After having spent so much time on work trips in 2026, I really wanted to treat myself to a beach destination. Because of all the extra money I earned while working extended business trips, I also wanted to do a paid ticket and also upgrade to First Class if possible. Lastly, I wanted somewhere that was easy to get to from Texas. And the winner? Fort Lauderdale! Check out this First Class review on American Airlines A321 aircraft from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale below!
Flight Info
| Date Traveled | August 2026 |
| Flight No. / Route | AA1390 / DFW-FLL |
| Aircraft / Tail | A321 / N118NN |
| Flight Time / Distance | 2 hours, 25 minutes / 1119 miles |
| Departure / Arrival | DFW 10:35AM (delayed til 11:36AM) / FLL 2:30PM (delayed til 3:26PM) |
| Class / Seat | First Class / 2A |
| Method / Cost | Paid / $432.00 ($374.80 RT – $68.80 20% discount + $117.00 instant upgrade offer) |
| Loyalty Status | AAdvantage Member |
Summary
- Affordable First Class with solid comfort
- Chase Sapphire Lounge was a definite highlight
- A pleasant flight despite delays and meh food
Pros
- Comfortable First Class seat
- Good onboard features
- Efficient, friendly service
Cons
- Significant flight delays
- Main entree was disappointing
- Flight Info
- Summary
- Booking American Airlines A321 First Class
- Packing for American Airlines A321 First Class
- Airport Check In At DFW
- Chase Sapphire Lounge
- Boarding and Departure for American Airlines A321 First Class
- American Airlines A321 Aircraft
- Cabin and Seats in American Airlines A321 First Class
- Inflight Entertainment in American Airlines A321 First Class
- WiFi in American Airlines A321 First Class
- Inflight Service in American Airlines A321 First Class
- Food and Drink in American Airlines A321 First Class
- Lavatories in American Airlines A321 First Class
- What I Did In Flight in American Airlines A321 First Class
- Arrival into FLL
- Other Stories to Share
- Lessons Learned
- Bottom Line
Booking American Airlines A321 First Class
Because I have flight benefits, I rarely or very infrequently buy paid airplane tickets. But when I do, I always book directly with the airline.
To do this, I used AA’s website to search for the flights I wanted to/from Fort Lauderdale. Yes, the app works too, but I feel more efficient looking at the website.
The roundtrip tickets cost me $374.80 between DFW and FLL. Because I’m an airline employee, I also used my 20% off base fare benefit, which ended up being $68.20 off the roundtrip price. Therefore, my total round trip tickets cost me $306.60.
I bought these tickets about a month before departure, and I constantly checked the AA app for upgrade offers almost daily, sometimes even multiple times a day. I kept waiting for the upgrade offer to drop to something I was willing to pay for. For DFW-FLL, within a few days of booking the roundtrip tickets, I saw an offer for $117.00 and immediately jumped on it. My rule of thumb for buying upgrades for domestic First Class is around $50 per hour of flight. Since DFW-FLL is about 3 hours long, $117 is about $39/hour of flight, which is a pretty great ratio!
Packing for American Airlines A321 First Class
One of the benefits of my job is that I get to work remotely wherever I want for a week each year. This year I chose Fort Lauderdale because I wanted some sort of easy-to-get-to beach destination with a five-star Hilton hotel (in this case, the Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach, which I’ve stayed at a few times in the past).
For packing purposes, I didn’t want to check any luggage despite being gone for a week. I’ve gotten pretty decent at packing everything in a rollaboard luggage plus a backpack (see pic below) for my business trips so that’s what I rolled with for this trip.
Obviously with it being summer and the destination being Fort Lauderdale, I wanted to pack summer and beach clothes. And for the flight itself, since it was only about a 3-hour flight during the day, I didn’t really pack anything special to make the flight more comfortable.
