American Airlines A319 Trip Report

Charlie Meier 

I’ve always wanted to fly on the American Airlines A319, but currently, they are phasing them out.  During school one day, I saw the price of a turn on Saturday was $97 round trip! I jumped on the chance to book this trip. I arrived at O’hare Airport and went through the priority check in line. There I checked on the status of my upgrade as I’m an AAdvantage Gold Elite Member. This means on flights under 500 miles, I get complimentary upgrades. I eventually found out that all the seats in First Class were taken and my upgrade was denied. Later I found out that the ticketing agent blocked out the whole row as she felt bad that my upgrade was denied. There was no chance for a visit to the Admirals Club on this trip because when I got to the gate group 2 was already boarding. As a Gold Member, I get priority boarding in group 4. American Airlines boarding process goes from Concierge Key, Group 1 and First Class and Executive Platinum, Group 2 Platinum Pro, Group 3 Platinum and Group 4 Gold. When I got on board, I soon realized that there were only about 50 passengers on the whole A319. We pushed back and took off very fast. The flight to MSP was super nice, as I had my own row. We landed at a very crowded MSP airport which was nice to see as the last time I flew into MSP it was empty. I got off the aircraft and 5 min later we were reboarding the same A319 that flew me up there. I checked the seat map and moved me to the first row of Economy. My upgrade request would eventually be denied as First Class was full again. When I got on the aircraft, I found out that the middle seat onboard was blocked out, which was nice. The lady that sat on the isle was a retired flight attendant for American. For almost the whole flight, we talked about all the places she had traveled and how retirement is going. Eventually we landed in O’hare which would complete my trip. I’d rate this trip a 9/10. The seat was very good and the onboard service was a lot better than previous flights this month.  Until next time, See you in the skies.