American Airlines A321 Business Class Review San Juan (SJU)- Charlotte (CLT)

By Ramon

Ramon is the creator of Travelling Companion. He focuses on flight reviews, hotel reviews, and helping stretch your travel dollars, miles, and points further while traveling in comfort. ​​

In this series of five reviews I focus on the experience flying American Airlines in First Class domestically and Business Class on flights to the Caribbean. The posts compare American Airlines First Class and Business Class across four different aircraft on medium-haul flights between 3-4 hours where meals are served. 

American Airlines First and Business Class Reviews 
American Airlines CRJ-900 SBA-DFW First Class Review
American Airlines 737-800 DFW-DCA First Class Review
American Airlines E-175  NAS-DCA Business Class Review
American Airlines E-175 DCA-MSY First Class Review
American Airlines A321 SJU-CLT Business Class Review

Flight Overview
This flight had the worse airline meal I had ever eaten in First, Business, or Economy class and it is embarrassing that American Airlines delivered an experience this bad on a three and a half hour flight.  

Pros- Freshly Upholstered  and Comfortable Seats 
​Cons- Barely Edible Food, Bad Drink Service,  No USB or AC Power Plugs, No  Seat Back Entertainment,  Limited Wi-Fi and Streaming Entertainment

Plane and Seats
We left a packed Avianca VIP Lounge, which I have previously reviewed, at San Juan (SJU) airport and headed to Gate C4 for our departure. We were upgraded to Business Class in advance on this flight using our 500 miles upgrades. We boarded quickly with other Business Class passengers and as we boarded I was impressed by the updated upholstery. We were seated in the bulkhead seats 1D and 1F which had 36 inches of pitch and 21 inches of width on this version of the A321.The seats seemed new and had a nice comfortable head rest. 

American Airlines A321 First Business Class Seat

Once we settled into our seats our positive impression quickly faded as we scrambled to look for power plugs for our phones. The search was for naught as we did not find any USB or AC power plugs. I couldn't believe that American Airlines would refurbish the seats on the plane but not add power plugs so I confirmed with the flight attendant serving Business Class. She confirmed that the plane indeed did not have power plugs and said the plane was "not an American Airlines original". She meant that this is a legacy US Airways plane which American Airlines acquired during the 2015 merger with US Airways. These planes did not have in-seat power plugs and by the comment I assumed that this flight attendant was likely a legacy American Airlines flight attendant. The fact that this was a legacy US Airways plane made sense since we were flying to a legacy US Airways hub in Charlotte (CLT) and is a good  reason to avoid many legacy US Airways hubs including CLT and Philadelphia (PHL).  After resigning to the fact that we were not going to have power for the entire flight I went back into my bag to see if I could pull out my tablet or a book but the overhead bin was stuck. After trying to open the bin several times without success I asked for the flight attendant's help and after she was unsuccessful another flight attendant came over and was finally able to open the bin. After I was seated passengers continued to board and the flight attendants grew nervous that the flight would be delayed because the catering had not yet arrived. Finally, the catering arrived and our flight ended up departing nine minutes early. 

Amenities and In-Flight Entertainment
Waiting at our seats upon boarding was a thin blanket which I ended up not using on this flight. It seemed to be the same blanket American Airlines offers in First Class on domestic flights. Unlike the 737-800 I flew from Dallas to Washington D.C. this plane had GoGo ground based Wi-Fi which does not turn on until the plane reaches 10,000 feet. Because the plane also did not have a seat back in-flight entertainment (IFE) screen we needed the Wi-Fi to activate before watching any IFE. However, once the plane reached 10,000 feet I tried to connect and could not connect since the vast majority of Latin America and the Caribbean are outside of GoGo ground based Wi-Fi range. This was the same problem I had on an earlier flight from San Juan. I was again frustrated that American Airlines was using a plane for a three and a half hour flight that was not equipped with seat back entertainment, in-seat power, and that had IFE that did not work for the majority of the flight. The IFE finally functioned with about hour and half remaining in flight. I turned it on briefly to browse the IFE options but I was still frustrated by the lack of in-seat power plugs. 