Airport Check In At DFW
Because I was gone for a week for this Fort Lauderdale trip, I decided to keep my car at home. To get to the airport, I had my parents drop me off (aren’t they so nice? lol). Since my plan was to go check out the newly opened Chase Sapphire Lounge again, I had my parents drop me off at the American Airlines counters at Terminal D. I arrived at about 7:00AM.
Because I had a ticket in First Class and also am a Citi Executive credit card holder, I used the Priority check-in counters. There wasn’t really any reason to go see a ticket agent because I didn’t check a bag. All I wanted was my paper boarding pass.
At 7:00AM, the American Airlines Priority check-in counters at Terminal D were fully staffed. However, only one or two passengers were in line. When I got in line, i was immediately called over. I quickly got my paper boarding pass then headed over the TSA lines.
Since I now have Touchless ID, I went in that line for security. I also remembered that the TSA line between the AA counters at Terminal D are for PreCheck and Touchless ID–at some point, they had moved the regular line closer to the Grand Hyatt lobby area.
It only took me like 2 minutes to get through security. Easy peasy! After security, I beelined to the new Chase Sapphire Lounge.
Chase Sapphire Lounge
| Location | DFW Terminal D, near Gate D25 |
| Time Visited | 7:15AM to 9:10AM |
| Access due to… | Chase Sapphire Reserve |
The Chase Sapphire Lounge just opened back in mid-July 2026. It’s been a long-time coming for DFW to get one of these Sapphire lounges as Chase has opened their lounges up at other airports. I know Chase Sapphire lounges are really nice, and my last experience of one was before I flew on the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight with Singapore Airlines. I had a great time!
Actually, before this particular flight, I had already experienced the DFW Chase Sapphire Lounge a week prior before a business trip to Seattle/Everett, but I did not review it at the time.
With all that said, it was great to revisit it!
The entrance to the Chase Sapphire Lounge, pictured above, is just to the left of the TSA line between the AA counters in the vicinity of D24 and D25 gates. The entrance, though big and blue, reveals a dark and moody front desk lobby with pops of color with the furniture and artwork.
I showed the front desk staff my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card as well as my boarding pass, and they let me through.
An elevator past the desk goes up to the 4th floor where the lounge actually is located.
Within the lounge are several spaces:
- Right of elevators: amenity rooms (showers, relaxation pods, and facial treatment rooms), phone room, seating
- Left of elevators: the rest of the lounge with various seating areas, the Whiskey Tasting room, the bar, the dining area, kid’s room, and restrooms
Let’s talk about breakfast because that’s what I primarily enjoyed this particular visit and the previous time. In the dining area, there was a servery. Most lounges usually do hot plates or dishes where you scoop up however much you want of an item, but in the Chase Sapphire Lounge, everything is served as small plates. To the right of that was a long counter for drinks.
I didn’t document each of the offerings in the servery this time (I’m assuming it rotates every so often anyway) because of the amount of people and employees around, but I can at least show off what I did have!
I will say that every table in the lounge has a QR code, and there’s an on-demand selection of food items on a menu that are not available in the servery. Chase Sapphire Lounge in DFW partnered with Encina, a popular restaurant in south Dallas for some of the food offerings including DFW-lounge specific menu items like the bluecorn pancakes (which I didn’t get this visit, but I do highly recommend!).
Pretty awesome food offerings in the lounge–I wonder how long they can keep up with the quality and presentation!
I did not participate in the consumption of alcoholic treats because I was in the lounge on a Sunday morning. In Texas. And no establishments can serve alcohol early-to-mid morning on Sunday mornings. At some point I do want to return to the lounge and try out the whiskey tastings they offer during the day!
On another note, I also did a speed test on the WiFi–it was blazingly fast!
These are the fastest downloads that I have ever seen in any of my travels! Needless to say, I had no problems working in this lounge the previous week when I went in here for the first time.
While I was eating breakfast, I also used the QR code to book a facial treatment. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked nor was the webpage descriptive of what that would look like.
