zzeasl

I was flying STL to SFO, flight #1995, last Saturday (8/2/03) in FC. The first thing I noticed as I took my seat was that there were no little lightning bolt symbols above the seats to indicate that there was power under the seats. But there were outlets, so I pulled out my laptop after takeoff and powered up. Then I realized the outlet wasn't working. I looked closer and it had a little sticker on it that said "disconnected." The seat next to mine had the same sticker.

This was an AA plane, not an old TWA plane, although the seats were different - blue leather headrests, as per usual, but multicolored cloth seats and seatbacks. Is this a new thing - the lack of working power outlets?

fredmartens

First I've heard of that, but I've been off AA metal for the last 6 weeks. If that's true, this is my last year of qualifying for EXP with AA...it's a definite plus to have in seat power on flights; I really rely on it. The two extra batteries I'd need would add another 4-5 lbs to my laptop bag, which is already stuffed.

I hope they don't pull this on all their aircraft...they were supposed to be retrofitting the ex-TWA birds with power ports, not disconnecting them from existing AA aircraft.

TxLobo

My flights on AA have routinely had working power outlets....except when I flew through STL.

Same comment as Fred made, if its old TWA metal it could be hit or miss.

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AA member since 1981. Oracle Implementations .... Will Travel....

jsmeeker

probably just inop on that plane for some reason.

pdxer

according to http://www.etour.co.jp/Solar/index.html, there are four flights from stl to sfo. three of them, flight #s 1993, 461 and 1055 are (ex-twa) md-83s and flight 1085 is an md-80.

assuming the original poster meant flight 1993, (or aa made a minor flight number change), then he was on a twa plane.

i didn't think twa planes had any laptop power at all, so the bit about it being there and disconnected is surprising.

zzeasl

Re: pdxer's question, it was definitely flight #1995, departing 12:15pm on 08/02/03 from STL to SFO. I still have the boarding pass. The ex-TWA flights are all supposed to be numbered 2800 through 3199, right?

And this one had the AA configuration of FC, with the staggered rows, 3 through 5 on the left and 3 through 6 on the right. Don't the old TWA planes have four full rows in FC?

But I had never seen these part cloth/part leather seat covers before. Is it possible they are taking old TWA planes and converting them to the AA seating arrangements, but they just didn't get the power fully installed yet? They had the outlets, but no boxes underneath the seats.

BTW, I asked the FA on board. She had no clue, nor did the Captain. They both said they had never flown this particular plane before and found it very odd.

dlombard

Hahaha, that strikes me as funny for some reason; they just happened to have this weird MD-80 lying around DFW they gave to that flight crew. Never seen it before.

I don't know when the jets go in for Heavy C checks but I'm guessing it'll get its power port wiring set up when it does. Did you happen to catch the jet's registration number? Just curious.

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Best regards,
Dairenn Lombard
Los Angeles, CA

zzeasl

Re: Dlombard's question, I did not catch the plane's registration number.

Back to pdxer's comments, I think the reason you didn't see #1995 listed on etour is because it only flies on Saturdays. However, now that I look on etour for #1995 next Saturday, I see it is also listed as an M83 rather than M80. Does this mean it is an old TWA plane? I thought you could always tell those by the flight number, 2800 to 3199.

I'll now be curious to see what my return flight looks like tomorrow. #1570, SFO to STL, also listed on etour as an M83.

I don't mind if they are upgrading all these old TWA planes to have power ports eventually, but it is pretty inconvenient for now to not have an easy way of knowing whether your flight is going to have power or not. I was counting on some uninterrupted work time in both directions, but didn't bring batteries, thinking that these flights would have power.

FWAAA

The flight numbers 2800 to 3199 refer to flights on planes that have not been converted to the AA operating certificate (still flown in TWA configuration with TWA procedures) - and some of the planes (like the one you were on) are indeed ex-TWA planes that have been converted and have been moved over the fence to AA's operating certificate. Too bad they didn't hook up the power.

rmc1

For this reason alone, I refuse to take any flights through STL.

csb

Also, there is a switch on their control panel that the FA's need to hit to activate the powerports. I found this out when my powerport wouldn't work and questioned the FA as to why. She went and double checked the switch and the power came on.

zzeasl

I've had this happen to me too, but in this case, the outlets were actually marked "disconnected" ("not yet connected" might have been more accurate), and I could see, looking under the seat in front of me that there was no box under the seat to house the hardware needed for the outlet.


BTW, my flight back on Thursday, SFO to STL, #1570, also listed on etour as an M83, did have the power connected and operational. Does the M83 designation mean that this was also an old TWA plane, but one that was fully converted to AA? Is there some way to tell (before boarding the plane) whether an old TWA plane has been fully converted?