This past weekend, my wife and I made a quick visit to Islamorada in the Florida Keys for a friend’s 50th birthday party. Most of the guests were her family and local friends, but a few of us were from out of town and a surprise to her when we showed up. I’ll have a review of the hotel (Cheeca Lodge) in another post and I’ll also have a post that compares Delta First Class with American First Class. This post will compare American Main Cabin Extra with Delta Comfort Plus.

How did we, as Delta frequent flyers, end up on American for this trip? Well, we both had some expiring flight credits that date back to some American gift cards received back in 2020. I had booked a trip with them last year that we ended up canceling so they were due to expire in late 2023. As we had no other plans to use the credits this year, I decided it made sense for this trip as there are nonstop flights to Miami from Atlanta. It also was about $100 cheaper than flying Delta for the dates we needed.

We had an 11:15am departure on Friday morning and a late 9:40pm return on Sunday night. When I booked the flights, I just grabbed regular Main Cabin seats. In the end, it was $97 per person to upgrade the return flight to First Class and about 2.5k AA miles per person to upgrade the outbound flight to Main Cabin Extra. I decided to splurge as we had mostly used the flight credits to pay for the original ticket so the cash outlay was still low.

We boarded a little late, but despite all the rough weather around this summer, we were pretty much on time. Here are a couple of pictures.

I’ll give a quick comparison of the features of both AA Main Cabin Extra and Delta Comfort Plus:

Boarding: AA boards Main Cabin Extra with Group 5, which includes AA credit card holders and people with over 15,000 Loyalty Points earned. Delta has a separate boarding group for Comfort Plus. Winner: Delta

Seat Features: On the specific aircraft we flew (A319), AA had in-flight entertainment screens and power plugs at each seat. YMMV on this as many AA aircraft do not have screens. Delta has screens on every plane except its 717s and a few second-hand 737-900s that are waiting to be refurbished. Delta also has two power ports for every three seats, but I’ve never had to fight over these. Winner: Tie (for my specific AA aircraft)

Seat Comfort: The cushioning and legroom on AA and Delta are similar. I know AA has the newer Oasis cabins that people complain about, but our plane was fine. The winged headrest would not stay up on my seat, but that can happen on Delta as well sometimes. Winner: Tie

Internet: Delta has free internet on the majority of its aircraft now. Even on ones that don’t yet have the new Viasat Wi-Fi, they offer free messaging. AA had nothing for free on our flight unless you are a T-Mobile customer, not even if you watch a few commercials first (which I have seen on prior AA flights). I wasn’t paying $12 for a one hour and 20 minute flight. I was fairly surprised that free messaging wasn’t even offered. Hopefully AA will catch up in my lifetime. Winner: Delta

Service: AA flight attendants were friendly and professional on this flight. We were given a drink service, including alcohol options (I had water) and a snack, which was just pretzels. On Delta in Comfort Plus (and even in regular Main Cabin) there is almost always a choice of snack. Winner: Delta (for the snack choice)

In Flight Entertainment: Both have a decent selection of movies and TV shows. On most Delta planes, there is also a live TV option with about 15 channels. AA definitely has a better moving map with the cockpit view and other customizable views. Delta is beginning to implement this on their maps as well. AA loses major points for the constant annoying interruptions for every prerecorded announcement that interrupts the IFE during boarding, after takeoff and prior to landing. AA flight attendants seem to only make announcements when they are selling credit cards. Delta flight attendants handle all the announcements manually and do it much more efficiently. Winner: Delta

So, the AA Main Cabin Extra seat was pretty much the same as Delta Comfort Plus, but the other features show Delta as the clear winner. We can almost always get Comfort Plus seats at the time of purchase thanks to my Platinum status and I’ve already requalified for 2024 (and probably 2025 based on my MQM rollovers). Even without many First Class upgrades out of Atlanta, I’m pretty happy with sitting in Comfort Plus for most of our flights, which are two hours or less.

If you enjoyed this post (or have questions), let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.