Flying from Washington DC to Los Angeles aboard American Airlines

An American Airlines Boeing 737. Photo / Getty Images

Winston Aldworth flies aboard AA245 from Washington DC to Los Angeles.

The plane: A Boeing 737-800. American Airlines proudly calls itself the world's biggest airline and they fly 304 of these things — plus another 12 737-MAXs (with 88 on order), predominantly on domestic routes. From Boeing's workshops 529 of these 737s were produced each week in 2017. That's more than two a week — and you thought your workplace was busy.

Class: Business.

The seat: 5A — a comfortable spot.

Entertainment: Drop-down screens play the Lego Batman movie.

Conditioned to seatback screens and personal selection of movies, the drop-down screens don't do it for me, but such is life on domestic services.

More promisingly, you can access movies on your own device for free using the plane's Wi-Fi. For inflight entertainment, this is the way of the future, people. You can pay for full Wi-Fi access, too.

Food and drink: Premium passengers get a drink on arrival ("Bourbon and ginger, thanks!"), another shortly after takeoff ("Same again!") and a regular flow throughout ("Don't mind if I do!"). For dinner we had a choice between sirloin or a pretty darn fine vegetarian lasagne.

Fellow passengers: American business commuters.

Service: Mindy is a superstar.

Airport experience: Trick for young players: There are two airports servicing Washington. I flew into Dulles and very nearly caught a (45-minute) Uber back there, before checking my ticket. Ronald Reagan International Airport is heaps closer to the central city.