I took a trip to DC this weekend and wanted to share my thoughts on the trip.

STL-DCA TW484 8/17

I'm Elite on TW (no free upgrades on discounted fares) but Platinum on AA (which does allow free upgrades). Checking in at the Ambassador's Club, I was waitlisted for the upgrade only to have it clear before I made it to the gate.

This flight featured TWA's First Class boxed snacks. A BIG thumbs down, in my opinion. The box had a chicken breast sandwich (with cucumber slices), a small cup of cole slaw and a little McDonalds type container of BBQ sauce. Dessert was a cup of Good Humor ice cream (the little paper cup like you'd find at a convenience store, not a real cup).

The flight left on-time and arrived a few minutes early.

DCA-STL TW287 8/19

I had tickets to return on the 8pm flight, but my friend I spend the weekend with in DC had to leave in the early afternoon, so I went to National (I'll never call it Reagan!)

At the gate, I said I wanted to standby for the flight and asked about an upgrade to first class with my AA Platinum card. The agent told me that it was "not possible to standby for a flight and get upgraded". I could either:

* Stand by for coach
* Pay $100 to change my flight and then standby for an upgrade

I told him I had done this numerous times before, to which he replied I was wrong. Seeing I was making no progress, I told him to put me on standby for coach.

Walking away from the counter, I called the 800 reservations number and asked the agent on the phone what the policy was. After checking with a supervisor, she told me I should be allowed to standby for first and documented that fact in my record.

Approaching the counter, the other agent working the gate called me over and handed me a boarding pass for First without even having to ask her to check my record.

The snack box had the same sandwich, but with a bag of chips and a brownie.

I am still a big TW fan, but my experience on this trip ranks nowhere near the top of my list. Now if we get the best of TW and the best of AA -- that will be a good product!

Greg

But if we get the worst, God help us all....

I am making a TW circle trip coming up. How were the seats compared to AA's m80's?

I honestly can't say too much about TWA MD-80 seats, at least in coach. Thanks to the TWA upgrade policies, I've only flown coach on them about a half dozen times in the past three years.

Greg

Glad you got the upgrades. I'm Elite 1 and will sorely miss my free (ahhh, free, wonderful unlimited free) upgrades. Though when asked if I would trade a tasty meal on a tray for a free upgrade you know what my answer would be. As long as the booze is still free.

I have to agree with you on the very, very lousy boxed meals. My recent flight to Austin had box meals both going and returning. Not tasty at all.

I am sorry, I meant in first. I am exec plat and flying to what I would regard as odd places. So I don't think there will be a problem with getting the upgrades. Just wondering if TW 1st on the md80 is comparable to AA's md80.

This past weekend I flew BDL-STL-SAN on TW and SAN_DFW_BDL on AA. Upgrades to first in both directions. On the reconfigured MD90's, TWA has a couple inches greater pitch than AA's Super 80's. The seats themselves are similar, but TWA definately has more leg room.

TW flies MD80s and MD83s, but definitely no MD90 series planes...have not flown in coach since the reconfiguration, and only a few times over the past few years, but there is more room in F as well on the MD80s- a couple of inches per row, with 16F instead of the previous 20.