American has been trying to refresh their longhaul fleet over the past few years. This process started back in early 2013, when they took delivery of their first 777-300ER with reverse herringbone seats in business class.
Then they started to reconfigure their 777-200 aircraft, of which they have 47. As of July, all American 777s feature fully flat beds in business class. There are several different configurations, and American will still be modifying these going forward as they install premium economy (777s, 787s, and A330s will all get these by June 2018), but at least they’re all lie flat as of now.
Then American has A330s (formerly US Airways aircraft), which have all had fully flat seats for years. US Airways was actually the first airline in the world to have reverse herringbone seats, shockingly.
American’s 787s were also all delivered with fully flat seats.
So American’s only remaining widebody aircraft without flat beds across the fleet is the 767-300. American has 30 767-300 aircraft in their fleet, and as of now 24 of them have flat beds. While the configuration on this plane is my least favorite fully flat business class product in American’s fleet, it’s still a huge improvement over the old angled seats.
American will be retiring six Boeing 767-300 aircraft by October 2017 — American will be retiring three in September and another three in October. This means that by November 2017, American’s entire widebody fleet will feature fully flat seats in business class.
While all widebody aircraft will feature flat beds, unfortunately American still has some internationally configured 757s with angled flat seats. American reconfigured their first 757 with flat beds last September, though it seems like they’ve been taking their time with reconfiguring them.
Bottom line
It would be nice if American’s entire longhaul fleet featured flat beds, though at least we’ll soon be one step closer, as all widebody planes will feature flat bed business class seats. Now if only American could finish reconfiguring their internationally configured 757s.
@ Clam Shack
The 767 cabin is too narrow for reverse herringbone seats, unless placed in an uneconomical 3 across config
There are only 4 757 that have not been converted, so I think they've gone pretty quickly given the number of planes and the summer season.
Does *anyone* have reverse herringbone seats on a 767? And, if not, why not?
American's seat upgrade while welcome does not overcome the incredibly rude and slovenly flight attendants on the overseas flights (which are 95% of my 250,000 miles p.a. travel).
While I am executive platinum emerald (due to my flights on BA and Qatar being dumped into my AA Advantage account) I will never ever fly an American international flight again. I am often offered code share flights (that have American when I am on the...
American's seat upgrade while welcome does not overcome the incredibly rude and slovenly flight attendants on the overseas flights (which are 95% of my 250,000 miles p.a. travel).
While I am executive platinum emerald (due to my flights on BA and Qatar being dumped into my AA Advantage account) I will never ever fly an American international flight again. I am often offered code share flights (that have American when I am on the BA web site on the London to New York leg for less money than BA yet I opt for BA. I am now switching all my flight miles to BA Executive. Last, BA has First Class which I can purchase for a reasonable price. So, American (I have over 2 million miles over the years) has lost my business.
By the way, I am executive platinum for life on Air France and have absolutely no problem and in fact rather enjoy Delta which is airline with a totally different corporate culture.
Now from a guy who is on the road 180 days a year, let me tell you how I really feel!!!
Love it. Love American, love their new business class.
They must have paid for each new seat based on the savings from catering cuts. 16 lobster rolls per flight saving $10 a pop over real food is $160. Do that on a few hundred flights and boom new lie flat seat paid for.
It only took AA 5 years longer than UA
@AS And even then, DL still has some TATL routes without direct aisle access. The 75Ws normally used for JFK-LAX transcons are also used from JFK-ARN, and BOS-DUB and JFK-LIS (all of which are summer seasonal routes).
Technically, I believe that CO was the first carrier with all lay-flat seating in 2011/2012. UA, in part thanks to the fact that CO came with lie-flats, completed all lie-flat in mid-2013. DL's widebodies became all-flatbed in...
@AS And even then, DL still has some TATL routes without direct aisle access. The 75Ws normally used for JFK-LAX transcons are also used from JFK-ARN, and BOS-DUB and JFK-LIS (all of which are summer seasonal routes).
Technically, I believe that CO was the first carrier with all lay-flat seating in 2011/2012. UA, in part thanks to the fact that CO came with lie-flats, completed all lie-flat in mid-2013. DL's widebodies became all-flatbed in early 2014, and the 757 got flatbeds from then until mid-2015. AA is still catching up, and although they're mostly done with the retrofitting, will be 3 years behind DL and 4 years behind UA (they still need a handful of 76Ws retrofitted and the 757s have yet to be finished).
In the title you say October but in the body, you say November.
@keitherson
Not the flat beds, Delta's big draw was that they were the first US carrier to have direct aisle access on all of their long haul business cabins. I believe they're actually still the only ones since AA is still operating these 2-2 757's on thin TATL routes.
Loved their last 777 business class seats with the fixed screen.
@keitherson United's had all lie-flat business class seats for years... (if you count the legacy 777 2-4-2 seats "business class")
Didn't Delta do this years ago? At least AA beat United...