PS: Ignore the fact that the aircraft lights are off in each picture, it’s just a bug
Some of you may remember that almost 2 years for Thanksgiving 2023 I went to Spain 
for specifically the capital city of Madrid. I went there mostly because I had family who had just recently moved there from Cali, Colombia 
back in 2022. I had a good time there but the truth is, I still had a lot to check out in that beautiful country. One of those places is arguably the country’s main tourist destination, Barcelona. It is situated on the Mediterranean coast which already gives it a bigger appeal to tourists than Madrid. I’ve heard this similarly to Paris, France 
the locals are not too fond with tourists coming in and invading their city and filling it up. Well not really because when I went to Paris last November, most of the locals were really friendly and I had a great time. Hopefully Barcelona will be the same not sure though especially with the current climate in the air and I’m not talking about actual climate. The plan is also pretty simple, fly from Miami, FL 
to Barcelona with American Airlines on their somewhat new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in main cabin I’m glad your joining me on this trip and let’s get going!
I’ve said this like 100 times already but I’ll continue to say it each time, American Airlines uses the north terminal concourse D here at Miami International Airport for their base of operations here. MIA is Americans 3rd biggest hub behind Charlotte and Dallas/Fort Worth as is also the main Caribbean and Latin American gateway. AA is the biggest U.S. Airline in South America and serves or has served every country in the continent except French Guiana 
the major cities and even a few secondary ones. In terms of long haul flights, they have services to Europe and Deep South American however the latter is clearly the airlines focus. Year round the only destinations are London-Heathrow, UK 
and the 2 main Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona. They do have 2 seasonal flights one to Paris-CDG, France and a new one to Rome-Fiumicino, Italy 
which was inaugurated earlier in June. That isn’t the end of the story as they also said that after a 6 year hiatus, they will restart flights between MIA and Milan-Malpensa, Italy which I have to fly once it starts back up. I always check in online and today was no exception, however I still had to make the baggage drop off line because I don’t think it’s possible to pack 2 sets of clothes per day for a weeklong trip in a backpack or carry on. One thing that did have me concerned was security, I have TSA Pre Check so it wouldn’t be as bad but I made sure to give myself more time because of the government shutdown. Thankfully, it only took like an extra 2-3 minutes than usual and we were soon airside. 2pm I’d say is a pretty boring time here at MIA just departures and arrivals from domestic destinations and mostly narrow-bodies. Well except for one, the Madrid flight arrives at around 1:40pm and the flight to MAD leaves at 3:15pm meaning that I saw the Boeing 777-200ER who will also be flying to Spain with us this afternoon. Or so I thought, the flight to Barcelona actually ended up being delayed due to weather around the 305 which is pretty normal as we leave Hurricane Season 
behind. This was the first but definitely not the last of delAAys I experienced on this trip.
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: Miami Intl 
(MIA/KMIA)
Destination: Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat (BCN/LEBL)
Flight Time: 8:04
Boeing 787-8 (American Airlines)
Server: Expert
Now what happened? Well Mother nature happened basically. The weather continued to get worse and worse and our departure time got pushed back further and further to the point that we’d depart at NIGHT rather than in the afternoon like we were supposed to. Anyways N871AY will be our ride to Spain
tonight, a 5 year old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner delivered to American Airlines in April 2020. It contains a newer hard product compared to the older Dreamliners although don’t get it twisted, it’s not the same ones found on their new B787-9Ps that they took delivery of earlier this year.
After waiting for hours and hours, we finally began boarding but the problems weren’t over yet. Me as a high tier AAdvantage member was able to board in group 4 with the passengers in Premium Economy.
Both of American Airlines B787-8 variants have 234 seats in total split in a 3 class configuration. Upfront are the 20 flagship business seats set up in a 1-2-1 configuration with the seat model chosen being Safran Concept Ds. Behind that are 28 Collins Aerospace MiQ seats in a 2-3-2 configuration for the premium economy cabin. These are the same seat models used in the domestic first class cabin on the majority of their narrow-bodies. Behind that are the remaining 186 economy seats in the typical 3-3-3 configuration. AA has chosen the Safran 5751 slimlines which is a great choice as they are pretty comfortable and starting to be common in more long haul economy cabins.
I aimed to try and get a premium economy seat but, unfortunately they were all sold out so settled for seat 19L a preferred seat in the very back of the first section of main cabin. Waiting for me on the seat was a pillow, blanket and water bottle the basic essentials but still well appreciated. Given we were already running 4 hours late, the cabin crew wasted no time getting the cabin secure for departure and neither did the cockpit crew, ground staff or ATC as we got priority pushback over the other aircraft around gate D27. As we were taxing to runway 8R, we stopped and had to make a 180 because ATC decided to flip operations just now making us waste more time. So enjoy a reverse ops departure tonight from RWY 26L instead.
