About a year ago American unveiled the configuration for their new transcon Airbus A321s, which will replace the 767-200s on the premium transcontinental routes, between New York and Los Angeles/San Francisco. These are some pretty sexy Airbus A321s, given that they'll be in a three cabin configuration, including a first class cabin. Now that we've…
Continue reading: American’s new transcon A321s now loaded into the schedule
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"I think it’s safe to say that American’s new first class product on the A321 will be the most comfortable way to fly across the country."
More comfortable than B6's suites??
@ AJK -- American's new first class is a standard reverse herringbone seat, while JetBlue's suite is a standard "throne" seat in a staggered configuration (like Austrian, Brussels, etc.). The foot cubby in those seats is really small, so I'd take a reverse herringbone configuration any day.
have you seen any first/business award availability on these flights? i understand that it's only day one, but they seem to be zeroed out
@ jettfrogg -- Doesn't seem to be much space at all, though I don't see much space on the 767-200s either, so don't think it's exclusive to this plane but rather the route.
I just looked at saver first and December and November have wide availability, January had just a few days, it isn't even a close match. Perhaps some is based on route, but I don't think it is a coincidence that once the A321s enter the transcon fleet, award availability drops to basically nil.
@ Lucky
But the foot cubbies on the staggered Austrian-ish seats are only bad if you're in the "throne" seats. In other words, as far as I know, the foot cubby for those traveling together in that config will be awarded with plenty of foot space if sitting behind a "throne" seat as opposed to in the throne seat.
In B6 config, I'd imagine the foot cubby is the same as if sitting behind a "throne" seat, no?
@ Lucky
Ah, I take that back. For some reason I assumed the B6 config was a staggered 1x1 with some seats having doors. It turns out that the foot cubbies DO look like they'll be cramped, as if sitting in a throne seat on Austrian-esque.
I wonder if it's a coincidence that almost all of the LH group owned or part owned airlines are using the throne configuration including B6, Austrian, and Brussels.
Personally, I am skeptical about how profitable these planes will be. While I know the transcon route and product are all focused on the premium pax, seeing this plane with so few coach seats makes me wonder how it's going to deal with the high CASM. They must be really be counting on some substantial premium seat sales every flight.
Too bad the exit row is also a bulkhead; I love the former but not the latter!
I agree with the earlier commenter who said it's hard to see how they're going to make money with so few Y seats (or more to the point, so few seats in total). Certainly the aircraft is much more economical to operate than the 762, but I find it hard to believe that it's proportionally cheaper to operate the 32B than the 762 (proportional to the number of seats).