong headwind, and that had caused our aircraft to not fly as fast as expected. Sheesh.

Here’s a summary of the times:

I’ll just add here as an additional tip that it is advantageous to fill out the Japanese customs form on board. In the customs and immigration hall, passengers get checked and separated depending on if the form was filled out already or not so pre-filling it out saves time.

Other Stories to Share

I don’t have many short stories to share from this flight other than two interesting observations.

During boarding, the gentleman in 46G (two seats away from me/opposite aisle seat from my row) was complaining HARDCORE to some family member (I’m assuming) on the phone. I guess he didn’t book the flight himself as he kept complaining to the person on the other end of the line why they booked him in Economy Class. He said he really wanted a bigger seat like in Premium Economy or Business. I started mentally preparing myself that this flight could get awkward in case this guy ended up being insufferable throughout the whole flight, but he just watched movies or tried to sleep the whole time, even asking me how to work the monitor at one point, haha.

And then the other interesting observation I had was I noticed the older Japanese man sitting in 45C was playing on a Nintendo Switch nearly the entire flight. What game? Some sort of mahjong–I could see the tiles and virtual table. I dunno that I could spend the majority of a 13 hour flight playing a single video game haha…although I did play Pokemon White for like…4 hours…

Lessons Learned from Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class

As an airline employee, I could have flown to Japan for free on my own airline. But the $109.40 I spent to fly standby on Japan Airlines to sit in Economy Class was well worth it! I thought the overall seat, service, and food was a better experience anyway. But! More importantly–I really wanted to fly JAL’s new A350.

The first lesson I learned was that because I booked this as a standby flight on not-my-own-airline, my itinerary didn’t have my Known Traveler Number attached. This meant that I didn’t get TSA PreCheck when I got my standby pass at the ticket counter. Not a problem, because at the time that I went through the security line, it was pretty open without a lot of people.

Regarding the Bluetooth capability with the screen, I thought it was a cool and very needed feature considering most people have Bluetooth headphones now. In practice, as I mentioned above, the system intermittently disconnected me, and it was a little bit of a challenge to reconnect. But the other major lesson I learned here was that it drained my AirPods’ batteries a lot. So I tried charging them when needed.

Speaking of audio-related lessons learned… I didn’t discover that the armrest itself had an audio jack until close to the end of the flight! See the picture below. I thought this was pretty cool because it gives another option for audio connection, and I suppose it would help keep the headphone cord out of the way too.

And then lastly, I also experienced that the A350 seemed to block cellular signals due to its composite construction much like the B787. This simply made it difficult for me to keep texting friends during boarding, and attempting to get my eSIM activated after landing. I don’t recall this being an issue when I flew Singapore Airlines on the world’s longest flight, but then again I was probably more distracted with being in Business Class!

Bottom Line

Though I was disappointed in not being able to find some practical, bougie way to fly to Japan in Business Class, I’m glad I landed (hah!) on the idea of flying Japan Airlines A350-1000 in Economy Class. The experience was pretty excellent for Economy Class, and I certainly thought that paying the taxes and fees of $109.40 was very worth it.

The experience on board was everything I expected out of Japan Airlines as they excelled in the small details and offered Japanese hospitality. The seat was full-featured for an Economy Class with its tech upgrades, and the meals were thoughtfully designed and presented while tasting pretty good. 

Sure, I had a few minor annoyances, but the overall experience I had was a great one, and one that I’d be willing to repeat.

Do I recommend flying in Economy Class on Japan Airlines A350-1000? Absolutely! As of 2025, American Airlines has two DFW flights a day to Tokyo (1x HND, 1x NRT), and Japan Airlines has this one flight to HND. Given that AA flies either the B777-200 or B787-9 with older cabins to Japan, I definitely think that flying Japan Airlines is the better experience since JAL started flying their A350 to DFW daily.

What do you think of this flight in Economy Class? Would you pay more of a premium to experience it?

Want to read another A350 review? Check out my experience on the World’s Longest Flight with Singapore Airlines from New York to Singapore!

The post Review: Japan Airlines A350-1000 Economy Class DFW-HND appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

Hola! This was my first time going to El Salvador! I know it has had a bad reputation for being a dangerous country in the past, but things have really turned around in the past few years. This first visit to the country was safe and comfortable, which was great because this was a work trip! What made this stay pleasant was staying at a Hilton property in San Salvador. Check out my review of the Hilton San Salvador below!

Hotel Information

Summary

• 7th floor Executive Room was clean, spacious, well-equipped, but showed signs of wear and tear
• Great amenities made for a comfortable stay
• Breakfast spread is fantastic

Booking the Hilton San Salvador

This trip was a business trip. For this hotel stay at the Hilton San Salvador, it was a little bit of a weird situation. Normally, I would book using my company’s internal travel portal. I saw that the Hilton San Salvador had a pretty high rate (like $280/night) and hesitated on actually booking it. Instead, I reached out to my supplier’s company rep to see about getting a better rate, and she was able to secure a much better rate of about $150/night.

I think this ended up being something of a third-party booking. And because of that, I didn’t get credited points for the stay.

Weirdly, I also didn’t have to pay when I checked out. I’m assuming that this ended up being billed to the contract between my company and the supplier, and nothing came out of pocket for me. It felt like I stole $531.00 as that was the amount I didn’t pay out of pocket!

Yay?

So with all that said, my booking didn’t have my Hilton Honors number attached until…check-in.

Location of the Hilton San Salvador

The Hilton San Salvador sits at the foot of the mountains that surround the San Salvador Volcano in the western part of the city. Its address is 89 Ave. Norte Y, 11 Calle Pte, San Salvador 1101, El Salvador

I would say there wasn’t much around the hotel in terms of restaurants and shopping as it seemed like the surrounding blocks were neighborhoods where people lived. However, the World Trade Center San Salvador is just next door and is a good skyscraper landmark.

My coworkers and I did venture out twice from the hotel on foot to walk like 10-20 minutes to various restaurants found via Google. Otherwise we Uber’d around, which was totally fine as Ubers were super cheap. Like $5 USD to get from one side of the city to the other.

To get to the hotel from the airport, I utilized a shuttle van arranged by my supplier. The ride was about an hour long as the airport is near the coast whereas San Salvador is further inland and higher up, and there’s only one major road that is between the city and the airport.

Lobby and Check In at the Hilton San Salvador

The parking lot was wide but fairly narrow as any vehicles pulling up to the front needed to circle around it just to get to the front door. The front door of the hotel was covered, which was nice since it was raining the day I arrived.

After passing through the main sliding doors into the lobby, the front desk was on the left, meeting rooms and the onsite cafe were to the right, and straight ahead was the elevators to the room and hallways leading to the bar and restaurant.

The front desk was L-shaped, and it looked like two representatives work it at a time. This wasn’t a problem at the time I checked-in at about 2:30PM, but I would imagine that it could easily get backed up if there’s a rush.

Like I mentioned above, this was a weird booking so I couldn’t use my app to check in. When I got in line to talk to the front desk, the agent asked for my passport so that he could look up my reservation. Despite the weird booking, he was able to find my reservation. During the process, he actually asked for my Hilton Honors number so I gave it, and he was able to input it into my reservation. He thanked me for being a Diamond member and reiterated the MyWay benefits (1000 points for the stay). Then he also explained breakfast hours for both the restaurant and the Executive lounge. Breakfast was included with this stay.

When I booked this hotel with my supplier, apparently the rate was being able to stay in an Executive Room. And I’ll consider that I got a complimentary upgrade (from my Diamond status) to a better view as my hotel room’s reservation did indicate “volcano view”.

After he gave me my keycards, I waited for my coworkers to check in, and then we were on our way to our separate rooms.

Executive Room at the Hilton San Salvador

At the Hilton San Salvador, the Executive Floors are 6th and 7th–the top two floors of the hotel. I noted that the elevators of the hotel require a keycard swipe to access the guestrooms.

My room number was 702, which is at one end of the hallway on the 7th floor of the hotel. Like …the very end. This plays into my hotel room location preferences of being on high floors and as far from the elevators as possible.

Walking into the room, the closet was to the left, the bathroom to the right, and the room straight ahead. The room is decently spacious for just one person, and I’d say the size of it is comparable to most US hotels. 

The room had various features:

• Keycard slot to power the room
• Very large walk-in closet
• Full size mirror in room
• Built-in luggage rack/bench
• ~65” TV on stand that’s also dresser with lockbox
• Coffee machine and stuff, including ice bucket
• Large mini fridge
• Desk and chair
• Lounging chair in corner
• King size bed with side tables/drawers

Because this was a corner room, there were actually windows on two of the walls. However, large heavy curtains covered the wall behind the TV and desk, and I never desired to open those curtains. The windows on the far end of the room have great views of the backside of the property as well as the low mountain peak and nearby valleys. There was a very small balcony, but I never opened the sliding doors.

Amenities and Features of the Executive Room

Circling back, let’s talk about the various amenities and features of the room. Note that this was the kind of hotel room that requires a keycard in a slot on the wall by the door in order to turn on the power for the rest of the room.

But first…let’s start with the closet. My gosh! The closet was absurdly huge. And this normally wouldn’t be a problem as most hotel closets that are big tend to have more storage to fill the space. However, the closet had the typical hangar rod and shelf only, and the rest was just empty space. So empty that I could have probably fit two twin mattresses side-by-side within it! Put another way…it has room for activities! See the pic above to get a better view. Otherwise, the closet came with an ironing board, an iron, extra pillow, extra blanket, hangars, two robes, and the typical laundry service bag and form. I did use the hangars to hang up my work clothes.

Inside the room, immediately to the left is a built-in luggage rack. Or is it a bench? I dunno, but I used it like a luggage rack, and for that purpose, it was nice because of its width. It had cushions like a bench though I never used it as such. I think you could sit two people on it comfortably. Did I? No. But I did place my luggage here for easy ergonomic access when I unpacked and repacked. If you look at the picture below, you can see how darkly lit the room is and how this luggage rack doesn’t stand out. But it was there.

The dresser had two large and deep drawers with one shelf underneath (which had one pair of disposable slippers). It also had one cabinet that housed the lockbox and another shelf. The dressers contained nothing, and I found them to be clean with a nice wood smell. I did use one of the drawers for my underclothes.

On top of the dresser is a large, LG flatscreen TV that estimate it to be about 65”. I know in US hotels these days, usually the TV is on when you walk in with your name on the screen, but that was not the case here. I never turned on the TV during this stay, but the remote and channel guide were available in the room.

For coffee, the machine in the room was the typical Cuisinart brand seen at most Hilton hotels that can brew two cups at once. No disposable cups as mugs are provided. Along with the machine and mugs are the typical coffee pods, tea bags, sugar, creamer, etc. I felt tempted to use the coffee machine, but ultimately decided every time that I’d get coffee from breakfast or the Executive Lounge in the mornings.

Right next to the coffee machine was the ice bucket, two complimentary bottles of water, and two glasses. I didn’t use any of these either. 

Next to the dresser was the large mini-fridge. I say large because it was the same height as the dresser. On top of the fridge was the basket of mini-bar snacks as well as pamphlets to tell you how much everything cost. Inside the fridge were sodas, beers, and a candy bar. I never make use of mini-bar stuff since hotels tend to overprice the items. Also, I don’t think any of the mini-bar had sensors that could tell if I moved anything so that the front desk could charge me accordingly.

The desk was of decent width. As you can see below, on top of the desk were power ports, a table lamp, and room service menus–both during the day and during the night. The office chair to accompany the desk was comfortable enough for the short amount of time that I used it. 

In the far corner of the room was the lounging chair. I never sat in it, but it had a short ottoman, a side table, and a floor lamp behind it. Seemed like a nice place to sit and chill, but I didn’t really do that as the bed was far more superior lol.

Speaking of the bed… it was king size. The bed had four pillows–all had a firm squishiness but not in the way that I like. You know that squishiness that squishes then stays that way? Yeah, that described these pillows. The bed also had a comforter and sheet. No accent pillows or other accessory bedding. Beside each side of the bed were side tables with drawers. One side had the room phone with note pads, and the other had a fancy alarm clock that had USB-C and wireless charging for phones.

Decor inside the Executive Room

As far as aesthetics go, the Executive Room kind of gave a slightly moody feel. I think it was because of the dark brown furniture, gray carpet, and lighter colored walls. The lights in the room gave yellow glows.

For artwork, I didn’t really see any except for the one framed canvas print of a birds eye view photo of some geographical feature that I’m assuming is in El Salvador. I don’t know that I’ve seen photo canvas prints in a hotel room before as they tend to be forgettable and abstract unless the room tries to fit into some distinct overall hotel aesthetic. Either way, I thought it was weird and …cheap.

Cleanliness and Wear/Tear in the Executive Room

Inside the room, I found it to be pretty clean. I didn’t notice anything egregious, and I didn’t throw up in my mouth a little as I went about the room. Though I will say there was something weird about the pillows. Or…the headboard. Or the bed. Or something. Maybe it was the detergent and musk of the room that gave a noticeable weird smell like a fart. I could never trace where that smell was coming from, and I don’t think it was me! It was weird because… I couldn’t consistently smell it, but it was there every so often if I moved around at the back of the bed.

The bed had clean sheets and pillowcases, and I didn’t notice/feel any debris on the carpet.

Looking at the finer details of the room, I convinced myself that this was a converted hotel because the carpet looked like it was added after the fact. I saw carpet sections in the hallway that were not continuous with the rest of the room, and there was a wire running across that I could feel with my feet. Some Googling led me to learn that it was once a Crowne Plaza hotel, and became a Hilton in 2020. I know it’s been several years now, but it almost seems like the renovation work was a little shoddy. Not in a bad way. But noticeable in the details.

Noises in the Executive Room

Thankfully, the room itself wasn’t noisy. I did notice that the A/C makes a soft hum when it ran, but nothing like an A/C unit at an old and rickety Hampton Inn in a Houston, TX summer. 

I don’t think I had neighbors across the hall or next to me so I didn’t really hear other guests moving about their rooms. Then again, this was a corner room at the end of the hallway.