Finally at 9:25pm, the 4:55pm to Barcelona was airborne. Now will I continue to fly American Airlines? Absolutely delays are annoying sure but they happen and this one was directly tied to weather, something completely out of AAs control.
Reverse ops departure take you directly west towards the Everglades
turning north directly over the westernmost suburbs and turning back east towards the Atlantic Ocean 
flying over Northern Miami-Dade/Southern Broward counties. Down below you can catch a view of the Aventura/Sunny Isles Beach area in northern Dade County.
Given the majority of our flight was over ocean and it was dark out, there was pretty nothing to see once we passed Hallandale Beach and we reached our cruising altitude of 39,000ft not long after.
The crew wasted no time getting the dinner service started where we had the same traditional beef, chicken or vegetarian options. I chose the chicken 
which came with some steamed white rice 
side salad, bread roll with butter, water bottle and beverage choice which I chose a Coke. It was pretty good as far as economy meals are on US Airlines still nothing impressive but still enough to get the job done. On the topic of catering, while we were still delayed at MIA the catering crew loaded some breakfast sandwiches as we are now scheduled to arrive at 12:00pm instead of the 7:35am like we initially expected. The crew even despite the delay, treated everyone with nothing but respect and positivity 5 stars for them! 
especially with how stressful flying can be now with the government shutdown.
At this point, I wanted to catch some rest so I’ll wait for the morning to check out the inflight entertainment so see you guys in a few scrolls down.
Good morning and bon appetit from the coast of Portugal
just south of Porto. Our breakfast sandwiches have just been served which came with coffee 
AND orange juice which I found strange since it’s usually one or the other and not both but that’s definitely well appreciated. The napkins they provided also came with a hand written message from the purser saying “sorry about the delay” which I thought was an amazing touch. The sandwiches themselves were also really great although maybe at 10:30am, you’d maybe want a bigger breakfast instead but this flight is only 8 hours long so it works fine I guess.
Now what does AA offer for inflight entertainment? They have seatback screens on their wide-bodies with this 787 having the Panasonic eX2 AVOD system which also comes with Live TV. They have plenty of choices and they work great, the only complaint I have is not really about the system itself but more management choices is why don’t they install these on new narrow-bodies. Yes I know the upcoming Airbus A321XLRs will have them but what about the rest like come guys United and Delta are going forward while AA is just hanging back. WiFi is available also powered by Panasonic for free to access the streaming entertainment page in case your screen doesn’t work or don’t have one. Internet access is an extra charge until 2026 when AAdvanatge members can get free access. Although since it’s still 2025, no free internet for us and I’m not paying $20 for 90 minutes of internet access. I was in the mood to play some games so I decided to play some Angry Birds for the duration of our flight.
We soon crossed into Spain
went through the center flew a little south of Madrid and began our descent right in the middle between Madrid and Barcelona. We continued our path heading straight towards Barcelona besides a small turn to head directly east before heading back on the same heading to come into land on BCNs RWY 06L.
Down below is the Spanish country side directly in between Madrid and Barcelona.
There wasn’t a whole lot to see on our approach besides the landscape so let’s cut to our final approach for RWY 06L. I was hoping to get an actual view over the city but the wind had other plans, so instead we’ll just have to watch us glide down towards the runway with a view of the Mediterranean Sea.
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome to Barcelona, Spain
the final touchdown time is 11:42am almost 4 hours than we were initially supposed to. I could be eating brunch right now, but they these things happen. Now, I actually had a great time on American Airlines tonight. Despite the delays, we were still treated with nothing but positivity from the crew, the seats were great, IFE was sufficient and the meals were great not to mention the extra breakfast sandwich we got due to the later arrival and the apology on the napkins. I overall had a great time on American and I’ll happily choose them again if the price is right whether it be my hard earned money or hard earned miles.
Out of every gate in terminal 2, we were given a corner gate which are quite infamous for offering the worst views. This one was no exception apart from glass jet-bridges, this would easily be the worst gate I’ve ever parked disembarked at in my recent travels. Thankfully one of the friendly ramp workers were kind enough to snag this shot of our Dreamliner preparing for her flight back to Miami
hopefully on time. The delay did give us one positive outcome, it was that there was almost no wait in immigration and customs 
since most of the US inbound flights arrive earlier in the morning including ours if it was on time. My checked bag also came out really quickly so I was soon off to have my brunch a little later than expected before settling into my condo and to also drop off my belongings before we go out and explore what Barcelona has to offer!
That will be it regarding my flight from Miami, FL to Barcelona, Spain on American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in main cabin. Stay tuned for the return back home next weekend and as always between now and the next time, see you in the skies! 