About 5 minutes before my 8:30AM appointment for the facial, I went to the separate treatment desk by the elevators to fill out the intake form on their tablet. Once I filled it out, I waited a few minutes before I was called in by the esthetician. She led me to the treatment room, and she briefly explained the high level steps of what would happen. Basically, she cleaned the oils off my face, did a brief skin analysis using an app and picture, and did a treatment based on the results of the skin analysis. Since the skin analysis indicated that my face was dry, she did a rejuvenating hydration treatment. Lots of creme and serum rubbing on my face, some blowing of oxygen, and a gentle massage with cold metal spheres.
I’m not sure I completely understood the science behind it all, but it was relaxing. Before I left, the esthetician gave me a small trial pack of products by FaceHaus–the same company that sponsors the facial treatments in this lounge. I left feeling pretty moisturized in the face, hah!
After my treatment, I noticed that my flight had been delAAyed. I decided to take the long way to my gate via walking and the SkyTrain.
Boarding and Departure for American Airlines A321 First Class
| Scheduled Boarding | 9:55 AM |
| Actual Boarding | 11:03 AM |
I took my time getting to the gate as I started off in Terminal D and had to head over to Terminal C (they’re at opposite ends of the airport!). Ambition got the better of me, and I tried to walk all the way to Terminal C via Terminal B. I learned that the high gates of B don’t have a walkway to C–the walkway is at the junction between D and B! After learning this lesson the hard way, I parked myself at an empty gate to charge devices for a little while.
At The Gate
When I finished charging my devices, I took the SkyTrain to Terminal C and walked to Gate C31. I arrived at about 10:40 AM, and the gate’s seating area was full of people with 9 minutes left to boarding. Gate C31 is in the new Terminal C pier–added modernized gates that opened in June 2026. Lots of natural light and space, but apparently not enough seats, haha. I stood off to the side, and I could easily hear announcements for my gate and the adjacent gate.
By this time, I had received another delAAy notification saying that departure was now 11:27 AM, but when I arrived at the gate, the previous flight was still deplaning. I knew it would delay some more. As time went on, more people trickled in trying to gate lice the Priority boarding lane (Groups 1-4) who I assumed were also in First Class. I also inched my way closer to the line as I didn’t want too many people in front of me so that I could have enough time to take photos of the seat without it being too awkward, haha.
Boarding At The Gate
Around 11:00 AM, preboarders were called to board. And at about 11:07 AM, First Class was called to board. The Terminal C pier gates use the new e-boarding system wherein you scan your own boarding pass, and a camera verifies your identity. If it all checks out, the turnstile/gate opens allowing you to go to the jet bridge. This new system allows the gate agent to monitor boarding versus actively participating in it, and it is supposed to be much faster.
On Board and Departure
When I got on the plane, I was greeted by one of the flight attendants, but they were kind of busy assisting a family with young kids who were visiting the flight deck, which somewhat held me up from going to my seat. I wasn’t angry–I was jealous! Haha–I hope they got trading cards out of it too!
When I got to my seat, the overhead bin was empty. I put my carry-on rollaboard luggage into it and put my backpack under the seat in front of me.
Luckily, this was a morning departure so it wasn’t terribly hot outside yet. Since most narrowbody aircraft A/C systems don’t work 100% until up in the air, the temperature in the cabin during the boarding was surprisingly pretty decent. Not once did I think, “ugh, I hope they turn on the air here soon.”
After I sat down in 2A, a few moments later the flight attendant came by with a tray of pre-departure beverages with water and orange juice as options. I’m guessing there wasn’t a sparkling wine option because it was before noon on a Sunday. In Texas. And alcohol can’t be served typically.
Sometime during boarding, the captain came on the PA and apologized to everyone about the delays. She reiterated that she’ll try to get everyone to Fort Lauderdale as fast as she can, and she affirmed the awesomeness of the crew, including the First Officer–who apparently is her husband! I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight where the Captain and First Officer were married to each other!
