American Airlines Flight Review: Part 1.

Every time I fly, I like to post a short review of the travel experience with the airline I flew and I like to comment on the airports I visited. Just last Sunday I flew from Philadelphia to Tucson with a stop in Dallas-Fort Worth. With that given, can you guess what airline I flew? Yup, American Airlines. Today I was supposed to be finishing up my trip with a return flight to Philadelphia, but that was not so. I’ll explain further on.

Anyone who flies in and out of Philadelphia knows what a mess it can be there. However, this was not true. Philly International is improving; no, they’re not as speedy as your local regional airport, but they’re getting better. The only thing that bothers me at Philadelphia, and always has, is baggage handling. Sometimes I think they’re seeing how far they can toss it and hit the conveyor belt.

American Airlines at Philadelphia was decent – on-time and quick departure. The crew didn’t get off the plane after flying from Dallas into Philadelphia, so there wasn’t any crew transition. I was happy to see the co-pilot get out of the MD-82 and inspect the aircraft. The flight was early by about 10 minutes, a positive for American.

After grabbing some dinner at TGI Fridays, I made my way over to gate D27 at Dallas-Fort Worth. It seems as though every time I fly into DFW, there is a minimum of one gate change. So, I had to get onto SkyLink, yet again, and I made my way back over to the C terminal to hop on-board leg two of my trip. I’m not sure what the issue was, but the flight to Tucson was delayed about 15-30 minutes. Notably, this MD-82 had leather /cushier head rests than the MD-82 I took on the Philly to Dallas flight.

The landing at Tucson was rough, but the airport service is impeccable. The jetway pulled up to the aircraft promptly, and it took just about a minute after arrival to get off the plane. Tucson International Airport never ceases to impress me with how prompt their ground crews are with baggage handling – it’s a big change from Philadelphia.

Yesterday I planned to make my return trip. I’ve said this before, but I should mention it again: TSA at regional / small airports is intense. At PHL, the security is quick and to-the-point. At small airports, they have specifics about everything – it makes the line long, but you feel very safe.

The flight started boarding on-time, but it was about halfway done boarding that they halted boarding to alert everyone that the winds in Dallas-Fort Worth had picked up and Air Traffic Control had put a damper on incoming / outbound traffic. The wind delayed the flight for two hours. Following the delay, the aircraft was about to pushback from the gate, only to make room for other arriving AA flights. The crew informed us that we would still sit on the tarmac for a good hour or so. After determining that I would probably miss my flight into Philly and would have to stay overnight at Dallas, I got off. I rebooked with American at the ticket counter – it took less than a minute. Good work on their end. However talking to flight attendants who do not treat you with respect is not fun for anyone.

I’ll write about the flight home after it happens. Overall rating so far: 3.5 / 5 stars.