If you don’t know me, I am from Colombia 
a pretty well known country in South America and arguably the most famous country in Latin America behind Mexico 
a lot of popular foods, dances, sights come from my country and even a few popular words. I love my country but in terms of me actually visiting, I haven’t gone in some time. Well that changes today as I begin my week long trip back to the motherland more specifically to a city I haven’t visited yet, Santa Marta which is located on the Caribbean Coast just a bit to the east of Barranquilla. There are no nonstop flights from the United States 
to Santa Marta and I didn’t feel like flying into BAQ. But since I’m going with a cousin from Cali I thought to myself, why not go via CLO? It’s been quite some time since I visited Cali and while I didn’t have a great time then, I’ve heard from family and friends it has improved and I wanna see it for myself. So our plan is that we’ll be fly from Miami, FL 
to Cali on American Airlines Boeing 737MAX8 and later connect onto Santa Marta on one of JetSmarts Airbus A320-200s. This will only be about the MIA - CLO leg however, thanks for joining me and off we go!
Our trip starts bright and early at 7:00am here at Miami International Airport’s north terminal concourse D housing majority of American Airlines operations here. Check in was done online pretty simply however I still had to make the baggage drop off line due to me bringing a checked bag along with my personal item. As the Labor Day weekend and Summer 
travel season come to an end, the lines for both bag drop and security where pretty minimal and I was done with both within only 15 minutes. As a @NonStopsAviation tradition, I stopped by Cafe Versailles for a Cafe con Leche because hey it’s the 305 that means best Cuban 
food in the country right? Since I’m here really early and with the rise of crowds in this terminal, I decided to pay a visit to the Admirals Club since I needed to finish up an assignment for my Government class and wanted some peace and quiet. Once I got done with that, I chatted with a few of the staff members, grabbed a few bites to eat before leaving and making my to gate D42 which is hosting our flight down south this morning!
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: Miami Intl (MIA/KMIA)
Destination: Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International (CLO/SKCL)
Flight Time: 3:03
Boeing 737-8MAX (American Airlines)
Server: Expert
Taking me to the Valle del Cauca this morning will be N338ST, a 5 year old Boeing 737MAX8 but only delivered to American Airlines in February 2021. Anyways, this will also be my first time flying the MIA - CLO route on a B38M as I’ve flown it previously on their Boeing 737-800s, Boeing 757-200s and even one of Avianca’s Airbus A320s.
Boarding commenced soon after and while waiting for my group to be called, I noticed a good chunk of people also representing the Colombia National Team as we take on Bolivia 
tonight in Barranquilla for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. Maybe I should’ve flown into BAQ instead lol, anyways my group was announced shortly after and I made my way to the aircraft.
American Airlines B737MAX8s have the same interior as their B737-800s featuring 172 seats total in a 2 class configuration. Upfront are 16 Collins MiQ seats in a 2-2 configuration making up the first class cabin although on international flights like this one, I’d be business class. Behind that are 132 Collins Meridian seats in a 3-3 configuration in the economy cabin with 24 of them being extra legroom “Main Cabin Extra” seats.
I’m in 24A for this almost 4 hour flight down to Colombia which I find acceptable. Yeah while it’s not something I’d love to be in especially on their longer cross country flight. I can definitely handle this for a flight of this length, I mean I managed to survive a normal tight Spirit Airlines seat on a flight from Fort Lauderdale, FL 
to Los Angeles, CA 
so this is pretty much nothing to me now. It’s been reverse ops for the past week or so and today was no different except that instead of using runway 26L which we are closer to, we used RWY 27 on the south side of the airport strange but it gave me a good tour around the multiple concourses here at MIA so there’s that.
I’m not a big fan of reverse ops departures as I much prefer standard ones, but it was still cool to experience something different. Hopefully the winds stay like this when I return because a reverse ops arrival is something else
anyways, peace out Miami 
of we go to Colombia!
