By Shawn Gallagher
Good morning from Boston Logan International Airport! I flew over to Chicago yesterday with American Airlines on their Boeing 737. I sat in Main Cabin, in seat 30F.
This was a 2.5 hour flight, so not too long, but not too short either, like my regular New York to Boston flights.
Let’s go over this flight to Chicago.
At Boston Logan Airport
This was a Thursday morning in the middle of January. The airport was incredibly quiet, and TSA was a breeze.
January and February are my favorite months to fly. It’s quiet after the busy holidays in December, and are often accompanied by cheaper airfares and hotel prices.
While waiting, I spotted an American Airlines retro Piedmont livery A321 a few gates away. American has a few aircraft with these retro liveries; this is one of them.
Speaking of retro, I always love the old AA logo in Terminal B, near gate B6.
This was my aircraft, waiting at gate B9. N996NN, an 8 year old Boeing 737-800 delivered to American Airlines back in July 2016.
Boarding
Boarded consisted of the usual backup on the jet bridge. I always think to myself, “There has to be a more efficient way to do this.”
Related: American Airlines Boarding Groups, Explained
This was almost a full flight.
My seat was 30F. Window seat, as usual.
Although the dimensions aren’t that different, the Main Cabin seats on the 737s or the A320 family are much more comfortable than on regional jets. It’s probably something to do with how the seat is built (First class is a different story though).
Related: First Class on American Airlines Domestic, Boston to New York
Ah yes, classic American Airlines. Instead of an IFE screen, we’ve got the safety card to look at as entertainment. We instead have some personal device entertainment on our phones, but it’s still a noticeable difference when coming from Delta (and several other U.S. carriers).
A USB port is on the right side of the seatback.
A universal power outlet is also underneath the seat in front. There are two of them in each row.
The middle seat next to me remained open. I lucked out on this busy flight that was close to full. There were a few other open middle seats, and that was it.
Pushback began pretty much on time and we were on our way.
The lights were dimmed for takeoff. I noticed many passengers with the window open on this flight.
In the Air
I had a gorgeous view of Boston on takeoff. Enjoy the video here.
I noticed that one of the overhead bins was open shortly after takeoff. I didn’t see if it opened during the takeoff roll or if somebody forgot to close it. Either way, it was lucky that nothing fell out and hit anybody.
We quickly hit our cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.
Wi-Fi was offered at a whopping $24 for this 2.5 hour flight. I’m patiently waiting for the day American Airlines begins offering free Wi-Fi on domestic flights like Delta and JetBlue, as if the day will ever come.
We got a snack service soon after the seatbelt sign turned off. We got a beverage and a bag of pretzels.
I got some work done for the rest of the flight, and it was soon time to prepare for landing.
Concluding Thoughts
Hard product wise, this flight was very comfortable. It definitely helped that I had an open seat next to me, but I personally find that the American Airlines seats on the 737s/A320s to be comfortable. The FAs were all friendly on this flight also.
American definitely has room to improve on the in-flight entertainment part. Their IFE system (which barely exists) is not competitive at all compared to the likes of other U.S. carriers, and neither is the cost of the Wi-Fi. Hopefull we’ll eventually see some changes on this part of the experience, but who knows when that will be.
All photos taken by the author.