A321 Captain reported that the #1 Flight Attendant reported smoke and fumes emanating during cruise. The smoke and fumes dissipated but reappeared on descent; prompting a request to Maintenance to inspect the aircraft upon landing.

Narrative

While approximately 2 hours into the cruise phase of flight; we were notified by our #1 [Flight Attendant] Crewmember of an apparent odor emanating from an area between rows XX-XY. The odor was summarily described as burning wire insulation. The odor was not described as emanating from the environmental aircraft systems and was temporary; not persistent in nature. There was no report of concern by any of the customers. I told our [Flight Attendant] to keep me advised and discussed the event as described with my First Officer to assess what might be causing the odor. There was nothing readily apparent on any of our aircraft system displays to locate a possible source. I later asked our [flight attendant] team if the source was coming from any of the overhead storage compartments and they said that the odor seemed to be emanating from the floor area. There were no further reports of odor from the aforementioned area for the rest of the flight until beginning the approach phase of flight at 10;000 ft. The same odor was again detected by our inflight team and we advised them that we would be landing shortly and would have a Maintenance Technician inspect. I was not advised of any customers that may have been impacted by this cabin odor event. A write-up was placed in the logbook describing this event and maintenance representative requested to meet flight.