American Airlines Airbus A321 Main Cabin From Los Angeles To Dallas/Fort Worth

My flight from LAX to DFW had a scheduled departure time of 23:59 and as I was taking the Flyaway bus, operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), which operates LAX, I planned on arriving at the airport between 22:30-22:45. I arrived at the Van Nuys Flyaway Terminal in time for the 22:00 bus, which started boarding at 21:52. By 22:23, we were right next to LAX and passing the famous In-n-Out on Sepulveda Boulevard, as there had been no traffic.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

At the airport

At this point, traffic started to back up a lot, and I quickly realized that the arrivals area was extremely packed. At 22:37, the bus dropped me off at Terminal 4. The check-in area at Terminal 4 is small, and making it to the security checkpoint took just a minute after walking inside. To my surprise, there were no CLEAR kiosks, but fortunately, there was no one in line at the TSA PreCheck line.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

The TSA agent asked for my ID and had me stand in front of the camera for a photo and within two minutes (at 22:41) I had already cleared the security checkpoint. Terminal 4 is one of the older terminals that has not undergone a full remodel at LAX, and is very distinct because of its domed ceiling. By 22:43, I was at my gate, 47B, but it was nearly impossible to find a place to sit.

I saw there was an escalator nearby that led to the walkway to Terminal 5 and decided to see if there was anywhere to sit downstairs. After going down the escalator, I found what appeared to be a gate area, but there were far too few seats. I sat there and decided to get some work done, but despite the airport WiFi signal reaching downstairs, I was unable to connect. After some time, I went back upstairs to attempt to finish my work.

By 23:25, passengers had started crowding the boarding area which made it absolute chaos. I needed to speak to the gate agent to request a printed boarding pass (I collect mine) and see if I could change my seat for the second leg of my journey, and because of the crowd that formed, it was hard to reach the gate. Boarding started just a few minutes later at 23:32.

Because of the chaos at the gate, the place I had found to sit was kind of far from the gate itself, and the announcements were not reaching me. By the time I got close to the gate, my group had already been called, and the gate agent was calling the next group. The gate area gave off a feeling that it was “temporary”, and while there is a lot of construction going on outside, I am not certain that is the case.

At 23:44, I made my way down the jetbridge to find my seat, 32F, near the rear of the aircraft. The airport terminal had been extremely hot, and there was a noticeable temperature change when stepping onto the jetbridge, which was a welcome relief.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

On the aircraft, on the ground

As shown above, our aircraft for the flight was an Airbus A321. One of the first things I noticed was that the plane was equipped with larger overhead bins, which fit carry-on bags on their sides, allowing for more passengers to take their carryons onboard. Fortunately, finding space for my bag was not a problem when I reached my seat. I placed my bag in the bin across the aisle so that when deplaning, I would not have to turn back over my head to grab my bag but could simply reach across the aisle and take it.

American Airlines is the only airline of the ‘Big Three’—American, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines—that does not plan to install inflight entertainment screens (IFE) on its domestic fleet. In place,the airline has installed device holders on the seatbacks, allowing passengers to place phones or tablets to use the entertainment available on the inflight portal.

In addition to 110V power under the seats, every seat has a USB port.

In the air

At 00:01, the crew made an announcement that the boarding door had been closed and that soon we would pushback and be on our way to DFW. Pushback began five minutes later, and the captain announced that while we would have a slightly late departure and that our taxi time would be somewhat long, he anticipated an early arrival. At 00:21, we lined up on runway 25R and took off over the Pacific Ocean before turning around and heading towards Texas.

Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying

Because of the time of the flight, I do not have much to say about how it went, as I slept for most of it. As soon as we took off, I closed my eyes and fell asleep and did not bother staying awake for the small inflight service, which would have likely only been a pack of Biscoff Cookies or pretzels and a variety of drinks. By the time I woke up the first time, we were more than halfway through the flight and I went back to sleep.

About 20 minutes before landing, the captain came on to make his announcement that we were initiating our descent into the Dallas-Fort Worth area and asked the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing. At 04:58, our wheels touched down, and after a few minutes, we arrived at our gate.

To my surprise, we arrived at the High-C Gates, the newest gates in Terminal C, added in 2022. These gates feature new technology and incredible displays with flight information. The unique thing about the High-C gates is that they were built modularly, then transported and placed in their location overnight.

Overall, the flight was fine, but one frustrating part about flying with American is its app. While better than many airlines worldwide, the interface is not the best and often requires opening the airline website to solve certain things, instead of doing so natively in the app. I had wanted to fly on an earlier flight, on same-day standby, but for some reason, the app told me there were no flights available.

Now, I am not sure if this is because the second leg on my itinerary was an international flight, or if because the second leg was on the following day. Regardless, American’s new same-day standby rules on its website, which took effect in March of this year, do not state anything about international flights or itineraries that span multiple days. Though the website states that passengers can only list for same-day standby through the app, I attempted to speak with someone via X (formerly Twitter) and they were unable to help.

I was disappointed as I had hoped to spend some time in Dallas visiting friends and there were several flights throughout the day that I could have hopped on. Another frustrating point about American is its inflight WiFi prices, which are ridiculously expensive. While Delta and United dropped their WiFi prices, and now Delta is rolling out free WiFi fleetwide, American still charges too much. The airline does partner with T-Mobile to offer free access to customers with the phone carrier, but that is the only positive point.

Besides that, the customer service and inflight experience were fine. Would I choose to fly with American again? Why not? While we may have departed late, we arrived on time, and the negative points I mentioned are not enough to ignore a good price or good itinerary.