Review of American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Raleigh in Domestic First

Hi there! I am returning to Raleigh after visiting Charlotte for a day. Today, I will be flying American in Domestic First from CLT to RDU.

CLT Airport

Welcome to Charlotte! CLT is a "fortress hub" for AA, as it is by far the dominant airline here.

Here's something cool:
An engine cowling off of a PW4000 from a 777 has been repurposed as an information counter here!

Another fun fact: I actually flew on the exact plane this cowling came off of!
I flew 709A in 2016 on an NH flight from BKK to NRT! It was quite tired inside, though.

I tried to go through PreCheck, but I wasn't able to due to my middle name seemingly being incorrect, when in fact, it was a title, not a middle name. It took about 20 minutes to get that fixed.
After that was done, let's head to the gate!

"Stand Up to Cancer" special livery AA A321 (N162AA).

Some remnants of U.S. Airways remain. CLT was a hub for that airline.

Speaking of, the plane taking me to North Carolina's capital is N544UW, a 13 year old A321, originally delivered new to U.S. Airways on September 22, 2011, and was acquired by AA as part of the merger on December 9, 2013. U.S. Airways went for the IAE V2500 engines on this particular aircraft. This plane received the "Kodiak" retrofit in July 2021.

Let's board this American A321!

Onboard

As mentioned in my previous report, the domestic F cabin features 20 Collins MiQ seats in a 2-2 configuration. I already covered the economy cabin in my previous report, so if you want to know what American's A321 economy is like, check it out. These first class seats are comfortable enough, and the recline is good enough.

Larger Airspace-inspired XL overhead bins.

I didn't dare to take the seat-pocket contents out, as it was used as a trash can, and hasn't been cleaned up. Aside from the trash, it came with a safety card, an IFE guide (unlike my previous flight), and an air-sickness bag.

Here, you will find a compartment with room for a laptop, as well as a universal power socket. The bulkhead seats don't appear to have USB ports, but the other FC seats do.

The bi-fold tray table is in the armrest.

You can use it half-open, and it has a tablet holder.

Here is the table fully opened.

Not photographed: a pop-out drink tray in the armrest.
U.S. Airways American retrojet! Complete with a mismatched cowling!

I had a Coca-Cola as my pre-departure beverage.

Departure

Pushback has started.

Takeoff time!

In-flight

I won't cover the IFE this time, since I covered it on my previous report.
There was a drink and snack basket service, but I declined since the PDB was enough.
The forward lavatory was thankfully not a space-saver one. It was clean enough.

Arrival

The descent has started.

Welcome to RDU!

You can see a non-WL Delta 757-200 (N682DA) about to depart to ATL.

That wraps up this flight report!