Welcome to another series of reports! Today, I will be flying American's A321 in Main Cabin (economy) on an intrastate flight from RDU to CLT, one of the shortest scheduled A321 flights.
Flight routing
- 1AA1906 - Economy - Raleigh > Charlotte - Airbus A321
- 2
RDU Airport
Here's yet another photo of the lower entrance of Terminal 2 at RDU.
Up the escalator.
I checked in before hand with the app. (I moved to 14A when boarding).
Let's head to gate C17.
Made it past security. Refreshing to see no duty free to get to the gates! Looking at you, FRA, ATH, BER, FCO, etc.
This moving sidewalk has been broken for several months now.
Gate area.
My ride to the Queen City will be N929AA, a 7.6 year old Airbus A321-200 with sharklets and the IAE V2500 engines. It was delivered new to American on February 1, 2017, and it has been with the airline for its entire life. It was originally equipped with seatback IFE, but it received the infamous "Kodiak" retrofit in November 2021, removing the seatback IFE.
Before I board, here's why AA flies multiple A321s a day to CLT, which is not that far away and even in the same state as RDU:
AA has a hub in CLT, and RDU isn't an AA hub (but it's high traffic) and most people on this flight are connecting to other flights. The captain said that only around 15 people (me being one of those) had CLT as their final destination.
With that out of the way, let's board this A321!
Onboard
The cockpit.
First class on American's domestic A321ceos feature 20 Collins MiQ seats in a 2-2 configuration.
Economy class features 170 Collins Meridian seats in a standard A320 3-3 configuration. 35 are sold as "Main Cabin Extra", which feature extra legroom. I will be seated in 14F today, which is a standard Main Cabin seat. These seats weren't that comfortable.
A device holder is installed to make up for the lack of seatback IFE.
The seatback contents are just a safety card and my seat had two air-sickness bags, but there should be just one. No entertainment guide unlike before!
A look out of the window.
A weird mix of the old blue-red-white stripes and the new AA logo. Kinda bizzare.
A320 series "Enhanced" PSU.
Seatback. You can barely see the Airspace-style XL bins.
Each seat has a USB port and universal power.
Pushback started.
In-flight Entertainment + WiFi
Welp, the plane has to wait here for about half an hour. Let's look at the BYOD IFE while I'm at it!
UI looks newer than what's on the CRJs.
Home page.
Live DirecTV is offered.
Good movie selection.
Full flight WiFi for $12.
WiFi is also free for a short time if you decide to watch an ad.
T-Mobile subscriber WiFi plans.
Speed isn't too bad.
Departure
After 30 minutes, the A321 is now taxiing!
Departing from Runway 23L today.
Arrival
No in-flight service today, and the captain has announced the start of descent already.
Let's quickly visit the lavatory. It was somewhat tight. At least it was clean.
Back to my seat.
Downtown Charlotte.
CLT Airport.
Look at how big the airport is compared to downtown!
Coming in to land.
Welcome to Charlotte!
Interesting catering truck!
Parked at the gate.
And to wrap it up, here's N124US, a plane that I flew on a few years ago! This was before I started making reports.
Oasis/Kodiak cabins are so cramped in regular rows. It's even tight in MCE with only 33" vs the 35" pitch they had in MCE in the previous configs (well, on the 738 anyway, not A321 since they has US Airways cabins). I guess Oasis cabins were kind of an upgrade for the LUS fleet since it added in-seat power and seatback device holders, but it was a downgrade for the LAA aircraft better legroom in all cabins, and especially the ones that had PTV...R.I.P 😭
What I do like about AA narrowbodies though, is that the products are incredibly consistent. Unless it's a premium transcon, you basically know what you're getting on any domestic narrowbody flight.
Thanks for sharing!
I'm glad you enjoyed this FR. I never liked the idea of AA removing AVOD from their short haul cabins. I wish that AA would read what UA said about bringing AVOD to their short-haul fleet, saying that seatback IFE made the customers feel like the soft product (like the food) is better, just because the seat has IFE.