I am used to being pampered by the airline I fly a lot, and they’d accede to  my demands sometimes. But to have an airline go all out to make an impression is  a little different.

American Airlines is the backbone to the inaugural oneworld  MegaDo, and they are up to their best behaviour on this one. I arrived in JFK on
Saturday evening on a non-stop with a fuel-stop flight, and I was greeted at the jet  bridge by an American Airlines agent who was looking for me. The AA 5-star  arrivals service at work, even though I wasn’t even expecting it.

The AA Agent walked me through to the passport control and with some  influence, I was able to get through it in 5 minutes or less. Then we walked  over to baggage claim, and which point I bid adieu to her, because I did not  want her to wait while my bags arrived 20 minutes later. All the MegaDo  participants flying on AA did get similar welcomes, and it was a pleasant surprise for everyone  I am sure, though word got around quickly!

Kicking off the OWMD to London

 

I started my trip to London on the OWMD arriving at American Airlines  Terminal 8 on JFK Airport, and it looked plain and simple yet:

Till you arrive at the concourse and you see this!

I was greeted by a couple of agents who were expecting all the OWMD  participants this evening. Everyone was welcomed to the AA Premium Check-in  service, where a couple of lanes were blocked off only for the OWMD participants. The Agents all knew about the OWMD, and a couple of them chatted  me up while I checked in. Impressive start to the show!

A little walk down the alley and a couple of staircases upwards, you get up  on to conference centre where a Finnair presentation was in the works.

A little later, the presentation kicked off and we had the director of JFK Terminal 8, Mark Najarian, starting off with the welcome address.

 

It was a revelation that AA owned T8 and did not just operate as a tenant. This is all the bunch of attendants listening in with rapt attention:

This model plane caught my attention:

The Finnair presentation was short and sweet, but it sure did put up Helsinki on my map. Here is how it looked like, the last slide welcomes you over 🙂

After this, Suzanne Rubin, the new AAdvantage President took over and welcomed us one more time on behalf of AA:

The party moved to ‘The Bridge’ where a good amount of music and food and AA employees were over giving attention to the guests.

Watch out for more and see the group making the trip to London in the next update! And do check out and participate in the MegaDo swag giveaway while you are up to it!