California Calling: SQ36 SIN-LAX (J) & AA Domestic First

[RedEyeflight]

As we begun our descent into DFW I checked the onboard wifi and entertainment.



The main page has information about flight duration but no moving map to see where you are.



Wifi is not complimentary, even in first class. One has to pay a fee to use the system. However, you get free 20 minutes of wifi if you watch an advertisement.



The advertisement funnily enough was for men's underwear...



I did check the entertainment selection. It looked fairly widespread. One does not need to connect to wifi to enjoy entertainment and can simply stream entertainment through their devices.

[RedEyeflight]

As we approached DFW we were informed that severe thunderstorms had rendered the airport closed. We were put on a holding pattern and we circled outside the airport vicinity. This lasted for about 20 minutes before we were told that we had to divert to IAH as we had limited fuel. The plan at this point was to wait on the ground at IAH until DFW re-opened, re-fuel and fly back. We then ascended and cruised for about 20 minutes or so before we descended into IAH.

Arriving in IAH...



Once we got to the gate, a ground agent came aboard and told passengers that luggage would not be pulled if they chose to leave at IAH. Some passengers were travelling to IAH via DFW. Ground agents said they were overwhelmed as there were several diverted flights at IAH. 5 minutes later we learned the flight had been cancelled and that we would be re-booked. Flight attendants handed out cards with a re-booking number as we left the aircraft. We were also told there would be somebody at a nearby service counter to answer any questions. When we got to the service counter there was no one. Then an irate agent came and told everyone in the queue through the PA system that there would be no re-booking. Instead, AA had sent complimentary hotel bookings and food vouchers to our emails and that all our baggage on the flight would be pulled. The same aircraft would take us to DFW at 9am tomorrow morning where we would then learn about our re-bookings. We were clearly going to miss our connection to SAV and there was no information about how we would get there.

After claiming our bags (there was some confusion about which carousel would be used), we headed to an AA service desk to ask for an additional room. We were travelling as a family and we were only given one hotel room for 4 people. We were also never given any food vouchers that we were promised. We also learned that we would be re-booked onto the same flight to SAV that we were meant to take that day but on the following day, scheduled to leave DFW at 7.15pm. This meant that we would have a whopping 9-hour layover in DFW as IAH to DFW takes less than an hour. We would essentially get into SAV exactly 24 hours later.

That night we were put up at the Double-Tree Sheraton on the edge of IAH airport.

Early the next morning, relatives in Singapore had told us that my grandmother had passed away. My father had to rush back to Singapore. It was indeed shocking news as I had just seen her prior to leaving Singapore and she was in full health. It was deeply saddening but I was unable to return to Singapore due to prior commitments.

I did not photograph the rest of the journey to Savannah.

But I will summarise what happened here.

Flight from IAH to DFW took 43 minutes. There was essentially no service on the flight. DFW airport is a big mess. It is truly AA-land. AA everywhere. We also ended up travelling on Labor Day as a result of the diversion, which meant the airport was also busier than usual (we had deliberately tried not to travel on this day). Our 9-hour layover was painful but I spent it mostly writing this TR and walking around the massive airport.



Our flight to SAV, AA330, was operated by an A319 on N747UW delivered to US Airways in August 2000. We were put in economy and were separated. I ended up in a middle seat. We were not given our seat assignments until gate agents showed up prior to departure.




Thankfully, we departed and arrived on-time. Flight time was 1 hour and 50 minutes.

The service was your usual US domestic main cabin/economy affair. A beverage service and a light snack.

We arrived in SAV after dark. We were glad that our bags appeared on the carousel. SAV is a small regional airport and we were out in about 15 minutes. We took a taxi into town and had some uncomfortable conversations about religion with our driver (we were in the Deep South, if you know what I mean).

[RedEyeflight]

Savannah is a quaint town on the Atlantic coast of Georgia with a population of 150,000. It is a major tourist destination as much of its pre-civil war historic downtown and original town plan from the 18th century have been preserved. This is because, unlike other cities in the South who did not surrender to the Union Army during the civil war, Savannah chose to do so, which saved the town from the ruins of battle.

Spent a few days in the city. Some photos here.

