American Airlines recently rolled out a new passenger experience on its long haul flights, particularly with the introduction of its Flagship Suite business class, as well as its front-row Flagship Suite Preferred. While this product is finally being offered on newly delivered Boeing 787-9s that are assigned certain routes, we’re also going to see some…
Continue reading: American Boeing 777-300ER Retrofits: Fancy New Cabins Coming, At A Cost
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I believe they'll be unlocked from the opening
@ Alvin | YTHK -- Hah! As noted by BenjaminKohl, my understanding is that they'll be unlocked immediately.
@ Mike O, I don't see your comment anymore but you asked such a great question so here goes:
Great question, Mike. I love this topic so I hope I'm not too long winded, but the tl:dr is that you're absolutely correct.
Around 2010/2011, shortly after Zodiac debuted the Cirrus seat (interestingly enough on US Airways' A330s), AA contracted Zodiac to make their own seat. They wanted a fully customized seat and went through at least four concepts, before sticking to the 'D' concept. They were supposed to launch very quickly, but the design and certification recieved many delays. Either way, AA only had plans for their 777-200ERs and upcoming 787-8s, which is what the seats were designed for, the supplies ordered for, and the certification was being done for.
In early 2012 AA decided to order the 77W very abruptly. It was made available to them at a very attractive price and with very short lead time as Boeing was seeing a decline in 77W sales and wanted to keep the production line going at a fast rate. So they placed an order for 20, with deliveries starting in just about nine months. At this point their tailor made Zodiac seat was still not ready, and the lead time was a little long. And they had no supplies ordered for 77Ws, design concepts, etc. They needed something fast and already available. That's where partner CX came in
They already had 5 year old 77Ws, and while they initially debuted with the herringbone coffin seats, they had begun in 2011 reconfiguring planes to the brand new Cirrus II seat, with some very popular customizations, after the bad feedback on their coffin seats. Suddenly they went from a pretty bad J seat to one of the best. So they let AA have their supplier and customizations. AA did a few tiny things, CMF as you mentioned as well as taking away the soft padding on some of the cubbies that allowed for increasing bed size (what a shame), but yes with their very low lead time they got a very minor derivative of the CX seat. And it's possibly their best J seat ever!
They recieved their first 77W in late 2012 (in service spring 2013), and Concept D didn't enter service on the 77E until mid 2014. At that point, they began having huge supply issues and a lot of customer conplaints (i actually really like Concept D...). So, they sued Zodiac and dropped them as a supplier after they retrofitted slightly under half of the 77Es (and supplied all the first batch of 20 788s). So Boeing got lighly customized Super Diamonds with very little lead time, and got them going on their remaining 77Es, and new 789s and eventually second batch of 788s.
A wild ride they took throughou the 2010s!
Article about the development on the "Concept D" seats: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2016/10/american-opens-up-with-story-of-cancelled-zodiac-concept-d-seat/
They seriously need to drop one row in Y and convert 11 rows of Y to 10 rows of Y+. They likely won't miss the 3 or 4 seats and will be able to make it up on seat fees or MCE status benefits which would encourage more loyalty etc.
Also dropping a few bodies will help (a tiny bit) with lavs and FA load etc 😉
100%. At least these birds will gain 2 MCE seats (going from 28 to 30). But DL and UA understand that more extra legroom economy is good for business and good for loyalty. Nice that AA made a statement the other week that they'll start installing more MCE, but the XLRs are a disaster in terms of MCE, the 787-9Ps are a disaster in terms of MCE, and these 77Ws are barely adequate.
Think in %s, 30/216 is ~13.5% of the economy seats. AA thinking they will only sell that many in upgrades + Platinum status members is beyond silly. Gold folks get MCE at check-in as well...
Say they pull a 4-seat row, 70/212 is ~33% that is more like it IMHO. A 3-seat row would be 60/213 ~28%. I know there is a balacne but I just have to think they can command $40-50 per seat and/or desire to burn miles or spend on the CC for loyalty points.
Worse case is good will with pax for minimal cost.
I'll miss the swivel chairs, but 70-ish lie-flat seats on an aircraft is pretty darn impressive. Like, I'll be watching to see if the cost for J goes down, slightly, points or cash, based on all this extra supply. Time will tell. (I've tried the Flagship Suites, Preferred, on 789P, and it's a great product; booked on a321XLR later this year in J, looking forward to trying that as well; will have to seek out these refurb 773s soon enough).
Hope to make a negative social media buzz on the lack of toliets and put additional one at the expense of two Y seats, 48KL. AC’s 450 seater 77W has 6 lavs for 398Y and it was miserable going to London. But this is worse than that, 3 lavs for 216Y.
For widebody Y, 40-55 pax per lavatory is usual for us3. Hope others don’t follow this suit.
Looks fresh and overall an improvement in design. Still lots of grey. Too bad Boeing doesn’t offer updated overhead bins. Those cannot fit carry on’s properly. Plus, why did AA not upgrade the TV on the biz plus seat? It looks still tiny- on the 77W even smaller than on the 789P.
Those economy seats look pretty nice, albeit a bit on the thin side in terms of padding.
Those last 2 C seats look awful. Bassinet right behind and flanked by 2 lavs. They should just replace those seats with a closet or galley storage space.
Agreed with the other posters. Would it kill them to reduce the seat count to expand MCE?
IMHO, this configuration pisses off elites, pisses off crew, and creates two really shitty Business Class seats.
You took words right from my mouth. Agreed. This is not going to be a "happy" airplane.
These planes are going to be rough from a lav and flight attendant standpoint. 70 J is pretty phenomenal. Hopefully SWUs are actually available to make up for the paltry MCE offering (seriously AA, what gives on the lack of MCE on your planes??).
"I should mention that when we see planes reconfigured, the prototype takes the longest, but future planes should be reconfigured much more quickly." N718AN was in HKG for 8 months, it's last flight prior to reconfig was AA72 on Dec 7, 2025. I wonder if it underwent its D-check at the same time...?
I would love to see the super diamond seats coming off the 777W replacing the Concept D seats on the -200ERs and 787-8s until they go through the FS upgrade. Simplifying the hard product and getting the cabins down to two types, SD and FS.
That’s crazy how the lavatories were reshuffled although it’s not in ground plumbing more of portapotty.
Why would premium economy have access to business class lavatories ?
It’s good that the first row of bulk head in the main cabin remains away from lavatories. I don’t sit near lavatories .
Am I the only one who thinks that these huge Premium cabins look really cheap and more like a dormitory than a nice premium experience? The front cabin is fine and looks good the second looks too big... It'll feel like an assembly line and good luck getting a wine refill... their premium economy cabin on the other hand looks great and feels like you're in a small and quiet separate cabin.
We haven’t heard a real world experience yet but judging from curtains in the pictures, PY and Y are supposed to share 5 lavs at L3 and L5. There no curtain between PY and Y, and L3 lav curtain is located front of the door, as if for PY (and Y). 5 lav for 260 doesn’t sound bad