Around 11:30AM, the Captain personally walked to the front of First Class and issued another apology for the delays. And this time she actually explained why: apparently the aircraft we were originally assigned smelled like bad fish and had one of the A/C systems go out, and she didn’t want to subject the flight to that. I probably could’ve dug deeper and found that out myself, but I really appreciated the captain being transparent.
Takeoff
After taxiing for a little bit, we finally took off at 11:57PM. It was a pretty smooth climb, and I even got to see American Airlines’ first retrofitted B777-300ER aircraft parked at one of their maintenance hangars.
Despite the delays, no one seemed angry or super anxious about the delays. At least, not in an obvious way. I suppose this makes sense because Fort Lauderdale tends to be a terminating destination versus a connection city. And I didn’t get the vibe that most of the aircraft were cruisers.
| Scheduled departure | 10:35 AM |
| Boarding complete | 11:31 AM |
| Boarding door closed | 11:33 AM |
| Pushed back from gate | 11:36 AM |
| Take off | 11:57 AM |
American Airlines A321 Aircraft
The aircraft I flew on for this DFW to Fort Lauderdale flight in First Class was N118NN. It’s only about 12 years old. It has not gone through any major retrofits.
In the cabin, there are 20 First Class seats, and 170 Main Cabin seats (with 35 designated as Main Cabin Extra). Main Cabin gets three lavatories, and First Class gets one. Check out the layout on Aerolopa.
Cabin and Seats in American Airlines A321 First Class
The cabin was the standard American Airlines domestic First Class cabin: gray seats and white sidewalls. Pretty much identical to the First Class look on the rest of the narrowbody fleet that haven’t been retrofitted (retrofitted cabins feature AA’s new cabin interior look that debuted with the 787P).
As far as wear and cleanliness, I’d say the cabin had some slight struggles. Just typical wear and tear, and some stray crumbs on the floor. The ceilings and bins didn’t look too beat up, either.
The configuration of the First Class cabin was 2-2 with five rows for a total of 20 seats. The 2-2 config made for a generous width of seats. One of the advantages of flying an American Airlines aircraft in First Class on an A321 is the additional row versus the other narrowbody workhorse of AA’s fleet, the B737. The additional 4 First Class seats gives elites a slightly better chance of a complimentary upgrade.
First Class Seat On American Airlines A321
For this flight, my seat was 2A. It was a window seat on the left-hand side of the aircraft. I chose this seat primarily not to be at the bulkhead, but forward enough to not be served last.
The seat model for this seat was Collins Aerospace MiQ. This seat is ubiquitous on American Airlines narrowbody fleets and is also the Premium Economy seat on the widebody aircraft. On the narrowbody aircraft, it has the following features:
- Seat-back device holder
- USB A power port
- Lower mesh pocket for personal storage
- Seatback center console cocktail tray
- Armrest cocktail tray
- Side storage with universal power port
- In-arm tray table with device holder
During the flight, I used some of these features. I primarily used all three cocktail trays to have space for my drinks and such along with my seatmate in 2C. I also used the USB A power port to charge my phone and AirPods, and I was grateful the port actually worked! Sometimes I also stored my iPad in the side storage area, especially during meal service for a time. And obviously, during mealtime, I used the in-arm tray table.
Looking around at the seat, I didn’t find any egregious wear on the fabrics and surfaces. I also found the seat to be decently clean.
For a 3-hour flight, the features of this seat were more than adequate to provide a comfortable trek across the country. I did appreciate that the seat cushion is more comfortable than the one in the Main Cabin.
Inflight Entertainment in American Airlines A321 First Class
The aircraft had the Viasat system. It can broadcast a WiFi signal for streaming and live content, and also has the ability to broadcast the Internet.
To connect, I joined the aainflight.com network with my iPad and iPhone, and used that website to access the content.
