Review: American Airlines A321neo Main Cabin Extra DFW-ANC

Flight Info

Date Traveled	June 20, 2024
Flight No.	AA #395 DFW-ANC
Aircraft / Tail	A321neo / Tail: N406AN
Flight Time / Distance	5 hours, 45 minutes / 3043 miles
Departure / Arrival	7:12PM CDT / 11:01PM AKDT
Class / Seat	Main Cabin / 27D (Exit Row, Main Cabin Extra)
Type / Cost	PAID / $414.84 RT (20% off) + $78 MCE seat selection – $50 Hilton Aspire airline credit + $263.09 First Class upgrade on return = $705.93
Loyalty Status	AAdvantage Member (ie. no status)

Summary

Flying on American Airlines in Main Cabin Extra on an A321neo is a fantastic way to spend nearly 6 hours in the air flying DFW-ANC in an exit row by the mid-cabin lavatory. Infinite leg room, easy access to lavatories, and great food service. With these various comforts, the long flight felt short.

Rating: 4.5/5

Booking American Airlines A321neo Main Cabin

Booking this flight took some thought. There’s only one flight a day between Anchorage and Utqiagvik (on Alaska Airlines) on the weekends, and I didn’t want to risk missing that flight attempting to nonrev to get to Alaska. From doing some initial research on flight loads, I saw that DFW-ANC flights on American tend to run pretty full, which makes it risky as a seat-available traveler. So I decided to go ahead and just buy the round trip DFW-ANC tickets on AA to get a confirmed seat. I actually booked the roundtrip intra-Alaska flight first (ANC-BRW), then a few days later I booked this DFW-ANC flight on American.

Because I’m an active airline employee, I was able to get the 20% employee discount off the cost of the round trip AA tickets. No discount whatsoever on the Alaska Airlines flight since I uhhh, don’t work for them.

I could have used miles to book this flight, but I am currently hoarding them for future aspirational redemptions. 😀

A few weeks before the flight, I decided to go ahead and pay money to select a Main Cabin Extra (MCE) seat. If I had high-enough status with AAdvantage, this would have been free! But because I don’t have status, it costed me. Luckily, I have the Hilton Aspire credit card from American Express, and it has quarterly $50 credit towards airline-related purchases. I utilized this to select 27D, an exit row MCE seat.

Check In At DFW and Admiral’s Club

I went to the airport straight from work. Upon arriving, I found it surprisingly not busy for a summer evening since corporate emails and local news told of how busy the summer travel season would be. To check in, I actually used the app the day before, but I also used the kiosk at the airport to print off my boarding pass.

Because I was a revenue passenger for this flight, I was eligible for any travel voucher offers that were available. These were available to me on the AA app, but displayed again here for me at the kiosk. I knew the flight would be full-ish and so the offers seemed higher than typical. I generally don’t volunteer for these. I couldn’t entertain it this time because the ANC-BRW flight was mission critical! Ah well…

For security, TSA lines were pretty minimal. Since I have TSA PreCheck, I made sure to use the PreCheck line at DFW Terminal A gate A20, and I got through with ease.

After passing through security, I made a beeline to the Admiral’s Club in Terminal A located at A24. I have access to the Admiral’s Club due to the Citi AAdvantage Executive credit card, which I just obtained back in March 2024.

When I entered, it seemed busy but not full. I was still able to find empty seats around the lounge. After looking around, I decided to choose the seating area by the bar/dining area of the lounge. Closer to food. And drinks 🙂

Once I set my stuff down, I immediately grabbed guacamole and chips from the station. At most Admiral’s Clubs, there’s a customizable guac and chips station set up during the day. I loved how the server added extra salt to the guac because … in the past, I feel like the guac tasted bland.

Additionally, I grabbed a Tex-Mex Bloody Mary from the bar. This was delicious with a strong, savory flavor with the Worcestershire and BBQ sauces. Also! This was a complimentary drink, and I later learned that Admiral’s Clubs typically showcase a specialty cocktail based on the city that the club is in.

For food, the Admiral’s Club was serving BBQ pork tacos, mac and cheese, hummus with various things to dip in it, salad bar, two soups, and desserts that included chocolate chip cookies and maple pecan danishes.

I didn’t stick around for too long. My intent was to quickly grab something to eat and drink to pre-game my long flight to Anchorage. After I had my fill, I left the Admiral’s Club to start heading over to Terminal B for my gate.

