Trip Report: American Airlines, Washington, D.C. to New Orleans (July 2019)

Trip Report: American Airlines
Washington D.C. to New Orleans
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I travel a lot from New Orleans to Washington, D.C. and return.  Previously, the only direct flight from Reagan (DCA) to New Orleans was on USAirways, which then became American, but then Southwest came in and started direct flights.  I have written about the difference between the two here - originally they both were about the same price for a one-way flight so the only differences were customer service and the items that American makes you pay for that are free on Southwest just as checked luggage and changing of flights.  Because of these differences, I have generally flown Southwest on this route but this time the price difference was so great that American ended up being the better option.  We were three of us traveling so I booked two 'Main Economy' tickets and one 'Basic Economy' ticket - the reason for this is that there was a $30 difference between the two tickets, and this is the amount that we needed to pay for the checked luggage, so I discounted one ticket to build in the charge for the checked baggage.  

It was very easy to navigate and book the ticket through AA.com and I was able to manage the ticket through the app.  During the purchase process, I was able to preselect seats for those seating in Main Economy but the Basic Economy seats would be selected for me at check-in.  I had set an alarm to check-in 24hrs prior to my flight, but it took the system (both app and mobile website) about 4 minutes to refresh itself and allow me to check-in.  Once checked in, I had been assigned a window seat for the Basic Economy and this cannot be changed nor moved without paying a seat-fee (about $17); even at the boarding gate seats cannot be changed without paying the seat-fee.  Other airlines allow you to pay the checked baggage at check-in (ie. United has been doing this for years) but unfortunately this item is not available on American yet (there is news that this update is coming soon).  After check-in, we received our mobile boarding passes and were ready to fly with American.

We got to the airport early and used the self check-in kiosks to check-in the bags, pay for the bags, self-tag, and then drop the luggage off at the security desks - at almost no point did we interact with an American Airlines employee (which I do not know is a good thing or not).  Once past security, we made it to the gate and waiting for our flight to start boarding.  American has 9 boarding groups, which in my opinion is way too many.  While the boarding groups do by go somewhat fast, that is still a large number of groups to be boarding.  For the passengers in Main Economy, they could board in Group 5 but the Basic Economy passengers board in Group 9.  I was traveling with passengers who needed some extra time and so I was able to board early with them to help get them settled in.  

The operating aircraft was an Embraer 190 in a 2-2 seat configuration operated by an American Airlines partner.  I have flown on many Embraers with American and some of them are new and really nice while others are older and uncomfortable; this plane was unfortunately the latter.  The 2-2 seat configuration is nice in that there are no middle seats, but the seats were old and had lost much of the padding making it uncomfortable.  The legroom or seat pitch was decent and alright for the 2-hour flight.  The seat itself was basic with a tray table and a pocket with airline magazine and sick bags; there were no PTVs or any other amenities on the seat.  Boarding took a while (with so many groups how can it not?) and it was a full flight and everyone had carry-on luggage which could not fit in the small plane - and throughout the boarding process the flight attendants were not customer friendly at all, had scowls on their faces the entire time and kept making announcements telling people to hurry up 'so we can have an on-time departure'.  Boarding finally was complete, we pushed back and took off to New Orleans.  

There was really nothing much to do on the plane.  American does offer free entertainment to your personal device and they have movies and TV shows on there for free, so that is a nice gesture and helps the time pass by.  For the 2.5hour flight, there was only one drink service and that to within the first 30 minutes of the plane - the flight attendants came rushing by and provided complimentary soft drinks, tea, coffee, or water plus a pack of pretzels.  The complimentary drinks were appreciated, but the poor service that came with it was definitely not.  The flight attendants were not customer friendly at all, and seemed to be rushing through the service to get it done (even though after the service all they did was just sit down in their jumpseat).  For my drink, the attendant did not even wait for the fizz to go down so literally I only got one sip of the drink.  When I asked for another drink when they came back to collect the trash I got the response 'oh, I think we ran out of soft drinks'; seriously, how do you run out of soft drinks on a freshly catered plane??

Overall, it was a poor flight on American.  The plane was uncomfortable and the service was just horrible.  I usually fly Southwest and on the same route the service is better, the price is usually the same, and they provide free checked-bags so why would I choose American?   I had chosen to fly American as they were the lower fare option, but after experiencing their poor service and poor plane comfort I will just pay whatever price Southwest is offering and fly them instead!