Now, the most struggle I had with noise in this room was the first night. Apparently the hotel hosted a fairly large tech conference, and they had some sort of mixer in the courtyard that my room overlooked. Loud music! Not great after a day of travel and grabbing dinner with coworkers and wanting to go to bed relatively early. Thankfully it stopped at about 10PM. Which was kind of surprising because…as Spain and other Hispanic countries/cultures taught me, parties can last well into the night!

Temperature in the Executive Room

El Salvador has a more tropical climate so humidity is more prevalent. I didn’t think this was an issue for the room as the air conditioner kept the room cool. I did think it to be a little warm and muggy when I first arrived so I turned it down like 1 deg to 20C. 

To help keep the room temperature stable, I left the second keycard given to me by the front desk in the power slot for the room so that the room and A/C never powered off.

At night, I felt like it got cold enough for me to sleep comfortably with the comforter. I probably should have looked at data on my smart ring for comparison, but alas I did not.

Overall Impression of the Executive Room

Because this was a business trip with coworkers, the goal for me using the room was just to sleep and get ready for the day. I didn’t really leisurely hang out in it for long periods of time as much of my time at the hotel was spent outside of the room whether at the bar or Executive Lounge (see below). 

Writing this review after the stay, the thing that’s still wild to me is the closet! It was unnecessarily huge, but nice to know that it offered plenty of storage space. 

While I had trouble sleeping the first night due to getting used to sleeping in a hotel again annnnnnd the loud music playing outside until 10PM, the second and third nights were better. However, I still had some trouble those nights probably because of late dinners and drinks.

Overall, I think the room provided more than adequate accommodations for my particular use case for this trip. It was a clean and decently comfortable stay in the room.

Bathroom in the Executive Room

The bathroom was at the front entrance of the room with a swinging door that swings into the bathroom. Inside, it was rectangular in shape. To the left was the sink, the middle had the toilet, and the right was the shower.

Amenities and Features in the Bathroom

For the sink, I noticed a few amenities. The hair dryer was on a shelf beneath the sink, there was a tissue box on top as well as travel sized mouthwash, a bar of soap, disposable scrub pad, and disposable shower cap. Persea branded lotion and hand wash were in refillable bottles on the wall. I didn’t use any of these except the bar of soap for washing my hands.

The toilet is pretty basic. Probably annoying are the flush buttons being in the center of the tank on top. This means you have to reach around a little further to flush . I also found it amusing that the toilet paper brand they’re using is Kleenex. For flush power, the toilet wasn’t very powerful.

The shower is spacious as it fills the length of its wall. The showerhead is up high so I don’t think tall people would have issues with their head running into it. Temperature-wise, I didn’t have issues having to wait for the water to warm up. I did think the water pressure was on the lower side, but not frustratingly low. For amenities, the shower does come with Persea shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. I actually did use the conditioner, but it took me many pumps before I got any out of the bottle. The scent was some herb and lavender–smelled good. I just assume that Persea stuff is mostly botanical in scent.

Decor in the Bathroom

The decor in the bathroom is fairly minimal. I did notice that the sink area is the same dark brown/black wood in the room. And the artwork in the bathroom is another framed canvas print (see pic above). The tiles on the bathroom floor were a brown/gray, and the tiles in the shower were like gray/yellow. Very basic.

Cleanliness and Wear/Tear in the Bathroom

I thought the cleanliness of the bathroom was pretty clean. Nothing obvious. No weird stains anywhere.

For wear and tear, I thought it was similar to the room wherein there were small details that convinced me that the renovation job of this hotel was kind of meh. But other than that, nothing looked obviously terrible. No broken tiles or holes in the wall. Maybe some noticeable caulking that could use some repair.

Noises in the Bathroom

I didn’t notice any hums or exterior noise for the bathroom. The faucets didn’t make any annoying drip sounds. And I didn’t hear other hotel system sounds like the plumbing of other rooms and such.

Overall Impression of the Bathroom

I appreciated that there was some generous space within the bathroom. Sometimes I feel like all the major fixtures tend to get squished close together, but that wasn’t the case here. The two bits of frustration I had was that there was no hand towel rack at which to hang the hand towel for drying my hands after using the sink, and that the toilet’s flush power is low. Because of that low flush power, I had a bit of an embarrassing situation with the toilet that I won’t describe here… lol…

WiFi in Executive Room

When I checked into the hotel, they gave me the SSID and password in the keycard envelope. It didn’t cost anything to use the WiFi, and I didn’t see any distinction between normal and premium like hotels in the USA.

As far as speed goes, I thought it to be about average from what I’ve seen at other Hilton properties.

• 20.55 mbps download
• 19.11 mbps upload
• 4 ms ping

I just used the WiFi for my phone, and that was good enough. I didn’t experience any hiccups other than trying to get connected for the first time as the splash page didn’t load properly initially.

Amenities at the Hilton San Salvador

The Hilton San Salvador is a full-service hotel so it had a good handful of amenities typical of such properties.

Restaurants and Bars

At the Hilton San Salvador, you can find one restaurant, one bar, and a coffee lounge. Room service was also available in the room with selections from these establishments. 

El Mirador – restaurant

• Location: 1st floor, towards the outdoor courtyard, and adjacent to the Terra Bar
• Hours: 5:30AM-11:00PM

The restaurant featured plenty of indoor seating with elegant aesthetics without being gaudy. It also had an outdoor patio with views of the mountains behind the hotel–el mirador, “the viewpoint”, I suppose!

I only ate here once for breakfast (see below). Because of this, I am not quite sure what they offer on their menu.

My last night at the hotel, I noticed a big group seated in the middle eating dinner. And not really anyone else. I figured they were part of the tech conference group.

Essenza – coffee lounge/cafe

• Location: 1st floor, opposite of the front desk in the courtyard area
• Hours: 6:00AM-11:00PM

It was interesting to me to see a hotel coffee shop that wasn’t a fake Starbucks, haha. I only passed by but saw that it looked like your typical cafe that offers various coffee drinks and other drinks. You can also pick up sandwiches, salads, and other snacks.

I never bought anything from here during my stay, and I never saw it busy. Just a few individuals inside at any given time. Sorry, no pic!

Terra Bar – bar

• Location: 1st floor, towards the outdoor courtyard, closer to the elevators to the room
• Hours: 11:00AM-11:00PM

This bar had a lengthy counter, with about half of it that faced the bar and bartenders, and the other half faced a projector screen that usually had sports on. Also its dark colors give it a moody feel.

You can either order directly from the bar or the bartenders give you a QR code menu to see what’s available for both food and drink.

My coworkers and I had several drinks here. Service wasn’t fast, but it was friendly and attentive. On the first night, the bar was pretty busy as a big conference was staying at the hotel. On the last night, it was less busy in the bar area as more people were sitting in the lobby around the live band.

Speaking of the live band… a jazz combo (bass, guitar, piano) played classics on the last night of my stay towards the end of the bar and more in the lobby.

The latest information for El Mirador, Essenza, and Terra Bar can be found here.

Breakfast at El Mirador

The standard breakfast offered was at the El Mirador restaurant. It was buffet-style.

• Hours: 6:00AM-10:00AM 

At El Mirador’s host stand, you can leave your name and room number if you have breakfast included with your stay. As I mentioned in the Booking section above, breakfast was included with my stay though I am not sure if that was because of my being in an Executive Room or being a Diamond member. I know that Hilton hotels in the US have gone the way of food and beverage credit that can be used for breakfast, but I am glad that wasn’t the case here.

I was pretty impressed by the breakfast spread! While it doesn’t give the Conrad Tokyo nor Hilton Rome Airport hotels a run for their money, I thought that the offerings were pretty great.

The buffet included hot foods, cold foods, breads, pastries, a station for made-to-order eggs, and another station for pupusas (at the outdoor patio).

For hot foods in the buffet line, I saw things like:

• Scrambled eggs
• Beans
• Chilaquiles
• Other local specialities that I’m not sure of or remember their name

As for cold foods, I saw:

• Fruits served different ways
• Salads (still weird to me that salad is a breakfast item)
• Yogurt with toppings
• Cheeses
• Cold cuts

The bread and pastries selection forced me to make some tough choices as the selections were varied and delicious-looking. I mean, just look at it below!

Cereals, fresh juices, and such were also available.

As far as what I actually ended up with (apart from the pupusa pictured above), I had scrambled eggs, some sort of chicken, cheese bread, and chocolate bread. Ooh and coffee. All were pretty good! I didn’t want to overload myself because I had a big dinner the night before.

Like I said, I thought the spread was really great. And I only ate here once due to wanting to try the Executive Lounge breakfast (see below). I love that sitting outdoors was an option, and plenty of seating was available either inside or outside. 

I would recommend eating here for breakfast if you want a lot of variety or want to try various things and/or sit outside!

Executive Lounge

For guests staying in an Executive Room or who are Diamond members, the lounge is an option for breakfast and offers a happy hour in the evenings as well. 

• Location: 7th floor
• Breakfast Hours: 6:00AM-???? (I never confirmed when breakfast is done, but I assume 10:00AM)
• Happy Hours: 6:00PM-9:00PM

To access, you need to scan your keycard on the door of the lounge.

For the amount of space the Executive Lounge had, I was surprised at how many different seating options there were ranging from couches to normal dining to hightop dining, seating for one or two to a group, and more. I did appreciate that the couches were at the front of the TV as that made it conducive to watch North American sports with drinks with my coworker.

During breakfast and happy hour, a lounge attendant was available to take drink orders. I am not sure to what extent the drinks were available, but certainly canned and bottled drinks were.

Breakfast

The breakfast food in the Executive Lounge was interesting to me. It looked as though the menu changed every day, and everything looked like hors d’evores. I didn’t have a problem with that, but I recall wanting simplicity like scrambled eggs but…noooooOOOOooo…it had to be poached egg on toast. Or no egg at all. 

The lounge had a coffee/espresso machine and some juices available in the mornings. The attendant could also take other drink orders.

Most certainly the Executive Lounge felt pretty exclusive in the early mornings as both times I ate there, there was maybe like two to three others at most eating there at the same time I did.

But where I think the Executive Lounge really wowed me was the views in the morning. Because the windows face north-northeast, the sunrise and mountains made for a beautiful view to pair with my coffee and fingerfood breakfast.

If you value great views and quieter mornings, then the Executive Lounge is the way to go for breakfast!

Happy Hour

During happy hour, a standard spread of various hors d’evores and small plate type food are available. 

I ran into another coworker here on the first evening, and I’m pretty sure he had lite dinners here during his stay without going out and about in order to save money, haha. Honestly, at international Hiltons with a lounge, I’ve done this before!

The major lesson that my coworkers and I learned here at the Executive Lounge is that there was a two drink limit during happy hour. Not really an issue, but definitely something to be cognizant about. We didn’t know as there was no sign posted about this limit anywhere.

The Executive Lounge was a great place to enjoy some drinks and snacks before heading out for the night to grab a nicer dinner elsewhere, which is exactly what my coworkers and I did. Twice.

Gym

The Hilton San Salvador offers a decent gym for keeping fit while staying at the property.

• Location: 1st floor, across from pool, access is from outdoors
• Hours: 24/7

To access the gym, swipe your room keycard. I must say that the only way to access the gym is by going outdoors. The first morning I went, it was raining pretty hard so that made going into the gym a little bit of a wet challenge…

The gym was unattended. I know sometimes full-service Hilton hotels in foreign locations have full-fledged independent gyms attached to the hotel (like the Hilton Frankfurt or the Hilton Rome Airport), but that was not the case here.

The gym is of decent size. I feel like if more than 5 people are using it then it would likely feel crowded. The layout of the gym is divided by a weight area, and kind of an L-shaped area where the cardio machines are. 

As far as equipment goes, the following were available:

• Cardio (has TVs on each, no smartwatch sync):
  • 4x treadmills
  • 3x ellipticals
• Weights
  • Dumbbell set
  • Flat press
  • Leg press
  • Leg extension/curl
  • Cable machine
  • Medicine balls

For amenities that the gym offers:

• Water dispenser (like a Sparkletts)
• Towels
• Individual Restrooms (men’s and women’s)
• Scale
• Mats
• TV
• Spray bottle and towels for wiping down equipment

I visited the gym twice during my stay: early morning the second day and early morning the third day. On the second day, I went in around 4:20AM and there was only one other guest. As time went on, a few more showed up. I was able to do a full lower body workout while shifting around different equipment without getting in the way of the others. On the third day, I visited the gym at about 4:00AM, and there was one other guest. He left early, and I was able to take pics for this gym section of the review, haha. I didn’t stay long as I felt like I wanted to go back to bed, so I did.

Regarding the cleanliness of the gym, I thought it wasn’t gross or anything like that. Perhaps the floor was a little questionable as I saw a few bugs and some dust/debris. I didn’t see trash or dirty-looking gym equipment.

For wear and tear, I didn’t see gashes on bench pads, missing equipment, or chipped dumbbells. Overall the equipment looked decently maintained.

Overall, I thought the gym was more than adequate for me looking to get a decent workout in before getting the day started. I’m glad the hotel was equipped with more than just dumbbells for weights so I was able to do more of my normal strength training routine. I did think that the gym seemed a little muggy, but I think that is because it opens to the outdoors and El Salvador has a tropical climate.

Pool

The Hilton San Salvador has an outdoor pool with lounge chairs. The restaurant’s outdoor patio overlooks it.

• Location: 1st floor, outside in the courtyard
• Hours: 6:00AM-7:00PM

To access the pool, swipe your room keycard on the gates leading into the pool area.

I would say the pool was medium-sized. It was not as small as something you’d find at a Hampton or Hilton Garden Inn, but was not Olympic-sized that you’d be able to swim laps in either. 

Ironically, I didn’t use the pool though I did think about it as I did pack swim trunks. Honestly, I never saw anyone use the pool at all during my stay. 

As I mentioned above multiple times, the hotel was hosting a fairly large multi-day conference, and they had set up the main space of the courtyard right next to the pool with an outdoor tent with buffet tables and seating. I had to basically walk through this setup just to get to one of the entrance gates to the pool. This probably detracted people from using the pool. I mean…it also detracted me, haha.

Laundry

As is typical for many hotels, there was a laundry service bag in the closet with accompanying form. I never use this service at any hotel unless work pays for it on a long stay, so I am unsure how much it costed here at the Hilton San Salvador.