American Airlines A321neo Main Cabin Boarding and Departure from DFW

My gate was gate B18, and I made it there at about 6:45PM. Boarding had started already, probably around 6:40PM. Luckily, I had Group 4 boarding due to possessing the Citi AAdvantage Executive credit card. The gate agent made an announcement saying to grab food as this flight isn’t catered in economy.

Boarding actually took longer than usual because a person of reduced mobility was being helped. And on top of that, the captain slightly delayed boarding waiting for nonrevs to be cleared onto the flight. As a nonrev traveler, I appreciated this even though I wasn’t flying nonrev this time!

Once on the plane, I got into my seat and waited. About 7:13PM, they closed the boarding door, and then we pushed back around 10 minutes later. After pushback, we were on the tarmac for a little while. I’m not sure why. But we eventually took off at about 7:45PM.

American Airlines A321neo Main Cabin and Seats

AA’s A321neo aircraft have 196 seats with two cabins—20 seats in First Class, 176 seats in Economy/Main Cabin. Again, I selected 27D, which is an aisle seat at the Door 3 exit row towards the aft of the aircraft right by the mid-cabin lavatory. It’s also a Main Cabin Extra row. It’s basically my favorite row to be on AA’s A321 fleet (Row 24 on non-neo/non-T), but it is caddy-corner to the lavatory.

What’s great about the A321neo is how quiet the engines are! In fact, “neo” stands for “new engine option”. On takeoff, all you hear is a low hum, which can easily be covered up with noise canceling headphones. Of course, my Apple AirPods Pro handled the job quite (quiet??) easily! I’m not sure if there’s anything in the cabin or cabin structure that helps with noise.

Because of the summer solstice and flying so far north, the captain came on to make an announcement saying that it’ll still be daylight throughout the entire flight. For the most part, people kept the shades closed in an attempt to sleep.

For seats, American Airlines installed Collins Aerospace’s Meridian seats on this aircraft fleet. I had a “front row” seat due to it being an exit door row. “Front row” seats usually feature food tables that fold out of the armrest. Because the food tables are stored in the armrest, the armrests don’t move. Also, the seat width is not as wide as normal seats.

Again, I had seat 27D–an aisle seat. Though I should mention other disclaimers. The row in front (on the right-hand side) has no seat power for Row 27, but Row 27 has power ports located at your leg calves, basically. The food tables in the back of Row 26 also do not deploy as they are blocked in accordance with an egress regulation because of the exit doors at Row 27. This is also why Row 26 cannot recline.

Lastly, these seats aren’t really new at this point so they have noticeable wear and tear, especially on the arm caps. I didn’t notice anything broken nor did I notice the power ports not working, which seems to be a recent trend in my travels.

American Airlines Main Cabin Service and Food

First, I really have to say that there are NO meals served on this 6-hour long flight from DFW to ANC! In coach/Main Cabin, anyway. That sounds terrible but… it is what it is. However, snacks are available for purchase.

The options were:

• Fruit and Cheese Tray ($11)
• Sea Salt Almonds ($8)
• Doritos Cool Ranch Minis ($5)

For drinks, a selection of complimentary drinks are available. I should also mention that for those who are seated in Main Cabin Extra rows (such as myself), alcohol is free! I make use of this all the time ;-). Otherwise beers and Trulys are $8 and spirits/wines are $10. This is the same menu across all domestic flights.

Service started about 45 minutes into the flight. Two flight attendants ran the cart that starts at the front of Main Cabin, and the third one had the food-for-purchase cart. Whenever the third flight attendant was done going down the aisle, she came up from the back helping with drink service. Because I was seated in the middle of the cabin, I did wonder who would serve me first! Spoiler alert: the front two flight attendants got to me first.

I got the fruit and cheese tray and a sparkling wine to pair with that. Towards the end of the first drink service, I got offered a second sparkling wine with some Biscoffs too!

I did think about maybe buying something at the airport to bring on board with me but didn’t end up doing that. However, I could tell a good handful of other passengers did just that based on the different smells I smelled during boarding!

About two hours left in the flight, drink service happened again. But this time I declined the third sparkling wine. I know, I know…not typical of me. But I was already feeling the other two sparkling wines and didn’t want to feel more woozy!