Like every other American Airlines narrowbody, the typical content found on this system were movies, TV shows, live TV channels, music, audiobooks/podcasts, lifestyle content, and kids content.
The system was pretty easy to use. Connecting was a breeze, and the splash page was pretty responsive. It’s pretty basic as there isn’t even a flight map, but it does have a progress bar at the bottom of the home page so you can monitor your flight and see how much time is left in the flight.
WiFi in American Airlines A321 First Class
American Airlines does not distinguish its WiFi service between cabins so everyone uses the same system.
At the start of 2026, American Airlines started making WiFi free for AAdvantage members (on non-Panasonic systems). It is pretty easy to get the free WiFi. You just connect to the AAinflight network, login with your AAdvantage account, watch an ad or two after the prompt, and then WiFi access is free for the duration of the flight.
I ran a speed test, and the results were as follows:
30.59 Mbps for download, 0.93 Mbps for upload, and an 872 ms ping. That’s fairly standard and serviceable for doing light work and streaming content on a flight, but certainly going to be fast enough for a smooth experience, especially if a lot of people are connected to the system.
Starting in 2027, American Airlines will retrofit some of its narrowbody Airbus aircraft with Starlink so Internet in the skies with AA will eventually be eye-wateringly fast!
I did connect my iPhone with the WiFi and found it to be decently stable. It was slow at first, but I was able to eventually stream some YouTube and Apple Music content on my phone.
Inflight Service in American Airlines A321 First Class
For this flight, I saw there were two flight attendants serving First Class. One prepped drinks and the food while the other served. I suppose the duration of this flight (2.5 hours) and the fact that there were 20 First Class passengers to serve made this situation challenging for one flight attendant to do.
From boarding to deplaning, I found the flight attendants to be friendly and efficient, but not really personable, which is fine because I don’t carry any status currently. Even then, I’m not sure they treated the Concierge Key and Executive Platinum passengers with any distinguishing acknowledgement.
For service, the flight attendants served from front to back. And that’s why I chose seat 2A 🙂 (not that there was any danger of me not getting what I wanted… I had pre-ordered my meal anyway).
Here’s the timeline of their service (hh,mm after takeoff)
- 00,11 confirmed pre-order
- 00,13 took drink order
- 00,22 served warm nuts
- 00,46 served my tray with meal
- 01,04 I finished my food
- 01,32 tray taken up
- 02,13 landing lighting mode on
Food and Drink in American Airlines A321 First Class
I had actually pre-booked my meal on AA’s website about a month before departure. What’s great about pre-ordering meals is the expanded selection of options, including special dietary meals. Most of these options are only available for pre-order.
In the pictures, below, you can see what my options were:
Even though I really wanted the short rib with mac and cheese, I ended up getting the classic American sliders to give those a try.
On board, for the First Class passengers that didn’t pre-order a meal, the options were either the lemon orzo salad or some sort of chicken dish (not sure if it was the blackened chicken).
For drinks, the typical ones available are the same as those listed in the in-flight menu in the literature pocket. The only difference for First Class is the alcoholic drinks are free (but it’s free for Main Cabin Extra passengers as well).
As far as the food and drink I selected, again, I picked the sliders. To pair with that, I selected the margarita.
The margarita mix with tequila was pretty good, but I should’ve mixed it up more when I received it because I couldn’t taste the margarita mix! It tasted like straight up tequila! I was not even mad about that, haha.
For the food, I thought the sliders and fries were just okay. The sliders were also super, super hot, and they kind of lacked flavor. I wanted something tangy, and luckily the tray came with ketchup, mustard, and mayo. The fries were alright. They needed salt, and they weren’t crispy (but also crispy fries are challenging to do with an aircraft galley steam oven). The side salad was the second best thing on the tray as the veggies tasted great, and whatever creamy thing was in the middle balanced everything out nicely. And the best part? The dessert–carrot cake! Really great sweet finish.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever order the sliders again… and it seems Reddit agrees.
