#67 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
593 reviews
I originally booked flight AA486 from San Salvador to Orlando with a 4 hour layover Miami. but at 10 pm. the night before departure, I received a flight cancellation e-mail. My original flight departed San Salvador at 5:00 am and the scheduled landing was at 9:45 am. There was a vast amount of options to rebook my flight, but I decided to take the 6:01 am flight which allowed me to catch my connecting flight and arrive in Orlando at the same time as the original trip, which meant the only change would be a shorter layover.
AA encourages its passengers to Check-in using VeriFly App. In my case, the app system came down and it was impossible to check-in online or via the AA app after succesfully having sent and verified the tests. My advice: Plan ahead and get to the airport 2.5-3 hours before departure.
SAL was practically a ghost town at 3 am. Only AA and UA counters were open as our flight and a UA flight to Houston were the only departures before 7-8 am.
Check-In at the airport was pretty quick and easy. Before starting the queue, there was an AA employee handing out a sworn statement of COVID-19 awareness, presence of symptoms in the last days, US requirements for international travelers, tests, etc. While listening to my fellow passengers' conversations, I found out that many people didn't even know their flight was cancelled and they thought they were checking in for the 5 am flight! Ground personnel were quite friendly and helpful with our queries about the connecting flight in MIA. We were constantly asked to wear masks at the airport and the plane at all times.
AA and Iberia's counters are used together as a whole as they are the only OneWorld Members at SAL maybe because there's a huge lack of space in the check in area at this airport.
Being one of the two only flights departing the airport, going through security and passport control was incredibly fast
First of all, we had to locate out gate, this time it was #6. However, when we reached the gate, we found out that AA has an additional screening to all its passengers leaving SAL before entering the assigned gate area. We decided then to have a walk around the airport. There was not much to see or do as everything was closed at this time. As I said before, this airport is completely deserted at this time. Anyways, we were able to have a little sneak peek of the new gate area under construction. Most of the works are already done but the area's inauguration date is still unknown.
Every single store or restaurant was closed. I was a little bit disappointed as I expected to see one 24/7 shop or at least a vending machine to grab some snacks and soda/water. After a 15-20 minute walk around the airport terminal, we headed to gate 6 and we had the additional screening required by AA (Below)
And finally I got a picture of the boy that was taking us to Miami that morning. (Below)
Model: Boeing 737 MAX 8
Registration: N303RE
Short after passing the additional screening, boarding started by groups. It was a little bit chaotic but we were able to leave on time. I really enjoyed the views of SAL at sunrise
Sunrise at SAL was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS (Below)
Legroom was pretty decent for such a short flight. Flight attendants were not quite friendly but I understand we all were a bit tired and sleepy at this time of the day! What made me feel a little bit upset was that AA removed its screens from the seats, instead there was a phone/tablet holder. However, the new in-flight entertaiment is amazing, later on I will talk about it.
We quickly pushed back on time and started the taxi to runway 25. Take-Off went almost unnoticed as the 737 MAX 8 is smooth and light.
Once in the air, everything was quiet and peaceful, as most of the passengers went straight to sleep!
The new entertainment system required you to connect to an in-flight WiFi network. This network allowed you to navigate in the internet ONLY if you used the AA entertainment website, if you wanted to enter a different page e.g. Facebook, Google, YouTube, you had to pay a fee which varies by route, flight time and usage. In-flight entertainment included a wide variety of series, TV shows, movies, etc. What I liked most was that it also had Calm App meditations and sleep aiding videos.
I hadn't flown AA for several years, I don't remember how service was back in the days, but this time the most disappointing part of the flight was the catering. One small pretzel bag (the other bag was my sister's, she didn't want anything) and a drink for a 2+ hours international flight? Really? Upsetting. AA's only competitor in this route is Avianca and you always get at least a sandwich, if not, a complete meal tray for SAL-MIA flight in economy class! Is AA becoming a low cost carrier? Has the pandemic hit so hard the aviation industry? I hope AA is not serving this kind of stuff on flights to Europe or Asia, I would be starving if so!
Around 1:30 hours in air, descent started and approach was on the west side of Miami, so I had some great views of the Everglades and Florida Keys
What I liked most about this approach was that there was another AA plane (Boeing 777-223, Reg. N795AN, Flight AA 1259) coming from Boston-Logan approaching on a parallel runway. It was such a thrill for me to see that huge Boeing 777 without any apparent movement throughout the final descent! Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures of this, but if you pay close attention to the landing video, you'll see the plane.
Landing, parking and deboarding went pretty smooth. We rode the MIA train to the passport control area. I had heard some nightmarish stories about Immigration at MIA for International visitors such as rude agents, losing connecting flights, etc. but this time we were picking up our bags at baggage claim in less than 15 minutes and the staff at MIA was amazingly kind and helpful with us! Besides, we made a furry cute friend right after picking our bags. Guess who? A cute police beagle that was searching for drugs in the baggage of incoming flights.
After clearing customs, we dropped our bags into the connecting baggage band, passed through the TSA screening and we were waiting for our next flight to Orlando in less than 30 minutes!
Overall, I have some mixed views about this flight. Everything went perfectly on time, both ground and in-flight staff were amazing but I feel a little bit disappointed of how AA's service has declined so much that you can almost compare it with the experience of flying on a low-cost carrier. In this case, I preferred to book AA rather than Avianca because I would be flying to Orlando and Avianca has no direct or connecting flights to Orlando. I would fly again with AA but I think they seriously need to improve its service quality.
2 Comments
It’s crazy how many flights are being cancelled due to AA’s crew shortages. They got a ahead of themselves upping schedules as demand rose without getting staffing levels to match.
Service in Y on these short international routes is pretty bare bones, but it’s a bit better than it was until recently. During most of the pandemic AA only served a tiny bottle of water and a snack. Flights under 900 miles got nothing at all.
Though I’m an AA frequent flyer, I never got to fly the MAX before it was grounded. I have 2 MAX flights booked next month so it’s nice to see a recent review to know what to expect. A lot of people complained about the lack of legroom on the MAX but now that all the 738s have been reconfigured to the same density as MAX I guess the experience is more consistent now (though not necessarily in a good way).
Thanks for sharing and welcome to Fligh-Report! Looking forward to future reviews.
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