I also did not find any guest laundry area at the hotel.

Gift Shop “La Piskucha”

I did notice a small gift shop and market on the property called “La Piskucha.”

• Location: 1st floor, outside, between front desk and gym
• Hours: M-F 9:30AM-6:30PM, Sat 9:00AM-5:00PM, Sun closed

While walking past it, I noticed that the gift shop sells typical gift shop items. I didn’t go in, so I was not sure of what is really offered inside until I visited the website after the fact. La Piskucha sells artisan handmade goods that would make a great gift or keepsake from visiting El Salvador.

Parking

Apparently the hotel has a paid parking garage somewhere adjacent to the hotel. I found out because the app’s hotel guide mentioned it.

Regardless, I didn’t have a rental car as I utilized Ubers and the work shuttle van for transportation in/out of the hotel.

Meeting Rooms and Conference Center

According to their website, the Hilton San Salvador is the largest hotel convention center in the city. 

There was indeed a large tech conference happening during my stay, and it looked like they were utilizing every meeting room space at the hotel. I frequently saw people with conference badges and lanyards milling around the hotel.

Service at the Hilton San Salvador

My encounters with staff at the Hilton San Salvador were pretty much limited to the front desk, the bar, the restaurant, and the lounge. I think in all cases, everyone was friendly and attentive. I would say they were not necessarily expedient in their services (particularly at the restaurant and bar), but I was never waiting around for too long for anything.

In the rooms are two doortags: one for Do Not Disturb, and one for requesting housekeeping. I requested housekeeping once using the doortag, and they did indeed make up and clean the room. While walking through the hallway of my floor as I went to and came back from work, they would greet me.

Occupancy at the Hilton San Salvador

As mentioned above, there was some sort of large tech conference happening during my stay. I think most of the attendees were staying in non-Executive floors as I hardly saw them while up on my floor or in the lounge.

Because of the nature of my work, I also saw other aviation-related guests staying at the hotel (more than just my coworkers and colleagues! lol). 

Overall, I didn’t encounter disruptive guests. The conference attendees were well-behaved, haha.

Stories

I do have a few observations to share.

On the morning of my third day, I went to the gym at like 4:00AM. I had to pass through the lobby in order to get to the courtyard to enter the gym. In the lobby were three guests sitting in the lobby area in front of the bar. Surrounding them were cans and cans and cans of Suprema (one of El Salvador’s beers). I actually thought they were Sprite cans as Suprema cans are also green and white, and I thought it weird for them to be up all night drinking Sprite. But upon somewhat closer inspection, I saw the word “Suprema” on the cans. They weren’t being crazy–I think they were just up all night talking and drinking in the lobby.

There’s an aviation-related company in El Salvador that major airlines like to use, so it’s not surprising to run into Americans at the big hotel chains in San Salvador. I was able to strike up some small talk in the elevator and lobby with a gentleman from a rival company of mine. He made some comparisons between the Hilton San Salvador and the Sheraton Presidente, and he liked the Hilton more. Nice. Maybe I’ll get to try the Sheraton Presidente next time.

Lessons Learned

As a summary from this stay, I had a few lessons learned:

• The Executive Lounge had a two alcoholic drink limit
• Water pressure for the toilet in the room was low

Bottom Line

The Hilton San Salvador was a pretty nice hotel to for me to stay in while on the job. It had a clean and comfortable Executive Room, and had standard amenities to enjoy before and after work. Despite the large tech conference that the hotel hosted during my stay, I didn’t really run into problems other than a noisy first night. While I wish there were more food options near the hotel to walk to, taking an Uber was cheap and convenient, and the Executive Lounge and Terra Bar were great places to have an evening drink and appetizers.

I would totally stay here again on future work trips!

What do you think of the Hilton San Salvador? Would you stay here when you visit San Salvador?

I’m mostly a Hilton guy–check out these other Hilton hotel reviews!

• Spark by Hilton San Antonio Airport
• The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican, Tapestry Collection by Hilton
• Hilton Rome Airport

The post Review: Hilton San Salvador appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

The most logical thing is to get dropped off at the security checkpoint closest to your gate. But sometimes the one closest to your gate has ridiculous wait times! And then you’re stressing out because you don’t want to be late for your flight! So know before you go on how to handle DFW Airport security wait times like a pro.

How to Know DFW Airport Security Wait Times

Fortunately, there are different ways to know DFW Airport security wait times so that you can make informed decisions to save time and not wait around.

Monitors

Most travelers traveling to DFW Airport probably have seen the monitors above most security checkpoints. These monitors provide the estimated wait times for each security line, whether General, Priority, and/or PreCheck. 

There may be other monitors that point towards the other security checkpoints as well as their wait times. Sometimes it is worth the walk over to the next security checkpoint for a shorter wait time to go through security. 

If I didn’t have time to look up wait times prior to me arriving at the airport, I usually look at the monitors.

MyTSA App

The MyTSA App is a good resource for understanding wait times at DFW Airport. Once DFW is selected, it will show current status and historical data from the day as a chart for wait times. The other nice thing is that the app also tells you which PreCheck lanes are open at what checkpoints.

I honestly don’t use the MyTSA App for anything. There’s a better resource for DFW Airport that I use, which I describe below.

Still interested in the MyTSA App though? Go here for links to the MyTSA App for your respective device.

DFW Airport Website/App

The website and app provide a map of the layout of the airport and gives you an easy view of the entire airport. The wait times are color-coded and filterable by the type of security checkpoint. On the app and website, there are the General, Priority, and TSA Precheck tabs as options.

In my opinion, this is the best way. 

I like that it is live and an easy resource to access. Oftentimes I am either parking at the terminal or using some of the other parking lots that require shuttles, and looking at the website or app for wait times lets me choose which security checkpoint to head towards once I get dropped off.

Go here for the web version of the map of security wait times.

Other Airports with online security wait times

Of course, DFW isn’t the only airport that provides useful information about security wait times. However, in my brief research, DFW seems to have the best one.

JFK – gives wait times by terminal, but no map (on airport home page, click button for Security & Customs wait times)

EWR – gives wait times by terminal, but no map (same as JFK)

PHX – gives wait times by terminal and checkpoint, no map (scroll down on airport home page; reservation program available)

MIA – gives wait times by terminal and checkpoint, no map (might need to refresh webpage for updated info)

DEN – detailed info by checkpoint

ATL – gives approximate wait times and how many checkpoints open

DTW – gives wait times on home page

Strangely, the big airports on the west coast seam to hate the idea of providing estimated wait times. In the case of SEA, they’ll give you a blog post on how to have it not suck as bad. And for LAX, I avoid flying there for a domestic trip as much as possible because car traffic within the airport is often absolutely horrible.

Bottom Line

DFW Airport has several ways to know how long security wait times are, and the best method is using the app or website with the interactive map.

The post Know Before You Go – DFW Airport Security Wait Times appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

It’s 2025, and it seems like there’s an airline incident every other week! I remember earlier this year about American Airlines flight number 1006 that diverted to Denver due to high vibrations in the right engine that ultimately led to an engine fire and emergency evacuation. The pictures were interesting because you could see passengers standing on the left wing waiting to be rescued as there was smoke and fire on the other side of the aircraft. A few of the passengers had their luggage with them on the wing!

Denver and American Airlines were recently back in the news again due to another incident, and I wanted to talk about what I noticed, the implications therein, and what I learned since I was curious about regulations and such.

What happened with the American Airlines flight in Denver?

On Saturday July 26, 2025, an American Airlines B737 MAX 8 flight aborted take off after reports of lots of smoke. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the flight reported “a possible landing gear incident” during departure.

Flight AA3023 was departing from Denver headed to Miami when the incident occurred around 2:45PM local time. Here’s first-hand video of the evacuation (<<< click/tap this if embedded video below doesn’t work):

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A post shared by Highly Migratory (@highlymigratoryfishing)

From this first-hand video, you can clearly see the left-hand landing gear on fire with smoke. As the fire truck extinguishes it, more smoke emanates from the scene as passengers continue to evacuate. 

The situation seems relatively calm even as passengers are hurriedly trying to evacuate the airplane. But with the smoke and the fire, it looked kinda dramatic!

According to the local CBS news outlet, all passengers and crew members evacuated safely. Thank goodness!

When I watched the video for the first time, what was immediately obvious to me was seeing most passengers were carrying their luggage with them. Due to being overencumbered as such, you can see some people slide down the evacuation slide badly and/or walk away clumsily.

You know how airline safety cards and safety briefings say to leave your luggage and bags behind in an emergency situation? 

Yeah. Because…you’re supposed to evacuate quickly and not be an obstacle to yourself and others trying to evacuate as well.

But is that written or codified anywhere? I wondered about this and did a bit of research on what the FAA says about emergency evacuations. 

What does the FAA say about emergency evacuations and luggage?

In my brief research, I didn’t find anything specific in the FAA regulations related to luggage in an emergency evacuation situation that sounded anything like “Thou shall not evacuate the aircraft with your luggage in an emergency situation.”

Rather, there are regulations that govern the design and operation of the aircraft and standards that need to be complied with. Allow me to describe them below:

Part 25.803 and Appendix J

Part 25 of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs)  has to do with the airworthiness standards of transport category aircraft. The regulations in Part 25 have to do with the design of the aircraft.

In particular, section 803 is about emergency evacuations. Basically, the design of the interiors has to be such that everyone on board has the emergency means to allow rapid evacuation of the aircraft in a crash. And it has to be shown that the max seating capacity of the aircraft can be evacuated within 90 seconds

So how do you test the design of an aircraft for compliance to 25.803? That’s what Appendix J outlines. There are many requirements for how this test and demonstration must be carried out in order to show compliance. 

Basically, the test environment and demonstration should simulate an emergency situation with typical representative passengers who cannot be pre-briefed on what to do or where to go. 

Part 121.291 and Appendix D

Part 121 of the CFRs has to do with the operating requirements of air carriers. 

And section 291 is for the demonstration of evacuation procedures. The important thing to note here is that the airline has to demonstrate that its evacuation procedures meet FAA requirements as outlined in this section. This regulation primarily deals with the criteria for having to do a demonstration like changing emergency exits or number of flight attendants.

Appendix D provides the criteria and additional guidance for meeting 121.291’s requirements.

Advisory Circular 25.803-1A

The FAA further provided additional guidance on the means at which to comply to 25.803 with Advisory Circular 25.803-1A in context of 121.291. Advisory Circulars are not mandatory to be implemented, but provide clarification and guidance on existing regulations and requirements.

Again, nothing in these regulations talk about passengers being restricted from taking their luggage during an emergency evacuation. 

Should passengers grab their things during an emergency evacuation?

Done. End of story.

Jokes aside, I think there are two ways of looking at this: legally and practically.

From a legal perspective (Note: I am not an expert–the following are my opinions), there isn’t really anything that I’ve found that says it is criminal to evacuate an aircraft with your luggage. However, the FAA can impose civil penalties, the airline can as well, and maybe some cities/governments out there could also. So hey, if it’s not illegal and if the aircraft is not actively burning on the inside, then I can see how a passenger would rationalize grabbing one’s stuff before evacuating.

On the other hand, from a practical perspective…well, it isn’t practical to grab your stuff in an emergency evacuation. 

The FAA regulations governing the design and operation of transport aircraft operated by airlines are there for a reason. No commercial transport aircraft would be flying unless the aircraft meets these requirements. Therefore, we know it has been previously shown that it IS possible to evacuate a full aircraft in 90 seconds or less. 

Anything that would cause you or other passengers to be delayed in evacuating the aircraft safely should be avoided. Taking the time to grab your stuff out of the bin or from under the seat 1) takes time and 2) potentially creates another obstacle between you or other passengers and the emergency exit. And besides, luggage and other belongings could possibly damage the emergency slides and render them unusable, which wouldn’t be great in an emergency situation either especially to your fellow passengers.

But I can understand why passengers grab their stuff in these situations. Maybe there’s important, expensive things like electronics, work, medicines, etc. Maybe they don’t want to deal with the chaos of getting their bag returned later from the airline. 

In my opinion, stuff can be replaced–life cannot. I’d rather live to see another day than die because I needed to rescue my cheap luggage I got from Walmart.

Besides… the only way everyone survived an on-runway collision that resulted in a fiery airplane was everyone evacuating and complying with flight crew instructions to not grab their things. Very Japanese, though.

Bottom Line

AA3023 aborted takeoff at Denver’s airport due to a landing gear incident resulting in fire and smoke. Video of the evacuation showed passengers leaving the aircraft with their luggage.  

FAA regulations govern the design and operation of transport aircraft, but don’t really make it unlawful for passengers to grab their belongings in emergency evacuations. Despite the lack of legal binding, passengers should still follow crew instructions and leave belongings behind as a practical means of evacuating rapidly and safely.

What do you think? Were the passengers who grabbed their stuff in the wrong?

Featured photo from @highlymigratoryfishing

The post Smoking American Airlines 737 Aborted Takeoff In Denver appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

This flight concluded my time in Rome for the canonization Mass-turned-papal-funeral trip. By the time I got on this flight, I was ready to go home after some Roman and Vatican adventures. For this flight home, I wanted a little bit more of a comfortable flight so I opted to book Main Cabin Extra. Check out this review of American Airlines B777-200 in Main Cabin Extra from Rome to Dallas/Ft. Worth!

Flight Info

Summary

• Main Cabin Extra with more leg room made this flight a little more comfy
• Three meals served during this flight
• WiFi was expensive, but fast enough to do social media things

Booking American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

For background on how I booked this leg, check out this blog post as well as my review of Main Cabin on the flight from DFW to FCO. 

The difference in booking this leg was that I decided to upgrade from Main Cabin to Main Cabin Extra a few weeks before departure. The cost to do so was $110.02.  In my arsenal of travel credit cards, I hold the American Express Hilton Aspire card, and it has a quarterly airline credit of $50. I hadn’t yet used it on anything this quarter so I figured I could use that credit to upgrade to a confirmed Main Cabin Extra seat. 