After a westward departure from MIA, we continued our path south like we normally do reaching our cruising altitude of 35,000ft just off the coast of Cuba
The crew soon shortly commenced the onboard service which was pretty much as you’d expect if you saw my previous trip to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos 
a few weeks ago. Just a simple snacks and beverage is all what we’re really getting this morning. I received some biscoff cookies along with a Coke as is tradition 
I really enjoyed what I was offered as it makes a great simple snack which is all that is truly necessary on this flight. Yes a full meal would be nice it just truly isn’t necessary given the flight time. That does however mean I would like to see American possibly bring back some of their pre pandemic menu items as this is the same treatment you get on the 5+ hour cross country or Lima, Peru 
flights which I can agree is pretty poor. The crew were really great especially 2 guys both named Juan and from Cali, they said that they love going back to the motherland or mother city specifically when they get the chance and they were happy for me when I said this is my first time returning in almost 2 years, 5 stars for them! 
As far as entertainment goes, there are NO seat back screens but that doesn’t mean you’ll be bored. You can access AAs inflight WiFi for free and check out their streaming library which contains a great amount of content to watch. Internet access is pretty pricey which I decided to skip out on like always since I already finished my assignment in the lounge before boarding. I haven’t seen American Housewife in a while and I don’t really all that much about it so how about we spend this flight watching it.
A few minutes later, we were passing right by Jamaica
with a view over the capital city of Kingston.
Soon enough, the Caribbean coast of Colombia
came into view. It was definitely a nice brief moment of excitement to see this marvelous sight again! 
About 30 minutes after entering Colombian airspace, it was time to begin our approach into Cali. We flew right down the valley over cities like Tulua and Buga, we past the airport on right downwind over Palmira before making a 180 flying directly in the middle of both Palmira and Cali and coming to land on CLOs RWY 02.
It might be tough to see it but off in the distance you can spot Armenia, the capital of the Quindio department. Despite it having a small 4 gate airport, they actually do manage to maintain nonstop flights to the US with Spirit serving the airport from Fort Lauderdale this along with their Bucaramanga link have me concerned given their recent bankruptcy. Will American try and fill in the void or will these services just vanish?
After a smooth descent through the valley and that famous final turn, we were now on final for CLOs RWY 02 with a view of Cali in the background. It feels amazing to be able to see this view again after all these years
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome to Cali, Colombia
man does it feel great to be back where I came from even if it isn’t the main reason as to why I’m back in the motherland in the first place. Anyways, how was my flight on American Airlines B737MAX8? Well it was actually pretty decent. The seats were comfortable enough for this flight, the food while not anything amazing was still decent as far as AA’s standards are these days and we even had 2 of the best flight attendants I’ve ever encountered. One thing I’d change about American or maybe second question is their choice on BYOD entertainment, yeah it’s more economically viable but the thing is that your 2 biggest competitors United and Delta are starting to offer them while you guys slack behind and a lot of people myself included would much rather have seat back screens whenever possible especially for that inflight map 
but other than that, I had a good experience on American and would gladly chose them again.
It was great feeling to step back into Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport’s international terminal and while my aircraft begins preparing for its turn around to head back to Miami
I will be heading off to passport control 
and in typical Colombian fashion, it took a good amount of time to get through maybe like 30 minutes after entering the line or so. Luckily, this gave time for my bag to come out so I didn’t really have to wait for that and I was soon clear and back into the world of el Valle del Cauca. I wouldn’t actually enter Cali today as my cousin who is making his way from Dagua can’t enter the city due to his car having Pico y Placa which is essentially a restriction on car usage during the week. So in the time between me arriving and our departing flight to Santa Marta, we simply cruised around the beautiful Colombian countryside which I gotta say was one of the most peaceful moments I’ve ever experienced while in Colombia
We’ll pick up from here tomorrow, thank you for joining me on this flight from Miami, FL to Cali, Colombia on American Airlines Boeing 737MAX8 in main cabin. Stay tuned for our JetSmart flight to the coast and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 
