Review: American Airlines A321 Domestic First Class Phoenix-John Wayne
Intro
Welcome back to the final report of the grand trip around Asia (except now we are in the US). Seeing as I had to get back to California, this is the second leg covering the routing of New York- Phoenix (on the 777-200 in Business), and this leg from Phoenix to John Wayne. The specific flight would see me fly on the A321 in Domestic First from Phoenix to John Wayne.
All in all, even with a delay because we needed to replace a part, the flight proved to be a decent flight on American Airlines. Getting onboard a domestic AA flight, you know what to expect 96% of the time, and that is appreciated.
Route-Phoenix (PHX)-John Wayne (SNA)
Seat- 5A
Flight Number- AA2463
Aircraft- Airbus A321
Date- January 27th 2024
Flight Time: 1 Hour 16 Minutes
Price Paid- 667$ (2 Legs)
How I Booked
Fares between New York and Southern California tend to be relatively expensive in premium cabins. American Airlines starts at 879$ one-way in Business on the direct to Los Angeles, while other airlines can fluctuate. However, seeing as I didn't have much to do on a Saturday and wanted to fly the older cabins of the 777, I decided to book a flight from New York-Phoenix-John Wayne, all for 667$ in Domestic First.
Boarding
With our inbound from New York landing extremely early, I had time to grab a Starbucks at the airport and do a little bit of work. A couple of hours passed before the 2:40 pm boarding call came around. Oh, this is great! I am going to be back in California early! Or so I thought...
Stepping onboard, we were warmly greeted by a smiling flight attendant. Seriously, a smile goes such a long way.
I have reviewed this product countless times on this website with reports from Havana and Salvador, but the seats look just the same as the months prior! The only difference to those reports is that they were on a 737 featuring 4 rows of business class, while the A321 (and neos) features five.
For the very short 200-mile flight, I was seated in 5A, the window seat on the left side of the aircraft in the last row. I try to be mindful when I fly and don't like reclining onto other people, hence the reason I choose the last row usually.
The Flight
Boarding was just about wrapped up by 3 pm as we were getting ready to make our way out to 7L for departure. Well, this was until the captain came on to announce that they had to replace a part in the aircraft, and it would be another 15-20 minutes...
20 minutes turned into 30 minutes.
30 minutes turned into 40 minutes.
40 minutes turned into 50 minutes...
Props to the flight deck for keeping us posted, as well as to the flight attendant for bringing rounds of water. Both of them were extremely apologetic.
Finally, at 4:10 pm local time, we started pushing back from our gate. I thought for a minute that it was going to be another LH F moment if you haven't read that review.
Thankfully, it was a short taxi out to the runway, and we were wheels up to John Wayne by 4:20 pm (45 minutes late).
The views were gobsmacking, as always out of Phoenix.
As I settled into my seat, the cabin crew came around to offer a beverage and, later, a pick from the snack basket. With a skinny pop and sparkling water in hand, I connected to the free messaging that American Airlines provides. Wifi was around 8$ for the full flight, but it's so short that I cannot recommend it unless you need to send out an important document.
With an airtime of 53 minutes, we had landed in John Wanye by 4:14 pm local time. It's always intriguing as for some parts of the year, there is a time difference between AZ and CA, but for others, it's the same time zone (daylight savings, I know).
Just like that, the trip came to an end. Almost a whole month away, visiting some unbelievable places that melted my heart to bits, it felt eery getting off the plane.
The FA bid us farewell, and I was on my way for a short pit stop in California.
Anyway, if you have followed along with this series, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.
Final Thoughts
Barring the delay at Phoenix for technical reasons, the flight was a run-of-the-mill American Airlines commuter flight. I'm always quite happy when I get onboard a narrowbody aircraft with American Airlines due to its consistency. The flight deck kept us informed, the FA working DF was friendly, and having a snack and a drink on a short flight was appreciated.
All in all, it was a big step up from the flight prior, and a decent way to end the series!
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