psusaver

AA flights to/from JFK were packed this weekend, MIA GA did treated me super nice.

TL/DR: Gate agent at MIA on MIA-JFK gave me a sweet upgrade to 2F because I had volunteered my name to the bump list. This isn't a "trip report" but I will proudly share my lunch photos 😂.

Lunch service - I picked the Pimento cheese sandwich (Turkey sandwich aioli was other option). The salad was the amazing, lettuce was crisp and shaved parm was delicious.

It was a \"cold sandwich" but I had a hectic morning and just had snack bars so this worked great. The bread roll part was actually really really good too.

Proof that I flew, view was neat so sharing for fun.


I did PIT-JFK, JFK-MIA on Friday. The JFK-MIA was full and although I got a MCE seat the middle seat had a very well build guy so it felt right going to MIA.

On way back I saw the app ask me about volunteering so I picked a high bid and put my name in, then arrived at gate an hour early. By the way, I truly enjoyed the first time AA Gold/Priority security lines (15mins tops) MIA had regular security check lines almost going into the Trirail station (would've been 1-1.5hr).

At the gate, the GA took my name and then eventually didn't need to bump me, but on his own he upgraded me to 2F and asked me to board 2 mins before gate closure. Since I had traveled from West Palm Beach area by TriRail I didn't have time for a proper coffee or breakfast in the morning. Real cloth lunch service made it awesome 👍🏾👍🏾.

Also, I felt that the tone of agents at this gate in Miami was so much nicer than JFK agents on Friday. However to be fair, this was a 737 (mid size pax crowds), while the Friday flight was 777-200ER (very high capacity).
1A did go empty on this flight.

psusaver

I had one question about when you are upgraded to First and EQM accrual. Does it change to reflect the cabin class, or does it remain the same as before. I noticed that my return flight accrual just posted, but it is same as the onward (JFK-MIA) that I traveled in Economy. Anyone know if EQMs are based solely on fare class for domestic flights?

USFlyerUS

You earn EQMs based on the economy ticket you purchased. Same will apply to LPs come March since LPs are based are fare paid.

psusaver

Ah ok! I will have to test out the $49 upgrade option on some flight to see if it nets more EQMs. I have a PIT-ORD coming up, should qualify for potential free upgrade but that's only in last 24 hours.

USFlyerUS

If it's not an upfare (or buy up, I forget what AA is calling it these days), you'll get the economy EQMs. There's a difference between an upgrade and an upfare.

psusaver

Ah, of course. I was thinking that my strategy seemed too good to be true. Well that's why I was going to "test" it for one segment to see what happens.

tmr10001

Glad to see you had a good experience! We did not as we flew Miami to JFK yesterday in First.
Our flight was delayed over an hour because the cabin was too hot to board. Interesting that it took until right before boarding to realize the cabin was hot since it had been sitting at the gate for hours. We were then told on board that it was because the pilots were delayed on their incoming flight and had to make it to our aircraft. Not sure which was the actual answer. What was the worst was on our two hour flight the flight attendants were up in the galley chatting for over an hour before walking through the cabin. So after an hour and 10 minutes in the air (no turbulence at all the whole flight) basically they dropped off the disgusting and pathetic sandwiches and one drink.. then time to land. Not once did someone come back and ask if we needed anything else and they were the most surely crew we have ever experienced. Arrived into JFK an hour late and then the bags took another 40 minutes... with priority bags being offloaded last.
Just a pretty sad experience on American!

Stripe

The onboard food and service always seems better when you get a surprise upgrade.

psusaver

Sorry to hear about delay and bad experience.
They (FAs) were definitely not much attentive overall in my segment. After handing the sandwich, and the first initial pass to remove the trays they didn't come back at all, nor make eye contact with me (from 2F the jump seats were directly visible across the diagonally). So I had to press the call button get the stuff removed as I wanted to use my laptop and do some work. They acted surprised on that but not too much so I let it slide.

Of course, the JFK-PIT was delayed a while for deicing etc but it was sort of a weather related event so I'm not complaining much. My drive back through the snowstorm was crazy.

Deicing the plane (JFK airport)

Not directly related to FT, but just adding context for road conditions.