#66 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
598 reviews
The quirks of the work trip meant I had to take the last possible flight back to DC, which meant a non-direct connecting in CLT. This turned out to be quite the hassle as storms in New Orleans meant we couldn't take off (and as such I was going to miss my connection in CLT). In hindsight, I absolutely should have just deferred this to the next day and flew the 6am direct from MSY to DCA. Oh well.
I was rushing to return my rental car after finishing up work and was hoping to barely make my flight. The MSY rental car situation is terrible, it's a 20+ minutes bus ride from the airport to the rental car garage. Not sure why it's built so far away.
I managed to scramble to my gate in time for what would have been boarding (6:09pm CT). Unfortunately, thunderstorms had delayed all departures from MSY. After waiting for around 40 minutes, I realized I was going to miss my connection in CLT and started considering other options. I should have just switched my flight to the 6am direct to DCA the next morning, but I thought it might be easier to get to CLT first in case of anything going wrong the next morning. More importantly, just as I was on the phone with the AA agent discussing changing my flight, they began boarding my flight at 7:14pm CT. I was even a little hopeful that if the flight out of CLT was delayed a bit, I might make the connection.
In any case, my ride to Charlotte was on N978UY, a 10-years old A321-200.
AA has 5 rows of 2-2 domestic first class recliners on their A321s.
I was seated in 2F for this flight.
I don't think any of the US mainline recliner seats really distinguish themselves from one another except for the availability of IFE screens. AA has no screens, but I do appreciate the open up storage space on the side.
Unfortunately, the boarding was a mirage because we ended up just sitting on the plane for about an hour before finally pushing back at 8:20pm, more than an hour after boarding started. We ended up taking off at 8:35pm. I knew there was no chance of catching the connection in CLT at this point and was kicking myself for not changing to the next-day flight.
The lavatory on the A321 was very standard, not much to comment on here.
Service began about 30 minutes after takeoff with beverage orders. I needed a drink after the day that I've had.
One thing that I think could have been improved was that they could have offered PDBs to first class during our long wait. That was a missed opportunity.
More surprisingly, there was no meal service whatsoever. We got a bag of mixed nuts. I would be quite annoyed if it wasn't work paying for the flight.
We began a very bumpy descent at 10:27pm ET and landed at 10:54pm. We were at our gate 10 minutes later.
For those of you who were wondering, AA did offer a meal and hotel voucher proactively. Additionally, because I was rebooked in economy for my flight the next morning, AA also proactively refunded the difference in that ticket.
Lounge: N/A
Cabin & Seat: AA's recliner seats on the A321 are fairly standard. The only thing of note is some extra storage on the side where the outlet is.
Service: Service was okay, nothing to really comment on. As I mentioned before, I think the lack of PDBs during the long wait on the ground was a missed opportunity.
Meal & Catering: There should be something more substantive than a bag of nuts for first class on this flight.
Bottom Line: I wouldn't mind flying AA's domestic first on a mainline again, but would expect a meal service, even if it's just some sort of box. Hindsight's always 20/20 for irregular operations--I wouldn't rush to CLT again thinking it's safer because there are more flights the next morning (my CLT-DCA flight was delayed and ended up arriving even later than the MSY-DCA direct).
7 Comments
I won't ask for your help when choosing lottery tickets. lol
I was scratching my head, wondering why would they offer Protein Data Banks on a flight, which is the definition I found for PDB on the internet! hahahah. I didn't consider the context. Duh! Pre-Departure Drinks. I see now.
How is that even possible!!!!
I'm very sorry that you missed your connection. But well, it adds to the fun! haha
Thanks for sharing!
If you have to connect through an AA hub, CLT is probably the easiest of the lot.
Sad but true. Back before project Oasis, AA was the clear winner with seatback IFE and 40" seat pitch, but now they're just like everyone else. Back even further Virgin America had the best Domestic First cabins...RIP :-(
Always hit or miss on AA. Usually PMUS crews are good about doing PDBs, but I guess that's changed.
I think really the only thing AA narrowbody mainline F has going for it is consitency...they now have the same seats on every single narrowbody except the handful of PMAA A319s and A321s with PTVs that mostly do INTL anymore
Thanks for sharing!
It's a race to the bottom here in the States.
That's unfortunate. United has always been a bit inconsistent here, but good to know the grass isn't greener on the other side.
I do think consistency has a lot of value. It makes equipment swaps less of a big deal and also means I'm not browsing for which plane to take over others. Think about LH J internationally right now.
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