Review of American Airlines flight Phoenix Los Angeles in Domestic First

Airline American Airlines
Flight AA 509
Seat 3A
Aircraft Airbus A319
Flight time 01:32
Take-off 27 Dec 15, 19:55
Arrival at 27 Dec 15, 20:27
AA   #69 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 591 reviews
NGO85
By SILVER 1961
Published on 1st February 2016
Background:

This series covers my pilgrimage home to San Francisco for Christmas. For a detailed background, please refer to Part 1 of this series. As a reminder, the routing is:

Part 1 – NGO-ICN [OZ 121, Airbus A321, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-12681.html
Part 2 – ICN-LAX [OZ 202, Airbus A380-800, Business Smartium] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-12897.html
Part 3 – LAX-SFO [AA 209, Boeing B737-800, First] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13024.html
Part 4 – SFO-PHX [AA 477, Airbus A321, First] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13075.html
Part 5 – PHX-LAX [AA 509, Airbus A319, First] – You are here
Part 6 – LAX-ICN [OZ 203, Boeing B777-200ER, Business Smartium] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13102.html
Part 7 – ICN-KIX [OZ 114, Boeing B777-200ER, Business (First)] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13135.html

This report will cover the flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor to Los Angeles as we continue the return journey back to Japan. This flight will complete the AA ticket and will push me over the 50k miles for AA Platinum status.



Pre-flight:

After deplaning, I’m dumped into PHX for the first time in 10+ years. As I try to get my bearings, I come across this quite festive gate.

photo 1

I check the FIDS, and then bolt towards Concourse B since my flight will be leaving from Gate B2. (I had accidentally switched off auto-focus, so the first couple shots are blurry since I was in a hurry)

photo 2photo 3

After stopping in the bathroom, I go to take a picture of my plane tonight.

photo 4




——————————-

American Airlines, AA 509
Equipment: Airbus A319 [N818AW, delivered November 2000]
Departure: 19:55 (ATD: 20:19)
Arrival: 20:27 (ATA: 20:25)
Flight time: 1:06


Reaching the gate, boarding was already underway. I use the empty priority line on the left.

photo 5

Boarding, a FA greets me in the galley. A very blurry shot of my seat as I squeeze past my seatmate. As is standard, the F cabin is 100% full.

photo 6

Pre-placed on my seat is a blanket and the seat pitch is fairly tight. This plane had just come in from YEG, don't envy those passengers that got this seat on that long-haul.

photo 7

Our plane has the US bulkhead with US logo.

photo 8

As boarding is proceeding, these two guys show up and start dismantling the ceiling in the galley. This is never a good sign…

photo 9

I start to feel like this guy.

photo 10

Our next door neighbor is our twin A319.

photo 11

A very nice FA stops by and takes my PDB order and returns with a gin and tonic.

photo 12

The left armrest houses the foldout tray table and seat recline.

photo 13

The audio controls and a small storage compartment.

photo 14

The safety card aboard this A319.

photo 15photo 16photo 17

About 10 minutes late, the ground crew finally finishes replacing the light in the galley and put the ceiling back together. We push back as the FAs do the safety demonstration (no overhead monitors). We taxi out past our brother A319 in US livery.

photo 18

We reach runway 25R after a long taxi.

photo 19

We align for takeoff, but then the engines never roar to life. Instead we just taxi off the runway. The captain immediately comes on and says that LAX ATC is not letting us takeoff since we missed our window. We taxi around and park next to the WN operations to wait for clearance to takeoff from LAX.

photo 20

About 5 minutes later, the captain tells the FAs to be seated for departure. We circle back on to the runway and takeoff for real this time about 25 minutes behind schedule.

photo 21

We lift up over PHX.

photo 22photo 23

As soon as we level off, the snack basket makes it rounds and I get a coffee with Bailey’s.

photo 24

About 20 minutes later, another round of the snack basket and another cup of coffee and Bailey’s.

photo 25

Before I know it, we are already in our descent as we pass Palm Springs.

photo 26

Corona.

photo 27

Anaheim.

photo 28

We follow I-105 as we approach LAX with the sprawl of lights below us.

photo 29photo 30

Crossing the Los Angeles River.

