Why American Isn't Selling All Their 787 Business Class Seats

I would consider buying F on that route for the extra EQM...

Hope they’re replacing the shaky seats in J when they retrofit these birds for PE

@LAXJeff

No kidding. 6A/7A and 6D/7D are some of the only non-shaky seat pairs on the 788, and those are going away.

Premium economy is a rip off. I flew once for free from US to Europe. It looks like the economy cabin we used 10 years ago.

They are not replacing the existing business seats, only removing the ones where PE is going.

Last Saturday flew on a full fare paid business ticket from DFW to MAD. Despite status was unable to choose a window seat in advance or at check-in. Once on board they said that (most) of the business class cabin WINDOW seats were “reserved” for pilots? Usually try to avoid US carriers, so is this a common practice? Seems odd they have prefence over passengers with elite status on paid full fare tickets. Not surprisingly, the service was equally bad, not one please or thank you are uttered out of the staff’s mouth. Shameful.

Am I the only one who thinks it just doesn’t make since reducing the premium cabin from ONLY 28 to ONLY 20?

Sense*

What I find most amazing is the price change from Wednesday @$394 Y to Monday @$80 Y.

I was booked to fly ORD-DFW on Dec 1st or so. Booked the 788 and selected seat in row 7. Three days before departure I got a notification I np longer had a seat assignment. The one refurbished 788 had been put on for my flight. I was offered a nice voucher and more direct routing in exchange for changing. I'm guessing they got tired of offering vouchers for overbooking

I would be careful with that logic of seat availability. The seats left are for that fare class being sold in that bucket. There are probably more seats in a higher fare class. And when you look at seat maps, some people might have purchased a ticket but not selected a seat yet.

We were discussing this yesterday on FB (a closed group) and I mention that restriction, which AA did the same when they started re configuring the High 45J 772 to low 37J in order to avoid downgrades. Since I knew about it I was able to select PE as MCE, even when their map were showing 45J, but I knew only a couple of 772 with 45J were available.

What do they do with the business class seats they're taking out of the plane?

Thanks for the info! I am flying in J on a 788 toward the end of April from Santiago, Chile and selected seats 6A/7A for two of us to avoid the rocking nature of the seats. Now, I am wondering if it is worth gambling with this seat selection or moving up into the front part of the cabin so we can sit together. Hmmmm.....

The 787-8 sucks and AA service sucks in general. Seats were narrow and service was garbage at best. Not the best way to fly JFK-BCN.

I think they also are adding a bunch of MCE, right?

So, a flip side of this is that those booking in Y who don't otherwise have MCE access might be able to select seats that give them at least a chance of mapping over to MCE.

I see how this is a good development for travelers hoping for same-day upgrades (I'm flying that very same ORD-DFW flight in 2 weeks) but this doesn't come anywhere close to making up for the dearth of mileage-upgrades on international routes.

I just did a quick run through of flights from ORD to LHR on expertflyer, and there is zero upgrade availability in business class between now and the beginning of June. A random sampling of seatmaps throughout the entire period show that most have flights are only at approx 20-30% occupancy. Even tomorrow's flights seem to have several seats available.

How is this possible? Is it that AA tend to open up award/mileage upgrade availability in batches or are they truly hoping all of these seats will be scooped up by last-minute revenue passengers?

@alonzo the 787-8 doesnt fly JFK BCN, if you want to whine at least get your facts straight.

There are 3 788's flying with 20J as of today (29 Jan): N800AN, N812AA, N810AN.

N809AA and N802AN are at KPAE getting refit.

DFW-CDG 788 - No premium economy at all. 28 Business seats.

The only time a business class seat is saved for a pilot on a 788 is when there are 4 pilots required per FAA. Then only one seat is reserved for one resting pilot in business class. It meets the FAA requirements for a rest area. The other resting pilot will be in the pretty tight bunk space above the Business Class section.

Sadly, people yell and scream and get their panties in a wad about things they have no real clue about. And I’ve hardly EVER noticed any of the rocking movement people are crying about. I dare say, I’ve ridden up there more than anyone.

Interesting.
When you upgrade from Y to J, 25,000 miles and $350.
Now with P class do you pay the same or does that only get you Y to P?
My last flight I purchased P class and paid the same amount to UG to J.