Getting off of a flight last week there was a bit of a celebration going on, recognizing the American Airlines Washington National airport team as “Customer Cup Winner” for the 2nd quarter of 2013. (Days away from the end of the third quarter it seemed to me like they took quite awhile to tabulate results.)

The recognition was due to survey results for:

• Aircraft cleanliness
  
• Checked baggage delivery
  
• Overall experience with American on this flight
  
• Likelihood to recommend
  
• Flight attendant referred to passenger by name
  
• Flight attendant thanks passenger for business on deplaning
  
• Received a personal thank you for flying American Airlines

Washington National itself is a great, easy airport largely because there’s not a lot of distance from the entrance to the terminal, through security, and to the gates. Rental car pickup and dropoff is easily walkable as well, a big plus for out of town passengers (not to mention that the airport is directly connected to two lines of the city’s metro train system).

The biggest area for improvement, I think, are that there’s currently no TSA PreCheck at the American Airlines pier — not something American controls. The workaround is to head down to the C pier, the next pier over used exclusively by US Airways, and clear PreCheck there. There’s a shuttle bus that runs airside between the two piers, since US Airways also operates flights on the same pier as American which runs every few minutes. And a plus to stopping at the US Airways pier first is access to a Five Guys Burgers.

That’s useful because the other thing lacking overall is quality dining, especially airside. There’s not even an airside Starbucks. Supposedly many of the airport leases are concluding and there’s an effort afoot to improve. I also find the free wireless internet to be generally poor, and either use internet in the lounge or use my own.

None of those things are about American’s operation per se. On the whole I find the station to be fairly average. The biggest bright spot is one American Airlines employee in particular — Marcos, a bartender in the Admirals Club — who makes probably the best bloody mary I’ve ever had and has great stories to tell. Genuinely nice guy who helps start a trip out right.

If you fly out of Washington National on American, and have lounge access, check if Marcos is working. If he is, order a bloody mary, you won’t regret it.

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