American Airlines takes tips from Qantas prior to launch of Sydney - Los Angeles flights

American Airlines chief executive Doug Parker and several other senior executives will travel to Sydney next week to show off the carrier's flagship Boeing 777 to corporate customers and travel agents in a sign of its serious commitment to the market ahead of the launch of its first Sydney-Los Angeles flights next month.

American, the world's largest airline by distance flown, is also working with joint venture partner Qantas to help improve its service to combat the Australian market perception of US carriers having an inferior product.

"It is important for us to get this right – it is the first time we've flown here since 1992 and we intend to do it really, really well," said Simon Dodd, the general manager of America's Australia and New Zealand operations, who is based at the Qantas head office at Mascot.

"We have sat down with Qantas as our key partner to look at everything on board, so redesigning menus, the customer experience, how many cabin crew we have on the flight and so on. We are actually committed to making this a great experience."

As part of a deeper partnership pact signed in June, Qantas and American will now be sharing revenue on their trans-Pacific flights. Mr Dodd said that meant American was also heavily invested in selling Qantas's new Sydney-San Francisco services to its large base of US customers.

In the local market, American's commercial team has tripled in size to six people as a result of its new services and it has running a joint advertising campaign with Qantas promoting their products on the trans-Pacific route.

Continuous Wi-Fi

From March, when rival United Airlines switches its Sydney-Los Angeles and Sydney-San Francisco routes from 777s to new 787-9s, Qantas and American will be the only carriers offering first class across the Pacific. The American product includes fully flat beds and aisle access for all seats, even in business class, as well as on-board Wi-Fi not offered by Qantas.

"It is a long flight and having essentially continuous Wi-Fi between Sydney and LA is something I think is going to be appreciated by a lot of customers," said American's Tokyo-based vice president of Asia Pacific, Erwan Perhirin.

The American flights to Los Angeles will arrive in Terminal 4, offering seamless connections to American's domestic flights but will depart in the neighbouring Tom Bradley International Terminal, allowing passengers to take advantage of Qantas's business and first class lounges as well as shopping and dining opportunities managed by Westfield.

In addition, Los Angeles World Airports is building a connector between Terminal Four and the Tom Bradley terminal that will allow passengers to leave an American domestic flight and walk through to the international terminal without needing to go out to the street or be checked again for security. The new connector is expected to be open next year.