The town has many squares, 22 in total, that were the original design of British General Oglethorpe who founded the city and the colony of Georgia in the 1730s.







Lafayette square by the city's main cathedral.



Statue of British General Oglethorpe...





Forsyth Park, a wide expanse of greenery in the city centre.



Jones St, I was told voted most beautiful street in America by a Southern magazine...



...

[RedEyeflight]

More photos of Savannah...





First African Baptist Church, a major stop on the underground railroad that led slaves to freedom.





Savannah voted for Biden in the 2020 election. Georgia turned blue largely due to Atlanta and the surrounding urban areas.



Apart from tourism, another driver of the local economy is the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). With 15,000 students, this world renowned institution is a major part of the urban fabric owning 51% of the real estate in the city. SCAD also has its own movie theatre pictured below.



The Talmadge Memorial Bridge crosses the Savannah river.



Headed to Tybee Island just outside the city to visit the beach. This is the Atlantic Ocean. Soon I will return to LA and meet the Pacific.

[RedEyeflight]

SAV has a small check-in area. All major US carriers fly here. The airport receives flights from major cities in the South like DFW, MIA, ATL and CLT, as well as flights from the Northeast such as DCA, PHL, EWR, JFK and BOS.



These rocking chairs were also available in the shopping area...



First leg to CLT is on AA2932 operated by a B738 on N952AA delivered to AA in December 2000. Departing at 2.43pm, this is a turnaround flight from CLT.

Not long after the aircraft arrived at the gate, boarding commenced. We were greeted by a jovial cabin crew member who was polite and to-the-point. I was offered a pre-departure drink of my choice. I chose some hot tea.

As usual, it was the same domestic first class seat I got on the way up.



Ramp shot with an Allegiant A320.



Pushback occured on time and a flight time of 39 minutes was announced. Cabin crew announced that no service would be available in the Main Cabin (Economy) due to the short flight time.

[RedEyeflight]

Taxiing...



Lining up on runway 28R...



Racing out of SAV...



Climbing out of SAV...



This short flight meant that we would only cruise at about 20,000ft.



Service on the flight consisted of a pack of mixed nuts and a drink of choice.

[RedEyeflight]

As we were about to begin our descent into CLT, the captain came on and told us... there was WEATHER in Charlotte and that we had to circle for the time being. After circling for about 20 minutes, we were told we had to be DIVERTED to Columbia, South Carolina. Not again. I genuinely started to panic as I really did not want the same rigmarole to happen again.

We quickly landed in CAE...



We passed the tiny terminal at CAE and were put at a remote stand. Cabin crew told us it would be a short wait on the ground to re-fuel and then fly back to CLT.



Luckily enough our connection time in CLT was 2.5 hours. By the time we had landed, the weather in CLT had cleared up. We spent a total of 45 minutes on the ground re-fuelling before we left for CLT again. Flight time was announced to be 29 minutes.

Climbing out of CAE.



Cruising to CLT...



Landing in CLT...



We were fortunate to park next to this Contour Airlines ERJ135. Contour is a regional domestic airline headquartered in Tennessee.

[RedEyeflight]

In the end, our connection in CLT had been reduced to just 1 hour. CLT was extremely crowded and we just headed straight to our next gate. It seemed that a wave of delayed flights had arrived at the same time.

Our flight to LAX, AA482, would be operated by an A321 and depart at 6.33pm. This time it was N916US delivered to US Airways in January 2015.

Boarding occured about 30 minutes prior to departure. View from my seat.



Pushback occured on time. A flight time of 4 hours and 27 minutes was announced...



Lining up on runway 18C.



Climbing out of CLT...





Exact same domestic first class seat...

[RedEyeflight]

Service started with a warm towel. I couldn't photograph this as I had gone to the washroom and only had a few minutes to enjoy the towel as flight attendants came round to collect them.

Then came the warm nuts and a drink of choice...



Soon after, dinner was served. My parents had decided to opt for a special halal meal. We were served a salad with halloumi and some chickpea dish. It was pretty good to be honest. Well done AA!



The sun setting outside...



After dinner, cabin crew came around with a cheese plate and Haagen Das chocolate chip ice cream. I chose the cheese plate. It came with two pieces of cheddar cheese.



Crackers were thin but crunchy...



