I’ve written extensively about American’s Oasis 737s, though it occurred to me that I’ve never explained how to tell if your flight is scheduled to be operated by one of these planes. So that’s what I wanted to address in this post.
What is an Oasis 737?
The term “Oasis” doesn’t refer to the plane as such. That’s to say that Boeing doesn’t manufacture Oasis 737s and non-Oasis 737s. Rather the term refers to an internal designation that American uses to describe how they configure certain planes.
In particular, the Oasis designation applies to select Boeing 737-800s.
Airlines are always looking for ways to squeeze more seats onto their planes in order to increase revenue. So last year American introduced a new 737-800 configuration, which features 12 more seats than the previous version of the plane. Below I’ll talk more about what exactly has changed, though as a general rule of thumb these planes haven’t been popular with passengers.
Don’t be fooled by the Oasis name — that might make it sound nice, but the Oasis configurations are anything but an oasis. Call it a mirage, if you will.
American will also be reconfiguring other planes with Oasis configurations, including A321s.
How many Oasis 737s are there?
American’s 737 fleet consists of a total of 304 Boeing 737-800s, and 24 Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes. Of those planes:
- 71 of the 304 Boeing 737-800s are in the Oasis configuration (American was aggressively reconfiguring these, but recently put the project on hold until 2020)
- All Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes are in the Oasis configuration (though these planes are grounded for now)
So if you’re scheduled to fly a Boeing 737-800, your chances of being on an Oasis 737-800 are ~23%.
American 737-800
What’s different about Oasis 737s?
Once you’re onboard an American 737, what’s different when flying an Oasis configuration and not flying an Oasis configuration?
American’s 737 first class
Both versions of the 737 have 16 first class seats, though the Oasis has less legroom and less comfortable seats in first class. Furthermore, there’s not a proper divider between first class and economy, but rather just a small partition (some changes are being made to this with Project Kodiak).
American 737 Oasis first class
American’s 737 Main Cabin Extra
Both versions of the 737 have 30 Main Cabin Extra seats, which is American’s extra legroom economy section. The catch is that legroom has been reduced by at least an inch in the Oasis configuration.
American 737 Oasis Main Cabin Extra
American’s 737 economy
In economy, American’s Oasis planes have 126 seats rather than 114 seats. Legroom throughout the economy cabin is reduced by an average of about an inch in the Oasis configuration.
American 737 Oasis economy
American’s 737 bathrooms
It’s not like bathrooms on any 737s are anything to get excited about, but American’s Oasis 737s have especially small and unpleasant bathrooms.
American 737 Oasis bathroom
American’s 737 entertainment
At this point virtually all of American’s 737s feature streaming entertainment and high speed Wi-Fi. Annoyingly the Oasis 737s don’t have any sort of personal televisions. Meanwhile only some 737s in the previous configuration have personal televisions.
In other words, if you’re on an Oasis 737 you’re guaranteed not to have a TV, while on a standard 737 you may have a TV.
American 737 Oasis lack of TVs
How do you know if you’re on an Oasis 737?
Based on looking at the seatmap for the flight you’re taking, there are two easy ways to tell if your flight is scheduled to be operated an Oasis 737.
You are not on an Oasis 737 if:
- First class consists of rows three through six
- Economy goes to row 30
So here’s what that looks like:
Meanwhile you are on an Oasis 737 if:
- First class consists of rows one through four
- Economy goes to row 33
Why the difference between the two configurations?
- American historically started numbering first class at row three, but with the introduction of the new configurations they’ve changed that up to minimize confusion (people were confused why they were in row three when they were in the first row)
- The Oasis 737s have more seats, and therefore more rows, which is why the Oasis 737s go to row 33 rather than row 30
Do keep in mind that the configuration your particular flight is operated by is highly subject to change. So just because you are or aren’t scheduled to be on an Oasis 737 doesn’t mean that will stick — it could change weeks out, days out, hours out, or minutes out.
Bottom line
Given how much I’ve written about the Oasis 737, I figured it was time I write a post about how to figure out if you’re scheduled to fly one of these. Hopefully the above makes it easy for everyone to identify whether they’re on an Oasis 737 or not, though keep in mind aircraft types are always subject to change.
If you have any other questions about American’s Oasis 737s, please let me know!
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