Review of American Airlines flight Miami Lima in Business

Airline American Airlines
Flight AA 917
Class Business
Seat 2A
Aircraft Boeing 757-200
Flight time 05:45
Take-off 18 Dec 16, 18:00
Arrival at 18 Dec 16, 23:45
AA   #69 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 591 reviews
767 traveller
Published on 28th December 2016
Welcome to the second part of this series covering my flights home for the Christmas Break. The previous instalment covering my flight from Madrid to Miami can be found here.

After retrieving my phone I thanked the crew for their help and walked out of the plane. I was immediately met by a sea of people at passport control. The ESTA queue was huge but appeared to be moving quickly, however I had to queue with the mortals, the queue was completely packed and didn't seem to be moving at all. There seemed to be lots of families going to spend the holidays in Miami so you could feel the holiday vibe . There was no AC in the immigration hall and we were all sweating like pigs. It was one of those moments where you would really appreciate a shower, however there was obviously no time for such thing!


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Then it was through baggage claim and turn right into flight connections. Security was extremely packed and having pre check wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway.

At that point my flight was supposed to start to be boarding and I was not in the mood to run to catch a five hour flight after having just gotten off a TATL. When making these sort of connections I like to leave a bit of time to enjoy the lounge and freshen up, however couldn't get anything else to work out. When I was walking towards the gate they did the final announcement for my flight saying that “if you have an assigned seat on this flight this was the last chance to board”, but I was still a good 5 to 10 minute walk away. I decided not to rush and that if I missed the connection, I could have been rebooked for later on or the next day.

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I had to walk all the way towards the end of Terminal D.

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Mighty 777


However when I arrived to the gate it was still open and some passengers were getting in. I heard that a passenger in Y got his seat swapped at the last minute and when the passenger before me boarded the agent said “ah, business, come on board then”.

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I settled in seat 2A and a was soon offered a PDB by a female flight attendant. I chose OJ. Then the male purser came back offering the amenity kits. The purser presented himself and announced a flying time of 5:11hs. We took off without having to wait on hold and had some nice views over Miami. Too bad it was dark and was only taking pictures using my Iphone, because I could not get a decent shot.

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Once airborne I tried to recline my seat, but nothing happened. I tried again pressing different buttons, but the seat would stay the same. I saw the purser and asked for help and he said he said he would come back to take a look at the seat. He did all he could and managed to raise it and get it to recline a bit. He told that the captain had advised the staff at the gate that the seat was broken and that they should have let me know before boarding. I guess that they may have called my name at some point, but at that time I was way behind! He seemed pissed by the fact that I wasn’t advised about this and suggested that I complained with AA. I told him not to worry and that I will set a claim.

Then my seatmate started to make conversation by asking how was the seat situation. He was a nice guy from Miami doing his final business trip before the end of the year. He seemed to be quite an AA regular, because when the purser offered drinks and mixed nuts, he asked him to warm up his nuts as that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

They started the meal service not long after I was back at my seat. The starter was a quinoa salad which was quite good. There were four main options which were ribs, chicken, beef or a burrito.

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Interesting dish and tasted quite well too.


I originally chose the chicken but it wasn’t available anymore. The purser was apologetic and seemed disappointed that I did't managed to get my first meal choice. Not that I cared much about anyway! I ended up settling up for the ribs and turns out I had made the right choice. They were pretty flavourful and had some spicy touch which added even more taste to the dish. The crew was very proactive and friendly addressing everyone by name and doing multiple drink and bread runs around the cabin.

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I wasn’t going to have dessert but ended up having the sundae and the purser insisted I take it with all of the toppings. I washed the meal down with a cup of tea and then went to sleep. I started to re watch Mike and Dave, however I slept hallway from the movie and woke up about an hour before landing, despite my seat not reclining. Not hard to do if you are a Y regular, I’d say or maybe I was just too tired.

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There was supposed to be a pre-landing snack but I don’t know whether it was offered (and I was asleep by then) or not. I watched an episode of two broke girls before the captain announced that we were starting descent.

