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

A visual of my entire itinerary from HND to SFO via DFW & PHX which would cover a total distance of 7,980mi/12,843km. This trip report will cover the 2h journey from DFW to PHX.

introduction

Welcome to another trip report!
This is my flight 2 of 3 having started my journey over 14 hours ago in Tokyo's Haneda airport. You're probably asking yourself why didn't you purchase a flight with one stop over at DFW to SFO? Well I purchased this oneway flight through AA Japanese website a few months earlier which only offered this flight option for the low cost of 330 USD. However, they did offer that one stop option for 40 USD more but as an aviation enthusiast it didn't bother me taking an additional domestic flight to my overall journey 😅. Especially since the connections in both DFW & PHX were around 1.5h each. 
Having just hopped off my best AA flight I've had to date I was excited to continue my short journey to PHX this evening. Customs and immigration was a breeze and I was through in just 15 minutes.  

However the same can't be said once we got to the security check point where we had to re-clear. Despite the information screen saying it was going to be an estimated 20 minutes, but ultimately it was much longer then that for me. I did have about a 1h 50m connection time here at DFW so I felt a little ok about it. I overheard other passengers around me saying that they would not make their connection due to the long lines.  

After a hectic security screening, I was airside in 45 minutes. As an American I can truthfully say that TSA security screening process is very inefficient consistently around the country but more so this afternoon at DFW. Having spent four weeks in Japan and gone through a few security screenings there and elsewhere around the world, makes the US's TSA screening process that of a third world country with all the unnecessary yelling & hostility towards travelers.
Ok, enough ranting, let's continue on with the trip report 😅.  

So far my flight is showing as on time (AA 339).

I'm not very fond of DFW in terms to when connecting flights. However I was quite happy that my flight would be departing out of the nicer D concourse which is brighter, open and cleaner in my opinion. 

Last I checked when I was in Tokyo, this flight was suppose to be operated by. regular Airbus A321 (which I've flown a few times before). But when checking once I landed again I was treated to a delightful surprise. My aircraft had been swapped to not just any regular A321 but a special retro PSA livery one!  

My aircraft (psa retro livery)

And here she is scoring the awesome PSA retro livery. N582UW was delivered new to US Airways on July 7, 2014. Later it was integrated into the American Airlines fleet on April 8 2015 shortly after the merger. 

Some information about my plane:
Flight number: AA 339 
 Aircraft: Airbus A321-231
Registration: N582UW (PSA retro livery)
Delivered: July 7, 2014 
Age: 9.3 years (at time of flight)

This aircraft has the same seating configuration as with all other AA A321Ceo's (Oasis). There are three classes which are: 20 Domestic First, 35 Main Cabin Extra and 135 Main Cabin seats for a total of 190 seats. (courtesy to aerolopa for the fantastic seat map)

boarding

Shortly after boarding began. With my main cabin ticket I was assigned to board with group 6.

It felt sort of odd (in a good way) boarding an orange colored plane 😅.

Once onboard we first passed by the domestic first class cabin which looked clean and spacious.

And later towards the economy class section.

my seat

Finally arrived at my seat for the next 2 hours (23F). This seat didn't have the best window alignment but was the only one left at time of booking. 

No PTV (Delta has spoiled me). There is however at least a USB power port located directly in front of you. 

In addition to an individual universal power outlet located beneath the seat. 

Legroom was fine, not bad nor good. These seats offer a relatively tight 30" of pitch. A little on the tight side for a 'legacy airline' in my opinion. I'm 5'9" or 176cm for reference. 

Another fellow AA A321 bound shortly for Los Angeles (LAX).

Boarding is complete and tonight's flight load to Phoenix is completely full at 100%.

pushback

We pushed back right on time.

The sun was just starting to set which made for a picturesque sight.

British Airways A380 departing later tonight to London (LHR); flight time: 9h 9m

Qatar Airways A350-1000 departing shortly for Doha (DOH); flight time: 14h 3m

There's my B787-8 Dreamliner that brought me here from Tokyo. Tonight it'll be flying as AA997 to Buenos Aires; flight time: 9h 5m

A fellow A321 that'll be departing for Atlanta (ATL); flight time: 1h 54m

takeoff

Finally it is our turn and tonight we'll be using runway 18L for takeoff.

Until next time DFW!

This was an unreal golden hour takeoff, the best I've experienced thus far.

Gradually it began to get darker outside.

inflight service

About 40 minutes into the flight the FA's sprang into the cabin to provide the beverage and snack service. The service is very basic and consisted a choice of drink and a biscoff cookie as a snack. 

Since I was so tired I went for a coffee which paired perfectly with the coffee 😉. 

seat back contents

Let's check out the seat back contents…
First we have your typical safety card.

And lastly a inflight entertainment guide.

Despite offering pretty decent selection of movies and tv shows through the AA entertainment portal. It still lacks a moving map that even AS & SW have in both their entertainment portals respectively. 

After there service we had just over an hour left of flight and as you can imagine, the rest of the flight went very uneventful. I was incredibly tired from my previous long haul flight that I simply napped for the remainder of the flight.

initial descent

And just like that the cabin lights were turned on and the FA's began preparing cabin for landing.

The city lights of Phoenix began to appear in the distance.

landing on runway 26

Welcome to Phoenix! 

We arrived at the gate 8 minutes ahead of schedule, well done AA. So far all my flights today have arrived on time which is usually a rarity with AA, let's hope my last flight will be the same.

deplaning

One last look at my special A321, thanks for the safe flight! There's no time to hang around as my next flight will be boarding very shortly.

This concludes the trip report, thanks for reading!