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 was initially offered on newly delivered Boeing 787-9s that are assigned certain routes, we’re also seeing some existing planes reconfigured.
The first planes to get reconfigured are the Boeing 777-300ERs. In December 2025, we saw the first of these planes go into the “shop,” for a full makeover. Roughly nine months later, that plane is now entering commercial service, and American has unveiled what we can expect onboard. These are also the planes with the largest business class cabins you’ll find on any carrier from the United States.
In this post:
American Boeing 777-300ERs get all-new cabins
American has a fleet of 20 Boeing 777-300ERs, and these are the first long haul planes that American is reconfiguring with new interiors (Boeing 777-200ERs and Boeing 787-8s will also be reconfigured, though the timeline remains to be seen).
These 777-300ERs are a priority because they’re used for the carrier’s most premium routes, and also because they feature first class, which is a cabin that American is eliminating.
The first Boeing 777-300ER, with the registration code N718AN, has just entered service with new cabins. I should mention that when we see planes reconfigured, the prototype takes the longest, but future planes should be reconfigured much more quickly.
What’s great is that American doesn’t seem to have any certification issues with these cabins, as the plane will enter service imminently. For what it’s worth, American’s Boeing 777-300ER retrofit project is known as “Olympus” (similar to how the airline referred to its 737-800 retrofit project as “Oasis”).
While I’ll talk more about the layout below, let’s first take a look at the actual seats. Below are some pictures of the new business class product.
This also includes eight Flagship Suite Preferred seats, which are the “business class plus” seats in the first row of each of the two business class cabins.
Then below are some pictures of the new premium economy cabin.
And below are some pictures of the new economy cabin.
American’s updated Boeing 777-300ER configuration
As American reconfigures its Boeing 777-300ERs, how does the seat count change? JonNYC has shared a seat map of what the reconfigured aircraft look like, which tells us a lot.
For context, previously American’s 777-300ERs featured 304 seats, comprised of:
- Eight first class seats
- 52 business class seats
- 28 premium economy seats
- 216 economy seats
Once reconfigured, American’s 777-300ERs feature 330 seats, comprised of:
- 70 business class seats
- 44 premium economy seats
- 216 economy seats
As you can see, the jet is losing eight first class seats, but is gaining 18 business class seats and 16 premium economy seats, all while economy capacity stays the same.
On the surface, it’s almost puzzling how the plane could be reconfigured so efficiently. Trading eight first class seats for 18 business class seats and 16 premium economy seats is a heck of a “deal.” Essentially what’s going on is that we’re seeing a slight improvement in efficiency just about everywhere. You can find the old 777-300ER seat map here, and the new 777-300ER seat map here, if you want to compare the two.
Just to highlight some of the main efficiency gains, starting from the front and moving back:
- The forward lavatories are both right by the flight deck, rather than one being a bit further back; this isn’t great for when the pilots need to use the lavatory, and the galley is blocked off
- The second set of doors continues to have two lavatories, but the walk-up bar is being eliminated, and there’s just a galley there
- The third set of doors goes from having four lavatories to two, and it’s not clear if those two lavatories are dedicated to business class or premium economy
- The fourth set of doors are going from having two lavatories to zero lavatories
- The fifth set of doors are going from having two lavatories to three lavatories, but the size of the galley is being reduced considerably
- Business class is going from 43″ of pitch to 42″ of pitch, while Main Cabin Extra is going from 35″ of pitch to 34″ of pitch
Crews will probably hate working these planes, given the huge reduction in galley space. Meanwhile many passengers will be delighted by there being 70 business class seats — that’s fantastic for upgrades, as that’s way more business class capacity than we’ve seen on any plane up until now.
Just to compare this to the only other US airline flying this jet, United’s 777-300ERs feature 350 seats, including 60 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 266 economy seats. So United has 50 more economy seats, but 10 fewer business class seats and 20 fewer premium economy seats.
American retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER routes & timeline
With American now having started reconfiguring its Boeing 777-300ERs, when can we actually expect this project to be complete, and which routes will feature the new planes? American states that it will retrofit all 777-300ERs by some point in 2027. I’d assume it’ll be late 2027 before all planes are reconfigured, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it slips into early 2028, but that’s the current official timeline.
Broadly speaking, American flies its 777-300ERs to Buenos Aires (EZE), London (LHR), Sao Paulo (GRU) Sydney (SYD), and Tokyo (HND).
The first 777-300ER is entering service as of today, September 2, 2026. It’ll fly from New York (JFK) to Buenos Aires initially, and then later this month is expected to start flying between Dallas (DFW) and London, with a single flight between New York and London in the schedule as well. However, for the time being we’re not talking about daily service, so I wouldn’t count on this with any certainty.
Furthermore, as I covered in more detail in a separate post, American will stop selling first class on its 777-300ERs for flights as of November 19, 2026. So as of that date, many of these planes will still have first class cabins, but they’ll be treated as being part of the business class cabin.
Bottom line
American has started the process of reconfiguring its Boeing 777-300ER fleet, eliminating first class, and introducing all-new cabins, including a new business class. The first plane is entering service as of September 2026, and the entire fleet of 20 777-300ERs is expected to be reconfigured by the end of 2027. Meanwhile first class on the planes with that cabin will no longer be sold for flights as of November 19, 2026.
American’s new 777-300ERs look great in terms of the number of business class seats, as that’ll be great for upgrades. However, some people will definitely miss first class.
What do you make of the retrofitted American Boeing 777-300ERs?
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.
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.
Be sure to look at the competition
The new layout is normal vs the us3
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).
Yep, for sure! My review of the A321XLR should be up in a bit.
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 ;)
You're gonna make our pal, @Peter_'s day. More MCE!
@ 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...
@ 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/
Do we know if the doors are closable, or if they'll be certified in 2034?
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.