Review of American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia in Domestic First

Report No: 2020-1011

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to this long, 18 flight series of US domestic mileage runs that I took in October 2020. After COVID-19, the demand for premium travel within the USA has decreased for short distances so on some occasions Domestic First tickets in the USA could be really cheap if you book in advance. American Airlines had a deal of DCA-RDU r/t for $227 which would have given me 240 British Airways Executive Club Tier Points so I decided to take 3 of these runs to achieve Gold status in British Airways Executive Club.

Although I am a Qatar Airways Privilege Club Platinum member at the moment, unless things change, I am pretty sure that I would lose it in mid-2022 so I have started working on a back-up plan as oneworld Emerald status is a really valuable status for a frequent traveler.

The eleventh report of this series would be the only Airbus A320 report in this series. This time I am flying from Charlotte Douglas Airport to Philadelphia onboard the American Airlines A320. This report would include a visit to the Admirals Club in Charlotte Concourse C/D.

Here is the routing
Part 1 

Part 2

Part 3

Loads for this flight

Domestic First: 100%
Main Cabin: 90-95%  

CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS AIRPORT - CLT

After arriving from my previous flight, it was time to head to the Admirals Club. The central area of the airport was super-crowded as usual.

American Airlines ADMIRALS CLUB C/D - CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS AIRPORT

As my flight was going to depart from gate C18, I've went to the club in Concourse C/D. I was welcomed by a friendly club agent and for the first time ever, the agent asked my for a photo identification to verify that I was the one traveling. 

The club was empty during my visit

In the afternoon, there is a chef that serves soup and chips&guac.
The soup options were either a Southwestern style soup or a Baked Potato soup.

The food bar had cookies, brownies, cheese cubes and fruit.

Here is my choice for the day.

CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS AIRPORT - CLT

When it was close to boarding, I have left the club and found myself inside the crowded Concourse C.

As multiple flights at the same area were departing at the same time, the gate area was crowded.

Boarding had started with the respect of priorities starting with passengers requiring assistance, followed by ConciergeKey members and group 1 to 9.

Here is a photo of N105UW.

AA 423 CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS AIRPORT TO PHILADELPHIA AIRPORT

After being welcomed by the crew, I have took my seat 3F for the flight.

This time it's the 2016 refurbishment seats rather than Oasis which has more legroom and the seats are more comfortable compared to the Oasis ones.

Sanitizing wipes were available on the seat console.

The seat also had a USB port and a power outlet.
As you could see, the console was broken so I've alerted the crew that there were no life vests in the console. The crew then double checked with the captain and congratulated me for noticing the problem, although this aircraft had no life vests but instead uses the seat bottom as a flotation cushion.

Shortly later, something interesting have happened. The crew phones were out of service and they didn't have the necessary information about the flight so boarding had needed to stop.

Boarding had stopped and the crew apologized for the network-wide delay as all flights were experiencing this issue at the same time.

The seat pocket content.

While the crew was waiting the issue to be solved, they came to the cabin and took drink orders. I've opted for a Bloody Mary which was promptly served.

About 20 minutes later, the issue was solved and boarding resumed. After boarding had completed, the crew closed the aircraft doors and we were all set to push back.

By the way, when we have pushed back due to the tight connection at PHL which was caused because of this delay, AA offered me a free rebooking for the following day for my PHL-DCA flight. Technically, I could have chosen a routing like PHL-CLT-DCA which meant 40 extra Tier Points for me but in case of a voluntary change, I would have been responsible for the hotel which would be an unexpected cost so I left my itinerary as it is.

As the issue was solved and many flights had pushed-back at similar times, there were flights already at the runway queue so we waited a bit to take off and then we were in the air.

Downtown Charlotte

The mobile IFE system provided by Gogo

Weather information for Philadelphia

Wi-Fi options for todays flight

And the movies & TV show menu

For the majority of the flight, I've slept. By the way, during the flight, the cabin crew had offered another round of drinks but as I preferred to sleep I've opted for nothing.

And we've landed at Philadelphia a couple of minutes later than our scheduled arrival time.

And we have parked at gate B14.

Our neighbor was this American Airlines 737-800.

By the way as we have arrived at the gate, more earlier than 30 minutes before than my next PHL-DCA flight, free rebooking options were disappeared from the app, which meant that I could still make the flight.

PHILADELPHIA AIRPORT - PHL

After saying goodbye and thank you to the crew, I was inside concourse B and it was time to head to concourse A for my flight to DCA as it was almost time for boarding for that flight.

The journey would continue in the next report.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.