photo 31

We then coast into LAX for a surprisingly on-time arrival…

photo 32photo 33

…But that would be too good to be true. We pull off the runway and just stop on the tarmac. The captain comes on and says that there are no gates available. This is when things get really annoying. There was an extremely drunk 70ish lady sitting in front of me. She was pretty obnoxious the entire flight. While we were sitting on the tarmac, she got up and went into the galley and started screaming at the FA with profanity about why we weren't moving. The FA just told her to sit down and put her seatbelt on. She eventually did, but 10 minutes later approached the FA again with profanity and a dead-heading pilot confronted her and told her to sit down. It was a very uncomfortable situation. The FA kept her composure and just sat there politely asking the lady to return to her seat since we were still on an active taxiway. We sat there for 25-minutes before we finally started taxing again. We made a giant loop around the airport stalling time. This did allow for some spotting.

TBIT line-up.

photo 34

CZ A380.

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DL B767 (?) in ST special livery.

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UA operations.

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After meandering around for 10 minutes we finally pull into the gate areas. Passing an AS B738.

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AA A321 in US livery.

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We pull in next to the aforementioned AA A321.

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Deplaning, everyone in F thanked the FA for her patience with the drunk passenger. I think this lady was very lucky not to be arrested on arrival for twice disobeying crew member instructions and approaching the cockpit. Off to the baggage claim we go.

photo 41

Down the escalators.

photo 42

It was a 30-minute wait for bags in the baggage claim. Even though we technically landed on time, I did not have my bag in hand until 68 minutes after touchdown.

photo 43

I will leave off this series here as I begin my layover in LAX before continuing this journey to ICN. Thanks for reading this report and please stop by for the end of this series!
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Verdict

American Airlines

6.4/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi3.0
Meal/catering6.5

Phoenix - PHX

7.5/10
Efficiency8.0
Access8.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0

Los Angeles - LAX

7.5/10
Efficiency8.0
Access7.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

Another mediocre experience onboard AA (US?). I think the flight would have been fine, but it was marred by an obnoxious passenger (one rotten apple spoils the bunch) and ATC delays in LAX.

Cabin comfort: The US cabins have looked visually surprisingly nice (even noticed this on Kevin's reports). The seat pitch seems really tight for F. The B738 and A321 were both more generous.

Crew: A very nice FA on this flight and she held her composure real well when dealing with a certain passenger and should be commended for that. I guess ATC isn't their fault, but the pilots were regularly updating us with information on the various delays.

Meal and catering: Two snack basket passes and two drinks in-flight. Decent service for a short 1-hour flight.

Entertainment: No newspaper offered and the standard seatback literature. No in-flight entertainment on this flight, only natural IFE.

On-time performance: We boarded on-time, but left late due to aircraft maintenance. Delays in PHX and LAX due to ATC. Technically landed on-time, but arrived to the gate nearly 35-40 minutes late.

Information on the route Phoenix (PHX) Los Angeles (LAX)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 3 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Phoenix (PHX) → Los Angeles (LAX).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est American Airlines avec 7.2/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 29 minutes.

  More information

10 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 156556 by
    jetsetpanda 2283 Comments
    You're on a roll!

    I start to feel like this guy.
    - Just don't be around frogs when you start feeling that way. I don't know about you, but when I saw that picture I started having an existentialist crisis. :P

    Short flight with quite decent service. Kudos to the FA for offering an open pre-dept. bar. I've heard that pm-US crews were great at that.

    Lovely night shots and spotting.

    Thanks Michael.
    • Comment 333907 by
      NGO85 SILVER AUTHOR 1963 Comments
      I don't know about you, but when I saw that picture I started having an existentialist crisis. :P
      - I have an existential crisis everyday...

      Kudos to the FA for offering an open pre-dept. bar. I've heard that pm-US crews were great at that.
      - I was 3/3 on open bar PDBs (2 PMUS and 1 PMAA). The service was pretty good on this flight, I just don't like all the extras that come with US air travel.

      Thanks Adan!
  • Comment 156557 by
    757Fan 632 Comments
    Great report, NG085. Looks like you had a pretty decent flight with AA on the short PHX-LAX flight. Nice to get 2 snack passes!

    On a flight from Copenhagen to Chicago, we had a passenger who began walking in the aisles as the plane was taxiing to the gate. The flight attendants spent a few minutes trying to get the passenger to stop, and get back to their seat. This reminded me of your experience with this passenger.
    • Comment 333905 by
      NGO85 SILVER AUTHOR 1963 Comments
      Thanks for stopping by Matthew. The flight itself was good, it's just all the other things that happen on US domestic flights that brings down the experience.

