Background:

I needed a flight from Denver back to Los Angeles at night! American had a perfect late flight on a Boeing 737 at 8:05 PM which fit my schedule just right. And at $71, it was cheaper than Southwest’s 8 PM flight by about $30.

In addition, I was happy to fly American as my Alaska MVP gets me a free bag, preferred seats and Main Cabin Extra at check-in! This sadly won’t be the case come the end of the year, as the partnership between Alaska and American is dwindling.

24 hours before my flight, I checked-in and there were still Main Cabin Extra seats available so I snagged a row for me and my friends for free, and they don’t have MVP status! I’m really going to miss this benefit!

Flight Details:

American Airlines Flight 1596
Denver (DEN) to Los Angeles (LAX)
Seat: 9A- Window- Main Cabin Extra
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Scheduled Departure: 8:05 PM
Actual Departure: On Time
Scheduled Arrival: 9:45 PM
Arrival to Gate: On Time (A few minutes early!)

THE FLIGHT:

BOARDING, FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND THE SEAT

Miles the Monkey’s owner Zach got me in the Admiral’s Club lounge and Miles the monkey almost made us late to the flight as he didn’t tell us our flight had started boarding already! On top of this, Miles STOLE my first class seat that I rightfully deserved to get (not really tbh, but I was kind of jealous that a monkey of all species got his own first class seat). Since when did American Airlines even let monkeys on board???

We got to the gate and priority had already boarded, so the line was super short!

I was very pleased to board the aircraft and notice seat-back entertainment! Score!! American has multiple types of the Boeing 737-800 and SeatGuru was a bit vague in showing which 737 had seat back entertainment.

Monkey Tantrum?

Miles the monkey was not pleased when we boarded the plane, however. He was shocked that his domestic first class seat did not lie flat and did not have caviar either! He wasn’t even served a meal, just a cheese plate! Gasp. Looks like I didn’t miss out on much 🙂

a teddy bear on a tray in an airplane

 

I only headed a couple rows down to my seat in Row 9. I liked the extra space in MCE, perfect for a 2 hour hop! My friends appreciated the extra legroom too, and were ecstatic when they found a HUGE selection of movies to watch! There were new releases like La La Land, Lego Batman and many more movies! Very good seat!

There was wifi on the flight, at a decent price.

$10.95 for a flight pass, or 1.5 hr for $7. Not too horrible. Or you could get a Messaging pass for $2. There was free wifi for T-Mobile customers. I did find it funny that it said it was negative 18 degrees Celsius in Los Angeles on the landing page for the wifi.

There was a beverage and snack service, and I was trying to watch a movie and I saw Miles the Monkey looking back to the main cabin. I guess he was not having it since first class didn’t serve him caviar, only a cheese plate, and he rather be more social in Main Cabin Extra land?

On a service note, the flight attendants on this flight were AMAZING! All of them were super nice! It was like it was a international crew, very professional. I felt like their next flight was a LAX-NRT/HND flight!

The Verdict:

Overall, I really liked this plane and I would definitely fly American again!

 

Have you flown on this B737 configuration? Or the one without seatback entertainment? Comment below!

 

Happy travels,

theresorttraveler

 

Have any questions or suggestions for my blog? Leave a comment below, or email me directly at TheResortTraveler@gmail.com! Want to explore more of my posts? See more here, on the TravelUpdate! Follow me on Twitter: @theresorttrvlr and Instagram: @TheResortTraveler