I’ll also mention that because I have Gold status with AAdvantage, I technically can select Main Cabin Extra seats at check-in 24 hours before departure. But I didn’t want to wait that long, and I knew that demand for flying out of Rome back to the US would be high because of the various tourists and pilgrims out and about in Italy so being able to select an ideal Main Cabin Extra seat right before departure could have been challenging. Also I wanted to make sure I selected an aisle seat and not one in the middle!

Note that Main Cabin Extra technically isn’t a separate cabin on American Airlines flights–it’s just an economy class seat with extra leg room and free alcohol on domestic flights.

Whenever I pay for ancillary fees or upgrades like this, I do not get an employee discount. So it was good that I had airline credit through a credit card to help offset the cost.

Packing for American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

Similar to the flight to Rome from DFW, I just had my backpack and cross-body bag. I put my backpack in the bin, and had my cross-body bag underneath the seat in front of me.

I still had my First Class slippers, eye mask, and noise canceling headphones loaded into my cross-body bag, and that made them more convenient to access in order to be more comfortable during the flight.

Check In and Security/Customs at FCO

Because I had stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport the night before departure, I had a really easy time getting to the airport. I didn’t take a bus or taxi–I walked! The front of the hotel has a pedestrian bridge that connects to the terminals at FCO. And it was just 8 minutes from the front desk to the departure hall of Terminal 3.

Once I got to the departure hall, I looked on the boards to see where American Airlines had their ticket counters. Apparently they were at O441, which was on the far end of the hall in a section designated for US-bound and Israel-bound flights.

I got in line to check in with the Priority desk because I am AAdvantage Gold, but a guard stopped me and started asking me questions. He asked basic things like how long I was in Italy, why I was in Italy, and whatnot. I explained to him the original purpose of this trip, and how that got messed up, and how I ended up going to Pope Francis’ funeral. He understood the funeral part, but was hung up on the canonization Mass that I was supposed to attend. He finally figured it out and was amazed and started asking me more about Carlo Acutis and asked more questions about him–wild!

This all took a few minutes, and then I was finally able to see the ticket agent. Talking to the ticket agent only took a few minutes as well as they verified my passport and printed my boarding pass.

From the last trip I took to Rome (July 2017), I remembered Security and Customs taking forever with long lines for both. But at 7:30AM in the morning, there weren’t a lot of people going through security so it only took like 5 minutes. They didn’t ask me to remove anything from my bags other than my iPad.

For Customs, FCO had plenty of open lanes and they use an automated passport control system that scans your passport and your photo taken. It’s a similar system I’ve seen at airports like HKG and SIN. This part only took about 6 minutes to get my exit stamp from the Customs officer.

Once through, I meandered my way through the terminal to get to the lounge.

The Prima Vista Portus Lounge at FCO

After doing some light research the night before, I settled on trying the Prima Vista Lounge. Because I have Priority Pass from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I was able to access this lounge.

The Prima Vista Lounge can be found airside in the non-Schengen portion of the terminal towards the E51-E61 gate area, across from the security checkpoint. Kind of hard to describe, but I think it’s decently straightforward to find.

I arrived at about 7:45AM and checked in with the front desk after they greeted me warmly. They scanned my boarding pass as well as my Priority Pass membership card that I had pulled up from the app.

Inside the Prima Vista lounge are various spaces to hang out in. After walking past the front desk, there were restrooms to the left and seating by the windows. There is a main seating area with food and drink along the right wall. By the windows are semi-private podlike seats. The main seating area has armchairs with side tables that have charging ports. There’s also a meeting room in the back corner with a conference table. I also noticed another seating area designated as the quiet zone separate from the rest of the lounge. And I also saw there was a separate dining area with more seats.

I couldn’t take too many pictures because of the amount of people in the lounge. I wouldn’t say it was full, but most of the seats in the main space were occupied. I did end up in the quiet area because no one was in it at the time I sat down.

For food, the Prima Vista lounge was serving breakfast. All the typical breakfast times were available seemingly catering to more of an American palate: eggs, bacon, pastries, fruits, yogurts, etc. 

I didn’t really get food as I was full from the breakfast buffet at the Hilton Rome Airport earlier in the morning. I did settle for a few drinks though.

There was a bar and coffee menu, and fridges were available that contained both still and sparkling water bottles. 

For other amenities, there was free WiFi. The passcode is available at the front desk. I did connect to it and ran a speed test for the WiFi, and it came back with:

• 3.41 mbps download
• 3.76 mbps upload
• 68 ms ping

That’s pretty slow, but it was serviceable enough for me to upload a few Instagram stories and browse around on my phone during my lounge stay.

I saw there was one set of restrooms, and one shower. I’m not sure what the protocol was for the shower, but I’m assuming you would have to talk to the front desk to use it.

Overall, I love the darker aesthetic of the lounge and the elegant finishes to match. The chair was comfortable, and the food spread was pretty great even though I didn’t eat. I also loved that the lounge had windows to the outside although they didn’t appear to have good views of the adjacent gates nor tarmac.

At about 8:30AM, I used the restroom, refilled my water bottle (a mistake I’ll share below), and headed to Gate E41 for my flight to DFW.

Boarding American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

Boarding for this 10:00AM flight to the DFW was scheduled for 9:10AM as stated on my boarding pass and on the departure monitors. 

The gate was E41, and from the Prima Vista Lounge, it required me to take a people-mover train from T3. I just followed the signs. It took me about 12-15 minutes overall.

When I arrived at the gate at 8:45AM, I saw there were a lot of people seated in the gate area, and a good handful were lined up to talk to the gate agents. A few security guys (dressed similar to the one when I checked in at the ticket counter) were walking around and talking to passengers asking similar questions.

The gate agents made their usual announcements periodically as boarding was approaching, but I was particularly amused by the announcements in Italian! Sounds so cool! Lol.

At 9:08AM, they made the announcement that boarding was about to begin so everyone gate lice’d the boarding lanes, and at 9:10AM they called for Concierge Keys to board.

While I was waiting for Group 4, I saw one of my church friends from back home also waiting around! So I briefly caught up with him and his family while waiting for Group 4 to be called.

Boarding seemed to go slow, but I saw that Group 1 had 40+ passengers. And at about 9:21AM, I scanned my boarding pass with Group 4. While walking down to the jet bridge, I noticed they had set up secondary security checks for security to go through bags. Luckily, I wasn’t selected… this time.

Departure in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

I got into my seat at about 9:23AM. My backpack went in the bin and my cross-body bag went under the seat in front of me. Weirdly, most of the overhead bin space was already taken up by others who had boarded before me, but I was still able to find space in the bins just above my seat.

Departure was scheduled for 10:00AM.

While waiting for the remainder of the passengers to board, I saw that I had OTHER church friends on this flight, and one of them was seated in 28D, the opposite center aisle seat from me. So we chatted and shared our Italian adventures. I noticed another friend passing by in the aisle too and briefly caught up with her. 

Between those times, I was taking notes and pics for this review.

Boarding completed at 9:49AM, and the boarding door closed immediately after that. We pushed back a few minutes early at 9:58AM.

Weirdly, we idled after pushback for about 10 or so minutes, then we got into the pattern for take off, but that also took another short while.

We finally took off at 10:24AM!

Cabin in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

This is the same cabin as my incoming flight to Italy. The only difference being I had a different vantage point due to sitting in the aft Main Cabin and on the right side. Aesthetics and lav locations remain the same.

Also the aft Main Cabin is the slightly bigger one of the two cabins.

You can check out the layout on Aerolopa.

For cabin temperature throughout the flight, I found it to be nice during boarding and takeoff. But as the flight went on, it got colder. I ended up putting on my pullover and utilized the blanket provided. Had I not put on those layers, I would have been miserable throughout the flight because of feeling cold.

As a fun fact, I did look up above my seat and noticed that there were five air nozzles and lights.

I used to fly this aircraft type A LOT like ten years ago before American Airlines retrofitted the B777-200 fleet. In the old configuration before the retrofit, the seats in Main Cabin were a 2-5-2 configuration, meaning there were FIVE seats in the middle. I guess I never noticed that AA never updated the panels above the seats so they are still in the old configuration with five nozzles and lights.

Seats in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

My seat was 28H, which was on the right side of the aircraft and was an aisle seat in the center section. 

This was the same seat model as my incoming flight to Italy, and it has the same features. The big difference is that this seat is Main Cabin Extra so the seat has more leg room (34” vs 31” seat pitch), and a little more recline (4” vs 3” recline).

I should also mention that the placement of the seat legs of Row 27 is such that 28G and I had to share the same underseat space. Luckily this wasn’t an issue as 28G didn’t place a big backpack under there.

And because this was an international flight, the seats are equipped with a blanket and pillow in Main Cabin.

Entertainment and WiFi on American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

The system and content on this flight were the same as the incoming flight. My particular seatback monitor was fully functional, and I didn’t observe anyone else having issues with their units.

On this flight, the WiFi actually worked! Well, it didn’t work on the ground, and that is by design for this fleet type. However, the WiFi signal became operational about 30 minutes after takeoff. 

I also confirmed that the WiFi stops working once below 10,000 feet. So keep that in mind before swiping right or watching the next TikTok while on approach to landing.

How much is WiFi in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra?

The price is the same for everyone regardless of class.

For the 2-hour pass, it was $29.

For the All-Flight pass, it was $35

I ended up paying for the $35 All-Flight pass (for science!). I was a little concerned the payment wouldn’t go through as I manually entered in my credit card info, but it did. 

How fast is WiFi in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra?

After running the speed test, the numbers came back as:

• 52.6 mbps download
• 5.52 mbps upload
• 870 ms ping

Wow, that’s a pretty great download speed but abysmal upload and ping. I actually discussed this with a coworker who works with WiFi analytics, and the results look like this because of limitations of the hardware and the system bottlenecking in a particular way. Interesting stuff.

Service in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

I thought the flight attendants provided good and efficient service. There were 6 of them taking care of Premium Economy and Main Cabin, 3 on each side of the aircraft. 

During boarding, they handed out disposable earbuds for people to use during flight. I was surprised at how many people still accept these, but I suppose most people have Bluetooth headphones, and the entertainment systems on this aircraft type are not Bluetooth-capable.

Otherwise, here was the timeline of their service after takeoff (hh:mm):

• 00:16 Started handing out special meals
• 00:25 Drink and meal carts started heading towards the front of Premium Economy
• 00:48 Got my meal
• 00:55 Got my red wine
• 01:13 Finished food; lighting scene changed for sleep but only my side dimmed
• 01:17 Service items taken up 

Halfway through the flight, they served the mid-flight snack:

• 05:24 Carts passed by
• 05:40 Got my sandwich and white wine

And lastly, for the pre-arrival meal, they served everything pretty quickly:

• 09:58 Morning light scene turned on; carts passed by
• 10:04 Got my hot pocket

Overall while I did think they were friendly and efficient, I kind of thought their service was a little transactional and not personable. I don’t have a problem with that since I frequently travel using my flight benefits, and I can understand that having about 200 people to serve requires efficiency. But still–if I were a loyal paying passenger, a little more engagement would be nice.

Food and Drink in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

There were three meals served on this 11 hour flight. I thought this was interesting because on the DFW to FCO flight, there were only two meals. So maybe 10+ hours is the magical flight time to have three meals served.

I believe there were pretzels and Biscoffs, juices, and water available in the galley area after the main meal service was done, but I didn’t verify that this flight.

Overall, I thought the meals were good and at decent timings. I never felt hungry or thirsty.

Dinner

The choices for dinner were either chicken or pasta. Considering I had the chicken on the way to Italy, I was curious to see if the pasta was good on the flight out of Italy. So I selected that.

Pretty similar offerings as the incoming flight and same presentation: main entree, roll, side salad, crackers and cheese, and a dessert.

The pasta came with a red sauce. It seemed balanced, but I thought it could have used more spice or salt. For the pasta itself, I thought it was decently al dente, but not something you’d tell Nonna about.

For the roll, it was ciabatta. It was hard on the outside but soft on the inside. I thought it tasted great with the included butter.

The salad with olive oil and balsamic dressing was pretty good. The radishes added a nice crunch.

I noticed that the crackers and cheese were of different brands than my incoming flight, but were pretty similar and very good. The cheese spread this time was creamy and very spreadable.

Lastly, the brownie was just okay. It was light and kind of airy, but not moist either.

I paired all this with the red wine, which was a Cantor red blend. The tray also came with a small bottle of water.

Mid Flight Snack

For this, there were no options. Everyone got the same ham and cheese pretzel roll sandwich and vanilla bean ice cream.

The sandwich was kind of salty and soggy, but otherwise tasted alright. 

For this meal, I selected a white wine. What confused me was the flight attendant added ice to my white wine. I realize that white wines do taste better chilled, and some varieties are good with ice. But…I tend to drink my wines neat (which…”neat” is not how one describes drinking a wine lol). So I was thrown off by this. I mean…I still drank it and it was good, haha.

Pre-Arrival Meal

Not really a meal but more of a lite snack. We actually had two options this time: beef or cheese hot pockets.

I selected the beef hot pocket. It was kind of warm, the pastry was a little doughy, but the beef filling was pretty good. I paired this with another red wine. No ice cubes this time.

Lavatories in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra

Like my incoming flight to Italy, there were five lavatories total for Premium Economy and Main Cabin, with three of them at Door 3 splitting Main Cabin and the other two in the aft galley area.

With my seat being 28H, the closest lavatories to me were the mid-cabin lavs on the right side, which has two. I’ll reiterate that most of the reason I like aisle seats is so that I can leave for the lavatories without bothering another passenger, and I don’t mind being the one bothered by middle seaters.

Again, these lavs have a decent amount of space to them. The mid-cabin lavatory on the left side of the aircraft is accessible, so it has more space and other features for persons of reduced mobility.

During the 11.5 hour flight, I used the lavatories four times (hh:mm after takeoff) and their cleanliness:

• 01:10 / right side mid-cabin: decently clean, but had to wait a while due to post-meal rush
• 01:50 / right side aft: decently clean
• 04:40 / right side mid-cabin: sprinkles on the ground, paper debris in the corner
• 08:45 / right side mid-cabin: sprinkles and paper on the ground, but a flight attendant actually stopped me from going initially so she could refill paper products lol

What did I do in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra?

Besides eating and using the lavatories, I did a few things.

