The route formed a V shape. The image shows the driving route, just to illustrate the locations of the three airports.
Redeeming Miles
I redeemed this entire trip with AA miles, spending a total of 25,000 miles, which was a very solid redemption value. Domestic AA award pricing depends only on the origin and destination, and the mileage cost is the same even if you need a connection, so using AA miles for connecting flights and BA for nonstop flights is usually the better strategy. For the detailed award chart, see our site:
Where did my miles come from? Credit card welcome bonuses!
- I earned 60,000 miles from the Citi AAdvantage Platinum credit card. You can find our introduction to this card here.
- I earned 25,000 miles from the Citi AAdvantage Gold credit card, which has since been discontinued.
However, if you especially like American Airlines miles or want to earn more of them, you can also keep an eye on these credit cards:
- Barclays Aviator Red credit card: the current welcome bonus is 60,000 AA miles;
- Citi AAdvantage MileUp Card: the current welcome bonus is 10,000 AA miles + $50. That said, I personally do not recommend applying for this no-annual-fee card; it is better suited as a downgrade option from another Citi AA credit card.
GEG - DFW
- Flight: AA 1774
- Aircraft: Airbus A320-232
The flight path for this segment:
After booking, I was able to select my seat. I chose window seat 6A. Before picking, I checked some reviews online, and most people did not recommend seat 3A in the first row because the bulkhead in front limits legroom.
On departure day, I headed to the airport to check in. Probably because it was a small airport, there was nobody in line when I arrived, and only one counter was open. I checked my bag, got a paper boarding pass, and made it through security without any issue. Then I went to take a look at the gate where we would be boarding later. Only our gate was in use over there.
Maybe because GEG does not have a lounge, it felt like everyone from our little plane was waiting here... (I checked whether GEG had a lounge in the LoungeBuddy app — you can also see our LoungeBuddy guide on the site — and it showed that there was none.)
So I just sat on the airport bench and waited for boarding. Since I was in business class, I was in Group 1, so after passengers with disabilities and military personnel, I boarded in the “first” group. The business class cabin was arranged 2-2, and the domestic U.S. business class “big recliner” seat came with only a bagged blanket.
As soon as I stowed my luggage and sat down, a very stereotypically American “grandma” flight attendant came over and asked what I wanted to drink. You get to keep this pre-departure welcome drink until takeoff, at which point the flight attendant comes by to collect it. While waiting for departure, I took a photo of the “view” outside the window.
After takeoff, I snapped a picture of the engine.
Just as I was about to close my eyes and listen to some music, the flight attendant came by with a small plate of nuts. They were served warm and tasted pretty good.
She also asked what I wanted for the meal. The choices were chicken salad or pork with onions, and I played it safe and chose the salad. In hindsight, maybe the pork with onions would have been better? In any case, this chicken was easily one of the driest I’ve ever had...
Right after the meal came a chocolate cookie. It tasted just like the ones from DoubleTree — delicious!
After eating, I watched a movie, and before long I heard the announcement that we would be landing soon. At that point, the flight attendant came by to remind everyone to fasten their seat belts and handed out a piece of candy. But the strange taste, plus the entire candy being coated in blue coloring, made it pretty weird.
I opened the window shade to look outside, and soon the plane landed at Dallas. DFW really is an AA hub — almost every plane in sight was AA. I also managed to snap a photo of one aircraft in the old livery.
Dallas Airport Gameway Lounge Review
I arrived at Terminal C in Dallas. After getting off the plane, I found out that my next flight had been delayed by several hours, so I figured I would go sit in a lounge for a while. First, I took a look at the airport map. Here is a terminal map photo I took on the airport train. There are five terminals: A, B, C, D, and E.
I thought through which lounges I could access. Even though my ticket was in business class, it was a domestic itinerary, so I could not use any of the AA lounges. I checked the Priority Pass lounges in the LoungeBuddy app (you can also read our LoungeBuddy guide), and none of them looked very good. The only one that really caught my eye was this Gameway lounge. There are Gameway lounges in Terminals B and E.
I found that getting to any terminal required taking the Skylink train, and Terminal E was the closest from Terminal C, so I decided to go check out E. The train runs in two directions, but as shown above, both follow the outside of the loop. And the Skylink name is quite fitting — you need to take the elevator up one level from the boarding level to ride it.
After getting on the train, I arrived at Terminal E very quickly after two stops. After walking for a bit, I saw Gate E16, and the gaming lounge I wanted to visit was right next to it.
At the front desk, I showed my PP card to the staff. They let you pick any two snacks you want (I chose Skittles and chocolate), and then you can also choose one drink (the staff will default to giving you a cold one).
At the time, there were only two people inside the lounge playing games, and from what they were saying, it sounded like they were doing some kind of testing.
We stopped worrying about the others, grabbed the controllers and headphones the staff member gave us, and sat down in front of the game console. The couch was pretty comfortable, too.
At first I wasn’t planning to play games, so I checked out the movies first. But each movie required an extra fee, so I gave up on that... I asked the staff member, and any extra charges would be added at check out.
So I decided to play some games instead. The adventure version of Plants vs. Zombies, The King of Fighters, and that car-soccer game were all too hard for me, but Spider-Man was great for admiring the New York scenery, hhh (I picked the tallest building in the area and jumped up there...)
Before check out, I took a photo of the front desk. The staff guy actually looked pretty bored too. He told me he’d been working there for more than half a year and didn’t feel like playing any games anymore...
When I left, since I hadn’t spent anything extra, I just let him know and headed out.
Then I grabbed a casual fast-food dinner, and since I still had time, I rode the Skylink around the airport once...
DFW - MKE
- Flight: AA 1234
- Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Annoyingly, by the time this flight was finally ready to depart, it had been delayed to almost 12 a.m. First, here’s a look at the seat layout, which was the same as the previous flight. But luckily, no one was sitting next to me, YAY! And this plane had screens for watching/playing stuff!
The onboard entertainment setup (screen + remote).
The white lights on both sides of the plane even gave me the illusion, when I was organizing the photos later, that it was daytime...
After that it was basically the same routine: they asked what I wanted to drink, and this time I got ginger ale. So good, thumbs up! The only downside was that in the U.S., drinks come with ice by default, and I forgot to say no ice, so it took up part of my drink volume, hahaha.
The seat next to me—you can tell the seats were a lot newer too. At this point the cabin was still lit with white light, so even though it was deep into the night, the photo still looked like it was taken in daytime.
And here’s the legroom between my seat and the seat in front. I could still stretch my legs out diagonally.
After takeoff, the cabin turned “sky blue,” which was a really soothing color.
After takeoff, I spent a little time playing around with the screen, which was showing that the plane had just departed.
Then I checked out the movie channel too, and the newest one seemed to be Aquaman. But when I asked the flight attendant, they had already run out of headphones, so I let it go.
Not long after takeoff, my beloved ginger ale came around for a second round, along with warm nuts; the plane was shaking so much that the photo came out blurry...
After the flight attendant collected everything, I fell asleep. By the time I woke up, the plane was already descending... So I’ll end with this nighttime shot of the engine that I took before falling asleep.
