American Airlines plans to eventually roll out a new passenger experience on long haul flights, as the airline introduces its new Flagship Suite business class, and front-row Flagship Suite Preferred. While this product will be offered on newly delivered Boeing 787-9s (which are delayed), we’re also going to see existing Boeing 777-300ERs reconfigured.
While the first aircraft was supposed to be reconfigured right now, there’s an update. Given how the airline industry has been functioning in recent years, I’m sure you can guess — yep, the project is delayed.
In this post:
American will retrofit Boeing 777s later in 2025
American has a fleet of 20 Boeing 777-300ERs, and these are the only existing wide body planes that American has firm plans to reconfigure with new interiors. This is partly 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.
There have been a lot of questions about when American would reconfigure its first 777-300ER, especially given the delay with new 787-9 deliveries. Are the Dreamliner delays impacting the timeline with which American will retrofit existing planes?
Well, there’s now an update, and it’s not good news. While the first 777 was expected to be reconfigured as of September 2024, that timeline has been pushed back considerably. During today’s Q3 2024 earnings call, American CEO Robert Isom revealed that American now doesn’t plan to start reconfiguring 777-300ERs until after the 2025 summer season.
In other words, you can anticipate that it’ll likely be September or October 2025 before the first plane is reconfigured. Even once that project starts, you can expect it to be quite slow at first, given the need for the aircraft to be certified with new interiors. So it could very well be very late 2025 or even early 2026 before the first 777-300ER has new interiors.
It seems that this delay is due to supply chain issues with the seats, and of course American wants to avoid taking wide body planes out of service in the peak summer season, given how costly that is.
Once it does start, American’s Boeing 777-300ER retrofit project will be known as “Olympus” (similar to how the airline referred to its 737-800 retrofit project as “Oasis”).
American’s updated Boeing 777-300ER configuration
When American reconfigures its Boeing 777-300ERs, how will the seat count change? While the airline hasn’t publicly announced this, a recent filing with the Federal Aviation Administration discloses American’s updated configuration.
For context, currently American’s 777-300ERs feature 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 will feature 330 seats, comprised of:
- 70 business class seats
- 44 premium economy seats
- 216 economy seats
As you can see, the jet will be losing eight first class seats, but will be gaining 18 business class seats and 16 premium economy seats, all while economy capacity stays the same.
I’m honestly puzzled by how this is possible. Trading eight first class seats for 18 business class seats and 16 premium economy seats is a heck of a “deal.” Let’s actually look at this a bit more closely. According to regulatory filings, there will be 22 business class seats in the forward “zone,” between the first and second set of doors (compared to the current eight first class seats and eight business class seats):
- With the current configuration, there are 44 business class seats behind the second set of doors, plus 24 premium economy seats, plus 216 economy seats
- With the new configuration, there will be 48 business class seats, 44 premium economy seats, and 216 economy seats, in that same space
@xJonNYC reports that business class seat pitch is being reduced by one inch, Main Cabin Extra seat pitch is being reduced by one inch, and there’s plenty of other optimization with lavatories and galleys. As a result, I’m guessing the plane will be less pleasant for crews to work, in terms of the space allocated to them.
I am delighted to see that there will be 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.
When will American eliminate international first class?
With American delaying its new Boeing 777-300ER retrofits, that also means that American’s international first class product will live on a little while longer.
American has plans to eliminate its international first class product, instead introducing an improved business class, plus a new front row premium business class experience. The timeline for that change was supposed to coincide with the 777s being retrofitted.
The initial plan was to eliminate first class as of late 2024, though with the retrofits being delayed by roughly a year, I suspect that means that first class will also live on for an extra year. So my expectation is that first class will still be available through at least the summer 2025 schedule, if not longer.
Presumably there will be some period where American stops selling first class, but continues to offer the hard product on some planes, and will just seat some business class passengers here. After all, the 20 777-300ERs can’t all be reconfigured overnight. Regardless, we’re still a ways off from when that will happen.