American Airlines Streaming In-Flight Entertainment

Food and Drinks ​
​The entire food and drink experience on this flight was terrible. It started on the ground when we were not served any pre-departure drinks because of the late arriving catering. I overheard the flight attendants discussing whether they should serve a pre-departure drink, however, they decided not to do so  because the ice from the previous flight had melted and they only had juice and water. Once the catering arrived the flight attendants were more focused on departing on time because of American Airlines strategic push. The flight attendants ended up spending all of their time  putting away the catering instead of taking care of passengers. About 20 minutes after takeoff the Business Class flight attendant distributed hot towels and took drink orders. After the drink orders the flight attendant brought around our drinks along with warm nuts. We ended up ordering red wine which was okay. 

Red Wine and Warm Nuts

As we waited for the flight attendant to come around for meal order we smelt the scent of burning bread in the galley. The flight attendant didn't return to get meal orders until about 45 minutes after takeoff. This was the longest I could remember waiting for a meal order on any Business or First Class flight. The flight attendant started meal selection from back which meant we ended up picking last. On this flight American Airlines was serving dinner and the options for other passengers were a choice between the beef filet or Southwest lasagna. By the time the flight attendant reached us the only remaining option was the Southwest lasagna. I was very annoyed since I wanted the beef filet, however, Christina and I went ahead and took the Southwest lasagna.  About 1 hour into the flight the food was finally served. Despite ordering the same dish Christina and I received different sides. I was served two salads while Christina was served a salad with a side of Indian flavored chicken which did not fit the Southwest lasagna theme at all. 

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Ramon's Southwest Lasagna

Christina suspected that she was served this chicken dish because she asked if the lasagna had any meat. Also, on the side of our meal was a hard white bread which was unremarkable. 

Christina's Southwest Lasagna

The first salad which Christina and I were both served came with butter lettuce, cranberries, and arugula. Christina and I agreed the butter lettuce was really bad but she did enjoy the cranberries. My second salad was served with arugula, tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. The second salad was even worse than the first. The ball of parmesan cheese had no flavor and the tomatoes were disgusting. I mostly left both salads untouched and moved on to the main dish the Southwest lasagna. The lasagna had cheese, corn, and was topped with what tasted like sriracha sauce. I usually love lasagna but this was barely edible and I can easily say this was the most disgusting dish I had ever been served on an airplane. Who puts sriracha sauce on lasagna? The meal service ended with a warm chocolate chip cookie which I usually look forward to on American Airlines but thsi time was served a little hard. ​

American Airlines Chocolate Cookie

Overall, this was the worse meal I have been served in any class on an airplane and it is embarrassing that American Airlines would serve this meal to anyone especially Business Class customers. 

Service
The Business Class flight attendant on our flight ​certainly tried hard but seemed to be in over her head. This started from the minute we walked on the plane where she and the other flight attendant seemed really nervous about departing late and focused more on this issue which was mostly out of their hands instead of serving the passengers. The manner in which she talked about the plane not being an American Airlines original showed her frustration with the airline's product. After take off she was very slow taking food and drink orders and delivering food. Once the meal service was complete she was slow to clear away dishes and empty glasses. At one point we waited an hour for her to clear our empty glasses. When the flight attendant heard us complaining to each other about the meal and saw that our food was barely eaten she apologized and offered us compensation. American Airlines rolled out a compensation program in 2018 which flight attendants can use onboard called iSolve and it was my first experience with this system. As Gold elites Christina and I ended up with 7,500 miles because of our issues with the food which I thought was fair compensation. The flight attendant also sent us home with a bottle of wine as an apology. I really appreciated that the flight attendant tried hard to make up for all of the issues on this flight and I gave her a one of our outstanding service coupons for her effort. We ended up talking and she told me that flight attendants constantly send American Airlines management notes about all of the issues but management doesn't listen to staff. Unfortunately, this is symptomatic of a bigger problem at American Airlines where management doesn't listen to employee or passenger feedback and leaves employees apologizing for the airline. It is clear that American Airlines needs to work on staffing for these flights and service training for flight attendants to improve the passenger experience. 

Take Away
The comfortable and newly upholstered seats were not enough to make up for the many problems on this flight. The lack of any seat-back  IFE on this flight was compounded by the lack of any power plugs for the entire flight and streaming IFE for the vast majority of the flight. The food on this flight was disgusting and added to an embarrassing Business Class experience from American Airlines. Furthermore, the staff on this flight were overwhelmed and the Business Class flight attendant was left having to apologize for American Airlines embarrassing experience. My advice is to do your best to avoid lasagna and the legacy US Airways A321 when flying on American Airlines.