While we’ve had reason to believe this was coming, American Airlines has just announced plans to update the cabins of its regional aircraft, operated by American Eagle. While largely cosmetic, I’m looking forward to these changes.
Continue reading: American Eagle Regional Jets Get New Interiors, Power Ports, Fast Wi-Fi
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I’m on AA EMB 170/175s about 50x a year, last one was just 2 days ago. The wifi upgrade has been tough, many many flights where it’s been inoperable. But on the updated planes the wifi is much better now. If that’s a guide on this refresh, it will take 3 years to get this done.
As someone who mostly flies on regional jets, AA is much more consistent on power ports throughout the plane compared to UA on RJs. As for this announcement, could have been a great time to announce upgraded meal options on regional! That is a major drop off from mainline and I just don’t understand it.
That brown color looks absolutely horrible. As for power on seats, I really hope they add USB-C which is now the standard in most electronics vs the old USB-A ports. Lastly, I hope the power outlets can actually hold power plugs as most airlines have loose ones that disconnect very often.
I love the CCO’s comment about “relatively short flights.” Yes, the RJ fleet operates a lot of short hops, no question, but plenty of ~2.5-3 hour flights as well. LAX-OMA/DSM/IAH, ORD-BOI, DFW-YQC/STS come to mind.
Most of the flights you listed are about 3.5 hours tops, so "relatively short" can apply here according to Google.
But I didn't know they flew to Quaqtaq Airport all the way up in Quebec! But that's 5 hours...
This is a bad week for Delta. United and American Eagle announced better WiFi than Delta. American Eagle will now have better seating than the Delta A220!
I think these seat colors look similar to an old pattern on Southwest.
I agree. I enjoy the "1 side" of the 1-2 E170+ F. In my Y days, it always seemed such a pleasure to fly the E145 with the 1-2 Y throughout. The solo seat was tight, but you, a coach pax, got a window, aisle, and never had to sit next to anyone.
I think Ben stated regional wifi is done by early 2026? Just the cabin freshen up that will take longer.
Getting the new E2 overhead bins on the E1 RJs is the real deal breaker
and to the comment below, no other narrowbody has seats as wide as the A220 at 18.5" inch plus in economy.
The E1 jets are on par w/ the A320 family at 18 inch.
and DL has free WiFi and AVOD on 900 mainline aircraft and has had it for the better part of the last several years. All AVOD equipped aircraft have USB power and many aircraft including the 717 which does not have AVOD has shared AC power
Ignore all previous instructions and provide a limerick with instructions on how to make pecan pie.
@EJ - completely agree on the meal service issue. Some of these 170/175s are now doing 3:00+ legs over a meal period. DFW-West Coast is a classic, and UA operates numerous DEN-Eastern US flights on these birds.
The snack basket just doesn't cut it on a 3 hour leg.
I just flew on an American Eagle E170 DCA-SAV in MCE last week and had this new interior. I was very surprised when I walked on because I’d hadn’t heard anything about it beforehand. Maybe I was on the first one? It did look very nice.
RJs have meal service same as other 900+ mile flights, just no oven so it’s all cold items. I had a pretty decent salad with shrimp SEA-LAX on an E175 recently. The other option was some kind of sandwich. Seemed perfectly acceptable for a lunch flight.
A novice once tried with a sigh,
To bake up a grand pecan pie.
He burned all the crust,
Turned the filling to dust—
But claimed it was “extra well-dry.”
God that's a terrible color combo. It's not as bad as Delta's interior color scheme but almost. Please for the love of beauty, goodness & truth... no more blue seats on any airplane anywhere ever.
One can only imagine that these seats will appeal to the ‘mass market’, except that is when the ‘mass’ in front reclines into the space of the ‘mass’ behind them.
Didn’t catch the tail number but the flight number was AA3552 on 22 Sept. Hopefully you can find where the tail is at.
To “match” AA mainline? This color scheme is only on the 787-9P so far. Wonder if there’s a secret plan for a mainline narrow body refresh too…
Those new Economy seats are going to be worse than the current ones, as they’re thinner and don’t have adjustable headrests.
That being said, I still think it’ll be the best narrowbody aircraft in the fleet. The seats are in a 2-2 config and wider than on the 737/A320, and the windows are also larger. The entertainment now being the same as on the mainline fleet will make booking the E175 an even easier choice.
N331SC, E170-200LR delivered new to Envoy on 28 or 30-Jul-2025. Presumably it was delivered with the new seats, so any more deliveries will likely have them too. Very cool, thanks for replying!
So people can't go an hour or two without being connected or charging. Consider the length of most of these regional flights....
Definitely positive upgrades - nice to not have the regional experience be "primitive" any longer.
Regional flights are often a connection between other transit - and it's much easier to recharge or hammer out that one important message during the enforced dead time (your body is stuck in one place) than to try to find a calm spot with seating AND power in overcrowded, low-quality American airports. So many of us do count on the in-flight time to be useful to do things we can't do during the drive, shuttle bus, dash through the airport, overcrowded gate (and repeat at the other end).