Review of American Airlines flight from Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth in Economy

Report No: 2022-609

Dear folks,

Welcome to this brand new US domestic series which I would cover 2 different airlines and 6 segments which was a pretty eventful trip as I had multiple interruptions during the trip as my schedule changed more than multiple times.

The fifth part of this series would be the the start of the last day of the journey, which would begin with an eventful morning since my original flight out of Austin was delayed significantly, which would have resulted in a misconnection at Dallas Fort Worth. That's why I needed to take a different flight to Dallas Fort Worth that morning and that was operated by a Boeing 737-800 as you could see below in the report. The report would cover the adventure, rebooking process and a short review of the American Airlines Admirals Club at Austin.

The routing for this trip would be revealed part by part

Loads for this flight

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

So, originally I was booked on AA 2469 that should have departed Austin at 11:29, however, when I woke up, I realized that my flight was delayed till 14:15 which caused a misconnection. The options that the AA app offered is as below and there were no same day options available with all confirmed options being either for the next day or the following day.

I decided to call American Airlines but when I heard the waiting times were over 2 hours, I gave up.
I knew that AA wasn't going to provide me an additional night of hotel at Austin if I voluntarily chose one of the options in the app, so I decided to keep the ticket as it was at that stage.

By the way, the reason the delay for my original flight was late incoming aircraft due to the backlog in flights at the East Coast due to inclement weather.

AUSTIN BERGSTROM AIRPORT - AUS

I have decided to take an Uber to the airport and talk to a representative there since call wait times were ridiculously long and availability started to disappear for the entire day.

While, I arrived at the airport, I was ready with some back-up plans to present to an agent but the line at the priority check-in counters were so long.

That is why I have decided to clear security with my original boarding pass and head to the Admirals Club for rebooking assistance that morning. The first security checkpoint that I saw was very crowded so I walked to the next one.

Surprisingly, the security lanes near the Southwest and Delta check-in desks were empty and there was almost no queue so I was airside within minutes.

At that time, my original AUS-DFW flight was delayed till 7:30pm ( 19:30 ).
Since all flights with American to DCA that day were fully booked, my first idea was to keep my seat on DFW-DCA and check for another AUS-DFW flight. Luckily AA 1059, the previous flight to Dallas, was also delayed, however, it was fully booked so my main objective would be ask being put on the standby list for that flight.

AMERICAN AIRLINES ADMIRALS CLUB - AUSTIN BERGSTROM AIRPORT

Since I hold oneworld Emerald status with British Airways, I was able to use the American Airlines Admirals Club and the service desk over there for rebooking assistance. I was greeted by one of the friendliest AA agents that I have seen and she was very helpful and put me on the standby list for the earlier service to Dallas Fort Worth.

At that time, I checked the waitlist and I was number one on the standby list.

While I was in the lounge, the staff were collecting breakfast food from the buffet and replacing them with the rest-of-day offering.

That's why, I couldn't take a full spread of what's being offered that day, but it was the standard AA Admirals Club offerings that are available at most locations.

The main area of the lounge was full, however, I was able to find a quiet corner for myself. There is also a bar at the club which is not pictured in this report.

So, I while I started enjoying my breakfast, my name was paged and the lounge agents had some good news for me.

I now had a confirmed seat on AA 1059 to Dallas Fort Worth but my seat would have been assigned later on.

A few minutes later, my name was paged one more time and this time they have gave a boarding pass that had a seat number. I am usually open to crazy reroutings during IRROPS, but in this case, I was happy that I didn't need any additional adventure since it was a week full with random unexpected things going on.

GATE AREA & BOARDING

About a few minutes before the delayed boarding time of my new flight, I have left the lounge and started heading to the gate which was located at the end of the concourse.

At that time, our aircraft had just arrived and passengers on its previous flight from Miami were still disembarking

The gate area was chaotic and at that time, it was obvious that we still need to wait a very long time for boarding, since the crew for our flight was still waiting for the aircraft to become empty so that they can board.

So, while waiting, there were better seats opening up so I have went to the podium to ask for them; despite there were about 4-5 gate agents that day for this specific flight, it took 10-15 minutes to handle one single customer and my turn came about 15 minutes later I have entered the queue.

And, the answer was that, all seats are full sir; you could not change seats. Whereas, the American Airlines app showed empty seats at that time but since there were less than 45 minutes for our estimated departure, it was not possible to change seats through the app. It was not the pleasant experience since some of the agents were also rude ( but not mean ) towards other passengers and anyone asking about their connection or baggages were directed to the AA customer service located at gate 28. Also, obviously, since the flight didn't board at the new boarding time, some passengers started to worry about their connections and the gate agents were not helpful calming them down.

After a while, boarding has started with the respect of group numbers. Since, there were lots of active military members which AA allows them to board with Group 1, it took a while for Group 2 to be announced.

And, yes, about 8 minutes before our new estimated departure time, I was just boarding N949AN.

AA 1059 AUSTIN BERGSTROM AIRPORT TO DALLAS FORT WORTH AIRPORT

After being welcomed by the crew at the door, I have headed to my seat at row 15 which eventually doesn't recline because it is located in front of the exit row. However, the flight time would be less than an hour so that wasn't a big issue.

The legroom was quite OK to be honest despite being used seating in Main Cabin Extra on these kind of aircraft when traveling in Economy.

View from the window

This aircraft was equipped with the larger overhead bins so at least we didn't run out of overhead space which could have delayed the boarding process even more.

All seats on this aircraft were equipped with USB ports and power outlets

While waiting for boarding to be completed, I started exploring the personal device entertainment system.

This aircraft was equipped with the Viasat powered system.

Entertainment options such as movies & TV shows are free of charge.

There is a wide variety of movies and TV shows to choose from.

Live TV is also offered, however, it started working once we are in the air, it was not available from gate to gate on this occasion.

Here are the available channels for today's flight

So boarding was finally completed, and we have taken off at 12:09pm ( 12:09 ) which is 1h10mins behind schedule.
After taking off, I decided to watch these videos below and get free internet for the flight.

While we have reached our cruising altitude, since I was thirsty after that chaotic boarding process, I went to the back galley and asked for a cup of water. Due to the short duration of the flight, there was no trolley service on this flight.

Later on, trash was collected and we have started our descent into Dallas Fort Worth.

And shortly later we have landed at DFW

DALLAS FORT WORTH AIRPORT - DFW

After taxiing to gate C8 and parking there, the seatbelt signs were switched off and the cabin crew kindly asked passengers to close their window blinds as well as those passengers terminating their journey at Dallas to remain seated to give way to those passengers with short connections.

If we look at the Connecting Flights board, we could see that some of the passengers have already missed their connections.

I still had around 2 hours until departure and about 1 hour 25 minutes till boarding at that time.

So, I took this very last photo of N949AN at that time

And proceeded upstairs to the Skylink station to go to Terminal D as my plan was to visit the AMEX Centurion Lounge over there during my layover.

The journey has come to a pause since the remaining part of this trip would be covered in the next report.
Thanks for reading this Flight-Report and I hope you enjoyed reading it.
The next and last episode of the series would be released soon.