For movies, I watched Sonic 3 and Moana 2.  I was mildly entertained by both, and I think the first movies were much better haha. But enjoying these movies at 35,000 feet and a wine in hand made the movie-watching experience enjoyable!

I also worked on taking notes for this flight for this review as well as drafting blog posts for this trip.

Lastly, knowing that I would be arriving in the afternoon in DFW, I didn’t want to sleep too much on this flight so I could fall asleep easier at my usual bedtime. Still, I did close my eyes for a while a few times towards the last half of the flight. I didn’t even use my eye mask! 

Other Stories to Share

One observation I had during this flight was people periodically opening their window shades to look outside, realize how bright it was, then close it. MULTIPLE TIMES! There was a younger guy at a window seat kind of near me, and he kept doing that. With this being a purely daytime flight, and with the cabin in dark mode, we definitely had a handful of blinding light moments.

So when I was in the Prima Vista lounge, I grabbed a bottle of sparkling water from the fridge. I didn’t finish all of it so I put the remaining in my Yeti water bottle. What I didn’t think about was that I put a carbonated drink into my water bottle…which I then opened to drink water on the flight. The difference in pressures made for a loud champange-like pop sound. Luckily no one heard it but me. I think. And luckily nothing destructive happened.

The CRAZIEST thing to me though was running into multiple friends from my church back home during boarding. Multiple! We didn’t coordinate being in Italy at the same time nor did we have the same reasons for going, but it just somehow lined up that a handful of us were on this DFW flight to go home. Soooo wild to me haha.

Arrival at DFW

The scheduled arrival time at DFW was 3:05PM. 

The captain made an announcement at about 10 hours and 44 minutes into the flight for the flight attendants to prepare for landing as we had about 25 minutes left in the flight.

On the descent, it did get a little turbulent when we were at about 12,000 feet in the air with about 50 miles left to go. I think there were isolated storms in the area.

Mr. Opens-The-Window-Shades kept his window closed, as did most passengers, so I couldn’t see outside on our approach for landing. But I knew it was north Texas so lots of green and open spaces until reaching the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

We touched down at 11 hours and 11 minutes then arrived at Gate D27 about 40 minutes later at 2:50PM. I think because we arrived a little earlier than scheduled, we didn’t have a gate just yet and had to wait. Or traffic was backed up. I’m not really sure!

So from gate to gate, FCO to DFW, the total time ended up being 11 hours and 52 minutes.

I’ll also comment here that because it was an afternoon arrival into DFW, many other international flights (especially European) arrive in the afternoon too, US Customs and Immigration at Terminal D was terribly, terribly backed up–even the Global Entry line! I actually had to wait in a 30-minute line for Global Entry, which I’ve never experienced before lol. Luckily I didn’t have any checked bags so once I got cleared by the Customs officer, I beelined my way out of there to get back to my car parked at work to go home.

Bottom Line

Flying American Airlines B777-200 in Main Cabin Extra was a great way to finish out my Roman adventure with a papal plot twist. Because the flight had three separate meal times, I never felt hungry or thirsty. The extra leg room let me stretch out, and the functional WiFi allowed me to stay connected with friends and family while on the flight. While I didn’t intend to get proper sleep on this flight, I still found the seat and cabin to be comfortable enough even though the cabin got cold mid-flight.

While I thought the flight attendants could have been more personally engaging, I did appreciate their efficient and friendly service.

For all the little inconveniences, my pilgrimage mindset kept me in check. But even then, I really didn’t have much to complain about this flight, even if my white wine had ice cubes in it.

Thankfully American Airlines has nonstop flights between DFW and FCO, making any kind of Roman adventure easily accessible!

What do you think of this flight from Rome? What would you have done differently?

The post Review: American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra FCO-DFW appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

After spending some time in Rome and Vatican City for the weekend, I needed a place to stay before my flight back home to the United States Monday morning. Remembering my last trip to Rome, I knew that there are handful of options near Fiumicino airport. I ended up picking the Hilton Rome Airport for its convenient location and desire to try it for the first time. Check out this Hilton Rome Report review below!

Hotel Information

Summary

• Fantastic location for easy access to the airport
• Restaurant has great food and amazing breakfast buffet
• Room had plenty of space and storage

Booking the Hilton Rome Airport

Similar to the other bookings for this trip, I booked this hotel back in November 2024 as a King Hilton Guestroom for 297 Euro. After taxes and conversion, it ended up being $376.54.

I used the app to book directly, and I did not use any points. While I could have used points, I also lowkey wanted to be able to get my bank of points back up to over 1 million by spending the money on stays.

Because I knew that my flight home was around 10AM for Monday, I wanted an airport hotel to stay the night before to make it easier knowing that Rome is a solid 30+ minutes away from the airport. This hotel is in a prime location, so booking it to meet this requirement was a no brainer.

Location of Hilton Rome Airport

This is the closest Hilton hotel to the airport, and you don’t even need to book a taxi to get to the airport. A pedestrian bridge is available that connects to the terminals from the front of the hotel.

I took a 60 Euro uber to get here from The Spring House Hotel. The driver dropped me off right at the doors.

Lobby and Checking In at Hilton Rome Airport

Inside the lobby, past the sliding doors is the very long front desk with specific desks for Priority Check-In (those with Diamond status), normal check-in, and then some sort of car service desk at the end.

Left of the front desk is a concierge desk, but I never saw anyone man it. A sitting area is also behind the concierge desk.

To the right of the front desk is a sitting area with books and magazines, and information about the small art gallery in the lobby. Beyond this sitting area is the rest of the ground floor of the hotel.

I arrived at the hotel at about 3:20PM, and check in started at 2PM. I was able to immediately talk to the Priority check-in desk. He verified my stay, verified and acknowledged my Diamond status, and he briefly explained the various amenities of the hotel. He then handed me my Diamond member stuff: a snack, a sheet of paper with information for Diamond/Executive stays, and my two keys. But one key was for my room and the other was for the gym and pool. Kinda weird.

Room at the Hilton Rome Airport

When I checked into the hotel, I got upgraded and ended up with a King Executive room. How nice! I had room 5092 located on the 5th floor. The 5th floor has a wing of Executive rooms.

Inside the room, I was reminded of the layout and square footage of the Executive rooms at the Hilton Nagoya (which I’m very familiar with due to practically living there for a while).

Walking into the room, there’s a mini-hallway between the closet and bathroom. Closet on the right, bathroom on the left.

The closet itself has parts with a door and without a door. Attached to the end of the closet is a built-in luggage rack.

In the main space of the room is the king bed with an ottoman and built-in side tables. Across from the bed is the TV.

On the window side of the room is a full size chaise lounge chair that could probably also serve as an extra bed. The desk fills out the rest of the length of the wall.

The window itself had sheer and blackout curtains. And the view outside was of the roof of the hotel conference center as well as the train tracks.

Amenities in the Room

Starting with the closet, several amenities are included. Hangars can be found both in the open-face portion of the closet as well as behind the mirror door. A bottom drawer houses the hair dryer and iron. Shelving within has the lockbox and ironing board. The built-in luggage rack has a bottom drawer and a decorative rod for hanging things. And by decorative, I mean kind of industrial to fit in with the darker aesthetic.

The desk against the window has an overhead lamp, power outlets, trash can, and the typical in-room coffee station. Here, there’s an electric kettle, ice bucket, glass cups, ceramic mugs, instant coffee and tea, sugar, creamer, stirrers, and napkins. Within the desk is a cabinet housing the mini-fridge. Inside were the two water bottles for me being a Diamond member (otherwise a few Euro for non-Diamond).

For the bed, there were side lamps and reading lights on either side. A room phone sits atop one of the side tables and power outlets are available on either side. Light switches for the entire room are accessible on both sides of the bed, which is a nice touch. Lastly, an ottoman is at the foot of the bed. On top of the ottoman was a bathrobe and a pair of disposable slippers.

Decor in the Room

The colors are black and white with light accents throughout. The designs are somewhat minimal and modern industrial.

There was one piece of artwork in the room that looks like a ship window with a view of the sea, and this was a motif throughout the Executive rooms hallway.

Bed Comfort

I found the bed to be firm, which I like. The pillows, however, were too squishy for my taste, but I made due given I was only staying one night.

Cleanliness and Wear/Tear

Overall, it looked pretty clean when I walked into the room. No major wear and tear as some things look a little worn.

Noises in the Room

There are several train tracks outside that lead to the airport. You can hear some trains whenever they pass by but they are not too loud. 

I was able to hear what noises were coming from the hallway, especially with kids running and people talking. No neighbor noises.

WiFi in the Room

As is typical for practically every Hilton property, connecting to WiFi was just a matter of connecting to the Hilton Honors network and logging into the splash screen with my last name and room number.

For WiFi speeds, I found it to be pretty similar to The Spring House. 

• 29.4 mbps download
• 28.8 mbps upload
• 6 ms ping

This is more than suitable for working and streaming content.

What I think of the room overall

Given that I was only staying one night, I thought the room was more than adequate for what I needed. I liked that there was a lot of storage space. The room also looked aesthetically pleasing and cozy. If I had to work virtually, the room would have been comfortable enough with a decent desk and space to relax.

Considering this is an airport hotel, I don’t think most people tend to stay here for more than a few days. So I think this is a really nice room to get some rest before a flight the next day.

Bathroom

The bathroom is square in shape with the toilet and bidet on the opposite wall. Bookending the space is the sink on the left and the shower/tub on the right.

Around the sink is a large mirror, a close up mirror, and amenities. 

The toilet’s flush buttons are up kind of high. Right next to the toilet is the bidet with towel rack above.

The shower has a half door. For sprays, it has an overhead and a handheld with various valves to control temperature and pressure for each.

Amenities in the Bathroom

The provided soaps and such are all Crabree & Evelyn:

• Sink: lotion, hand soap
• Bidet: face soap (LOL?)
• Shower: shower gel, shampoo, conditioner

Also at the sink is a PeterThomasRoth mending kit, and some cotton balls.

In the shower is an alarm string that is properly marked that it is for such. Unlike at The Spring House.

What I think overall of the bathroom

Everything was pretty much tiled but elegantly done, and I liked that. It doesn’t look like a cheap bathroom with bland white walls and simple fixtures.

I also appreciated the space within the bathroom since The Spring House’s bathroom was a little tight, even just for me.

Hotel Overall

The location of this hotel is super ideal for those who have a flight the next day. There’s a pedestrian walkway that runs adjacent to one of the airport garages that leads to the terminals at FCO. When I checked out, I timed it to be 8 minutes from the hotel front desk to the departure hall in Terminal 3. 

However, its location is also a downside. I don’t think there’s anything convenient around it so you’re pretty much stuck with the hotel restaurant for food and drink. I suppose you could walk over to the airport and use the train stations to go elsewhere or call an Uber.

The ground floor’s layout isn’t quite intuitive as some things seem like they’re not logically placed, but everything was functional and findable. Except the Executive Lounge (see below).

Staff Service

I found the front desk to be friendly and professional. They spoke English well, and they answered my various questions throughout my short stay.

Custodial staff was friendly as well as they’d greet me when passing by in the hallway.

The wait staff at the restaurant for dinner were very attentive, and I was impressed because it seemed like multiple of them were handling my area and me and none missed a beat.

The gym attendant didn’t acknowledge me at all, but it wasn’t required of me to check in with him unless I needed him. And he wasn’t even manning the front desk from the time I walked in until like 30 or so minutes later.

Occupancy Load

This is an airport hotel so I suspected that it would be pretty occupied. I did find a lot of people around for meal times (dinner and breakfast). And frequently I saw people hanging out in the lobby. But other than that, I never felt like it was crowded.

Amenities at the Hilton Rome Airport

Diamond Members

When I checked in, they reminded me that there are two water bottles for free in the fridge in the room. The front desk guy also handed me the letter outlining various aspects of the hotel and Diamond benefits. And lastly, he gave me a little bag of tarallini, a type of Italian snack that is kind of like a hard breadstick but in a small donut shape.

Restaurant “Le Colonne”

Le Colonne is located on the ground floor past the lobby. It is the only hotel restaurant and serves as the restaurant for all three meals with breakfast having its own separate space due to its buffet nature.

Its hours for lunch and dinner are 12PM to 11PM.

My first night, I had red wine and a tiramisu cake. Both were really good. I was even given a bread basket and some cookies as well con gratis.

Breakfast really impressed me. I had it the Monday morning I checked out. 

The hours for breakfast are:

• Mon-Fri 6AM to 10:30AM
• Sat-Sun 6AM to 11AM

It is buffet-style and the spread is quite impressive. Multiple counters of various types of foods! You could easily spend 5-10 minutes just looking at everything. I’m not gonna lie–this is probably the best hotel breakfast buffet I’ve seen at a Hilton outside of Asia. Presentation could’ve been better, but the varied foods available kept my interest and curiosity.

Despite the wide selection available, I had just a plateful of things as I wasn’t too hungry.

Like I mentioned above, because the Hilton Rome Airport seems to be isolated geographically from other establishments, this restaurant is pretty much the only option for food unless you go to the airport and make use of landside cafes and such.

Gym & Pool

The gym and pool are located within the same area and are on the ground floor down one hallway away from the front desk.

The hours for the gym and pool are 7AM to 10PM.

I found the gym to be…weird. Apparently it’s a fitness club independently operated so people NOT staying at the hotel have access to it. It’s weird because this is an airport hotel that is isolated from most things. So who are the people using it if they are NOT hotel guests? I used the gym for a little while in the evening, and I’m pretty sure that the others I encountered there were not guests at the hotel.

Otherwise this gym is pretty well-equipped for a hotel gym. I likened it to Anytime Fitness since it had all the usual free weights, weight machines, cardio equipment, and even a studio. The only difference is this had a pool and sauna.

Now the other weird thing is the pool requires a swim cap. I feel like that is a pretty uncommon requirement to have. They can be purchased at the fitness desk if you didn’t happen to pack one. I didn’t want to purchase one so I just abandoned any desire to use the pool.

There are also paddleball (pickleball?) courts outside. I didn’t go out there so no picture available for that.

Use of the sauna and some of the other amenities require extra payment, and I didn’t appreciate that since other hotels I’ve stayed at with those amenities didn’t nickel and dime for use of those.

