While the American Airlines A321neo lacks the seatback screens you will find on Delta Air Lines or United Airlines, our evening flight from Charlotte to Los Angeles in First Class proved quite comfortable after a long day.

American Airlines A321neo First Class Review (CLT-LAX)

Can I just say that Charlotte Douglas International Airport is a mess? The lounge was packed. The concourse was even more packed. We were coming off a regional jet flight from Nashville to Charlotte and I could not believe how many people were in the terminal at 8:00 pm.

We had a short connection of only 45 minutes, so by the time we stopped at the lounge to use the restroom and got to the gate, boarding was almost complete.

American Airlines 1138
Charlotte (CLT) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Saturday, July 26
Depart: 8:55 AM
Arrive: 10:53 PM
Duration: 4 hr, 58 min
Distance: 2,125 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A321-253NX
Seat: 3D (Business Class)

Onboard, we found our seats and settled in for the five-hour journey to LAX.

Seats

The A321neos have 20 first class seats (five rows in a 2-2 configuration) and are the same “Project Oais” seats as the 737-800, specifically Collins Aerospace MiQ cradle seats. Seat pitch is a fairly tight 36.5 inches, recline is five inches, and seats are 20 inches wide.

Each seat has a universal power outlet in the seat console and an USB-A port on the seatback.

Personal overhead air vents are available.

A small tray large enough for two glasses flips down between seats and the tray table flips up to cradle your phone or tablet.

I do love the mood lighting onboard.

Food + Drink

Dinner began about 30 minutes after takeoff with a tiny hot towel followed by drinks and warm mixed nuts.

AA offers pre-orders in first class on all flights with meal service. You can reserve your meals between 30 days and 24 hours in advance of your flight.

For this flight, I ordered the grilled chicken with Mojo sauce, served with rice, black beans, and plantains. It came with a side green salad and burrata appetizer.

Heidi ordered a seasonal vegetable and grain bowl with lemon parsley dressing, grilled zucchini and yellow squash, charred broccolini radish, pickled red onions, sugar snap peas, gold quinoa, and beluga lentils. It was served with a side of chicekn breast seasoned in herbs de Provence. This was part of AA’s “wellness” menu created and inspired by James Beard (author) and Ellie Krieger (nutritionist).

Her meal was served with hummus on the side and she enjoyed it.

Other choices included penne pasta with plant-based sausage, short ribs with mac & cheese (a dish I have enjoyed in the past), a fruit and cheese plate, and AA’s longstanding “golden roasted chicken,” which seems to be on every AA menu I see.

Dessert included a choice of fruit and cheese (cheddar, white, and grapes) and/or Häagen-Dazs vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, both of which were good. The instant decaf coffee I had with it…far less good.

Wi-Fi + IFE

As usual on AA, Wi-Fi was $29 for a flight pass or $20 for an hour…prices I consider robbery. Thankfully, it was a Saturday evening and I had no need to be online. 

Streaming entertainment via the aricraft’s intranet service was available with movies, TV shows, games, and music.

Lavatories

First class passengers can utilize a lavatory located in the front of the cabin. It was fairly dirty by the time I used it haflway through the flight.

Service

Service was satisfactory on this flight. While no over-the-top attentive, flight attendants did make a few rounds during the journey, checking to see if first class passengers needed any beverage refills.

Pre-departure beverages were also offered, which are not always a given on AA.

CONCLUSION

We landed on-time in LA and were soon home and reunited with the kids. It was a quick trip, and while the AA A321neo first class cabin is not all that luxurious, the extra room to spread out and meals onboard were appreciated.