#65 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
596 reviews
Hola amigos!
This is the second part to my FR on a trip between Madrid and Bogotá (via DFW) I took right before the Pandemic erupted.
Here you can find the previous segment:
And now…where AA37 had left us, that is: DFW arrivals…
Since I was mostly sharing AA37 with American citizens and ESTA holders, I had a clear way to the CBP officer, who asked me a couple of questions and waved me in quickly.
Since my bag was checked in all the way to BOG I didn't have to pick it up at baggage claim, and so I was out in something around 30 mins. I went out to the curb to breathe some fresh air and then I went back to the security check for my next flight. The highlight of this phase was that I had to help a Spaniard lady to pass through the TSA check, as nobody was willing to address her in Spanish (huh?), but other than that, it was quick and painless.
The general mood in DFW (and I dare say the USA) was radically different to that in Spain, plain indifference to what was going on. The airport seemed a bit empty, but I don't know if it was related to the nascent pandemic or just a coincidence.
I wandered around Terminal D to buy some duty free stuff. The terminal was airy and wide. But nothing of the shopping/food offers there tempted me.
This is when I remembered to turn on my mobile phone and boom 999 whatsapp messages. I had n-missed calls from my friends and family. I picked up the phone and my mum told me to grab a plane back to Spain, that the Colombian government had stated it would close borders tonight. But I thought, well, what will I do in Spain if there is a lockdown, I'd rather spend it in Colombia and weather it out.
Tons of news and tweets with conflicting information…
…eventually I came about an official statement from the Government: they wouldn't close borders yet, but any passengers arriving after 11:59 that night would face mandatory quarantine under threat of criminal prosecution in case of non-compliance. Well that would be a shitty thing, to spend my two weeks in Colombia quarantined.
But again, if the end of the world was coming to me, I'd rather stay with my family in Colombia than alone in Spain.
With that philosophical question answered, I carried on and went around to Terminal C, where Shake Shack was waiting to fill me with a sugary and fat meal to forget any worries…
Bye bye to the 789 that brought me to DFW
On to the APM connecting between terminals
The ride afforded awesome views
The older Terminals A and C showed their age compared to terminal D. Lower ceilings, more "brutalist" style…not fantastic, wouldn't place it in my top 20 airports, but it did the job.
I wolfed my cheeseburger and fries waiting for our flight to be called for boarding
Having tasted the joys of AA's transatlantic product, I was eager to see what AA had for this flight.
Now, I had tried AA's A319s on the BOG-MIA hops, the seats are crowded, the meals were mainly cold sandwiches and crisps or salads, but thhey had PTVs with basically the same offering as the 787. But those were 3 hour flights. The service was borderline between okay and mediocre. Would AA beef up their offering in a 5 hour flight?
As expected, tight pitch and a PTV, luckily for me, the middle seat would remain empty for this flight as I could barely fit my stuff. Not awesome.
My view while onground
I could spot my bags made it, nice!
The PSU two rows awead was a bit battered…how can this happen?
The load was around 70% maybe lower. The mood was as somber as in the MAD-DFW flight. There was no advice from the crew on the newly imposed restrictions and whatnot. The crew behaved as this was a regular everyday flight.
I would have expected a long taxi to the runway and queues and queues, given DFW's massiveness. But no. We took off in no time.
I could not concentrate, I was tired, I just enjoyed the view wondering how soon I would be able to fly again
Service was announced. And we got this. Meh. As in the MIA hop, crisps, a cold turkey sandwich, and a brownie along with the pretzel/biscotti combo they used to hand on the domestic hops.
Luckily I had had my burger and fries
After the food service, the cabin remained like this for pretty much the rest of the flight
I don't recall if they passed again for another round of drinks or not, my educated guess is that they did, considering how long the flight was.
I was watching the moving map, and checking our expected time of arrival, to see if we would make it before the mandatory quarantine. We made it to Bogotá around 11:30.
There was an important queue at the corridor leading to the immigration checks. Nurses were checking everyones temperature and asking where we were arriving from.
When my turn to pass through immigration the agent warned me that even though I hadn't arrived at the mandatory quarantine time, it was advised that I remained at my home for a quarantine nonetheless…
I picked my bags and my brother was waiting for me. Everything felt so odd.
That weekend a "moot" quarantine was imposed in Bogotá, which eventually became a mandatory quarantine countrywide. AA warned that they would stop flying to Colombia a day after my scheduled return to Madrid. I was unsure I would be allowed to transit the UK anyways, and Spain was about to close its borders. I chose to stay, and so I missed my last shot at the BA 747.
The rest is history we all know…
This flight was a stark contrast to the previous one. This service was fine-ish for the BOG-MIA run, but it felt lacking for this longer flight. The hard product was meh, specially because of the tight pitch. The crew was okay.
Thanks for reading, saludos!
8 Comments
Not so pleasant to fly on these conditions even if the flight looks to be operted with a standard offer.
Can you please change the set up of your report to english language has it had been published on the french counterpart of the website. I think there is as well a mistake on the aircraft type, it’s look to be a B737-800 not an A319
Have nice flight, cheers !
It was a very stressful flight indeed. Happily here we are now, trying to resume normality and move forward. The plane was an A319, you may notice from the PSU design and the safety cards. I reckon the 738 cannot make the BOG-DFW run!
Thanks for passing by!
Much shorter than the >3000 mile PTY-SFO/LAX/LAS routes CM operates with B737s.
Oh really? You didn't have to pick up your back to go through customs and then put in back on the connecting flights belt? Normally that's one of the things I hate about international connections within the US...but I guess that's because I'm always connecting from INTL to DOM flights--the fact that you were connecting INTL to INTL exempted you from that it sounds like?
This made me laugh because it's spot on.
Lucky for me I'm not tall so pitch is seldom a problem. But again, feeling cramped for more than 3 hours isn't fun. But yes, PTVs make a huge difference, and AA's IFE is quite good!
I understand AAs soft product to Colombia remains mediocre at best after covid. I reckon the lack of any serious competition in the market allows them to keep service "simple".
Regarding the bags, if you transit through DFW and MIA (don't know if the other hubs) you may use ITI transfer. You even get a sticker that identifies you as such during CBP procedures. I know this service is also available with UA at IAH.
Thanks for passing by!
Ah yep, International-to-International ...that's why it's different then the whole mess I have to deal with every time haha going international-to-domestic. Good to head they don't subject Intl-to-Intl connections to that haha. Thanks!
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