Bottom line
While American has plans to reconfigure its Boeing 777-300ER fleet, this project has just been delayed considerably. The first aircraft was supposed to be reconfigured now, but with the updated timeline, it’s instead expected to happen after the summer of 2025.
It’ll likely be quite some time until we see American’s first jet with the new interiors. On the plus side (I guess), this also means that American’s first class lives on for another year or so.
What do you make of American’s plans to retrofit Boeing 777-300ERs, plus the delays?
Delays, Delays, delays. Yea! While I’m trying to ease out of this game, I’m still ticketed DCA DFW Flagship Dining LAX QF Lounge SYD next May for 70,000 AA miles.
Love the Swivel Seat!!!
This is an awesome delay. I don't think anyone wants the new stuff anyway.
Another example of why AA is all over the place. This project was announced two years ago with the expectation that new 787-9s would start to be delivered by now. The 787s were then delayed due to an aircraft issue, and now we are facing a seat issue...
Additionally, their A321XLRs were initially supposed to be delivered in 2023, but that has been pushed back to 2025 at the earliest, and they will only start flying those across the atlantic in 2026.
It was unrealistic for AA to think they could get seats as fast as they proposed when they announced the project. You would have thought they would have seen the writing on the wall w how slow cabin retrofits are coming for other airlines - including UA Next - to have adjusted their timeline for retrofitting the 777Ws, but, no.l
AA had way too few seats on their 777Ws for years and is now beginning...
It was unrealistic for AA to think they could get seats as fast as they proposed when they announced the project. You would have thought they would have seen the writing on the wall w how slow cabin retrofits are coming for other airlines - including UA Next - to have adjusted their timeline for retrofitting the 777Ws, but, no.l
AA had way too few seats on their 777Ws for years and is now beginning to get into the league of the number of seats it needs to sell to make money on that plane - and not trying to use it for 17+ hour flights to HKG and India.
Tim, do you think that AA could successfully copy the cabin configuration and pricing of another airline that runs TATL in F profitably? I understand that there's no will to do so by management but just conceptually. Thanks for your thoughts in advance.
since no other US airline operates the 777W with first class or even w/ the same seats as AA, no
I actually think it's good news that First Class is sticking around longer on AA. Thumbs up.
@david
From a passenger standpoint sure but everyday that passes American is hemorrhaging financials. There are 0.9 passengers per flight paying full fare First class. The rest of the cabin is filled with miles/points , paid upgrades , SWUs , mileage co pay upgrades, non revs and op ups. They need to be selling more business class seats ASAP.
@JonNYC
why move or ad lavs ? That’s never going to happen unless there...
@david
From a passenger standpoint sure but everyday that passes American is hemorrhaging financials. There are 0.9 passengers per flight paying full fare First class. The rest of the cabin is filled with miles/points , paid upgrades , SWUs , mileage co pay upgrades, non revs and op ups. They need to be selling more business class seats ASAP.
@JonNYC
why move or ad lavs ? That’s never going to happen unless there is some FAA law requiring a certain pax to lav ratio I’m unaware of.
Is it really? It is such a lackluster product and isn't worth the money in my opinion. The new business class seats are better than first class.
@Rishi
It is lackluster and I would add upscale rather than luxury which is rather unusual for F despite that the product does meet International First Class standards. Your suite will have 3 windows as opposed to only 2 in J. There are 2 lavatories for 8 passengers. 2 attentative FAs for a more personalized experience , group 1 boarding as opposed to 2, etc. Business class is nice too. I would just sleep in J but stay up in First and enjoy the product.
One fa for first . It used to be two , but now the cut back staffing . The purser stays up there only for preferences , then goes back to business . So the the FA the stays in first does
Galley and aisle .
Might mean I'll see the 77W on MIA to DFW and MIA to LAX this winter and early spring. The former is usually an easy upgrade for an EXP and the latter last winter AA was selling upgrades for around $250. Which also got you FL entrance.