This flight review is technically my first attempt at reviewing a non-revenue standby flight. Things get hectic from a notetaking perspective when I don’t make attempted flights because I have to switch flights on the fly!
Originally, I listed for the first flight to New York Laguardia (LGA). Didn’t make it. Then I stuck around for the second LGA flight. Didn’t make that one either. These were those flights:
- AA507 DFW-LGA at 6:01AM
- AA2103 DFW-LGA at 7:34AM
I had somewhat befriended a colleague also attempting the first LGA flight, and she had mentioned about switching over to a JFK flight later in the morning. After not making the second LGA flight, I decided to switch over to the AA820 DFW-JFK flight she talked about that was scheduled to depart at about 8:30AM. This worked out well as there were a good handful of seats open, and I was number two on the priority list.
Because I actually made the JFK flight, that is what this flight review covers.
- Flight Info
- Summary
- Booking American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra
- Check In At DFW and Admirals Club
- American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Boarding and Departure
- American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Cabin and Seats
- American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Service and Food/Drink
- American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Entertainment and WiFi
- American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Lavatories
- In Flight on American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra
- Stories to Share
- Arrival at JFK
- Bottom Line
Flight Info
| Date Traveled | July 4, 2024 |
| Flight No. | AA #820, DFW-JFK |
| Aircraft / Tail | B737-800 / N923AN |
| Flight Time / Distance | 3 hours / 1391 miles |
| Departure / Arrival | Depart 8:29AM CDT / Arrive 1:24PM EDT |
| Class / Seat | Main Cabin Extra / 17D (aisle seat, over wing exit row) |
| Type / Cost | Nonrev / $0.00 |
| Loyalty Status | AAdvantage Member |
Summary
Sitting in 17D in Main Cabin Extra on this American Airlines B737-800 flight to JFK was decently comfortable. The seat didn’t have operable power, and the seat cushion felt flat, but I had fantastic leg room and really great service by the flight attendants to make up for those shortcomings.
Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Booking American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra
This was a nonrev flight so I didn’t buy airline tickets. When I was scheming this trip a few months prior, I decided that I would nonrev to save costs because this was the first portion of a much longer, across-the-world trip.
But really, the reason why I flew to New York was to tag along with a good buddy of mine to play Pokémon Go’s annual major event: Go Fest. In 2024, New York was one of the major cities that hosted. Also, I wanted to synergize my travel and accomplish flying the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight and that required being in New York too.
Given that I intended this to be a nonrev flight, I only listed for it a few days prior. I actually listed for Laguardia originally as this was the closest airport to the hotel and to the event. Seat availability looked promising when I listed for LGA, but I had to pivot the day of departure as I mentioned earlier.
Additionally, I also had to figure out logistics for how I was going to get to the airport from home so I reserved an Uber to pick me up at 4:00AM in order to make it to the airport with time to chill at the lounge.
Check In At DFW and Admirals Club
Because I nonrev’d this flight, it was important for me to check in right at 24 hours before departure as this determines priority on the standby list for AA employees. I ended up being at the top of the D2’s, and a few D1’s were ahead of me. D2’s are the standard employee nonrevenue standby pass, and D1’s are a higher priority type of employee nonrev pass.
My Uber got me to the airport right at about 4:30AM, and I was really surprised to see a line for the general lane at TSA that was like 100 people deep! I didn’t expect this being the morning of the 4th of July. I didn’t need to visit the kiosk or ticket counter because I had my own employee app that generated a security pass to get through TSA as a nonrev.
The PreCheck line barely had anyone in it, and I almost couldn’t see the entrance because too many people in the General lane were blocking it. I snaked my way through the crowd then felt awkward-yet-awesome that I didn’t have to wait in the same long line as everyone else. PreCheck was a breeze, but I did get randomly selected for additional screening for my phone. Lame.
After getting through the TSA line, I beelined to the Admirals Club in Terminal A. And I made it within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport!
Terminal A’s Admirals Club is located by gate A24. I was able to access it because of my Citi AAdvantage Executive credit card. There was a somewhat recent change wherein nonrevs can use the club if they are a card-carrying member or have purchased a membership, so I made sure to utilize this fact. Some airport lounges do not let nonrev passengers in unless they have a confirmed seat on a flight.
Once inside, I noticed how incredibly empty it was! Granted, it was first thing in the morning, and the club opens at 4AM. There were maybe like 5 people in the lounge at the time I walked in. I suspect that because today was July 4th, there weren’t really any business travelers traveling and hence an emptier lounge.
For breakfast, the Admirals Club food consisted of Tex-Mex omelets, sausage, salad, parfait, oatmeal, cereal, pastries, and fruits.
I went with the Tex-Mex omelet and sausage. They tasted good but seemed cold? I think the warmers hadn’t warmed up yet. For a sweet finish, I had a muffin.
Regarding WiFi, I couldn’t connect to it this morning for whatever reason. My phone kept giving me errors so I decided to temporarily turn off my phone’s WiFi to stop it from trying to connect to the Admirals Club’s non-functioning WiFi.
