Review of American Airlines flight Miami → New York in Economy

All-American 767's

What can I say- We all enjoy a bit of nostalgia. 

This was a flight I wasn't sold on making a report on during 2019, but four years later & some reflection- I've had a change of heart.

American Airlines Boeing 767-300ER departing London Heathrow in July 2014 wearing the shiny bare metal AA livery.

Since the 1980s many airlines in North America have introduced and utilized the Boeing 767, a plane introduced in 1982- its still in production as a freighter and military aircraft some four decades after its introduction. The airline is still used in large quantities in the USA by United, Delta, UPS and FedEx.

Some notable historic North American operators of the Boeing 767 include: Continental Airlines, US Airways and American Airlines.

American Airlines Boeing 767-300(ER) in the 2013 branding departing New York JFK in November 2019.

American Airlines operated the Boeing 767-300 and Boeing 767-200 models from 1982 until 2020 flying a combined total of 107 aircraft. American also invested in the smaller Boeing 757-200 from 1989-2020 and operated a further 177 of those aircraft. The Boeing 767s and their Boeing 757 counter-part were a big part of the American fleet for nearly forty years between them covering flights across the United States (especially on Trans-Continental services) as well as flying regularly into Europe, South America and the Caribbean.

Despite a large fleet of over 100 aircraft operating nearly 4 decades, only two Boeing 767s were written off during the airlines operations with the Boeing 767. Boeing 767-200ER (N334AA) was crashed into the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001 and Boeing 767-300ER (N345AN) was written off at Chicago O'Hare in October 2016 due to an uncontained engine failure.

The airline was in the process of retiring the two aircraft types with the Airbus A321-ceo (Boeing 757s) and Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Boeing 767s) when the pandemic hit in 2020 resulting in a sudden retirement for both types of aircraft, there was a fraction of the planes in service by then compare to their hey-day.

The AA Boeing 767 fleet allowed AA to offer various European destinations direct from the Eastern Coast of America, including Budapest Airport, where I snapped this one in June 2018.

The Boeing 767 is currently my most flown wide-body aircraft as of July 2023, having done 14 flights of the type. With this flight being my most recent. A string of short-haul BA flights in Europe from 2015 to 2018 is the reason for this milestone. I believe I could still up this number as the type will likely remain flying for United and Delta for a distance into the 2020s.

Without further ado, let's dive into my sole experience flying on the American Airlines Boeing 767-300ER between the airline's east coast hubs of Miami International and New York JFK in February 2019.

The AA 767 became part of the history books in 2020. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner replaced them mostly internationally, but domestic Boeing 767s were mainly replaced by Airbus A321ceo.

American 1142 (MIA-JFK)

As part of a trip to Sint Maarten and New York, I had the opportunity to fly American Airlines from Sint Maarten to New York JFK. I had to choose a stop somewhere and a 21 hour stop in Miami, FL gave me a chance to visit a new airport and state for a day as well as to fly two of my favourite airliners- the Boeing 757-200 & Boeing 767-300!

I've already covered my AA Boeing 757 from Sint Maarten to Miami, you can find that on this website. But after four year's I am now covering this Boeing 767 flight from Miami to New York.

I flew this aircraft on February 15th 2019. The plane for my flight was the American Airlines Boeing 767-300ER N348AN. Built in June 2003 and delivered brand new to American Airlines, it was quite a young Boeing 767. After its retirement in 2020- the plane was converted into a Boeing 767-Freighter by its new owner- DHL Cargo. The plane now sports the iconic yellow/red DHL livery and flies cargo registered as A9C-DHS.

I write this as the plane celebrates its 20th Birthday, and it will likely continue to fly for a good number of years!

My seat on this flight was Seat 22J, a window seat over the wing. American had configured this aircraft with a layout of: C28/W14/Y163.

This plane appeared to mainly fly its wings for AA on Trans-Atlantic routes, likely flying from New York JFK to Madrid, Milan, Budapest, Zurich, London and Amsterdam. As Miami and New York are two major hubs for American- the Boeing 767 often featured on this route during peak times in the morning and evening. Boeing 757s & Boeing 737-800s would have likely made up the other flights at the time.

This flight to my memory was pretty full in economy at least. It would night stop in New York JFK, so I assume this was a JFK crew returning to their base for the night after a short evening rotation to Miami.

I had OneWorld Ruby status at the time, so I was able to board ahead of most the economy class passengers, which allowed for some nice cabin shots of this classic Boeing 767 interior. It was clear AA wasn't heavily investing into the type as it was in its twilight years. I have seen flight videos filmed on AA Boeing 767s showing distaste for them on longer flights across the Atlantic.

We eventually left Miami International Airport, I think we were on time. It was four years ago…

The plane made its way North for New York along the East Coast in the pitch black of night. Quite a few people probably dozed off for a nap as the flight would be about 2h:30m flying time. A regular commute for some business travellers on this route.

I had a browse at the American Airlines service menu. I couldn't pre order anything like I did on the SXM-MIA route. But a free service was offered by American. I had a Coca-Cola, cup of tea and some biscoff to accompany the tea. It was fun to see AA had put on the IFE Map (in between the adverts) so we could track our flight.

I later went to the toilet and had a quick chat with a cabin crew member about the Boeing 767 at American. I enquired for some extra snacks (it had been a long day and I had to make haste for my accommodation on arrival) and I was granted another cola drink and some pretzel snack bags- a familiar sight from my 2018 American mile-run!

We eventually arrived into New York JFK and taxied over to Terminal 8, where American and most of their OneWorld partners use. 

It was nice taxiing around and seeing the diverse mixture of US airliners and European traffic getting ready for their "Red-Eye" flights over to their hubs the following morning.

I had requested a post-landing visit to the flight deck, and I was granted a quick visit, meeting the first officer of the flight. It was nice seeing the Boeing 767 flight deck for the first time since the BA 767 retirement, I didn't know this would be my last time (for now) getting flying a Boeing 767 or even visiting the flight deck, so I cherish that!

This would also be my most recent flight on a US Airline to date as well, I won't be flying back to the US until 2025 at the earliest. But that's not to do with any bad experiences by far.

Having done a domestic flight, it was one of the quickest exits I have made at JFK. Makes a change not having to clear a 2 hour wait at immigration.

I was staying at an Air BNB location this time, so I opted to grab a taxi from JFK over to my location, it cost me about $25 (USD) to get there, but it was ideal given it was late at night and I wasn't familiar with the area. Public transport is my preferred method of travelling in cities, but it does at times have its limits.

Hope you all enjoyed this brief trip into memory lane, and there is also the video to watch too for some in-flight action.