PREFACE- THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO MY FLIGHT
I want to preface this report by saying that some things went wrong today. If you want to skip ahead, you can. But, I think that this preface is worth mentioning for the purposes of reviewing my experience with the airline, so I think that this needs to be said.
I arrived in on a connecting flight from PGV, so you can review that flight here.
I was supposed to be on AA5172, departing at 12:26 p.m., and arriving into DCA at 2:24 p.m. operated by a CRJ-900, but things went wrong on that flight and so I was rebooked. So, here's what happened:
We were informed that boarding would be delayed because we were waiting for a flight attendant to arrive. I saw her walking up at 12:36, 10 minutes after our scheduled boarding time of 12:26, so that was a good sign. But, it did mean that we would have a slight delay. We boarded and things were ok.
Boarding was completed at 12:56 pm, and then we just sat there, waiting. With no explanation from the crew. A similar thing happened on my earlier flight of the day. Today was just not a good day in terms of communication from crews on AA.
It wasn’t until 1:35 that the captain came on to let us know of the reason for the delay. There was a minor maintenance issue and they had to have the maintenance technicians come and take a look at it.
At 2:00, our flight status and departure time got updated to 2:30, with no indication of what was happening or what was coming next.
To make it worse, the cabin was HOT. The air vents were not blowing any air. They didn’t offer us any water or anything.
At 2:22, the captain came on to announce that we needed to change aircraft and that we needed to deplane.
We then had to wait for our valet tagged bags to come back before making our way to the new gate, which took another 20 minutes.
Just as I was making my way to my new gate I got a notification that I had been rebooked on a flight departing at 4:37 pm. Talk about a wild experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not upset about the delay. Delays happen, and that’s just a normal part of flying. however, I do expect the flight crew to keep us informed on what’s going on. I expect them to at least keep the cabin comfortable or explain to us the passenger bill of rights which means that we can exit the aircraft if we so choose.
BOARDING, The Cabin, and Seat
This new flight would be operated by a 737-800, and was out of the C gates, so I had to now make my way out of the E gates and over to C. I lost my Main Cabin Extra seat assignment and was given seat 30A instead. It is what it is.
When I arrived at the gate, I sat down and saw a few other people from my original flight coming up. They were on standby. It turns out that I got one of the last confirmed seats available on this flight. Lucky me!
We boarded a bit early at 4:02 pm, even though the scheduled boarding time was 4:07. American Airlines boards by group number, as indicated on your boarding pass. Your group number is based upon your status level, credit card benefits, seat assignment, fare class, etc. The boarding groups for AA can be found here.
I boarded with Group 5, which I have with my Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Credit Card.
The 737-800 in the economy cabin is arranged in a 3-3 configuration and feature 30 inches of pitch and 17.5 inches of width.
The seat is comfortable enough for a flight like this. There’s a tray table on the seat back in front of you, as well as a personal device holder, which I like because I can prop up my iPad there. There’s also a USB-A charging point on the seat back and also a Universal power outlet in between each seat.
There are individual air vents above each seat as well as individual reading lights. The seat has one window which offers a view of the trailing edge of the wing and the winglet.
There are individual air vents above each seat as well as individual reading lights. The seat has one window which offers a view of the trailing edge of the wing and the winglet.
The Flight
At 4:26, boarding was completed, and the flight attendants began preparing the aircraft for departure.
At 4:29, the captain came on to announce our flight time of 50 minutes and to let us know that it was windy in DC and we would have some rough air on the descent, but our cruise should be ok.
At 4:30, the safety demonstration began.
We pushed back at 4:32, 5 minutes ahead of our scheduled departure time.
WiFi is available on this aircraft for a price of $21.99 for the entire flight! Yowza! You can connect for 20 minutes for free if you watch a short advertisement. If you’re a T Mobile customer, you can get free WiFi depending on your plan.
I went with the 20 minutes free option and then my T Mobile plan gives me one hour for free, which would be sufficient for me. Either way, I wouldn’t pay $21.99 for WiFi on a 50 minute flight, that’s crazy expensive.
AA offers free personal device entertainment on this aircraft. It had a decent selection, but not a lot of new releases, and not a lot of options for kids that I noticed. Which is weird for a season where families travel heavily.
At 4:46, we were rolling down runway 36R for departure.
At 4:52, we reached 10,000 feet, meaning that we were well on our way to Washington.
At 5:02, we reached our cruising altitude of 28,000 feet.
There was no in flight service on this flight, which makes sense given the weather- the anticipation of the rough descent, and the short duration of the flight. In fact, no announcements were even made by the flight attendants and we never saw them.
DESCENT AND ARRIVAL
At 5:12, we began our descent.
At 5:33, we touched down on runway 1, and parked at gate D40 at 5:38 pm, about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