The locker rooms were kind of confusing but seem well-equipped if maybe a bit grungy. Though I am not sure a hotel guest would find the locker rooms useful.

Kid’s Playroom

On the ground floor is a matted kid’s playroom with lots of toys, books, and playmats.

I don’t know the hours, but I did see a mom with two young boys using this facility when I passed by on my way to the gym.

While I don’t have any kids, I appreciate that there is a dedicated space for kids like this.

Laundry

No guest laundry facilities on site, but there are forms and bags in each room.

Parking

It looked like there was parking for this hotel, but I thought that didn’t make sense for an airport hotel unless you live somewhat locally and wanted to stay here before parking your car at the airport. Or I suppose you could use airport long-term parking and then stay here one night before flying out.

According to the hotel’s page, parking is 29.00 Euro per day for self-parking.

Business Center

The business center is located between the front desk and elevators. Two computers and two printers were available for guest use.

ATM & Lobby Refreshments

One ATM machine was available in the lobby across from the far side of the front desk. Although…I thought that it didn’t look like an ATM unless you’re viewing it from the side since it isn’t mounted in a wall.

Right by the ATM are several dispensers for infused waters of varying flavors. When I checked in, they were nearly empty and weren’t refilled a few hours later when I went back down to the lobby so I didn’t get to try them. Nice touch though.

Executive Lounge at Hilton Rome Airport

The Executive Lounge is for Diamond guests or guests who are staying in an Executive room. Although I never had to swipe my keycard in or check in with anyone to access it. It just seemed like others knew to go there likely because the front desk mentioned it.

The hours are 7AM-8PM, and happy hour is from 6PM-8PM.

Finding the Executive Lounge was challenging because the hotel guide and map in the app stated that it was on the 5th floor. But it wasn’t. Maybe it used to be. I had to ask the front desk, and they said it was at the very back of the restaurant.

During non-happy hour, the Executive Lounge offered espresso, canned and bottled drinks, fruit, and light snacks.

During happy hour, it’s the same as above but alcohol becomes available with red wine, white wine, gin, and vodka. And then hors d’oeuvres become available too.

I hung out here after checking in and had an espresso since I was pretty tired. It was pretty good but I messed up the placement of the cup.

During happy hour, I had a gin and tonic. Pretty good, even garnished with a lemon.

I also tried all the various small plates once they became available.

The polenta & taleggio was alright. I feel like it should’ve been served warm, but the polenta had little flavor so I suppose that’s why it was garnished with a highly seasoned lemon wedge and breadstick. 

The corn meal with taleggio looked a lot like tofu, but it tasted like cheese with a little bit of crunch due to the corn meal.

The little balls with mushroom and peas tasted pretty good. I got this twice.

And lastly, the tuna fish salad was really good. And I didnt’ even know it was a tuna salad until I looked at the little sign lol.

While I was the only one in the lounge to start, once happy hour started, it slowly filled up with various people. 

Lessons Learned

This hotel has a fantastic location for getting to the airport. No need to worry about arranging transportation like shuttle or taxi to the airport. You can just walk!

The hotel gym is a public fitness club. And hotel guests have to pay extra to use some of the amenities. Or for a swim cap to use the pool.

The Executive Lounge is hidden away in the back of the restaurant and NOT on the 5th floor like the app map says.

Bottom Line

The Hilton Rome Airport is a fantastic hotel to stay in for the night before a flight. Probably the biggest argument for using this hotel is that it is walking distance with pedestrian bridges to the terminals at FCO.

Varied amenities are available at the hotel making for a comfortable and active stay. The restaurant is great for having a meal, especially the incredible breakfast buffet spread. Having a functional Executive Lounge is kind of rare since most US-based Hiltons closed them down during the pandemic. While the gym is well-equipped, paying for some amenities wasn’t ideal.

I do very much recommend the Hilton Rome Airport for weary travelers looking to get some rest before their flight the next day.

What do you think of the Hilton Rome Airport? Would you stay here?

The post The Ultimate Hilton Rome Airport Review appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

I was pretty excited to book this hotel as I have never stayed at a Tapestry Collection property by Hilton. From my understanding, Tapestry hotels represent their neighborhood vibrantly, and I felt like that was very much the case. Located near the north walls of the Vatican, The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican was a great base of operations for me during my trip to Rome attending Pope Francis’ wake and funeral. Check out the review, below!

Hotel Information

Summary

• Fantastic location with close proximity to the Vatican
• Superior Rooms have decent space
• Great hotel amenities despite being a small hotel

Booking The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican

Like my flight that got me to Rome, I booked this hotel stay back in November 2024 in preparation for attending the canonization Mass. 

Last time I went to Rome was back in 2017 on a family vacation in Italy with my parents and brother. When we stayed in Rome, I had booked the Hilton Garden Inn Rome Claridge, which was the only non-premium Hilton brand in the city of Rome at the time. Great hotel and option, but the problem was that it wasn’t close to the main attractions of Rome. You had to take the tram or subways to visit them.Certainly travel time was a consideration when carrying out our itinerary back then.

But apparently there are now a few more options–The Spring House Hotel being one of them!

The Spring House Hotel is located pretty close to the tour entrance of the Vatican Museums and knowing that I’d be hanging around the Vatican a lot, booking this hotel made sense given the other options.

I booked this stay with points+money, which is an option when booking with direct with Hilton. I didn’t want to burn all my miles, and I didn’t want to pay a lot of money either so mixing the two was good. To book this stay, I used the app since the app makes it pretty easy to search and select rates. Typically, I like booking the Honors rate as that gives me a slight discount and typically a generous cancellation policy.

Lobby and Check In at The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican

The lobby for The Spring House is L-shaped. When you walk through the sliding doors, you’re in the long leg of the L with various seating areas and access to the different elevators and restaurant. The short leg of the L has more seating as well as the front desks.

The seating areas are well appointed and comfortable, and I frequently saw people hanging around in the evenings.

Because I landed in Rome at about 8AM, I had the full day ahead of me. I didn’t want to lug my backpack around while exploring so I headed directly to the hotel to see about them holding my backpack during the day. I got to the hotel at about 9AM, and they obliged, but they also went ahead and let me check in! Obviously, a room wasn’t ready for me yet. 

After exploring the Vatican for several hours and grabbing lunch, I returned back to the hotel at like 1:30PM. I sat in the lobby for an hour before I went back to talk to front desk to see if I had a room ready. And I did! They gave me my key, and informed me that I had been upgraded to a Superior room (more space), and said my backpack would be delivered to my room.

I was a little bit confused when I didn’t receive my two free water bottles as a Diamond member, but they assured me that there would be two water bottles in the fridge in the room.

When I went into my room, I actually saw my backpack already in there. Nice!

Room at The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican

My room for The Spring House Hotel was 324, which was a King Superior Room. As I mentioned earlier, I was upgraded upon check in. Room 324 is in “tower 3” and on the second floor as Italy considers ground floor as Floor 0.

For the layout of the room, when I first walked in the closet was on the left and a full-sized mirror was on the right. A partition was straight ahead separating the main part of the room from the foyer-like area.

This main space had the bed with two side tables, a desk and chair, and a large window on the exterior wall. The window has a view of the adjacent building and the outdoor “garden” area on the first floor.

Room Amenities

The room has a key card slot that requires a hotel key inserted to keep the room power on. Interestingly, the room power turns on briefly when the door opens.

Above the power slot is a small panel that seems to control various aspects of the room as well as provide status. I didn’t really mess with this.

Starting with the closet, it features a few things. I noticed that it didn’t have doors. It has a handful of hangars both for tops and the hangars with clips for pants. There were also two bathrobes on an upper shelf packed in with slippers. The lock box was also located on a shelf in the closet. Also within the closet was a steamer, luggage rack, and laundry services bag.

The desk has a few amenities as well. Apart from the desk lamp, the desk also had a Nespresso Pop Vertuo machine. Along with the Nespresso machine was a tray with electric kettle and espresso cups (both single and double size). The single drawer in the desk contained the Nespresso pods, tea bags, and instant coffee. Lastly, the cabinet in the desk contains the mini-fridge. And inside the mini-fridge were two bottles of water. I did go to a local grocery store to buy more water bottles knowing that the two provided water bottles wouldn’t be enough for me for the duration of my stay.

For the bed, it was king size and had two side tables on either side. One of the side tables had the room phone. The bed came with four pillows and a duvet cover.

I estimate the TV was 60”. It defaulted to static splash screen with QR codes for the hotel service directory, and bar and restaurant menu. The TV is also framed with shelving.

All power outlets are standard European two-prong. You’ll need an adapter for your US-style power plugs.

Decor

The aesthetic in the room was kind of earthy. The door was wood as were the baseboards and the colors were earthly browns and greens. The wall behind the bed was a dark grey beige accent wall. Also in the room was a large tree painting.

The floor was tiled, but the bed was on a rug.

Bed Comfort

The bed was firm and clean. It didn’t sit too low nor too high. It had good enough space around it but it did feel tight to the corner and around near the window.

The pillows were medium firm and not squishy, which I like and appreciate.

Room Cleanliness, Wear & Tear

I found the room to be pretty clean throughout. No weird stains in the bed or on other furniture. I didn’t find anything on the chair or desk either.

As far as wear and tear goes, I found that there were light indications of such on things. But nothing suggested to me that it needed major repair or attention or outright negligence.

Room Noises

I did notice that you can hear people talking at street level as well as the garden area if there are people there. Thankfully, you can’t hear neighbors talking. But at the same time, I hardly ever ran into any of my room neighbors as I think we had vastly different schedules for being at the hotel.

WiFi 

Connecting to the WiFi was fairly easy as it was just a matter of connecting to the network and inputting my last name and room number on the splash screen that appeared. A few prompts and then I was connected. This is pretty typical for Hilton properties, and it was nice to see it working here.

I tested the WiFi speeds, and it yielded the following:

• 29.6 Mbps download
• 29.6 Mbps upload
• 6ms ping

Honestly, pretty good speeds for hotel WiFi. More then adequate to get work done or stream videos.

What I thought of the room overall

I liked that it was pretty efficient for a small amount of space. Things looked nice but had a purposeful and aesthetic quality to them. To be honest, I thought these accommodations were more than adequate for a 3-day stay.

If I had one complaint, it was the fact that the Nespresso pods provided weren’t the correct ones for the coffee cups provided in the room. I own a Nespresso Vertuo machine myself at home, and the size of the pop determines the volume of coffee it’ll serve. The pods provided in the room were for 7.77 oz of coffe, but the cups only held like 3-4 ounces. So when I brewed coffee for the first time, I had to utilize both of the bigger cups.

Since I don’t frequently get hotel rooms that require a keycard kept in a slot in the wall for power, it took me a while to keep remembering to do that. I should have requested a second key.

Bathroom

The bathroom was kinda small but efficient in its features. Within it, there’s a standard Italian hotel toilet (looks more U shaped than typical American flat oval) with flush buttons on the wall. Right next to the toilet is the standard Italian bidet with bidet towels on the towel rack just above it.

There was also a sink and mirror with hand towels, face towels and amenities. 

The shower featured an overhead and handheld. It had no door. Weirdly it had an RGB light above it that changed colors every few seconds. And lastly it had an unlabeled alarm string. I curiously pulled it thinking it was a clothesline, but I later noticed it activated a red light on the room info panel. WHOOPS! lol.

Bathroom Amenities

The amenities provided in the bathroom are fairly standard. These included tissues, reusable cups, shower caps, extra toilet paper, hair dryer, and sanitary bags. Non-typical amenities provided were a vanity kit and shoe polish wipes. Maybe those are typical in Europe?

For soaps and things, they are all Culti products featuring hand wash, body lotion, conditioner, shampoo, and shower gel.

Bathroom Cleanliness and Wear & Tear

I thought the bathroom was pretty clean, even in the corners. I didn’t see any noticeable wear and tear on anything.

What I thought of the bathroom overall

Overall, I liked the aesthetics of the bathroom, but I thought it was a little cramped. 

The bathroom door swings to the inside so it doesn’t leave much room when trying to close it from the inside. But I supposed it could have acted as the shower door if left open! 

The shower having no door was dumb to me since spray and splash easily got into the main part of the bathroom. Luckily there was a bath mat provided. 

The RGB light did give a mood, but I still found it a little weird! Lol

I never ventured to use the Italian bidet…

And I mentioned above that I pulled the alarm string in the shower mistakenly. I did talk to the front desk to let them know it was an accident, and they said not to worry about it.

Hotel Overall

I know space is a premium in Rome so this hotel tries to pack in a lot in a smaller footprint than what I’m used to in the USA. I felt like the lobby could be cramped especially when people were hanging around. The layout provided some cool places to hang out in, but I mostly out and about in Rome to be able to enjoy it. Probably the least intuitive thing are the different towers for the rooms as each “tower” has its own elevator and stairs.

Staff Service

The front desk staff were very friendly and accommodating every time I interacted with them. I know they deal with a lot of tourists since the hotel is a few blocks away from the Vatican Museums. Perhaps my only gripe with the staff is that the bar and restaurant attendants/servers weren’t as attentive and sometimes required flagging down.

Occupancy

I feel like I saw a wide variety of people as I return and left the hotel. Though I wasn’t sure if that suggested the hotel being full. Breakfast was never crowded, but certainly approaching full both times I went.

Amenities at The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican

Restaurant

The Spring House Hotel has one hotel bar and restaurant located on the ground floor to the left of the entrance. The bar is open in the evenings and the restaurant serves breakfast in the mornings.

Supposedly you can order stuff here and have it delivered to the second floor patio (see below). 

For breakfast, the hours are 7AM to 11AM. It is buffet style.

Hot plates provided had eggs, bacon, pancakes, rice, spinach, and beans (weird combo). And cold foods had stuff like yogurt, fruit, cold cuts, cheese, salad, and more. Breads and a toaster were also available. The buffet also included a separate counter with espresso machines, juices, and pastries.

I thought the breakfast had a good selection, and the food was decently tasty. European hotel breakfasts’ pastries are so much better than in the US.

I also ate actual dinner once at the restaurant. The menu isn’t too extensive and was largely Italian dishes. When you sit down, you’re given a bag of breads.

