Good afternoon from Barcelona, Spain 
and I have to say, I really enjoyed my time here. The whole atmosphere of the city was really nice and being on the coast made things feel a lot less claustrophobic compared to Madrid. The nightlife here was also much much better than in Madrid and pretty much everywhere else I’ve been in throughout Europe. The only complaint I can really say I had during my time here is the locals, some were nice but others just weren’t. Numerous times I’ve been to areas of the cities covered in graffiti saying things like “tourists go home” or “you’re not welcome here” I understand some tourists can be bad and wreck-less, I mean during March a lot of young college students come down to where I live and absolutely cause mayhem on the beaches and surrounding areas. The city of Miami Beach literally put a curfew because of these people and police patrol is just everywhere. One thing they do have to realize though is that a good chunk of Barcelonas economy comes from tourism so their city wouldn’t be what it is today without them so be careful for what you wish for! My time here however, has come to an end and it’s time head back home. We’ll be flying to Miami, FL 
on American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in main cabin so let’s head to the airport to begin the journey back home!
After a quick and easy Uber ride from the city center, we have arrived at Josep Tarradellas-El Prat International Airport which is one of 2 airports serving Barcelona. The other one being Sabadell Airport which really is just a general aviation airport while BCN sees all the commercial traffic into the city. American Airlines uses terminal 1 here and they have a good amount of space here as they have a good chunk of flights here. They only serve Miami and Philadelphia year round but during the summer, they also serve Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago-O’Hare and New York JFK 
The only hubs left out of the BCN party are Charlotte, Phoenix/Sky Harbor and Los Angeles 
although I could see AA announcing CLT - BCN service as part of their Summer 2027 schedule. The big space dedicated for American proved to be necessary as the terminal was PACKED with their passengers all departing to one of the 6 destinations they fly to from here. As such, dropping off my bags took a lot longer than usual and so did the security check maybe like 20 minutes each. Given we were leaving the Schengen Area, a passport control 
was necessary after security which took just as long so it took me an ENTIRE HOUR between arriving at the airport and clearing all the checks. I had an hour remaining until boarding and decided to spend it by walking around the terminal getting in some steps and to see the various aircraft and airlines serving Barcelona. I also stopped a duty free store to grab some gum and snacks for the flight but I also bought 2 perfumes that I found a good deal on. Now it was to head to the gate and await boarding time.
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat (BCN/LEBL)
Destination: Miami Intl 
(MIA/KMIA)
Flight Time: 9:37
Boeing 787-8 (American Airlines)
Server: Expert
Here at gate 295 is our ride to the 305
this afternoon. N885BP a 2 year Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner delivered to American Airlines in March 2023 although it was leased by BOC Aviation at one point. She had just come in from Chicago-O’Hare and is now getting turned around to head back to the states but to the tropics of South Florida 
instead of the windy Midwest.
Boarding commenced right on time, an amazing upgrade from my MIA - BCN flight if you remember how that went. I boarded not long after because of my AAdvantage status.
Like I mentioned in the previous installment, AA has 2 types of B787-8s the newer ones and the older ones. But they both feature 234 seats across 3 cabins and heck, the cabin configurations are the exact same apart from the seat models so it doesn’t matter which B788 you fly as the amount of seats in each cabin are the exact same across the 2 variants. We are back on the new variant which I talked about on the MIA - BCN trip report so if you want the specifics, check that out first and then come back here.
Unfortunately, I also failed to reserve a premium economy seat once again but I was able to get a similar seat to the one I was in previously. I’m located in seat 19A at the very back of the first section of economy class and waiting on the seat was a pillow and blanket but NO water bottle. A bit strange but it’s okay as this is a daytime flight. We spent a little bit of unwanted extra time at the gate because of 2 passengers having a bit of trouble finding their seat and some typical summer Barcelona congestion but our arrival into Miami shouldn’t be effected by this. So let’s pushback and make our quick taxi to BCNs runway 06R for take off!
¡Hasta la próxima Barcelona!
After a GORGEOUS climb out of Barcelona along with a close up view of the city, we have reached our initial cruising altitude of 36,000ft before climbing up to 40,000ft as we fly past the north eastern United States
down below is the Spanish city of Bilbao which is growing and actually got its first and only U.S. connection last summer as United Airlines started serving the city from its hub in Newark. Nearby is the city of A Coruña where I also have a good amount of family in as well so that’ll probably be my next destination in Spain unless I find a steal on a trip to Ibiza or Palma de Mallorca.