I also noticed that the spoon was a little crusty…so I didn’t use it…And honestly, this was the first time I’ve run into this in a long while! Perhaps if I were more of a diva of a passenger, I could’ve gone full Karen about it. But meh.
Lavatories in American Airlines A321 First Class
American Airlines A321 aircraft only have four lavatories–one by the flight deck at the front, one mid cabin at Row 23, and two aft at the back of the plane.
Obviously, being in First Class, the closest one was the one in First Class.
The nice thing about this lavatory in First Class is that it doesn’t feel as tight as the ones in the back, but the struggle is usage as it was one lavatory for 20 First Class passengers and the two pilots. Other than space and usage, the lavatory is fairly standard with its amenities (tissues, paper towels, soap, feminine hygiene products).
I only used the forward lavatory once about 1.5 hours into the flight after meal service. While in there, I observed some paper debris and a few wet spots on the floor.
What I Did In Flight in American Airlines A321 First Class
Since I was reviewing this flight, and it has been a while since I’ve made notes on AA First Class, I mostly worked on taking notes.
During the meal, I started watching Solo Leveling, which is a newish anime. I was surprised to find that the IFE streaming content actually had anime! I ended up watching a few episodes, and now I want to finish the season out!
Because of the short duration of the flight, I didn’t intend to sleep.
Arrival into FLL
| Arrival announcement | 01,52 due to expected bumpy ride down in FLL |
I had actually kept my window shade mostly closed during the cruise portion of the flight because no one else really had their shades open, and I didn’t want to be THAT guy. But after the arrival announcement, I opened my window finally. I didn’t see much as it was cloudy.
The captain came on and said that we would encounter turbulence due to being in the vicinity of various storms, but honestly it was a smooth approach. We maneuvered around the storms.
At this point in the flight, I was feeling full from the meal and slightly buzzed from the margarita.
We were originally scheduled to arrive at 2:30PM, but we ended up touching down an hour later. I saw we parked at the gate at FLL at about 3:34PM, with a total gate-to-gate time of 2 hours and 57 minutes.
| Scheduled arrival | 2:30PM |
| Touched down | 3:26PM |
| Gate arrival | 3:34PM, Gate E5 |
| Gate to gate time | 2 hours, 57 minutes |
Other Stories to Share
This was a largely uneventful flight other than the delays, but I still have a few stories to share!
Like I mentioned earlier, during the delay apologies during boarding, the captain said that she and the First Officer are married! I think that’s really cool that they can get scheduled to work the same flight. I wonder how many other husband/wife pilots there are at American Airlines…
At the gate in DFW, while I was waiting around trying to gate lice, I saw a guy with a suit jacket full of airline pins and wings! I saw him talking to the flight attendants for our flight while they were standing there waiting for their turn to board the plane. I wasn’t sure if he also was flight crew or just a total avgeek collector. Either way, pretty cool. He was seated in First Class too.
After we landed, my seatmate in 2C started talking to me. We talked during taxi and deplaning, but she saw me filming and photographing things during the flight and wanted to ask me about that. Apparently she sorta does the influencer thing too so she gave me a follow on Instagram. Neat!
Want to follow me on Instagram? Check it out here–LOL.
Lessons Learned
Not gonna order the sliders again. That’s the lesson learned here on this flight. Periodt.
At DFW Airport, the junction between terminals to use the skywalks are where the terminals meet in the middle–not at the ends.
Bottom Line
If the goal of flying First Class domestically is to reach the destination in a comfortable way especially before a vacation to a destination like Fort Lauderdale, then I’d say this flight from DFW definitely meets that goal.
I had a pleasant flight, service was efficient, and the seat was in pretty great shape.
Looking back, I wish I had ordered something else besides the sliders, but I’m glad I at least tried them out so that I know not to get them again.
Question for you: would you pay to upgrade to First Class on a 3-hour flight like this?
All photos are mine unless indicated.
