I flew this flight (well the one from JFK-DEL AA292) on Dec 28th to go home for a family emergency. I flew from PIT-JFK on AA arrived in the afternoon 1650, then waited near the AA 292 gate at JFK after the security stuff. Flew cheap economy (Q) as I only booked this in a rush on Dec 27th after my negative covid test arrived in the email from Walgreens.
We had out share of drama as the tug that pushes the plane away from the gate broke at the start of pushback so we had to wait till a new one arrived. It added about an hour and half easily. We probably pushed back around 2150 (some of my photos as we were climbing show 956pm) and boy was I glad! I didnt want to deal with some of flight cancellation, or tarmac delay because the crew exceeded their time on the ground.
** Looked up flightware - we left the gate at 936pm, but I think we were in the takeoff queue for a while, then went up. Landed in Delhi local time 11:09pm (schld: 945pm)
I had not followed FT for a while so didnt really know about all this drama and the extra flight duration. I am glad I didnt know this as I would have been even more anxious then . During the flight, I was a little amused to see the flight go over regions of Caspian sea etc.

With regards to food, since I was in economy, it was standard fare. I think I had chicken or whatever. They did have some basic beers and wine available in economy with the meal so that was kinda nice. Slept for a decent bit of the flight in spite being next to a (I want to open my legs wide) guy. So I did the same for sometime and eventually he learned to stay in his space. But flying this flight in cramped economy (Seat 35L) definitely convinced me that I need to figure out the ways of the FT elite and learn to fly better. (More on that later, on my return I flew in JAL business). Since Jan I have been more active on FT, and it brings to me a new question - does the extra duration and longer path gain us more miles, more EQMs etc? Or is that still based on the gcdistance? Thanks

Overall, I am hoping they can get the airspace rights soon and shorten their flight time. It will be nice to have competitive nonstops to India on Oneworld too.