It’s lunch time and to eat we had the option between chicken or pasta but in reality it was pasta for both options you just chose to have chicken or not have any. I chose to have the chicken 
accompany the pasta 
which came alongside a piece of cold bread 
with butter, side salad 
and 2 small chocolate chip cookies 
for dessert alongside a water bottle and beverage of your choice which I chose a Coke. It tested fairly above average, nothing I’d pick at a restaurant on the ground or make at home but I’m happy to have this in the air in this cozy Dreamliner. The crew were also very friendly and professional but they didn’t really appear at all outside of food and beverage services and regular walk arounds to collect trash so I have to give them 4 stars 
As for the entertainment available, we’re looking at the exact same setup as we did on the MIA - BCN flight. A good selection of movies and TV shows, games, moving map and free WiFi to access the streaming library on a personal device. Internet access is still an extra charge which I didn’t bother with. I was somewhat surprised to see the Final Destination movies on the IFE given that they can be pretty brutal. My best guess is probably because these screens have a filter on them making it pretty much impossible to see them from different angles like from my neighbors seats or the aisle and the fact that there was no row behind me it just made more sense. AA still provides a warning before the beginning of the film about its content so you can’t say you weren’t warned. I sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the film while snacking on the snacks I bought on the ground at BCN.
3 movies later, we find ourselves above US soil
with a view of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, MA. This area along with Alaska are parts of the country that I really want to visit one day hopefully in 2026!
At this point, I had gotten bored of watching movies so I decided to check out the games section where I found UNO and just decided to play for pretty much the rest of the flight.
We pretty much continued our journey south alongside the eastern seaboard passing by states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia before reaching the South over North Carolina and heading back into the Atlantic just a bit to the northeast of Wilmington, NC.
By this time, the crew had begun the pre landing service which simply consisted of a small snack wrap similar to the ones sold at McDonald’s. Don’t think that comment is meant to criticize the service, I mean Mickey D’s makes some solid snack wraps and this one was honestly slightly better than theirs but not by much. The crew also offered some of the traditional AA snacks of biscoff cookies or mini pretzels 
if they wanted one of those instead. A choice of beverage was also provided and I decided to have myself another Coke because if your eating a fast food meal, you’re better off having Soda because if you wanted to be healthy why’d you go there in the first place?
Soon enough the blue waters of the Bahamas
came into view and it time to begin our approach into Miami we flew directly along the coasts of Palm Beach and Broward counties before turning inland over Sunny Isles Beach/Aventura in northern Dade County. We flight right over Hialeah on left downwind before making a 180 over the Everglades 
and coming in to land on MIAs RWY 8R.
Down below you can make out Downtown, Brickell, Port Miami, Venetian Islands and the 4 causeways crossing Biscayne Bay. Across the bay you can also see Mid, Miami and South Beaches. 
After an eventful flyover of Hialeah and MIA, we find ourselves on final for RWY 8R in the same path we departed from last Friday. This time, we are looking northbound on the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike towards Hialeah Gardens and Miramar. Dolphin Mall
Miami International Mall and Florida International University are also located nearby.
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome back to Miami, FL
and the end of another fantastic trip. To start things off, this flight went MUCH SMOOTHER than my flight to Barcelona mostly because we were on time although I preferred the overall service on the first flight mainly because the crew never broke character despite the long delay. This flights crew were still great however who helped deliver some solid meals as far as AA goes. The seats and IFE were also sufficient and I found it cool that they offered the Final Destination series despite the content in those films. All in all, I had a good experience with American on BOTH flights and would happily choose them on my next trip to Spain
Welcome back to Miami International Airport! Our aircraft will sit here for the next 5-6 hours or so before embarking tonight on a journey south to Santiago, Chile
I am not looking forward to how passport control will go this afternoon-evening as the US government is still shut down with no end in sight meaning a lot these workers won’t bother showing up to work as they aren getting paid. And sure enough the general line looked pretty long and 5pm usually isn’t that busy of a time here. Notice how I said general? Yeah that’s because the global entry line still looked pretty calm and I was through within minutes. My bag also came out fairly quickly and I was soon out the door back in the humidity of South Florida I got back to my car and decided to stop my a McDonald’s to see if their snack wraps are actually better than those served on the plane or if it’s just my taste buds acting up. I hung around Miami watching the evening life before heading back home to get some rest before embarking on another overseas trip soon.
That will be it regarding this flight from Barcelona, Spain to Miami, FL on Amerian Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in main cabin. Stay tuned as we head back to the Middle East on ANOTHER Middle Eastern carrier but not one you’d expected and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 