Review of American Airlines flight Dallas/Fort Worth → San Francisco in Economy

Hi and welcome to this return segment of my quick 1 day trip to DFW.

The outbound portion is here.

After arriving in DFW, I had to wait 2+ hrs. for my return flight, so I took the Skytrain to terminal E - destination UA Club. I had a free pass that will expire on May 31 so this provided an excellent opportunity to use it.

Terminal E is for miscellaneous airlines serving DFW like UA and DL among others. It's hard to imagine that a few decades ago DFW was a major DL hub and now it is only a shadow of its former self.

I was welcomed into the UA Club by a friendly receptionist and handed her my pass. She asked for a boarding pass so I showed her the previous one for SFO-DFW and it was accepted. The lounge had a business center, WC's, storage room, bar and a small buffet area with some crudites, soup, hummus, pita bread, cheese cubes and crackers. This was a former CO President's Club and the metal utensils still had the CO name on them. However, it will be closed on May 14 due to renovation and is scheduled to re-open in Spring 2017. In the meantime, passengers can access a temporary lounge between gates E22-30 on the Mezzanine level.

Entrance.




Business center and storage room right behind the reception desk.




Left side sitting area with individual partitions.




Buffet area.




My snack.




Bar.




Right side sitting area.




View of the tarmac from the lounge.




Reminder.




The staff at the club were friendly and they constantly cleaned up dishes and glasses left behind. The lounge was not crowded at all during my stay. I then made my way to terminal A to catch my return flight.

Some airline spotting taken from Skytrain. It was challenging to take shots while the train was moving, so I apologize for the quality of some pictures.




Super 80's.




737-800's.




At the gate there were 3 agents working the flight. One of them was very professional while another was pathetically indifferent and borderline rude. Once again I was #1 on the upgrade list but this time the cabin was full and there was no chance to be bumped up. I waited until the last minute and then proceeded to take my seat which was an emergency row with plenty of leg room. My seatmate was coughing and I think he gave me his cold. :(



I saw a total of 4 FA's working this flight and there was only 1 of them doing the whole dinner service up front most of the time. The female FA working in Y was excellent and when the service started, she had my name written on a piece of paper and thanked me for flying AA. She parked the cart next to me and invited me to select any snacks that I wanted by showing me the drawers. I chose the "Turkey Cuban" sandwich and a bag of cookie chips. The sandwich was a weak attempt at Cuban food and everyone from MIA knows that if you want a decent version you better get it from La Carreta or Cafe Versailles at the terminal.



After the meal service I watched an old feature of "Aliens" from the IFE. Then water was offered before arrival. Before descent, the same FA that initially welcomed me at the beginning of the flight made some small chat and when she learned that I lived in SFO she welcomed me home and thanked me for my business. That was F service.