There’s something special about flying a widebody aircraft domestically. These are larger and usually more spacious planes, designed to take passengers across oceans. Many passengers simply find them more enjoyable. They also have a lot more premium seats, which people will buy when making long journeys.

It used to be common for airlines to fly these birds on domestic routes. In my business travel youth of the late ’90s, United ran a 5 p.m. Boeing 747 from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles, and 5 p.m. 777 to San Francisco.

My first-ever upgrade was Los Angeles to Dulles on a Sunday afternoon onboard a United 777. I didn’t want to get off! An almond dusted shrimp appetizer, steak entree, and dessert… long before inflight wifi, I had a couple of cocktails and the Sunday New York Times. Perfect Sunday that I will never forget. My first time in three-class first was also on United, from Chicago to… Detroit, on a Boeing 767.

Now you’ll find widebodies on domestic routes usually for one of two reasons.

• Repositioning. An airline needs to move the plane from one hub to another. It may be coming in from one international destination, and then needs to move to a different hub for its next international flight. This can happen as a one-off [the plane is being based at a different hub] or as part of a schedule pattern that moves a plane between hubs to support infrequent service.
  
• Counter-seasonal flying. The plane might fly to Europe in the summer, when people want to go there and the airline can make money, but they don’t have a great place to send it in the winter so they put it on a cross-country or Mexico (Cancun) route where it will at least lose less.

I had the opportunity to fly an American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER from Miami to Dallas the other day, and I was unreasonably excited. I hadn’t flown an American widebody domestically in about a year and I was giddy for that experience as well.

Only this flight didn’t quite live up to expectations because the cabin just really wasn’t well-maintained. First, the foot rest cushion was completely detached from the seat. It’s really just velcro’d on, but the velcro was largely gone here.

Maintenance came on board to address the foot rest. “Normally we’d just velcro it back” he told a flight attendant, “but the velcro is gone so I’ll use tape.”

Second, I didn’t have access to seat power for the flight because the power port was loose. This was a frequent problem on American Airlines planes about 8 years ago, so much so that they developed an internal process and special tool to fix, only to delay any form of implementation because fixing power outlets that wouldn’t hold plugs was deemed too costly.

I used to always keep a UK power adapter in my laptop bag for just this sort of eventuality. The three prongs would generally grip the power port well enough to stay in, letting me get a charge. Would you believe I pulled it out of my bag just two weeks ago? I hadn’t been on a plane where I needed it in so long I figured fewer items in the bag was better. I’ve now changed my mind!

These seats and cabins are on the way out. American Airlines is eliminating Flagship First Class on these Boeing 777-300ERs, and introducing business class suites with doors as well (and also on new delivery Boeing 787-9s). That project is delayed, so I wonder whether the ‘imminent’ replacement of seats is what leads to a more haphazard approach to cabin maintenance.