Landing was smooth and we were quickly let off the plane. There was no queue at immigration and my bag was one of the first off the belt. I saw the purser at customs, we had a small chat and he reminded me not to forget to complain about the seat situation.
All in all, this was a very good flight. Despite the broken seat, service was top notch. The male purser did a really good job throughout the flight, he was always attentive and delivered all requests with a smile. He really impressed me and I appreciated that he encouraged me to take action about the seat situation and get what I paid for rather than just say the typical “we’re sorry sir but there’s nothing we can do”.

I made a complaint and AA responded quickly with a USD 300 voucher for future travel in American. Personally, I would have thought they were going to send a bit more, but I can’t really complain.

Finally, sorry for the lack of photos and perhaps some detail about the flight, but I was too tired and couldn't be bothered to be snapping pictures around the cabin. I promise my next reports are going to be more detailed!

Thanks for reading. I hope you all had a very nice Christmas and have a happy New year! I should be back with more on a couple of weeks time. The return flights are going to see me fly AA's retrofitted 763's and a British queen of the skies back from Miami to LHR. I am already exited about those!
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Verdict

American Airlines

7.5/10
Cabin6.0
Cabin crew9.5
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Meal/catering7.5

Miami - MIA

6.4/10
Efficiency5.5
Access6.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0

Lima - LIM

6.3/10
Efficiency7.0
Access6.0
Services5.5
Cleanliness6.5

Conclusion

AA proved to be a solid option to travel to South America from the US. They serve LIM with two daily flights from MIA one on a 757 and the other one on a retrofitted 767. Although the hard product in the 757 is not up to what other carriers such as DL, UA or even LA offer on flights from the US to LIM, it is comfortable enough and service is quite good. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly AA again and certainly wouldn’t mind doing it in J!

Information on the route Miami (MIA) Lima (LIM)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 7 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Miami (MIA) → Lima (LIM).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est LAN Airlines avec 7.9/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 5 heures et 43 minutes.

  More information

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 379439 by
    Caribel 113 Comments
    Something doesn't add up in the purser's statement. If a seat is not working and the crew was aware before the door closed, a technician must have been summoned. When the crew ascertained that the seat could not be fixed, compensation vouchers were supposed to be requested from the gate manager to hand to the assigned pax who couldn't be reassigned. Telling you to go through the complex maze of hoops to jump to explain the situation in writing to a representative that cannot verify your story is a subtle way to say: " Sounds like a personal problem to me. Go fish."

    • Comment 379540 by
      767 traveller AUTHOR 53 Comments
      Hi Caribel, I understand it was the gate agents business to deal with the seat situation, but presume they just wanted to get this flight out of their hands. I didn't think the purser could have done much else, since I realised the seat was not working once we were in the air. Apparently the captain was aware of this but the purser wasn't so I guess that's why he didn't say anything whilst we were on the ground.
      Have a nice year!
  • Comment 379441 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    I was just in Peru a few weeks ago and flew in one of there old AA 757s as well--luckily my seat reclined. Wow, I can't believe they didn't tell you about the seat on the ground, but at the same time, I'm not surprised the gate agents ignored the issue or conveniently forgot. I guess a recline issue isn't enough to warrant making the seat INOP as I've seen these issues happen once airborne several times. Good thing AA is finally replacing these old angled NGBC seats on the 757s with B/E Aerospace Diamond seats, though so far they only have 2 or 3 completed. USD300 seems low for a Business class seat not working. I would have thought they'd throw in some miles as well, but I guess it's better than nothing. At least you were able to get some sleep despite the recline issue. I'm sure your experience on the 767 on the return will be better. Thanks for sharing and I hope you enjoyed Peru!
    • Comment 379544 by
      767 traveller AUTHOR 53 Comments
      Hi Kevin, thanks for leaving a comment. I hope you enjoyed your time in Peru and that you manage to share your experience with us at some point :). I was irked by the gate agents disinterest and to be honest would have expected a higher compensation as an apology for them not doing what they were supposed to rather than for the actual seat not working. Nice to hear that AA is retrofitting their 752's. They are in serious need of a refresh!
      Have a good one!

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