A visit to the HOM: My American experiAAnce – the return including a coach leg.

A visit to the HOM: My American experiAAnce – if you jump ship – what to expect!
A visit to the HOM: What it is like at the HOM that is the House of Miles
A visit to the HOM: My American experiAAnce – the return including a coach leg.
A visit to the HOM: AA Tech, compAArisons & final thoughts – should “we” switch?

After a great visit to the HOM it was time to head home. I did have one little issue I was trying to fix. You see my COS-DFW leg was in coach (I had redeemed 50,000 US Air points for the trip). I had been checking to see if seats had opened up, but with only 8 seats on this new A319 it was not looking good. Plus, I was not going to pay any kind of change fee to get them to upgrade me for a 1-ish hour flight. I have to say my initial enthusiasm to fly AA had worn off completely at this point.

What I did do is a bunch of HUCB calls since my flights were under the ORD ATC waiver for changes. Now with Delta, we all should know by now, the waiver rules give you just about carte blanche to do what you want with no fee. I found out not so much with American and US Air. I called many times. The first few, no seats were open, and the reps did not seem interested in allowing a change had there been an open seat anyway. Then at last a seat WAS open, but they refused to change free under the waiver. Thanks a LOT American! I did call later again and now the seat was gone and they again said NO anyway under the waiver. Clearly AA is not DL. The only slightly positive call I had was one rep willing to move me to a later morning flight (I was on the 6AM) but would have to keep me in coach on that one too. Sigh.

I was allowed to board with 1st class (nice to score overhead space at least) and I will say the electronic boarding pass worked fine. The app is OK but quirky. I guess I am just used to the Delta one. I will touch more on this in the last post for this trip.

The seats in coach however are REALLY bad. The slim line choice AA has gone with is a ROCK. Not just a rock but just look at the space. I have to tell you a Delta CRJ200 has more space than these new jets. Plus, the FA call button is built into the screen and passengers kept hitting them again and again all thru the flight. Not a good idea. The only saving grace was that the aisle armrest did fold up so I could slide into the aisle a bit for space. Needless to say I will not be flying coach on AA again.

Then it was off for some time at the Centurion lounge. I took the really early flight so I could have the better part of 3 hours for some spa time and such. Unfortunately the lounge was PACKED due to many flights canceling the night before and the wait for time was 2.5hrs. No spa for me, but a nice breakfast at least!

Time for my flight home DFW-ORD then on to AZO. I picked the front row this time (they call it row 4 but it is the 1st row). The leg room was good and nice not having someone recline into me.

I decided to try the pasta this time after my uncomfortable results from the “beef” on the way out. I have to tell you this was one of the most disappointing meals I have ever had on a jet. The pasta was dry and had almost no taste whatsoever. The salad was, well, you can see. The nuts and wine were the best part of the meal (and the only thing the AA frequent flyer next to me picked – smart choice). If you like good food in the air, you need to stick with Delta!

I made it to ORD on time and had a bit of a delay due to no crew for my regional jet to AZO. I spent some time in the Admirals Club and eventually AA found a crew to fly the jet and ATC let us depart.

Next week I will breakdown just what this cost me, the tech, and my final thoughts if you should, as a Delta flyer, jump ship and consider a status match with AA for 2015! – René

PS – the 70,000 point INK card offer ends TODAY!
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