Background:
I booked a Basic Economy fare for my European Adventure, as $326 was just too good to pass up! We flew British Airways on the A380 from Los Angeles to London nonstop which was a great flight. Coming home, we ended up AA metal with a A330 from Barcelona to Philadelphia. The A330 flight was nice, but this flight on the American A321 was the complete opposite!
Check In:
As I wrote in my last review on flying the American A330 from Barcelona to Philadelphia, it started off okay, as I checked in 24 hours before for my BCN-PHL flight and was assigned a seat next to my friend! No “standard” blue seats were left at check in, so we got a “preferred” green seat in row 20 (last row before lavatories). I recommend waiting to check in if there are only poorly located “standard” seats left on the flight because I’ve read reports in which American will assign all those standard blue seats first before touching preferred green seats.
The negative part was that we couldn’t check in for our PHL-LAX flight (this one!). I called the night before and the American agents just said “we can’t check you in until the airport”. But, I said then how can I check in for BCN-PHL though, and the phone agent literally said “idk how you actually were able to do that you weren’t supposed to??”. And of course, by the time we got to the airport to check in for PHL-LAX only middle seats were left, so we got assigned 7B and 7E.
Flight Details:
American Airlines Flight 1997
Philadelphia (PHL) to Los Angeles (LAX)
Seat: 7E- Middle-Basic Economy
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Status: Late, 1 Hour 30 Minutes
The American A321 Flight:
The captain said it would be a 6 hour and 30 minute flight due to FAA setting a flight plan to avoid a storm in Colorado and large headwinds. Yikes! 6 and a half hours from takeoff to touchdown is so long for Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
The plane has seats that look recently renovated with new-ish cushions. Yet, there is no seatback IFE, or power plugs. They do provide Wi-Fi though and movies that you can stream to your device. Wi-Fi on this flight was provided by ViaSat and cost $12 for an hour or $16 for the whole flight. I thought $12 for an hour was quite steep!
Now how does American expect me to stream content to my phone when I cannot charge it?! Ridiculous!! The lady next to me was so frustrated 2 hours in because her phone died!
We left the gate on time, but were stuck on the runway for 40 minutes. A beverage and pretzel service was provided about an hour in. There was also a water service midway.
I occupied my time by trying to take a lot of mini naps lol, and play games on my phone while trying to preserve my battery life.
There was a final beverage service before landing! Thank goodness because I was thirsty, as we’ve been on this plane for 6+ hours.
We touched down almost an hour late, and the captain told us there was no gate because of course there’s no gate right!? The captain said he would try his best to find a gate, saying that he would try to get us priority as our flight has been delayed by over an hour already. After 45 minutes, we finally got to the gate….
Total time on this plane: 7 hours and 32 minutes. The pilot jokingly said, wow guys I’m sorry we could have taken you to Paris in this amount of time lol!
The Verdict:
Overall, the service was the only quality that made the flight a little more bearable as the crew was very kind and understanding how frustrating the delay was. No seatback IFE and no power plugs is ridiculous on a 6+ hour transcon and I will make sure to try to avoid this plane at all costs. American needs to step it up or I bet people are going to choose to avoid them.
Have you been on the American A321 with no seatback IFE and power plugs?
Happy travels,
Ty
So you had a disappointing experience in the middle seat of a delayed transcon where you chose to fly basic economy? I’m surprised – would have expected a lie-flat.
SIgh, #FirstWorldProblems. Thanks for reading!
I love how someone is just posting their experience and people need to attack the writer. We should take their review as a review and not an opportunity to be rude. Unfortunately that is the world we live in today. I’ve flown on these planes as well and didn’t like the experience, but I sure as hell didn’t get butt hurt over it, as it still got me to my destination safely. When I was a flight attendant back in the day, there wasn’t any of those luxuries anyways. Please respect others and leave the unnecessary rudeness to oneself.
Well in all fairness, I paid $350 for a one-way fare from LAX- DFW and rode the same aircraft this weekend. And given the fact that AA is “going for great”, well, this bird is not reflective of that aspiration (hard product or service). With an additional 45 mins spent sitting at the gate, with no update provided on why were delayed, I spend 4 hours on this bird and our WiFi was down. While I have yet to purchase an “Basic” fare, nor do I fly budget carriers (not yet in the U.S. anyways), I think it’s unfortunate that… Read more »
Totally agree! Thanks for reading!
A blogger who isn’t sharp enough to travel with a battery pack for their phone/tablet? I mean…they are quite expensive at like $20-$30 so I can see why……
This is a ridiculous post. Your complaints are stupid. After paying a bare bones fare you seem to think you are entitled to a lot more than you received. Guess what? You aren’t! Regarding the no power outlets, any savvy traveler, especially one travelling such a long distance, should always travel with a portable charger. Just sayin’.
Thank goodness I got a good fare, I just really feel bad for those who paid full price for just an inferior product. Thanks for reading!
You paid $326 to fly LAX-BCN RT? You nowhere near paid your share of the gas, let alone anybody’s wages, or for the cost of airplane. And you are complaining about seat power on one leg? And the cost of the WiFi they did provide? You can do better, Ty.
American Airlines can do better to those customers who paid full price 😉 Thanks for reading.
middle seat is bad enough then no Power or IFE hope u had some time to relax in BCN
Thanks for reading! I did have a great time in BCN 🙂
I’m not sure how you made your reservations online without checking what the plane had to begin with? All airline websites, travelocity, etc have full descriptions on exactly what you will have onboard. Should have brought a book.
Unless there is an aircraft swap, they DO make it clear if power is available on your flight. I do not like those planes and will do all I can to avoid them. But your lack of planning and analysis is not their fault. Again, unless there was an aircraft swap. There tends to be a much greater chance of flying on a USAir plane out of PHL or CLT as I’ve seen. USAir planes have zero amenities as is well known in the travel industry. Instead of having expectations, do your research and plan ahead. If you did not… Read more »
Agreed, definitely will fly a different plane/airline next time. Just wanted to give a heads up to those who don’t know about these planes. Thanks for reading!