The Lounge: Flagship Lounge MIA
I had a business meeting in Miami today and it ended early, so I arrived at MIA at around 2:00, way ahead of my 6:00 pm departure time.
I didn’t go to the check in lane since I didn’t have bags to check and honestly the check in area at MIA is always crowded. I just proceeded straight to security, and made my way to the flagship lounge.
I have Executive Platinum Status with American through a status match promotion that I applied for back in October. It gave me Executive Platinum status through the end of January and granted me with 4 flagship lounge passes to use. So, although neither my status nor my itinerary granted me access today, I received access with one of those passes.
Boarding, the Cabin, and Seat
My gate today was originally gate D60, which is about a 15 minute walk from the flagship lounge.
When I got to the gate, they announced we’d be boarding in 10 minutes. Then about 10 minutes later, they announced a gate change to… Gate D6! If you’re not familiar with MIA, this is a VERY LONG WALK. It’s clear on the other side of the Terminal.
t’s about a good 30-40 minute walk. MIA gets very crowded in the hallways so however long the AA app tells you it’ll take to get to your gate, I’d always add an additional 10 minutes to that. This meant that there was no way we would be departing on time.
Boarding began with pre-boarding. Once pre-boarding ended, which included passengers with disabilities, ConciergeKey, and active duty military, First Class was called to preboard.
First Class on American’s 737-800 is arranged in a 2-2 configuration with your typical US Carrier style first class recliner seats. The seats feature 37 inches of pitch, 20 inches of width and 4 inches of recline. Note that this cabin is very old and dark. It definitely needs a refresh!
I quickly found my seat, 1E, an aisle seat in the first row of the right side of the aircraft.
This seat has no underseat storage, so all bags and large items must be stored in the overhead bin.
The seat has a center armrest with a center console and in the left armrest, there is a tray table that folds out.
Pre-Departure, Taxi, and Takeoff
At 6:34, the captain came on to announce that everyone was on board but we we were waiting on catering. He announced our flight time of 2 hours and 9 minutes. It was at this time that the flight attendant came by to take my jacket and offered to hang it up.
No pre-departure beverage was offered, but that’s okay because the crew was probably trying to get the departure as close to on time as possible.
At 6:46, the boarding door closed, meaning that we were about an hour behind schedule for our departure.
At 6:48, we began our pushback, and the safety demonstration began. Except for one thing, there was nobody presented the demo in First class. Which I’m pretty sure is a major regulatory compliance issue…
We began our taxi at 6:53, and had a quick taxi considering the runway was right behind us.
We were rolling down the runway at 6:57.
Cruise
At 7:03, we reached 10,000 feet, meaning we were well on our way to Washington. I decided to pull out the tray table to put my iPad on to watch some of the personal device entertainment
AA has a great selection of content for personal device entertainment. It’ll keep you well entertained for a long time!
A quicknote on the WiFi pricing: AA prices it’s WiFi at $15 for one hour and $25 for the whole flight, which is just insane. So of course I didn’t buy it.
At 7:11, the flight attendant came by to take drink orders and to confirm meal orders. Luckily, I was upgraded 25 hours prior to departure, just in time for me to pre-order my meal. I ordered the short rib and went with a rum and coke to drink!
At 7:15, service continued with a hot towel.
At 7:26, my drink was served with some warm nuts!
At 7:53, my meal was brought out.
The meal was… not great. The “steakhouse sauce” for the short rib was just barbecue sauce. The twice baked potato was frozen! Yes, frozen on the inside. Just not good meal.
When I “finished” my meal, I was given a refill. I like the proactivity. They didn’t ask if I wanted another one, they just brought it to me! I appreciate the proactivity!
Descent and Arrival
At 8:32, the captain announced that we’d begun our descent into DCA, and advised the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing.
At 8:37, my jacket was brought back to me.
We hit a lot of turbulence on the descent. I get it- it’s winter in the Northeast of the United States, so the winds knock you around a bit.
We touched down on the runway at exactly 9:00 pm, and began our taxi into the gate.
We parked at gate D39 at 9:05 pm for a delayed arrival of about 40 minutes.
