MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Some of them are in better shape than others. In general, the ones with no divider between F and Y and movie screens that are out of the (original) Star Trek era look really beat up. And as a rule, particularly if you are taking a mid day or evening flight, they are dirty (I have gone into the lav many times to find the floors yellowish and sticky). AA usually has these a/c on very tight turns, and this along with the normal running behind schedule, does not allow much time for cleaning.

aa767flyer

Just flew down to SJU and back. JFK-SJU was on the A300 with the tan leather seats, cabin not to bad and have to say I like the old school TV in the bulkhead in First. The return to MIA was on one of the refreshed with the blue seats in First, seats are very comfortable and plane again seemed very clean. Being out of SFO it was a rare occasion for me to fly on the A300 but have to say I really enjoyed my A300 trips.

FWAAA

My sincere apologies, PUCCI, since I lobbied heavily to convince you to buy that business class ticket instead of the more expensive CO 738 J seat. Please accept my apology.

IIRC, my posts occurred when the 763 was still on the schedule, several days prior to the announcement of the huge fall drawdown. The 763 would have been worth the money. Not so sure about your new seats.

Have a great holiday nonetheless.

JumboD

Though I'm sure I'm in the minority, I'd prefer the AB6 to any AA narrowbody, any day (assuming that, as usual, I've guaranteed myself a premium cabin seat). I've been on an AB6 exactly once, BOS-MIA, the flight was on time, and I really liked the following (which I never get on a domestic narrowbody):

-Wide/tall, roomy-feeling cabin
-Two aisles with a galley to cut through to go to/from lav
-Use of 2L
-Relatively few seats compared to the number of coach seats and compared to the number of crew members (as the Y crew tends to help a bit with meals on most flights).

My preference, given where I end up sitting, is: 763, 777, 762, AB6, 757, 738, S80. Honestly, except for the mechanical problems this type suffers from, I'd wish for them on some ex-LAX routes (like MIA which is now mostly 738/757).

PUCCI GALORE

Sweetheart - yes you did and then AA went and changed the aircraft. Let me let you into a secret - the times that the 767 went were not convenient anyway om the way down so it did not matter. In any event with the current situation anything could be sent down there even at the last minute so I did not hold you responsible for AA's fleet chnages!

Thanks for the updates - can anyone say if these flights tend to be manned out of the SJU crew base - if they still have one donw there. it is years since I went there on AA.

Many Thanks

ESpen36

Agreed! I would ALWAYS take a widebody over a narrowbody ANYDAY! The only major problem is the mechanical delays.

I overheard a GA at JFK complaining that the ground staff at MIA sends all the broken Airbuses to JFK because they don't want to fix them in Miami.

makfan

That's funny, because if I am in Y, I would take an S80 non-exit row over a 763 non-exit row. I generally prefer wide-bodies but after my AADER trips, I got to experience a variety of aircraft seats and there is more legroom on the S80. I put the 757 at the bottom of the list, for either F or Y seating.

ndhapple

I like the 757 more so than the 737. Rows 9 and 10 are quite nice. I still haven't found a seat that I like on the 737-800, which makes me sad as they are replacing the best Y cabin in the fleet (the Super80).

Mike1625

My AA A-300 story. About a month ago, SJO-MIA.

First thing I notice as I walk back towards steerage is two F seats reclined so far forward that they looked like a front seat of a two door car pulled up so the people in the back could climb over it to get out. Here comes the best part, the seats were taped off with yellow caution tape, I wondered if this was actually a crime scene.

It gets even better, we were about 2 hours late because the PA system broke so they could not make announcements. We sat on the plane the whole time. Eventually they must have figured who needs a PA system when we have one megaphone. So the announcements were all made 8 or 9 times, 5 rows at a time. God forbid anyone was a first time flyer and needed any of the safety announcements.

Oh yeah, the ride was smooth and for what I paid for the tickets, I should not complain.

AirBrit

Well my latest A300 experience wasn't that bad. I was on one in March and I was pleasantly surprised by how clean it was. Admittedly it was really beaten up. And I mean really beaten up. It still had those Star Trek monitors and the person sitting next to me had a seat which was in constant recline...

That said, the plane had just done a LIM-MIA run (I was doing a MIA-SJU run) and had been cleaned upon its arrival at MIA. The last AA plane I had been on (barring the one that got me to MIA) was on a DFW-RDU run (S80). It was the last flight of the day and the plane was FILTHY. Trash everywhere. After we took off, the FAs went to the back of the plane and started chatting away. Probably the best place for them to be seeing as the engines drowned them out...

Anyway, the end of the story is that the A300 was old but clean and I was fairly happy with it. Personally, I prefer clean but old over new but dirty. But that's just my opinion.

-AirBrit

makfan

I somewhat agree about rows 9/10, but I'm not a big bulkhead fan. In BOS, where they board through door 2, 9B/C suck because you can't sit until boarding is done, although they are OK in flight.

I so rarely get a 738 out here in SFO that I can't even remember what they are like in Y. I realize that I never ran into one during my cross-country adventures this spring.

Robt760

Being that I am on the West Coast, I don't take many AB6 flights. I think I have been on about 8 flights total on this air craft over the last 3 years. Of those eight flights, 2 had mechanical issues. One caused a 2 hour delay, and I just switched flights since I was able to do so. The other was pretty drawn out, and caused 16+ hours of delay and 3-AB6 a/c before we could finally take off.

FWIW, I wrote to AA about the reliability of the AB6 after the meltdown mentioned about, and here is (part) of what they said:

American.Airlines has complete confidence in the integrity of the AB6; we would not operate this type of aircraft if we had any hesitation as to its safety. This confidence is shared by our pilots, mechanics, engineers and technicians who work and travel on the aircraft constantly. Rigorous testing and periodic inspections support our trust in the AB6. We are convinced that it is both a comfortable plane and a safe one. Let me assure you that the safety of our customers is our primary concern.

Travelsonic

I thought technically, AA's were B4s, specifically A300B4-605Rs. Every book I've read, and every website I've visited (well, most of them anyways, aviation photography, aircraft registrar, or otherwise) indicated this.

davidthomson

They have got to make you laugh!!! These planes have turned out to be the biggest maintenance hogs in history. They really are pieces of crap. Just check out AAs record MIA-BOG Rt over this year and see how many delays and cancellations there have been. It is ludicrous.

ccengct

I don't have anything against the AB6; apparently I was one of the few people who liked them on the AA LHR routes. But then, I liked the EA AB3's out of ATL in the 1970s.

That said, I don't doubt that AA's AB6s are often dirty inside, like all other AA planes. As to dispatch reliability, I wonder if it's really different from the AA 767s older than about N350AA.... also 20 years old. AA has already parked many of the older 767s.