Originally Posted by dwcatty

So I "flew" in and out of ACY last month on AA and it was painless. I actually liked it. Here's my experince.

Flew from AVL to PHL and walked to the F8 departure gate. Everything looks like it is a flight: The overhead video console listed "Flight 6379" to Atantic City, showed departure and arrival times and listed "Flight duration: 1h 20m." The usual gate agents stood around the podium checking folks in. I overheard a number of passengers talking to them who were surprised it was a bus, kind of surprising in a way as there was a large bus right out the window painted with American Airlines logos.

They boarded though zones, just like a regular flight, which was pretty funny as there were no passengers in zones 1-4. You walk out the building and pass in front of the bus which is pulled up nose to the window. If you have larger carry ons you can hand them to one of the personnel who will put it under the bus. Mine was small so I carried it on.

I don't recall the number of rows, 10 or 11 maybe, in a 1 - 2 configuration. The seats were very nice, leather, with a cheap plastic drop down tray table, an electrical outlet and a cupholder to the side. There was an overhead console with air and light. Above the seats on each side was a quite deep storage bin with about 8 inches of opening clearance, about the same size opening of the Embraer plane to took to PHL.

From PHL most people seemed to sit in their assigned seats. The driver made no announcements, not even to wear the seat belts which I hardly even noticed until I saw the folks across the aisle putting theirs on. Once the bus was loaded we backed up, circled around the outside of the runway, exited the airport onto Island Avenue, got on I-95N and crossed the Walt Whitman bridge into Jersey.

The ride seemed short and was comfortable. I was surprised when we arrived in Atlantic City that the bus stopped outside the terminal building next to the parking lot, right where people were getting dropped off and picked up. We did not enter the terminal at all.

The bus was met by AA personel who opened up the bottom and set out the luggage on the sidewalk. I had checked a bag through and it was there waiting for me. I asked the driver if, on the return trip, we would depart from inside the terminal and he said yes.

On the return we checked in at ACY just like we were going on a flight. There was NO ONE in line for the TSA when I passed through, just absolutely wonderful. I joked with the folks working about the hoagie in my carry on.

Just like in PHL the monitor at the gate showed the "flight." The bus was parked outside, and we boarded the same as before. On the trip to PHL people were less inclined to sit in their assigned seats - I heard the driver telling someone to sit anywhere. On this "flight" I also noticed a couple of people having lengthy conversations on their celphones.

It took awhile for us to depart once everyone was loaded, and later I realized it was because they were putting pieces of red tape across each of the luggage doors under the bus, and probably the passenger door as well. We entered PHL at the same gate off Island Avenue and had to wait while they did a security check including looking under the bus with one of those mirror thingees that looks like a frisbee on a broomstick. I laughed when we pulled up to the F8 gate as one of the ground crew used two orange flashlights to wave the driver into the parking spot.

We had to sit on the bus for a couple of minutes while someone in a yellow vest with a clipboard walked around the bus removing the red tape strips. The driver told us we were going to have to wait while they did the security check. But this allowed us to skip the TSA line in PHL and enter directly into the F terminal.

All in all it was a terrific experience. My father lives on the Jersey shore and while he could have easily driven to PHL to pick me up, going to ACY was closer, shorter and easier for him. I had a couple hour layover in PHL for my flight back to AVL but found a quiet spot to eat my hoagie before I was on my way. I would "fly" with American to ACY again in a heartbeat.