LAX-MIA, afternoon/evening flight on Domestic A321N. Had a truly horrific adventure originally booked on Delta who first delayed and in the end cancelled my flight, displaying absolute incompetence and zero care for customers by dragging out informing anyone while it had become clear a day before on Flightradar24 that this would never turn out. I’m aware that all Domestic carriers in the US are a bit of joke compared to most “legacy” airlines on similar routes elsewhere in the world but as a Qantas frequent flyer, AA is usually my natural choice and it will be again from now on.

Booking this flight literally last minute 3 hours before boarding and getting this very last seat in FC still, they could have thrown anything at me and I would have still been grateful. Granted, booking that late was expensive but missing my flight altogether would have been even more expensive. In any case- the menu read quite boring but the food turned out to be excellent! They ran out of my Parmesan chicken in the row behind me and that vegetable plus carbs dish looked god-awful. Then again, all those peeps could have pre-ordered their meal which I could not anymore so my sympathy is very limited. My salad was crisp and quite tasty, I appreciated the simple Balsamic and oil dressing but wouldn’t have minded two of the tiny packs. The chicken, oh that chicken! Fair warning- I looooove American food as much as I like Caviar or Fois Gras so I’m a bit weird on that front. But the chicken certainly delivered on the former: The “Parmesan” turned out to be a full on cheesy crust, delivered with some tomato sauce and full-on Mac and Cheese on the side. The chicken setup in Australia we would call “Chicken Parmigiana” which I had no idea existed over here. It also tasted way better than in Australia! Now, my Italian friends would kill me for this but I truly enjoyed this concoction. Speaking of the US (and my Italian friends sharpening their kitchen utensils)- nowhere you will get an ice cream treat like that Sundae which alone is almost a reason to book AA: The hot fudge! That sugary fruit mix which is strangely exactly the same as what my North German forefathers call “Rote Grütze”. Not to speak of all the other additional toppings you can have. I’m usually not a sweet tooth at all but an ice cream Sundae like that makes me weak.

Just to not get ahead of myself (and royally annoy all those regular AA fliers on here), the service was extremely bad on this particular flight - they were younger than what I often get on AA and I fear that what I call the “Perm Brigade” must be sadly dying out slowly. This crew was inattentive, unfriendly and borderline hostile and definitely not interested in the slightest in their job. I’ll take this as an exception because my experience on AA is usually that the crew makes those flights. The really awful thing, however, is what AA has done with those seats (and I hear the ones on the Max are even worse): My butt is still hurting a day later which is something I usually don’t even get on other “slimline” seats. And flying in them is also utterly impractical, banging on hard plastic everywhere, that weird open hard plastic side nook, the very limited recline… All god-awful. That someone projectile vomited all over the First class restroom mid flight didn’t help but venturing into the dark lands for the toilets in the back reminded me that life can always get worse even.