- Konrad Tillman
Review: American Airlines Business Class 737-800 From El Salvador To Dallas
Intro
Following a splendid trip across countries 82 and 83, it was sadly time to head home back to the States. This trip so far has been incredible, with fantastic times spent in Nicaragua, as well as an interesting 13-hour bus and crossing a border by foot😅. This next segment would see us flying on a 737-800 up to Dallas in Business Class on American Airlines.
The routing for this trip is as follows:
AA2129- Los Angeles-Miami Economy 787-8
AA532- Miami-Managua Economy 737 Max 8
Tica Bus- Managua- Honduras- San Salvador
AA1035- San Salvador-Dallas Business Class 737-800
AA1159- Dallas-Phoenix Domestic First A321neo
AA1668- Phoenix-Los Angeles Domestic First 737-800
With two flights already flown on American Airlines this trip, this flight exceeded the last two with great service, decent food, and a bloody great chocolate cake (that rhymed, haha).
Let's get into it!
Route- San Salvador-Dallas
Plane- 737-800
Seat- 4A
Flight Number- AA1104
Date- April 10th 2024
Flight Time: 3 Hours 42 Minutes
Price Paid- 483$ (3 Legs)
How I Booked
With Managua fares being outrageous and deciding I wanted to travel through Honduras, I was able to snatch up a great fare on American Airlines to fly Salvador-Dallas-Phoenix-Los Angeles, all for about 480$ per person.
I could have one stopped in Dallas. However, this would allow me to see some friends in Phoenix and get me closer to status on BA!!! Overall, 3 legs for 483$ isn't a bad deal at all.
Check-In
After a very lovely one-night stay in Salvador, which I will write about in a different post, it was time to head off to the airport again🥴.
After grabbing a quick Starbucks (I think Salvador is the most developed country south of the US), it was time to head to the airport.
Salvador airport is located about a 35 minute drive from the airport & a 25$ Uber drive.
The airport was busy at this time, but we made our way over to priority. Gosh, Business Class is great; it's going to be a privilege after 2 months in Africa soon, certainly.
Boarding passes in hand, we headed off to security. If the airport seems familiar, I flew out of here not too long ago with United up to Los Angeles.
Immigration & security is located upstairs. Pretty hard to miss, don't worry.
Once we cleared immigration, we explored the airport looking for cigars; note to others traveling: there are no cigar shops in the terminal.
With an our to kill before boarding, we enjoyed the last of the 5$ pints. Any chance the flight could divert to Belize? 😂
A couple of cool liveries were roaming around the airport...
This tag Saab was pulling into the gate, grrrr🤬; if you've read about my TAG report, you'd know😅.
There is a little aircraft museum in the airport, definitely check it out if you are heading here!
About an hour before boarding, our plane landed from Dallas. Throughout my past trips to Central America, airlines seem to minimize ground time to run the crews twice.
Boarding
One part I absolutely detest when departing to the States in Salvador is the fact you have to clear security again. Last time, we entered the "US terminal," but this time we had a private gate that didn't have enough room for everyone😒.
After moving at a snail's pace, we jumped into group 1 and made our way down the jetbridge.
At least it wasn't too crowded today😁.
At the door, we were warmly greeted by two FAs and welcomed onboard. After being on this aircraft multiple times in the past few months, it was easy enough to find 4A.
After reviewing the cabin of this product multiple times, I won't be reviewing it in this review. If you would like to check it out, head over to the review of Havana-Miami!!
Departure
By 1:56 pm, boarding was completed, and the FA came over to confirm our pre-order of the chicken breast.
By 2:00 pm, we pushed back and headed out to the singular runway, right on time AA!
There was a 767-300 cargo landing at the time. Sadly, these seem to be going away around the world, apart from the US carriers. Eventually, I'll get around to publishing the JAL 767 J report!
It was a short 9-minute taxi off to the runway. There was no PDB offered on today's flight, perhaps for overseas tax reasons.
We took off at 2:11 local time, bound for Dallas.
The last time I flew out was night, so this time, I got to see the beautiful volcano/mountain on the ascent!
The views were stunning at this time.
Meal Service
Meal service began 25 minutes after takeoff with warm nuts. Sadly, I don't eat nuts, but my friend said they were good.
Taking a peek out the window, I was greeted with more stunning views.
I was happily surprised to see Bottega being served, albeit a bit sweet. While this isn't anything like what they serve on Singapore Airlines, it's much better than some other Business Classes.
Standard drink cups were offered as well.
We were crossing over the gulf at this point. Oh, some turquoise water sounds good right now🙂.
About 45 minutes after takeoff, our meal came out. The FA was wonderful making a couple of jokes with us throughout the meal service. He accidentally dropped something on someone, and we felt horrible😒.
The chicken was decent, moist, and juicy.
However, the highlight of the meal was the chocolate cake. Goodness gracious me, I am dreaming about it right now.
Wifi/IFE
Wifi was offered for a fee of 16$ for this almost 4-hour flight. 4$ per hour isn't too shabby. However, I don't think the single hour is good value.
But the best views were out of the window.
Here are a couple of details about our old 737-800. 24 years old!!!
Arrival Into DFW
At 6:08 pm Dallas time, we began our descent into Dallas Fort Worth.
We did a bunch of circles around Dallas. The last time I flew in here was about 5 years ago. Wild!
At 6:29, we touched down into DFW.
By 6:46 pm, 1 minute behind schedule, we had pulled into gate D17.
De-planing was efficient, and we walked by this 777-300 that was bound for London shortly. Any chance I could jumpseat AA?
I'll say it over and over again, but MPC might be the greatest way to travel through immigration. After a few questions, we were airside in under 2 minutes.
With a couple of hours to kill in Dallas, stay tuned for the next flight to Phoenix. My best flight ever onboard American Airlines!!
Final Thoughts
This flight, just like many others with AA, ticked all of the boxes. Everything was on time (minus 1 minute), the food was okay, the chocolate cake was sublime, and the service was hospitable.
A PDB would have been nice, but can't have it all in life😅. I would happily fly American Airlines on this route, especially for the price I paid.