Before heading to my gate, I stopped by the restroom. I found it to be clean and smelling fresh, which is to be expected considering that it was first thing in the morning. It also felt pretty cold for some reason. Maybe the air conditioning system was over compensating because it was summer in Texas.
I’ll also mention here that I did visit Terminal D’s Admirals Club after not having made my original flight to LGA. It had similar food offerings. I only stuck around to kill time, read, and drink orange juice. Unfortunately, the bar didn’t open until 7:00AM, and I had arrived at 6:30AM. I also didn’t stick around long enough to also enjoy the avocado toast station, which opened at 6:50AM. I don’t have pictures to share this time, but I am sure I will return to it on a future trip!
I headed out at about 6:45AM to go to the gate for the second LGA flight.
American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Boarding and Departure
As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t make either LGA flights so I pivoted to the JFK flight.
For the JFK flight, boarding was scheduled for 7:54AM. Apparently the incoming flight had arrived a little late and was still deplaning by the time I arrived at the gate. I found a seat to chill in and waited til boarding started at 7:58AM.
This being a full-ish flight as well, they didn’t start clearing nonrevs for seats until the end of the boarding process. I got called pretty close to the end as the 4th to last to board. Either way, I was so thankful!
While waiting in line on the jet bridge, I was chatting it up with the other nonrev passengers since we were all pretty much at the back of the line, haha.
Once on the aircraft, I sat down in seat 17D, a Main Cabin Extra row and over wing exit row.
Departure was scheduled for 8:29AM. Boarding was complete at 8:27AM, and they closed the door at 8:30AM. We finally pushed back at 8:35AM, and then took off at 8:58AM. I suppose there was ground traffic and hence why we took off late.
American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Cabin and Seats
On American Airlines B737-800s, the Main Cabin has 132 seats, 24 of which are designated as Main Cabin Extra. The cabin has a 3-3 configuration, with two lavatories in the back by the aft galley. A hanging soft divider hangs between First Class and Main Cabin, which allows for the front row of Main Cabin to use the underseat space of the last row of First Class.
Since I boarded pretty close to last, I didn’t get to use the bins closest to me. I had to put my rollaboard carry on in First Class. Luckily no one gave me grief for that. During boarding at the gate, I had heard the gate agent making announcements that bins were full during Group 6.
Because this was summer in Texas, I definitely felt warm in the cabin while we were on the ground. I wasn’t sure the aircraft air conditioning was keeping up. However, once we took off it started to cool down. From my understanding, this is by design for the B737.
For the seats, American Airlines has Collins Meridian for Main Cabin seats. These seats are very similar to those found on AA’s A321 aircraft. My seat, 17D, was an aisle Main Cabin Extra seat. Because I had an over wing exit row seat, it featured:
- Seat pitch: 37”
- Recline: 3”
Otherwise it has standard features such as:
- Device holder
- USB A port for charging
- Universal power ports towards bottom of the seat
- Mesh pocket for storage
For the three hour flight to JFK, I thought the seat was comfortable enough. However, power didn’t seem to be working so I couldn’t charge my phone. Later on in the flight, I noticed that none of the seats in my triple seat (17D where I sat, 17E, and 17F) had in-seat power working as all those USB ports and power ports remained dark.
Another critique was for some reason the seat cushion felt flatter than previous experiences with these kinds of seats. It felt not as cushiony? Despite that I appreciated somehow getting an aisle seat since I have a tendency to use the lavatories at least once or twice in a several hour flight.
Lastly, I love the 37” seat pitch for this row—lots of generous legroom for a narrow body aircraft!
American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Service and Food/Drink
Drink service started at about 23 minutes after takeoff. As is typical for this aircraft, two flight attendants bring the cart to the front of Main Cabin, and a third one comes up from the back of the plane to serve drinks and snacks.
Because I was in Main Cabin Extra, alcoholic drinks were free. With it still being morning and because I already had a somewhat rough morning not getting on two LGA flights, I decided to get a mimosa. One of the flight attendants was pretty attentive, and she even recommended I use the call button if I wanted more to drink! How lovely!
For this flight, pretzels were offered as snacks.
Service completed at about 52 minutes after takeoff. Then it was trash pickup runs every so often by the flight attendants.
Around 1 hour and 52 mins in flight, I went to the back of the aircraft to let the flight attendants know about the power being inoperative for seats 17D, 17E, and 17F. The flight attendants noted it, then also offered me Biscoff cookies and another drink! I asked for ginger ale and vodka, and the flight attendant gave me two minis! Sheesh.
And the ginger ale and vodka combo was something I wanted to try. It was okay, but I think Woodford Reserve bourbon and ginger ale pairs better.
American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Entertainment and WiFi
Like 95% of American Airlines’ narrow body fleet, this aircraft does not feature seats with seatback monitors. To watch movies or shows, you bring your own device that connects to the inflight WiFi where you can stream the content.
The website to navigate through the content is pretty easy to browse around. For the movies and shows, AA has organized many into categories, usually based on genre or other collective categorization. The site is pretty responsive for navigation.
