The flagship of American’s fleet is the Boeing 777-300ER, which American presently has 18 of, with two more on order. It really is a gorgeous plane and in many ways globally competitive.
The 777-300ER has a first class cabin, though it’s not all that impressive.
American’s new first class
The impressive part of the plane is the business class cabin, which features one of the best reverse herringbone business class products out there.
American’s new business class
The plane also has Wi-Fi, which is a huge selling point for me. After seat comfort, availability of Wi-Fi is the second most important plane feature to me, since it means I can stay caught up on work while flying.
Given that this is a fairly large plane, and that American has only 18 of these, they use them for a very limited number of destinations. American only flies 777-300ER aircraft to Hong Kong, London, Sao Paulo, and Sydney. Hong Kong, London, and Sydney make perfect sense, though given the economy in Brazil right now, I’m sort of surprised by how many of these planes they’re flying there.
I guess the numbers reflect that, because American is taking a 777-300ER off the Miami to Sao Paulo route, and instead flying it from Miami to Buenos Aires. While Argentina isn’t in much better shape, I’m guessing it’s still a more popular destination at the moment, or at least is proportionally underserved.
Via airlineroute.net, the following flight will be operated by a 777-300ER as of April 5, 2016:
AA931 Miami to Buenos Aires departing 10:20PM arriving 8:11AM (+1 day)
AA900 Buenos Aires to Miami departing 8:00PM arriving 4:23AM (+1 day)
This flight will replace a three class 777-200ER, featuring American’s old first class product and angled business class product. So that’s quite a nice upgrade for Miami to Buenos Aires.
American’s old first class
American’s old business class
Meanwhile one of the Miami to Sao Paulo frequencies, as well as the Sao Paulo frequencies out of Dallas and New York, are operated by 777-300ERs. So overall I’d consider this to be positive news. If you really want to fly the 777-300ER to Sao Paulo, there are still plenty of options for doing so. And now you have a new destination to which you can get onto the 777-300ER as well.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bottom line
This is great news for any American flyers going to Buenos Aires. Given the state of the economy in Brazil, I’m sort of surprised they haven’t taken more 777-300ERs off those routes. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see a few more of these swaps over the coming year.
Are you excited about American introducing 777-300ER flights to Buenos Aires?
It really is a beautiful looking craft. See it regularly in Sydney and looks just sleek compared to say an A380 which is my usual ride to the US. Will definitely book on AA next trip
AA's 77Ws are great, for business class.
I really don't understand why AA didn't just add some higher walls and some sliding doors to its F on these planes.... seems like a really easy add-on to make a really premium product.
Even the flights to LHR can be downgraded from 773 to 772. My flight, LHR-DFW on Jan 24th (#51) was downgraded to a 772, and J was then oversold. A few got a free upgrade to F, but they were talking about downgrading some J passengers to Y.
I was asked to go to the counter (for downgrade to Y) but then a couple of F seats opened so she said I was OK...
Even the flights to LHR can be downgraded from 773 to 772. My flight, LHR-DFW on Jan 24th (#51) was downgraded to a 772, and J was then oversold. A few got a free upgrade to F, but they were talking about downgrading some J passengers to Y.
I was asked to go to the counter (for downgrade to Y) but then a couple of F seats opened so she said I was OK - meaning OK to stay in J. I would have requested to be moved to the LA flight if a downgrade was a possibility.
Since my fight home from DFW was cancelled on Sunday, I had any and all options opened (per Flagship check in agent). She was looking at DFW-LAX-DCA routing etc. Turns out I had to overnight in DFW and standby the next day to get home. So I could have flown around some more.
Point is many of the flights to LHR are now on 772s (except the LAX flights). JFK is down to one 77W per day now.
Argentinian here. Really looking forward to flying business in the new EZE-MIA 77W in may. I flew both First once and Business a few times in the old 772 and I thought First was great, but Business wasn´t really good, specially the tight 2-3-2 config. That´s why I want to see what they´ve done with the 777-300ER here and I´m even trying to change my DFW-EZE (772) return through MIA or at least JFK which...
Argentinian here. Really looking forward to flying business in the new EZE-MIA 77W in may. I flew both First once and Business a few times in the old 772 and I thought First was great, but Business wasn´t really good, specially the tight 2-3-2 config. That´s why I want to see what they´ve done with the 777-300ER here and I´m even trying to change my DFW-EZE (772) return through MIA or at least JFK which has the new two class reverse business. It´s kind of crazy that they have all three configs for EZE bound flights, which one should I choose if given availability, 777 (new 777-200) or 77W (777-300ER)?
@Ian : Soon you will be able to do it through GRU, since JJ will start flying to JNB. And with the JV between BA,JJ and AA, I think it may take less time to do so.
Joe, I want to know that too. I'm booked in F on a 777-200 ORD->LHR later this year and would love if it were replaced by the 777-300ER, but not holding my breath.
I would really like to know if and when AA will fly from MIA to South Africa. Going via LHR takes 2 days with 12 hours in LHR. Really a pain!