This club sandwich was pretty good, and the chips were crispy. 

For a late lunch one of the days I was in Rome, I had this carbonara pasta.

I had this chocolate cake as a sweet finish. It was decadent and rich.

I got into aperol spritzes while in Rome and tried them here. Refreshing with good flavor.

And then my last evening at The Spring House, I had a negroni from the bar.

Overall, I’m glad there was a restaurant in the hotel even though many restaurants and other food establishments are located nearby. What I did eat, I liked.

Gym

The hotel gym is located in the basement level. For access, you need to go down the stairs in the middle of the lobby and use your hotel keycard to get in. 

The hours for the gym are 24/7.

For equipment and amenities, the gym offers exercise balls, dumbbells up to 16kg, a few kettle bells, two treadmills, and one bike. There was also a rack for workout towels, a water dispenser, and uniquely there was also a wardrobe room for changing, restroom, and a sauna. I think the sauna requires asking the front desk to use.

It isn’t too spacious so I feel like 2-3 people in here would make it feel crowded already.

Wellness Area

On the second floor is a patio area that has outdoor seating and a wellness area. There are two jacuzzi hot tubs, a mood shower, and a steam room. Apparently these have hours and require permission from the front desk to use the mood shower and steam room.

I thought this was a pretty unique offering for a hotel. However, I never saw anyone use any of it. I suppose because in the mornings and evenings it was still cold outside, and during the day most people are trying to sightsee Rome.

Laundry

Laundry bags and forms provided in the room in the closet. 

No self-laundry facilities at this hotel, but there are local laundromats within walking distance if needed.

Parking

I noticed on my last day there is a parking garage for the hotel, but I don’t know how much it costs to park there. 

It isn’t difficult to use mass transportation to get to the heart of Rome or Vatican City so the need to rent a car is pretty low, and hence the need to use the available parking garage.

Lessons Learned

I stayed at this hotel for a few days and had a few lessons learned.

Probably the biggest lesson I learned was that the string in the shower is for an emergency if you’re in the shower. I just wish it was labeled for that purpose.

Secondly, I probably should have requested a second keycard so I could leave one in the wall slot to keep the room powered. While it didn’t get hot in the room, it did take a minute for the room to cool down once the A/C power came back.

Lastly, I knew that the Nespresso pods would yield more coffee than the cups could provide given that I have a machine at home. But I nearly had a coffee mess on the desk for not paying attention briefly while the machine was brewing. 

Bottom Line

The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican is a great boutique hotel just steps away from the Vatican Museums and easy access to the Porto Angelica to St. Peter’s Basilica. Accommodations are on point and amenities provided allow for a comfortable and convenient stay for a Roman and Vatican adventure.

While I had a few struggles with Nespresso pods, pulling alarms, and being slightly ignored by wait staff, these didn’t put a damper on my stay.

I definitely recommend The Spring House for those looking for comfortable convenience when visiting the Vatican as a tourist and/or pilgrim.

Would you stay here? What’s your favorite part about The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican? Lemme know down in the comments!

The post Review: The Spring House Hotel Rome Vatican, Tapestry Collection by Hilton appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

Flight Info

Summary

• Decently comfortable seat for 9.5 hour flight with functional features and enough knee room
• Onboard meals were pretty decent; service was friendly and efficient
• WiFi was inoperative the entire flight

Booking American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

Knowing that there’s only one flight a day between DFW and Rome on American Airlines during non-peak season, I just used AA’s website to search for the flight after logging into my AAdvantage account.

When searching for the flight, I made sure to check the “Redeem miles” box so that I would get results to be able to use my AAdvantage miles.

Given that I wanted to arrive a few days before the canonization Mass set for Sunday April 27, 2025 (way before I found out about Pope Francis’ funeral) to be able to figure out on-the-ground logistics in Rome beforehand, I made sure to set the date for the Wednesday or Thursday before.

I ended up booking Wednesday April 23, 2025 for my departure date because it was a little cheaper miles-wise than Thursday.

Because I am an active airline employee, I can get a 20% discount on paid and award tickets for myself. The cost to book this as a round trip ticket in Main Cabin was originally 63,500 AAdvantage miles, but it ended up being 50,800 AAdvantage miles after my discount. The taxes/fees remained the same.

Packing for American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin and Rome

This flight had a 2:40PM departure time, but it was basically an overnight flight since the scheduled arrival time in Rome was 8:00AM. This meant that my goal for the flight was to try and sleep so that I could hit the ground running once in Rome.

To make the flight easier, I brought my usual eye mask and noise cancelling headphones. 

Also, I had bought waterproof athletic shoes after seeing that Rome was expecting rains during my trip. My plan was to wear these shoes on the plane, but waterproof footwear typically aren’t very breathable (I learned this the hard way on my Rio de Janeiro day trip). So I also packed the AA slippers I got in Flagship First Class from my day trip to Buenos Aires.

I know Roman streets and sidewalks are full of cobblestone so bringing a carry-on luggage with wheels was not an option. Therefore, I only brought my backpack and a larger cross-body bag.

Check In at DFW Airport

Because my flight wasn’t until 2:40PM, I actually went to work in the morning. I had to wrap some stuff up anyway with suppliers and teammates.

The nice thing about working at an airlines’ headquarters building is that it also has a travel desk that functions like the ticket counters at the airport. Minus the checking in of checked luggage, of course. 

So at about noon, I visited the travel desk at work and got my boarding pass printed out. There was no line. The agent verified my passport and printed out my boarding pass. I do like collecting paper boarding passes and having them as backup in case the mobile boarding pass doesn’t work. 

I had my housemate pick me up to take me to the airport as he had just landed from his own trip.

When I was in the car, I doublechecked the DFW Airport app to see how busy the A21 security checkpoint was as that is where TSA PreCheck is for Terminal A. It wasn’t busy according to the app. And when I got dropped off, I found it had about 5 people in line, but moved along quickly. I was through security in less than 5 minutes.

Admirals Club

After passing through security, I beelined to A24 where the Admirals Club is in Terminal A. Again, I have access because of the Citi Executive card—the only credit card in AA’s portfolio that includes Admirals Club membership.

I’ve visited the Terminal A Admirals Club multiple times (here and here), so I’ll just talk about this particular visit.

I got in at about 12:35PM.

In terms of how busy it was, I saw that it looked like most of the seats were taken, but I didn’t have trouble finding an empty one. Being midday in the middle of the week probably helped.

Once I found my seat, I had a look at the food available:

For food and drink, I saw that Argentinian empanadas were the main option (!). I made sure to get a few, and I paired this with naan bites and the jalapeño lime hummus. To complete the lounge experience, I grabbed a glass of brut from the bar too, but it took a while because they only had one bartender and lots of people in line.

I found the empanadas to be pretty good, but the meat filling lacked some flavor. I thought that maybe it could’ve used chimichurri or something. And the hummus was good, but didn’t have a spicy kick like I thought it should’ve had. The naan was fluffy and savory with the garlic.

Maybe they were on lunch break, but I didn’t see the usual chips and guacamole station set up. That was a little disappointing.

I also noticed from this trip that the Thai coconut broth soup is back in rotation. Probably my favorite soup I’ve had in the Admirals Club! But I didn’t get any this time.

Boarding and Departure for American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

Boarding was scheduled for 1:50PM. So AA recently updated their app and changed how it looks and works. Now the (iOS) app utilizes widgets to let you know boarding info and other flight updates. I liked this so I could quickly glance at my phone and know what time boarding is and how much time I have left.

I arrived at Gate A24 immediately after leaving the Admirals Club. How convenient that my gate was right at the club! Haha. 

Weirdly, looking around the gate area, I didn’t see what amounted to be a 777-200’s worth of people waiting around knowing that this flight is supposed to be full. I knew weather within the past day may have affected some, but still. 

Right on time, boarding started at 1:50PM. And also the agents announced that we would be doing the biometric scan (face recognition) to board this flight. Unsurprisingly, once boarding started, a big mass of people grouped up around the boarding lanes.

AA started their new boarding order on May 1 so we were using the old method with preboards and Concierge Key passengers boarding first.

As Group 4 was getting closer to being called, I inched my way past the gate lice and ended up being one of the first few Group 4 boarders in line once called. I scanned into this flight at 1:57PM and by 2:00PM, I was in my seat.

While waiting for other passengers to board, I tried helping my row mates load their luggage up into the bin but can only do so if lying on the wide side and lengthwise. But another passenger kinda wanted to argue with me that I should stand them on the short side like books like on other aircraft. But I know those aircraft have bigger bins that allow that. And this is not one of those aircraft types. I almost wanted to say “trust me, I’m an engineer [that works for this airline]” lmao

Later during boarding (I’m thinking like Group 6 and on), the flight attendants announced that there wouldn’t be room for rollaboards and asked everyone to see about getting their bags gate checked. Oof.

Of course, because I was Group 4, I didn’t have trouble at all and easily claimed the bin above me.

Cabin in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

On American Airlines B777-200, the Main Cabin is split in two areas at Door 3. My seat was in the more forward cabin. In total, there are 212 seats according to Aerolopa.

The seats in Main Cabin are mostly arranged in a 3-4-3 configuration, but some rows are 2-4-2, typically at the front bulkheads or rows in the tail section. The 3-4-3 configuration on a 777 makes for a decent seat width, but larger passengers will have trouble, especially at front row seats that have the in-arm tray tables.

Also, the front bulkhead seats do have underseat space from the last row of Premium Economy as the bulkhead does not touch the floor. 

This particular aircraft is pretty old, but the interiors didn’t look too beat up in the Main Cabin. The aesthetic is stereotypical AA dark blue with gray and red accents for the seats, an off-white for the side panels, and grays for the bulkhead partitions and monuments (like closet, lav, and galley walls).

For the temperature of the cabin, I found it to be warm at the beginning, but once we leveled off in cruise, I started to feel cold. Luckily I had a pullover packed with me, and as I mention below, the seat came with a blanket.

Seats in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

My seat number was 21D. It was an aisle seat in the center section several rows forward of Door 3 on the left side.

The manufacturer of this seat was Safran Seats, and this was model 5751. I always nerd out if this is the seat I’m flying in on any flight because l previously worked at Safran Seats (though I didn’t work on 5751, but did work on a new seat model meant to replace it).

5751 is designed for long-haul international flights, and has the following features:

• 9” Panasonic monitor (touchscreen, has headphone jack and USB A)
• Retractable handset (has call button, reading light controls in addition to also controlling the in-flight entertainment system)
• Bi-fold tray table (also extendable)
• Universal power port (110V)
• Literature pocket
• Adjustable headrest (up/down, wings fold in/out)

Since I wasn’t in a Main Cabin Extra row with extra legroom, my seat had the following:

• 3” Recline
• 31” Row Pitch
• 17.1” Seat Width

In Main Cabin on international flights, the usual amenities are:

• Pillow
• Blanket
• Disposable earbuds (handed out by flight attendants)

As far as what I thought about 21D, I was quite grateful that everything about the seat was working. Sometimes things don’t work like when I flew World Traveler class on British Airways 787.

Additionally, I thought it was comfortable enough for a coach class seat for a long-haul flight. I purposely chose an aisle seat knowing that I do like to get up and use the lavatory without bothering anyone. Had I flown non-revenue standby, there would have been a higher chance of me getting a middle seat.

Entertainment and WiFi in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

Main Cabin seats have a 9” touchscreen. Premium Economy and Business get larger ones. Regardless of class, it’s the same content available. 

I didn’t really bother thumbing through the entire selection but American Airlines’ widebody entertainment system always has entertainment, flight map, seat-to-seat messaging, kids section, drink menu, and WiFi connection instructions. 

For entertainment content, I recommend going to entertainment.aa.com to see what is showing on your next flight. Note that the content changes at the start of every month.

On this particular flight, I saw that most of the new releases were more obscure movies I’ve never heard of. Luckily, previous new releases that I wanted to watch were still available on the system.

Navigating around the system was very responsive, and I could have used either the monitor itself (touchscreen) or the handset to move around in its menus. 

WiFi Service

This is where this flight fell short. But I should mention that since this was AA’s B777-200 aircraft, WiFi actually doesn’t work on the ground at the gate by design due to system limitations. It only works once up in the air.

I tried multiple times throughout the flight to look for the “aainflight” WiFi signal, but it never showed up. Honestly, I didn’t care since I rather like my time being disconnected when on planes, and I don’t typically work on flights even on a work trip.

But I can understand that some people would want to have WiFi access to the Internet especially on a long flight such as this one.

Starting in January 2026, AA will start offering free WiFi. But for now, had the system been working, it would’ve costed something like $25-$35 dollars depending on length of access pass you purchase.

Service in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

For Main Cabin service on AA B777-200 from DFW to Rome, there were six flight attendants. During meal and drink service, they split between both sides. I found them to be friendly and efficient during their service, but not personal. Basically minimal talking or actually engaging passengers apart from taking food and drink orders.

When they started their meal service, I noticed they actually handed out all the special order meals first and had slips of paper for each. I’m assuming this is some new system to make sure catering got everything correct, which I can appreciate for other passengers. It looked like no one around me with preorders complained.

The standard for AA international flights in Main Cabin, from my observation across different flights, is for the flight attendants to serve Premium Economy first. They get a slightly better hot entree. After serving Premium Economy, the flight attendents then work their way towards the back of the plane.

Also there are separate carts for drinks and meals.

About 55 minutes after takeoff, I got my meal, but then service immediately got suspended due to turbulence. This lasted about 15 minutes, which service then resumed. And that’s when I was able to get my red wine.

For the pre-arrival meal, they turned on the “sunrise” light scene about 8 hours and 19 minutes after takeoff. This meal was served in the same way, but Main Cabin gets a bagged meal that isn’t plated so the flight attendants were able to hand these out faster. 

I got my pre-arrival meal at 8 hours and 37 minutes.

Towards the end of the flight, we faced the kind of turbulence that caused the whole plane to drop and gain altitude relatively quickly in a short amount of time and so they suspended their final trash pick up runs before landing. They announced this, and even recommended leaving trash in the literature pocket. The turbulence was really that bad and not them being lazy by any means. 

