a screen on a plane

I had a lovely crew and delicious dinner on my American Airlines A321T flight in business class from Los Angeles to Boston, but the cabins are simply falling apart on these soon-to-be-retrofited planes and AA is not even trying any longer…

American Airlines A321T Business Class: A Familiar Problem

2024 ended with an unexpected last-minute business trip to New England, a brief one-day trip. On the way out, I flew American Airlines from LAX to BOS on a redeye, an ideal schedule that gave me all day to work in LA and then a slightly longer overnight flight that I could sleep on.

I had a last-minute gate change at LAX (much like this couple) and even showed up to my gate late…there were only 12 minutes left until departure…but thankfully I got on. The cbain was half-empty the day before, but filled up with upgrades and non-revs. To “protect revenue,” AA does not offer complimentary elite upgrades from business class to first class on premium transcon flights, so even though the first class cabin was empty, I stayed in business class and it filled up with non-revs (I’m not complaining, just noting that it makes sense why AA is getting rid of first class aka “employee class” on this aircraft and on the 777-300ERs).

a man standing in a line in a building

Like my last flight, my foot cushion was broken.

a close up of a seat

Like my last flight, my power port did not work.

a white cable plugged into a wall

Two flights in a row…

The “wi-fi was also broken” (thanks AA).

But it wasn’t a horrible flight. Kelly, who worked my side of the cabin, was very gracious, calling passengers my surname and was also very attentive.

I had skipped dinner earlier so I could eat onboard (in order to offer a full review of the flight) and ordered a “black and blue” short rib with bleu cheese on top. It was a very nice meal with carrot and parsnip fries, a nice artichoke caprese appetizer, and a green salad.

a tray with food on it

Then an ice cream sundae to finish…I just could not help myself:

a dessert in a glass with a spoon in front of a television

The bedding is decent in business class and I was able to sleep for the next 3.5 hours: I greatly appreciate that AA does not wake everyone up to prepare for landing at the top of descent, like United does…that extra 15 minutes of sleep made a huge difference.

a grey pillow on a seat

a screen on a bed

So as we enter 2025, expect more of the same on AA: improving food, hit or miss service (great service on this flight), but an A321T that is falling apart and no effort to fix it.

I will offer a full review of this flight as soon as I complete the last few flight reviews from my trip around the world.

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