Since this flight was on July 4th, I knew that the entertainment content had updated due to being a new month. In browsing around the entertainment system on my phone, I saw that the system contained:
- A handful of new release movies
- 401 movies
- 169 TV shows/episodes
- 147 lifestyle shows/episodes
- 91 movies/shows for kids
- 66 tracks of music
- 67 podcast episodes/audiobooks
Not gonna lie, that’s quite a bit of content to go through. I fly frequently so I’ve already gone through most of what I want to see.
Since nothing really interested me this time from the system, I decided to watch the final episode of Ms. Marvel Season 1 that I had downloaded to my iPad on Disney+. This was in preparation for watching The Marvels on the entertainment system at some point! Haha.
If you’d like to connect to the Internet, you need to purchase a WiFi connectivity package. In summary, the prices are:
- Free for 20 minutes – must watch sponsored ad video
- 1 hour – $15 or 1900 miles
- All flight – $19 or 2400 miles
- Monthly and annual subscriptions available as well
I was feeling cheap and opted to do the free 20 minutes. During this free session, I also ran a speed test on the internet connection. It was 49.8 Mbps download, 1.03 Mbps upload, and 604 ms ping. Pretty fast download, but upload speed and ping were terribad.
American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra Lavatories
As I mentioned earlier, there are three lavatories on this aircraft: 1 in front of First Class, and 2 at the back of the aircraft.
Because I was seated towards the middle of the aircraft, either end were viable options to use a lavatory.
When the flight attendants first started their service, I decided to use the lavatory at about 26 minutes into the flight. I used the left-hand aft lav, and I saw that it was pretty clean though the toilet seemed to have leftover residue (ew) in the bowl. I decided to go at this time while the cart was at the front of the cabin before anyone else thought to do the same haha. The drinks I had hit me hard! I had to use the lavs a few times, and the level of cleanliness slightly degraded as I saw toilet paper on the ground and wet spots on the floor.
I should also mention that these lavatories are kind of small. This is one of the main complaints of frequent travelers and travel bloggers regarding the Oasis retrofits these aircraft underwent years ago when they were reconfigured.
In Flight on American Airlines B737-800 Main Cabin Extra
Like I mentioned above, I decided to watch Ms. Marvel. This kept me occupied for about 45 minutes to finish the episode, after which I switched to working on blog posts. On the descent to JFK, I decided to close my eyes until landing for a brief nap.
Stories to Share
When I was at DFW Gate D40 waiting for the JFK flight, a lady asked me if she could sit next to me. She had a tiny terrier with her. What I found interesting is that she removed the terrier from its carrier, held it, then put a blanket over it. Weirdly, it almost looked as if she was breastfeeding —WHICH WASN’T THE CASE…but it looked like that. So weird.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I sort of made friends with a fellow nonrev traveler from the first LGA flight. We were kind of talking while waiting to get a seat, but neither of us got on that first LGA flight. She had mentioned that she was going to attempt a JFK flight later in the day. After I lounged again in Terminal D, I went to the JFK flight’s gate and saw her again. There, we got to chat more, and I found out that she works in my building at work! How cool, lol.
For the JFK flight, I ended up being the 4th to last to board along with a handful of other nonrev passengers. We all ended up bunched together stuck in the jet bridge since boarding took a while. I overheard an older lady talking about why she’s going to New York, especially the part where she mentioned she’s going to Pokémon Go Fest! So I obviously had to chime in and mention I was doing the same! Unfortunately, we were signed up for different times for the event so I couldn’t casually run into her again.
Edit: I forget where I was going but about 2-3 weeks after this trip, I ran into her again working a gate at DFW Terminal C! So of course I had to go talk to her and ask how Go Fest went! Apparently she loved it, and she got a productive haul of rare Pokemon! haha
At takeoff, I couldn’t help but notice the older couple seated in the row in front me holding hands to pray. I thought that was cool, as I often say a little prayer at take off for a safe flight.
During the flight, especially when I got up to use the lavs, I couldn’t help but notice how many people sleep with their mouths open! Lmao.
Arrival at JFK
The scheduled arrival time was 1:28PM. An announcement was made at about 2.5 hours into the flight that we’d be landing in about 40 minutes. That felt a little early to me, but whatever.
Looking out the window, I saw a lot of countryside near the airport.
At about 1:03PM, we touched down at JFK, then taxied our way to gate 37.
Bottom Line
Flying as a nonrev often comes with uncertainty about actually making it onto flights. And as I experienced from this trip, the third time is the charm! But I also think that flying nonrev offers the ability to get creative to get where I need to go and have the ability to switch plans on the fly (pun intended). So I’m glad that I switched from LGA to JFK after two failed attempts to fly to LGA.
Overall, the flight to JFK in Main Cabin Extra was a decently comfortable ride paired with great service by the flight attendants. I had enough snacks and drinks to stay satisfied on this three hour flight. My only complaint was that the power ports weren’t working for my seat, but I had flown with a full-ish charge so I was okay. Sure, the seat cushion felt a little meh, but the legroom being in an exit row made up for it.
What would you have done if you couldn’t get on more than one flight? Let me know down in the comments!