We flew into darkness for the rest of the way. I spent the rest of the flight reading and looking out the window.



Soon we began our descent into LAX and the bright lights of LA greeted us from below...



It was a bit of a rough landing in LAX. We taxied off the runway and immediately passed TBIT where I got to spot some foreign tails!

Such as this TK B77W departing for IST...



And this NZ B77W preparing to fly to AKL...



And, from the same neighbourhood, this QF A333 that I believe shuttles passengers between LAX and JFK.



We soon taxied into our gate at Terminal 4...



That's all folks!

I will be in LA for the foreseeable future. I don't expect to fly SQ again until the summer of 2023. I will probably be flying domestically within the US for the time being.

My thoughts on AA: Well, I honestly felt they did not handle the situation in DFW well. If anything, as a premium passenger, I should have expected them to re-book me on the spot from IAH to SAV. And a 24-hour delay, a 9-hour layover in DFW and then to fly economy is just unacceptable. On the way back, though, I do commend them for the service. While perhaps not SQ-level, cabin crew were polite, accommodating and generally quite friendly. I'm glad, ultimately, that apart from the minor diversion to CAE, we still made it in time to LAX. About the hard product, I'm still a bit skeptical of streaming everything through your own device. I generally prefer to have a screen in front of me. In this regard, I think DL and UA offer superior products in all classes. And while slightly more expensive, I think I will probably go back to DL as my choice of airline flying within the US. I have always had a good experience with them and they strike me as being a generally well-run airline. While AA is certainly a cheaper alternative, in all honesty, I felt that AA had become the new UA (hint: the incident in ORD where an Asian man was forcibly removed from his flight) after our experience inbound to SAV. But in any case, we were delivered on-time on the way back to LAX and it was a pleasant experience, so I should thank them for that. This is generally not a good time for the US economy as it battles inflation, labor shortages, etc., so I can expect the airlines too to face some hiccups.

Thanks for reading my TR. Please leave comments. I'd love to hear them.

[yflyer]

Great TR, RedEyeflight! Nice to read about both the SQ J experience, and the experience on AA Domestic F.

What an ordeal at DFW, though! I would have thought they would treat F pax better. When my travel was disrupted on UA enroute back to SIN from ORD via SFO, I had to head to the UA lounge customer service desk in SFO, where the queue was shorter, rather than join the long queue at the general service desk for help. On that trip, my ORD-SFO was delayed and I missed my SFO-SIN connection, so I had to spend an extra 24 hours in San Francisco. Caused some disruption to my prior plans, but 24 additional hours in a beautiful city like SF was no great hardship, especially since they put me up in a decent hotel for the night.

Savannah looks like a nice city to visit! Hope to visit sometime.

[RedEyeflight]

Great TR, RedEyeflight! Nice to read about both the SQ J experience, and the experience on AA Domestic F.

What an ordeal at DFW, though! I would have thought they would treat F pax better. When my travel was disrupted on UA enroute back to SIN from ORD via SFO, I had to head to the UA lounge customer service desk in SFO, where the queue was shorter, rather than join the long queue at the general service desk for help. On that trip, my ORD-SFO was delayed and I missed my SFO-SIN connection, so I had to spend an extra 24 hours in San Francisco. Caused some disruption to my prior plans, but 24 additional hours in a beautiful city like SF was no great hardship, especially since they put me up in a decent hotel for the night.

Savannah looks like a nice city to visit! Hope to visit sometime.

Thanks yflyer! DFW is a large airport with very little to do. We did not visit Dallas, which we probably should have done. Notwithstanding that there isn't much to see in Dallas, my parents are somewhat elderly and, my mother, in particular, was against leaving the airport. I think what makes the whole ordeal quite painful is that Domestic F passengers have no access to the lounge unless you are a frequent flyer. I suspect you were able to go to the UA lounge because your connecting flight SFO-SIN was international. I should mention we were given a refund for the leg to SAV which ended up in Y. Labor shortages are quite rampant in the US at the moment, so I suspect airlines are also not spared which has made things worse. However, my impression of UA, in general, is that they have upped their game since the 2017 ordeal.

And yes, Savannah is a lovely city! Ended up visiting because one of my family members is affiliated with SCAD.