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.
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?
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