Food and Drink in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

Due to the length and timing of this flight, there was dinner and a lite breakfast. And in-between, the flight attendants had put out water, juices, and pretzels out in the aft galley area for passengers to take at any time.

Dinner

So when I was at work in the morning, I was joking with my coworkers about the meal choices being chicken or pasta. And sure enough, those were the two options on this flight! 

But to start, the flight attendants handed out those bags of mini pretzels before bustin’ out the carts. 

When I got asked, “chicken or pasta?”, I selected the chicken.

The chicken was good (left side on the pic above). It wasn’t dry or overcooked, and the tomato sauce seemed balanced. Accompanying it was seasoned couscous, and that tasted minty and herbed, but it was good too.

The side salad was not soggy, but was very plain. Just a few peppers with the leafs of lettuce for some crunchiness. The balsamic dressing was decent.

The dinner roll was soft and slightly dry, but the butter made it okay.

The crackers and cheese were good, but the cheese was not very spreadable though soft.

And probably my favorite part was the cinnamon churro bar! It was so good! It was sweet with a cinnamon spice flavor.

Along with my meal, I requested the red wine, which was some sort of red blend from a brand I didn’t quite catch. It was good.

Overall, I thought this was a good meal. None of it made me think, “yeah ew, this is gross airplane food”. And admittedly, I tend to eat every bit of in-flight meals. I didn’t feel sick or bloated after eating this meal.

Pre-Arrival Breakfast

This seems to be AA’s popular way of doing a lite meal for a morning arrival on a long-haul international flight — their “Bite Into Delight” bags with pre-packaged stuff.

Within the bag was a Chobani Greek yogurt, Wildest Coconut Cashew granola, and Nature’s Bakery Fig bar.

For my drink, I requested coffee. I know that airplane coffee is typically considered gross, but I felt like I needed the caffeine in order to be functional enough to get through immigration and over into the city of Rome!

I enjoyed all this, and I especially like putting the granola into the yogurt and mixing it up before eating it.

Lavatories in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

Main Cabin has a pretty generous amount of lavatories available. There are three located at Door 3, which include an accessible lavatory on the left side. And there are two located near the aft galley.

The ones closest to me were the Door 3 lavs.

I found them to be spacious enough and not coffin-like like on most of AA’s narrow body fleet.

During the 9.5 hours flight, I only used the lavatories twice. Once after dinner service, and that time the left mid-cabin lav was decently clean looking despite seeing many people use it towards the end of meal service. The other time I used it was about midflight, but I ended up using the aft left lavatory. I saw some sprinkles on the ground with bits of paper debris. 

In-Flight in American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin

Besides eating and attempting to sleep, I also took notes for this flight and watched movies. 

During dinner, I watched Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim. And during the last few hours of flight, I watched Kraven the Hunter.

Sleep

I did attempt to sleep on this flight knowing that we’d be landing early in the morning and I had a full day on the ground in Rome. My first and only attempt was after dinner service. 

To make myself more comfortable, I brought my eye mask. And as I mentioned earlier, I brought my First Class slippers so I put those on. And because I got cold in the middle of the flight, I also had my pullover that I put on.

I wasn’t able to actually fall asleep. Just a lot of dozing off for about 2.5 hours before I decided to just stay up.

But what also made it tough to fall asleep was people bumping into my left shoulder a lot. I couldn’t really explain why that kept happening other than maybe I was allowing my arm and shoulder to spill out into the aisle more than I should have. So in order to somewhat correct that, I felt like I need to scrunch up in my seat.

Stories to Share

For the most part, this was an uneventful flight. Some crying babies at different points, but I had my noise canceling headphones on so that minimized that.

I did notice a Catholic priest sitting in the row in front of me and towards the window. I figured that I’d see more like him given the events surrounding this trip.

But the one major thing to share that was crazy was the turbulence in the last hour of the flight. This was a B777-200. It’s a big plane. But whatever turbulence we flew through caused very noticeable updrafts and downdrafts that were actually kind of scary. I think we flew through some clouds as there was bad weather somewhat nearby. Luckily, apart from some gasps, no one got panicky around me.

Lessons Learned

Aisle seats can suck. That’s the one lesson learned from this flight. I probably should have counted the times people bumped into my left arm and shoulder, but it was kind of a lot lol. I’m not sure why that was the case on this particular flight as I typically like sitting in aisle seats, and this hasn’t been a real problem for me.

Arrival into Rome

The scheduled arrival time was 8:05AM. However the in-flight systems said 7:30AM.

The captain made an announcement at 9 hours and 20 minutes into the flight that we would be landing in about 25 minutes.

I didn’t see much outside since I wasn’t by the window but what little I could see, I saw that it was morning and there were clouds.

We touched down at FCO at about 7:25AM local time then arrived at Terminal 3 a few minutes later. We deplaned via stairs and were bussed to the terminal. 

The total gate-to-gate time was 9 hours and 53 minutes.

Bottom Line

My tolerance for long flights is probably higher than most, and long flights in the back of the plane can be daunting for some, but I didn’t find this flight to be uncomfortable. The seat was adequate and functional enough to keep me comfortable all flight, and it helped that I didn’t have a large bag under the seat for me to take up my leg space so I could actually stretch out decently.

During the flight, there was plenty for me to stay occupied including meals and entertainment. The food was decently good as I didn’t waste any of it. While the service was friendly and efficient, I wish the flight attendants were a little more personable with passengers. The movie selection was okay, but I was still able to find movies I wanted to watch or saw that movies I like were also available on the system.

Turbulence towards the end of the flight was probably the most I’ve ever experienced on a widebody aircraft, and it was actually a little scary. But the pilots got everything under control for a smoother landing into FCO.

I wouldn’t be afraid to recommend flying from DFW to FCO in Main Cabin with American Airlines. For those seeking a less-privileged, no frills-yet-comfortable experience, then this flight was a good way to do it. Especially with using miles for an award ticket!

Would you have paid money or used miles for this experience in Main Cabin? Let me know down in the comments!

The post Review: American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin DFW-FCO appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

Why did my plans change?

Unfortunately, Pope Francis passed away early morning on Monday, the day after Easter. For me, this was unsurprising given his failing health over the last few months, but it was unexpected given that he was able to do his normal things as Pope on Easter Sunday.

And honestly, I knew that him actually attending and presiding Carlo Acutis’ canonization would be a concern. And…now it isn’t. Because the Vatican has now also cancelled and postponed the canonization (unsurprisingly).

Because of Pope Francis’ passing, that set in motion the usual and traditional things that happen whenever a pope dies.

I almost canceled my trip

One of the glorious things of booking with miles and points is flexibility. Cancellation policies are more generous, and generally I can get all those points and miles back should I cancel.

When I found out Monday morning about Pope Francis had passed away and the canonization canceled, I did contemplate canceling this trip because the primary reasons or me going to Rome was no longer going to happen.

Ultimately, I decided to still go.

Why am I still going to Rome?

I have a few reasons for still going to Rome given the circumstances. Firstly, I still wanted this trip to be a review trip. I saw that both of my flights are on AA’s B777-200 aircraft, and I realized that I hadn’t yet made review notes for Main Cabin and Main Cabin Extra for this aircraft type. With these two flight reviews, I would’ve reviewed every seat type on this aircraft! Also, I’m staying at a Tapestry property for Hilton, and I’ve never stayed at one before, and I’d like to share my thoughts on that.

Secondly, the theme of papal plot twist continued. I found out on Tuesday (yesterday) that Pope Francis will lie in state at St. Peter’s for the remainder of the week, with a generous window of time for people to pay their respects. Additionally, the Vatican announced that his funeral is this Saturday at 10AM Rome time.

Given all this, my goals for my time in Rome and Vatican City regarding Pope Francis are now:

• Pay my respects at St. Peter’s
• Maybe attend a Requiem Mass for Pope Francis at a local church
• Attend the funeral (which may be a challenge)
• Be part of or observe the funeral procession (which will be historical since practically every pope is buried at St. Peter’s and this will be the first time that one …is not)

What else am I going to do in Rome?

…whatever the Romans do! Lol

I’m actually keeping this trip pretty open-ended as not even the papal stuff is set in stone for me as I will have to figure everything out on the ground on the fly. Winging it, really, since I have not booked these things for myself.

I did however book a cooking class for Saturday evening! I’m pretty excited about that. When I was in Barcelona last September, I used a food tour company at the recommendation of a coworker to do a food and wine tour and that was an incredible experience. I used the same company to boost his cooking class, and the reviews are really good!

Other than that…I plan on visiting churches around Rome. Eating Filipino food. And whatever seems cool to look at or do in the moment.

Bottom Line

My Rome trip for the canonization had a papal plot twist with Pope Francis’ passing. Now my itinerary in Rome is loosey-goosey and focused on attending the different mourning events.

But even then, I’ll have time to do a cooking class, visit churches and other things around Rome, and eat Filipino food!

How would you handle a big change to your travel itinerary?

The post A Papal Plot Twist appeared first on Where Is Randell?.

Not gonna lie—I’m stressed. But excited! Work is ramping up as we hit busy times for various projects, and because these projects have had some delays, they’re now kind of lining up on top of each other. Whatever. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. 

Despite all that, I’m super excited! This upcoming week I’ll be going to Rome for the first time in like 8 years! I actually booked everything back in November rather impulsively, but that’s the beauty of not using money to book flights and such, which I’ll share below.

Background on this trip to Rome

Several years ago (during the pandemic, I think), I learned about a young man who died of leukemia when he was 15 years old, in the early 2000’s. But in his short time on this earth, he was a remarkable individual. His name is Carlo Acutis, and he’s from Italy. 

I find Carlo to be remarkable because of his enthusiastic love for his faith and willingness to share that with others. A devout Catholic, he frequented going to Mass and was not afraid to befriend others and share his faith with them. He had a particular devotion to the Eucharist, and he created a website that talks about various Eucharistic miracles around the world (where the Communion wafer literally turned into flesh). The website is still online.

Additionally, Carlo was a nerd! Like…he learned programming languages so he could create that website. But what really resonates with me was that Carlo was also a video gamer! Apparently he played games like Mario, Pokémon, and Halo (I’m a fan of all three!), and he owned a PS2! (Which… those video game series aren’t on that console so hmmm…). I read books on Carlo, and he was self-aware enough to temper his playing of video games so as not to become addicted and distract him from God.

For more info about Carlo Acutis, here are 10 things to know about him.

With all that background, the reason why I’m going to Rome is because of Carlo Acutis’ canonization! This means that the Catholic Church will officially declare him a Saint (capital S)! He’s the first millennial saint to be canonized! (And first video gamer!).

Pope Francis announced his canonization date back in November 2024. As soon as I saw news about that, I immediately booked airfare and hotels. I’m glad I did that because I knew that the longer I waited, the costs would go up.

What my itinerary looks like

Let me slide in here and say that having points and miles is a great flexible way to book travel. I tend to hoard hotel points and airline miles, usually saving them for aspirational redemptions (like the world’s longest nonstop flight). But in this case, I’m glad I had enough hotel points and airline miles saved to book this trip impulsively. I’ll briefly talk about each booking and a little bit of my thought process for each, but the details of how I booked them will be shared in the reviews and trip report. 

Flight: American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin DFW-FCO

First thing’s first (let’s buckle those belts)–gotta get to Rome. As I am DFW-based, I needed a way to get to Rome.  Luckily, American Airlines runs a nonstop DFW-FCO flight. It wouldn’t have been a problem for me to connect to AA’s other hubs and onwards to Rome, but having a nonstop flight makes this convenient.

Because I’m approaching this trip with a pilgrimage mindset and trying to keep costs as low as possible, I opted to book only in the Main Cabin. I used miles. Besides, for review purposes, I don’t think I’ve reviewed AA’s B777-200 in economy yet.

Hotel: The Spring House Hotel

For the hotel, I wanted something Hilton since I’m a Hilton loyalist and Diamond member. Luckily, Hilton has added more hotels to its portfolio in Rome since the last time I was in town (which was 2017). I opted for The Spring House Hotel because it is conveniently located near St. Peter’s Square just outside the walls of the Vatican. That’s an easy walk. When I went to Mother Teresa’s canonization in 2016, I had stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn across Rome, and it took a while to get to St. Peter’s via the tram and walking. 

Also, I’ve never stayed at a Tapestry Collection brand of Hilton. These are a curated selection of hotels that “offer guests unique style and vibrant personality”. So I’m excited to see what makes it unique and different from the standard brands I’m familiar with.

Hilton lets you book with a combination of points and cash. And I did just that in order to book The Spring House. I didn’t want to burn a lot of my points in one go so this was an ideal option for me.

Hotel: Hilton Rome Airport

I’ve stayed at the Hilton Rome Airport before back in 2017. It’s a good Hilton hotel for the “one last night before my flight tomorrow” stay. And that’s exactly how I am treating it. I’ll be checking into this hotel after the canonization so I’m sure I’ll be tired and sweaty from the day’s activities and will be interested in chilling out.

For this hotel stay, I actually booked it with cash. My thought was I wanted to earn points to get my balance back up closer to 1 million Hilton points, lol. It’s gonna be an expensive one night stay, but that’s alright.

Flight: American Airlines B777-200 Main Cabin Extra FCO-DFW

Actually, I booked my flights as a round trip. But two weeks before this trip, I ended up semi-upgrading my Main Cabin seat to Main Cabin Extra. I figured the extra leg room on the way home would make it a little more comfortable. And I don’t recall this type of seat and aircraft being on my review queue.

The American Express Hilton Aspire credit card that I used to book the Hilton hotels above has an airline credit benefit. Basically every quarter, I can get up to $50 credit on purchases directly made with an airline on certain purchases. So I justified paying the upgrade to Main Cabin Extra knowing that I’ll get a good portion of it back in airline credit. It’s the same benefit I used to upgrade into First Class on my way home from Alaska last year.

Bottom Line

I’m excited to go on this trip to Rome for Carlo Acutis’ canonization. With two flights and two hotels booked, I’ll be reviewing each and posting those here. 

Honestly, apart from checking into each of these portions of this trip and attending the canonization, I don’t have any other rigid plans. I’ll have time to explore Rome for two days before the canonization. We’ll see what I end up doing!

So how would you have booked this itinerary? Lemme know down in the comments!

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