American Airlines A321neo Main Cabin Lavatories

For Main Cabin, one lav is at Row 26 on the left-hand side, and two are in the aft galley area. They’re pretty tight in the back. This is the result of American Airlines going to the “Oasis” configuration of narrowbody aircraft interiors.

Again, I was seated right by the mid-cabin lavatory. Before the first drink service, this lav was super busy! I guess no one decided to go before boarding? 😀

Even then, throughout the flight, a lot of people stood around near the mid-cabin lav waiting for it to be vacant. It almost seemed like no one knew that there were more lavs in the back. I even overheard a flight attendant recommend the ones in the back.

Strangely, at some point during the flight, the little nob used on the inside to slide lock the door to the mid-cabin lav went missing! I reported it to the flight attendant. It weirdly…came back at the end of the flight, I think. So strange.

American Airlines A321neo Entertainment and WiFi

The WiFi and in-flight entertainment system is ViaSat. Much of American Airlines’ fleets now use ViaSat systems.

Recently, American Airlines made it possible to pay for WiFi service using miles and has been launching that functionality on aircraft. This aircraft had that. Note that streaming entertainment content is free once connected to the inflight WiFi. It only costs money to connect to the Internet.

For Internet service:

What	Cost
20 mins	Free, must watch sponsored video ad
Flight Pass (good for whole flight)	$15 or 1700 miles
Monthly Subscription	$49.95/mo for 1 device; $59.95/mo for 2 devices

There are annual subscriptions too, but I feel like those are ridiculously priced and probably largely not applicable to you, dear reader!

I tested the WiFi speed after watching a sponsored ad to get those sweet, sweet 20 minutes of free Internet. The results were: 27.8mbps download, 0mpbs upload (!!!), and lots of terrible ping. Not … terrible…but not great either…

Streaming entertainment content changes out every month. And for this flight, there were 394 movies and 175 TV episodes. Kids content, lifestyle content, music, podcasts, and audiobooks were also available. I find that AA these days tends to have obscure new releases but has good older movie content. You can always check what’s playing on your flight here.

LiveTV featured popular sports games that were live at the time, and the live TV channel guide had more live channels of various interests.

What I Did During Flight

During the first drink service, I watched Cabrini using my iPad connected to the IFE system. It’s the story of an Italian nun who wanted to serve orphans in Italy but got sent to the United States. She faced many difficulties due to her illness as well as culture shock while she strove to start an orphanage and school. She’s a pretty cool saint and well-respected in American Catholicism.

I also worked through some books I was reading on Kindle so I did this mostly. But I also whipped out the 3DS to play some Pokémon White. And somewhere in there, I watched some episodes of Big Bang Theory. I’m a nerd, I know.

Other Things of Note

I chatted it up with the flight attendant stationed at my exit row. He was mostly talking with the passenger seated across from him, but I joined in when I could from across the aisle. We talked about Alaska, and I explained how I work at headquarters. I must’ve gotten on his good side because he offered me the three sparkling wines during the flight. O_O

There was a young family split between Rows 25 and 26. Throughout the flight, the mom and dad kept transferring their baby over the seats. I mean like…every so often! Kinda weird to look up and see a baby flying over the seats like that, haha. (They weren’t playing hot potato, whew)

Arrival at Anchorage

We started our descent around 10:49PM local time.

The craziest thing I saw was that a guy tried to use the lavatory right about when the landing gear deployed. The flight attendant told him (through the door!) to stay in the lav until we landed, but he quickly left and went back to his seat.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the awesome landscape outside of the Anchorage area because the exit door windows are small.

We landed at about 11:01PM.

Bottom Line

Overall, my experience flying American Airlines A321neo in Main Cabin was pretty great!

If I had any complaints, it would mostly be about the crowding around the mid-cabin lavatory. But I knew that would happen when I selected my seat and from previous experience. Anything else was pretty minor.

Otherwise, I found the experience to be excellent for such a long flight. Service was great due to the flight attendant being generous with my drinks as well as being personable and willing to talk. And the fruit and cheese plate was a good snack to have on the long flight as I didn’t bring any food on board with me from the airport. The seat was comfy enough, and I had lots of leg room to stretch out. And I had plenty to keep me busy and entertained during the flight too.

For next time, I’ll have to try flying DFW-ANC again as a nonrev and experience it with less-than-ideal conditions like a middle seat in a normal row! Haha.

How about you–what do you think about American Airlines A321neo in Main Cabin Extra?