Down to Dallas: Review of American 737-800 Charleston to DFW in Economy
The view out my window on the way to Dallas. I love the views from 30,000+ feet! Photo by: Evan Berman
Before the fun of our trip could begin, I had to fly to Dallas. As is usually the case when visiting DFW, I flew on American. The trip was easy and uneventful, especially compared to some of the longer international flights I’d recently taken.
This flight review is part of the February in Dallas trip. For more information on this trip, follow these links:
Flight: American Economy, CHS-DFW (This Article)
Flight: American Economy DFW-CHS
Flight Info:
Route: CHS-DFW (Charleston, SC’s Charleston International Airport to Dallas- Fort Worth, TX’s DFW International Airport)
Date: Wednesday, 2/8/2023
Flight: AA 2325 (American Airlines)
Plane: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 14A (Main Cabin Window)
Upgrades: None, 29th on list for 1 first class seat!
Est. Departure: 3:45pm EDT
Taxiing: 3:58pm EDT
Takeoff: 4:07pm EDT
Gate: B5 (Main Terminal)
Est. Arrival: 5:42pm CDT (6:42pm EDT)
Touchdown: 5:41pm CDT (6:41pm EDT)
Arrived at Gate: 6:00pm CDT (7:00pm EDT)
Gate: A39 (Terminal A)
Pricing:
Flight: I booked the roundtrip flight from Charleston to Dallas for $325.79. I did just fly all the way to Norway and back in December for less than $300 but this is still a decent price for a roundtrip nonstop in the US. Keep in mind that I flew out on Wednesday and returned on a Monday so this is much lower than a quick weekend jaunt would have been.
Earnings: 966 American AAdvantage Miles– 690 Base Miles and 276 from having (entry-level) Gold Status. AA awards miles on it’s own flights based on the price spent, not the distance flown. As such, it makes sense that $138*5=690 miles were earned.
Booking:
I booked on American’s website after searching for flights on Google Flights. I played around with the dates and these were the best options.
As mentioned above, I have status with American so I was able to select a “Preferred” seat and check a bag, if I so chose. I’m team carry-on, so that was not relevant but the perk was appreciated.
Lounges:
As usual when departing Charleston, I headed to the Club CHS lounge. Unfortunately, this time the lounge was at capacity so I simply headed to the gate and boarded early.
Recap:
This flight was relatively uneventful. I ended up working through the majority of it, pausing to take in the beauty of the clouds outside. Even though it was overcast both at takeoff and landing, this was a smooth ride. We stayed above 30,000 feet for the majority of the flight.
American has installed free wifi on the majority of their planes and this was no exception. The wifi was fast enough to load several internet pages, but not much more. I was still unable to send or receive email.
The 737-800 we flew has a setup of 2-2 seats in First and 3-3 in Economy. The legroom is certainly better than the small regional jets.
Meals:
As is typical on shorter US flights, there was no meal service provided. Ironically considering I often fly Delta, we were handed a Biscoff cookie. To supplement, I had a water.
Sleep:
Since this was a short flight, I did not sleep.
Experience:
The flight was smooth and we were able to arrive ahead of schedule. I enjoyed this flight as it was on a real domestic narrow-body plane, not a small regional jet. We touched down in Dallas to a gloomy afternoon. Thankfully, the weather in Dallas was perfectly decent for February.
Customs:
Although I arrived at a metroplex, there were no customs since it was a domestic flight.
Recap:
I purchased a roundtrip flight from Charleston to Dallas-Fort Worth for $325.79. This was the beginning of the trip. Next up, the Bruce Springsteen Concert!
Curious why you actually bought this ticket?
That’s a good question and worth diving into on a separate article. In short, I would need to spend 9,000 miles on each flight or 18,000 miles total. While that would be 1.75 cents per point (325.79-5.60*2)/18,000*100=1.748, which is a solid return, I felt it best to save these miles for other uses such as international travel, particularly in business class.
Additionally, I needed to meet the $2,000 minimum spend requirement on my Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Business Card in order to earn the 70,000 American Miles. That, plus the additional American Miles and Hyatt points earned from the paid ticket was enough to make me pay in cash rather than points. That said, it’s a good question and one I will explore further in a separate article!