American Airlines has a lot of old Airbus A319s. According to Planespotters.net, there are currently 125 of them in service with an average age of 21.1 years.
There’s a good chance of getting an A319 when flying American on a shorter route. I flew from Boston to DCA yesterday and got one of these (DCA has a lot of A319s). Mine was 25 years old, with its first flight back in 2000. American does have older aircraft though, with deliveries dating back to 1998.
Here’s your average A319 experience (I’ll try to make this interesting, I promise).
At the Airport
Logan Airport was much more lively compared to one of my flights out of Boston in March, where there were practically no people in both the check-in area and TSA. Read about that weird experience here.
Related: American Airlines First Class from Boston to New York JFK (E175)
This is a reminder to get a Real ID by May 7! In addition to Real ID-compliant state IDs, federal IDs such as passports, passport cards, and trusted traveler cards, such as Global Entry cards, will work.
I do suggest avoiding flying on May 7 if at all possible.
There were a fair amount of passengers in the TSA PreCheck, but the line moved quickly.
This day was the first day of American’s new preboarding system. Read more about that in my other post here.
Concierge Key and First Class now board ahead of group 1 (AAdvantage Executive Platinum).
I walked by N582UW on the way to my gate, an Airbus A321 with a special PSA Airlines livery.
This was the first time using the updated American Airlines app on a flight. These began rolling out last week, and I liked the Live Activities feature with flight info on my lock screen and dynamic island.
My aircraft was N813AW, a 25 year old Airbus A319. Its first flight was on April 13, 2000.
Onboard
The seats are what you’d expect on most American mainline jets.
This wasn’t a busy flight. I was seated in 20A.
Having regularly flown many Airbus A220s with Delta lately, I was surprised to see the small windows on the A319 again!
Related: Why the Airbus A220 is currently my favorite narrowbody plane
Legroom is meh. It’s the same 31 inches or so that you see on most other aircraft. It was only a 1.5 hour flight, and there was an open seat next to me, so I didn’t mind it.
You’ll find 2 universal power outlets for 3 seats. I had a nice conversation with a lady on the aisle seat as I explained how universal power outlets work, with different kinds of outlets/plugs around the world.
There was a Cape Air Cessna 402 between the larger mainline airplanes as we lined up to the runway. They do look much smaller when they’re next to the bigger ones!
It was a beautiful day to fly.
Wi-Fi was offered for $12. The price is not as bad as some other flights I’ve seen (I recently had $24 on a Boston to Chicago flight), but I didn’t purchase it.
Free Wi-Fi on American is coming, but we’ll have to wait until January. Either way, it’s good to see the airline finally making a change to its outrageous inflight Wi-Fi offerings.
We got served a Biscoff cookie and a beverage soon after takeoff. I settled with a half cup of apple juice.
This was a nice, relaxing flight. I’ll add that it was one of the smoothest flights of this year.
Nothing much going on here, just your typical A319 restroom.
We unfortunately didn’t get the river visual going into DCA, but I did get a nice view of Alexandria on the final into runway 1.
Concluding Thoughts
We arrived early at gate C31.
It had been a couple of years since I last flew in or out of DCA. I forgot about this gorgeous terminal building.
As I said, this was one of the smoothest flights I’ve had this year. Boarding began and finished early, it wasn’t a busy flight, and we arrived early. American’s A319s are indeed old, but they aren’t beat up by any means. It’s quite your average American Airlines flight, with no IFE screen, slim seats, and expensive inflight Wi-Fi.
All photos taken by the author.
