Peculiar Ground Experience American Airlines Minneapolis Miami

This article is Peculiar Ground Experience American Airlines Minneapolis Miami. It is a review of my experience flying American Airlines from Minneapolis to Miami.

The story is part of my Cancun Birthday Celebration Getaway.

Trip Details

Date: November 7, 2017

Flight: American Airlines 4679

From: Minneapolis – MSP

To: Miami – MIA

Aircraft: E175

Seat: 8C

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Booking

My Peculiar Ground Experience American Airlines Minneapolis Miami was booked using Citi Prestige points, where I redeemed about 40,000 for the round-trip flight on American.

I traveled with my wife for this trip. I redeemed miles in Saver Business on the outbound and Anytime Economy for the return.

American Airlines does not make it easy to redeem saver miles on most flights, so it was originally booked as anytime economy.

I monitored the flight flights using Expert Flyer and eventually found a seat on both outbound flights in business class about one week prior to departure. The return remained at anytime level.

The outbound in business was for 25,000 miles and the return in anytime economy was for 27,500 miles.

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Check In

My wife and I arrived at the airport about two hours before the flight. The check in area had a few people in the main line and zero other guests waiting in the premium line.

I currently have Platinum status, which allows you to check in using the Premium line. In addition, my wife was flying in business class on the flight.

An agent promptly checked us in and checked our bag to Cancun.

We utilized CLEAR for bypassing the TSA identification check.

The Pre-Check line only had a handful of other guests present, so CLEAR didn’t save us time on this visit, but it was still easier not needing to go through the formal TSA identification check but rather we used our fingerprints and scanned our boarding pass with CLEAR.

After about five minutes, we cleared security.

We spent time in the Escape Lounge and had some coffee before it was time to board.

Gate Area

Our flight on American Airlines departed from the D gates, which are normally Delta ones. American is unable to use the monitors to indicate the flight details, however, an American sign is placed in front of the monitor.

We took a seat and waited a few minutes before boarding began.

Because the gate is a Delta gate, the agents were unable to use the boarding pass scanner, so they asked each passenger to provide their name and seat number for boarding.

The seat and name was checked off on the manifest and you were invited to board at that point.

We made our way on the plane and located our seats.

Peculiar Ground Experience

A short while after I took my seat, another passenger approached me and was looking at his boarding pass for a minute or two before saying he thought he had the window seat.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time and he took a seat next to me.

A few minutes later, the gate agent approached us and greeted us and asked to see our boarding passes.

I provided my pass for Seat 8C.

The guy next to me also provided the boarding pass and his also was for 8C.

The gate agent asked for his name and he provided it and he said he did not show him in the seat.

The gate agent took another look at both of our boarding passes. He noted that they were both for me for seat 8C.

My paper boarding pass was stamped with CLEAR on it, however, the other passengers was checked by TSA and it had all the check marks like you normally see for the identification check as well as no CLEAR stamp.

The passengers name was not anything similar and the gate agent spoke with the staff on the radio for a few minutes before asking for the other passenger to get off the plane.

It was very unusual situation. The guy said the check in agents printed that boarding pass for him and TSA allowed him to go through security with my boarding pass even though his name was not the same.

The gate agent, pilot and the passenger talked for a few minutes by the door before, it was closed without the other passenger on the plane.

The agent was polite during the process. It is peculiar how he would have been issued my boarding pass as I also checked in with an agent.

Hopefully the other passenger can get to Miami later in the day.

What a peculiar way to start the flight.

Seat

I was assigned seat 8C which was located at the front of the economy cabin.

The aircraft was an E175, which meant that economy cabin was 2-2.

I like the aircraft a lot as there are no middle seats and the aircraft is relatively comfortable with large windows and decent seats.

The drawback to the aircraft is there are no power ports.

In Flight Experience

The Peculiar Ground Experience American Airlines Minneapolis Miami took off just before sunrise.

While we taxied to the runway, the daylight began to break.

Once we were in the air and above the cloud cover, there was a beautiful sunrise.

I love morning flights when you get to watch the sun rise.

The view made up for the peculiar situation before the door was closed.

Within about 20 minutes of take-off, the flight attendants offered a beverage service. I requested orange juice.

After serving the juice, the flight attendant offered a Biscoff cookie.

The orange juice was served chilled and it had a good taste.

The Biscoff cookie was fresh and sweet and it had a great taste.

The flight attendants returned about 15 minutes later to remove the used items.

The flight was uneventful and the flight attendants passed through the cabin a few times during the flight.

During one of the times, the flight attendant offered a cup of water.

Landing

The cabin was prepared for landing.

There was a short taxi to a gate before we could depart the plane.

The flight attendants thanked me at the door and they wished me a pleasant day.

The plane arrived in the regional airline terminal at the end of D near gates D60.

Overall

While our Peculiar Ground Experience On American Airlines Minneapolis to Miami started off on a weird note, the flight was good overall. I found the seat to be comfortable and I relaxed on the short three-hour flight. The flight attendants were friendly and were smiling when they interacted with me. It was an enjoyable flight overall.