      What you described is also quite common here in Japan, the elderly will sometimes start roaming around during the taxi to the gate so the FAs have to coral them back to their seats. That's much less of an issue, than a drunk and disorderly passenger making a giant scene outside of the cockpit.
  • Comment 156558 by
    Numero_2 TEAM BRONZE 10415 Comments
    That's not what we could call a great flight, but it seems you get some entertainment each time you fly AA. ^^

    Thank you for sharing !
  • Comment 156828 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    This flight will complete the AA ticket and will push me over the 50k miles for AA Platinum status.
    - Woot! Congrats...again. And welcome to the dAArk side :-P Sounds like we'll have to do some duo-FRs on AA mileage runs in the future!

    As I try to get my bearings, I come across this quite festive gate.
    - Sweet Jesus! It looks like Christmas exploded all over the place!

    I use the empty priority line on the left.
    - Hehe, I love doing that. It's so douchy :-P

    This plane had just come in from YEG, don't envy those passengers that got this seat on that long-haul.
    - Yeah, not the best for a long flight. As you know I've done these seats on transcons, and I generally prefer row 1 for those longer flights.

    G&T, Coffee and Baileys...you copying me? :-P

    The LA basin is always an impressive sight at night!

    There was an extremely drunk 70ish lady sitting in front of me. She was pretty obnoxious the entire flight.
    - You don't gotta be klassy to be in First class :-P

    Yeah baby, love that TBIT lineup!

    I think this lady was very lucky not to be arrested on arrival for twice disobeying crew member instructions and approaching the cockpit.
    - She was VERY lucky. I've seen people escorted off planes for less. People can really be entitled spoiled idiots sometimes! Again, just because you have money, doesn't mean you have class!

    The US cabins have looked visually surprisingly nice (even noticed this on Kevin's reports)
    - Yeah, when you get the newer ones, they're still in pretty good shape.

    Well, seems like a mess of a flight operationally. At least you had a good crew this time!













    • Comment 334360 by
      NGO85 SILVER AUTHOR 1963 Comments
      Sounds like we'll have to do some duo-FRs on AA mileage runs in the future!
      - If only OW had a Chinese carrier :( I have naughty urges to fly MU and CA...

      It looks like Christmas exploded all over the place!
      - They could have definitely toned that down a couple of notches. Especially because no other gate had any decorations. This was the mother load!

      As you know I've done these seats on transcons, and I generally prefer row 1 for those longer flights.
      - But like you, I prefer the back corner so less people are staring at the weird guy taking pictures.

      You don't gotta be klassy to be in First class :-P
      - Probably some second bit washed up actress. Kept taking selfies with the flash right in my face.

      Yeah, when you get the newer ones, they're still in pretty good shape.
      - I've seen a lot of really bad Y cabins on US, so these looked relatively good. I associate US with trash, so this was a welcome surprise.

      At least you had a good crew this time!
      - Yep, she was a very friendly US FA. No complaints this time about the crew!
  • Comment 156835 by
    Rl 777 802 Comments
    Thank you for sharing this FR with us!

    The seat pitch doesn't look to be nice at all. I'm still not a fan of the blue colour on the seatback haha.

    Two snack services on a flight of this length is not bad.

    Oh well, that issue can be irritating, not unusual for busy airports though. It doesn't help when you have a drunk lady onboard. I remember when I flew ARN-IST back in 2011 and we had to circle around IST for 30 minutes due to there being no available gates, then we had to wait for an additional 30 minutes once we landed because the same issue.

    Absolutely fantastic night shots!

    Have a good one, see you!
    • Comment 334361 by
      NGO85 SILVER AUTHOR 1963 Comments
      Thanks for commenting!

      I'm still not a fan of the blue colour on the seatback haha.
      - On this flight, I was more concerned about the yellowed consoles, lol.

      Two snack services on a flight of this length is not bad.
      - This was a good crew on this flight. As always, there is a correlation between crew and service.

      I remember when I flew ARN-IST back in 2011 and we had to circle around IST for 30 minutes due to there being no available gates, then we had to wait for an additional 30 minutes once we landed because the same issue.
      - We had the delayed takeoff because of flow control into LAX, which luckily meant no holding pattern for landing. Sitting on a plane at the end of a trip is always the worst. The terminal is so close, yet so far away...

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