I've got 3A on MIA-LAX next month on the 77W. American blocks this flight at almost 6 hours. I'm sure the service won't be the same as on an international flight, but it is still a great way to experience the 77W without paying international business-class fares or trying to find SWU space on them internationally. What other domestic routes use these planes and remodeled 772s?
I agree on a LAX-CDG route; the only current way to fly the 77W is through LHR and pay their expensive taxes and fees. LAX-HKG also seems like a natural route as well, and it would be a great backup if CX wasn't available on that route.
I'm excited...I'm looking at award travel to either GRU or EZE now and it's easier to get a First Saver award to GRU if I want to be on the newer 77W. I think the first class looks great (people love to criticize First), but after watching the AA YouTube channel and seeing both F and B and reading about the business class reverse herringbone layout I'd be happy to be in either class. I...
I'm excited...I'm looking at award travel to either GRU or EZE now and it's easier to get a First Saver award to GRU if I want to be on the newer 77W. I think the first class looks great (people love to criticize First), but after watching the AA YouTube channel and seeing both F and B and reading about the business class reverse herringbone layout I'd be happy to be in either class. I will always love the idea of First Class and I think having only four or eight seats in First is rather sweet. It makes it more exclusive. Why have 16 seats if half are always empty?
Thank God a lot of the readers here have sense. I follow some other blogs and forum and the idea foreign have is that everyone in Brazil is poor now...
As you guys know, everytime a country enters in a financial crisis, the ones that suffer the most are the poorest ones and the middle class. The richest become richer. And Brazil is a huge country (not only the Amazon, São Paulo and Rio...
Thank God a lot of the readers here have sense. I follow some other blogs and forum and the idea foreign have is that everyone in Brazil is poor now...
As you guys know, everytime a country enters in a financial crisis, the ones that suffer the most are the poorest ones and the middle class. The richest become richer. And Brazil is a huge country (not only the Amazon, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, guys!) with a lot of money running around within the country, specially in the agriculture field.
I remember back in 2011/12 you could buy a RT in Y from GRU-MIA-GRU for about US1.000. Back then this US1.000 was around R$1.500,00. Totally doable for pretty much a lot of people here. Nowadays our currency is so devalued that US1.000 = R$4.500,00. So airlines company have decreased the price of the ticket in USD in order to keep pretty much the same price in the brazilian currency, which means that what once was a money machine maker even in Y, now it isn't. I think that the cheap oil must help a little bit.
Do you have any idea if AA will fly the B777-300ER from ORD?
NC and Robert T are both right - as an expat living in Brazil, I am shocked at the amount of money in the country and the number of people that travel in Business and First from Brazil to the US (and have no problem dropping thousands of dollars for their 5 yr old children to travel in premium cabins as well.)
Lucky - just a suggestion...stick with your trip reviews and complaining about superfluous things, versus trying to make uninformed economic observations.
I'm flying the 777-300 ER from DFW-LHR in June and on a return leg MIA-LAX in March.
NC poster is right. The number of expat Brazilians living in the U.S. exploded over the past 20 years. Boston, NYC, Wash. D.C. and Florida are havens for hundreds of thousands of upper middle class and very rich Brazilians. Also, Brazilians have bought homes in the U.S. but still work/live in Brazil. They bought them for investments and as a quick escape valve in case Brazil goes down the tubes. It's the same all over...
NC poster is right. The number of expat Brazilians living in the U.S. exploded over the past 20 years. Boston, NYC, Wash. D.C. and Florida are havens for hundreds of thousands of upper middle class and very rich Brazilians. Also, Brazilians have bought homes in the U.S. but still work/live in Brazil. They bought them for investments and as a quick escape valve in case Brazil goes down the tubes. It's the same all over the world. Miami is the epicenter of the South American exodus. Venezuelans, Colombians by the hundreds of thousands now live in So. Florida. All mainly middle and upper classes who don't see a rosy future back home, but they like to travel back and forth all the same. For the airlines these population resettlements ensure business. Consider Ethiopia. How many U.S. flights to that country existed only 25 years ago. None. With tens of thousands of Ethiopians now in North America the demand has exploded for air travel. Ditto Nigeria, Somalia, Eritrea. So the mass migration allowed by Europe, Canada, Australia, U.S. pumps up the air travel demand.
Actually the Brazilian economy situation, wont change in a near future, but also.. doesn't change the number of people who travels from Sao Paulo to US. Brazilian rich minority will still keep visiting US or either has moved to there... That's why have many Flagship on these routes
hopefully they put it on the JFK - EZE route as well.
MIA-EZE-MIA finally gets a much deserved 773. I'm still a bit sore that they took away the 787 that flew DFW-EZE-DFW and re-replaced it with the old configuration 772 after only 3 months.
EZE is a good market (load factor is pretty high), with 5 daily flights right now (2x night flight MIA + 1 seasonal day flight MIA + 1 DFW + 1 JFK). Looking forward to retrofitted 772s, new 773s and 787s for these destinations.
I'd love to see them fly the 77W on the LAX-CDG route (a route they don't operate, but they should), or focus on another Asian route with the 77W (i.e. LAX-HKG). What do you think?
No. I wish they'd add a few more European new-777 destinations. As it stands, you have to connect through Heathrow if you want to fly their best product.