Review of American Airlines flight from Chicago to Denver in Economy

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my new Flight Report series, In which I'll cover my flights from Israel to the US and back.
For years I'm dreaming of traveling to the US and experience what America is like and finally I got the chance to go on a 50 days solo adventure, mostly in the southwest with several days in Chicago and two short hops to Mexico.
The flight routing doesn't make much such sense as many things have changed since I booked this trip from Lufthansa (except for the domestic flights) in December 2023.
This time I finally got the chance to fly long-haul for the first time in my life, and to fly on wide-body aircraft for the first time since 2011.

On this report I'll cover my third flight out of the seven which is an American Airlines flight from Chicago-O'Hare to Denver onboard their Boeing 737-800 (let's be honest, that's a very boring combination).

Now let's get started!

ROUTING

CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT

After 5 amazing days in Chicago it's time to start the real southwest journey, and it starts here in O'Hare airport, I got here to this corridor that's connecting terminals 1-3 more than 2 hours before the flight by the Blue Line train.

I headed to Terminal 3 which is the terminal for American Airlines flights, including mine, As you can see it's a typical American terminal:

After Check In at the automatic kiosk, baggage drop off and security I made it to the airside in only about 20 minutes, which is really good, especially when considering the American security check TSA.

Main corridor:

Spirit Airlines Airbus A321-200 to New York-La Guardia
American Eagle (operated by Air Wisconsin) CRJ-200 to Grand Rapids
American Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Seattle
American Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Houston-Bush

Concourse K (my flight is at K18 at the end of the concourse):

Korean Air (Our Pride livery) Boeing 777-300ER from Seoul-Incheon
Japan Airlines Boeing 777-300ER from Tokyo-Haneda
American Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Bozeman and Turkish Airlines Boeing 787-9 from Istanbul
All Nippon Airways (Pokémon livery) Boeing 777-300ER to Tokyo-Narita

The flight is on time for now:

depature

Our aircraft for today is American Airlines Boeing 737-800 registered N840NN.
It was delivered new to American Airlines in 2010.

Boarding was made in 8 groups which means short waiting time at the gate but longer wait inside the jetbridge.

Fuselage:

Business Class seats:

Economy Class seats :

The view from my seat 23F, as you can see the weather wasn't great but at least I got a solid wing view:

The seatback has some features which I'll go over in a second, but unfortunatley no IFE anymore.
The legroom is decent for flight this long.

The seatback features are a standard tray table, phone holder, USB-A port and a power socket below the seat.

After the announcements were made and the manual safety demonstration was preformed we did pushback and taxied to the runway.

Takeoff was made at 11:15am (25 minutes late) through runway 9C (3427m).

inflight

The first half of the flight was cloudy, however it got clearer gradually.

American Airlines does offer a streaming service and WI-FI (for purchase), I didn't try any of them so I don't know how the quality is like but I guess isn't too bad.

The ''meal'' service is the usual Biscoff and a choice of drink, I went with water and orange juice.

Our flight path took us mostly over the "nothing" of Missouri and Kansas which isn't spectacular but it does help you understand how big America is actually is, especially when it's your first them there.
And just like the views the flight was relaxed and uneventful.

arrival

Landing was made at 12:31pm (10 minutes before schedule) through runway 35R (3,658m).
Since you come form the opposite side compared to the city it doesn't fell like you're landing in Denver but rather in a remote air force base, and the taxi to the terminal is also quite long so it empowers that.

American Eagle (operated by SkyWest Airlines) Embraer E175 to Los Angeles:

Cabin view during deboarding: 

denver airport

We parked at gate C32 and exited through the jetbridge to Concourse C:

Denver Airport is built from one terminal and 3 concourses that are all connected by an automated people mover (or you can call it a train, much more convenient). So after arriving and having lunch at McDonald's in Concourse C I took the train to the terminal.

Then I went to the baggage claim area and after a short wait mine arrived.

Then I was finally ready to exit the terminal and to take the shuttle to my rental car, and to officially start my 41 days road trip of sketchy motels, cheap Mexican food, amazing nature and much more until my next flight back to Chicago and then back home.