Zander Drives Cars

Hello from Colombia! More specifically, Cartagena. I felt bad that I couldn’t get a review out this week, so I decided to switch roles from “pretend automotive journalist” to “pretend aviation journalist.” Jokes aside, because I am a car guy, I do love aviation as well. It kind of comes hand in hand. So, when I remembered a message I got on Instagram about how I should do a “Zander Flies Planes,” I figured that this would be my best chance to deliver a review of an airline that isn’t Southwest. And now, without further ado, here’s a review of American Airlines flight 1145, from Miami to Cartagena.

This is actually the second flight I’ve taken today. My day started at about 6:05 am when my first flight (AA1183) took off from Baltimore. Because there aren’t any airlines that fly directly to Cartagena from Baltimore, and more specifically because Southwest doesn’t fly to Cartagena, we were left with no choice other than to fly with American. Our hour-long connection in Miami was tight, but like a determined high schooler at an unsanctioned party, we weren’t too bothered by it. (Hi, it’s Zander in post-posting. No idea what this was supposed to mean. I was running on three hours of sleep. Ignore whatever that was.) Miami’s airport is nice and bright, and on this Saturday morning during the spring break season, was absolutely packed with every type of person on the planet.

Our flight this morning is onboard this 24-year-old Boeing 737-800, registered as N908AN. Fun fact: this 737 was originally delivered to American Airlines without winglets, and had them installed in 2007. While there is no plan to remove the 737 from American Airlines’ fleet entirely, their recent orders for the 737-MAX8 and the Airbus A321XLR have signaled that some of these over-20-year-old planes could be nearing the end of their lives at the company. But hey, US carriers have a history of flying ancient planes. After all, my United flight to Berlin this past summer was on a 32-year-old Boeing 767-400.

It is hard to find a 737 in service with a US carrier today that doesn’t have a modern interior. This is no exception. This 737 has been retrofitted with Boeing’s “Sky Interior” which provides plenty of overhead mood lighting that makes this plane feel larger than it is. However, the seats were tight. I didn’t have a lot of legroom, and I often felt like the only way I was able to stretch out was to sit on an angle.

Delta and United either currently have, or recently announced that they would have, PTVs (personal television screens) on their narrowbody aircraft. This is great! It means that you don’t waste your battery watching TV and movies on your phone or laptop. I, as well as everyone else, prefer this method over a stream-to-device service. American Airlines saw this and decided “nah.” They’re in the process of taking OUT all of their PTVs on narrow-body planes. Why? I know it’s a cost-saving measure, but considering they’re the only mainline carrier doing this, it is annoying. That being said, American has done its part in making streaming less horrible. For one, this plane has these nice phone holders on the seat back, and each seat has a universal power outlet. So, I guess it isn’t all bad. Just don’t expect to charge anything via USB, because this one didn’t have ports for those.

While American Airlines is the outlier in the entertainment field, they are right at home with other carriers in the service field. Even though this is an international flight to a different continent, all you get are snacks and drinks. I know the argument about how we should get more on flights has been shouted a million times, but if I’m flying almost three hours to a different continent, I could at least use a sandwich or a croissant. But, we persevered, and the Lotus cookies and whole Coke can on this flight kept me awake long enough to watch Eurovision 1995 on my laptop.

Soon, my 2-hour journey from continent to continent came to an end, and as we descended into Cartagena, I thought to myself “why is this the best way to get here?” I mean, if you’re coming from New York or Atlanta, you can fly on JetBlue or Delta, but for a lot of people on the east coast at least, this is your easiest and only option. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I do it again if there was another airline that did this exact route? No. As I said earlier, I only flew this route because I had to. It was fine, but the bad seats and service that took over an hour to start left me with a bad taste in my mouth. If you’re able to, you’re better off flying one of the other legacies, or biting the bullet and taking the redeye through Panama.

So, as we deboarded at the airport, I said fair well to American Airlines… for the week. Hopefully, I’ll be in one of their elusive pre-retrofitted cabins with screens. Who knows.