American is in the process of refreshing their longhaul fleet. That started with the introduction of their 777-300ERs, which feature a new first and business class product. That was followed by them introducing a new business class product on their 767-300s, which were badly in need of a refresh.
And now they’re finally refreshing their 777-200s:
- In April American revealed the new business class seats they’d have on their 777-200s
- In June American confirmed the first route for the refreshed 777-200s would be Dallas to Santiago
- In September we saw the first real pictures of the new 777-200 business class product, given that the first aircraft had been reconfigured
While American’s first reconfigured 777-200 has been out of the “shop” for a couple of weeks now, it hasn’t started commercial service.
American 777-200 new business class seat
It looks like American will finally begin passenger service with their first reconfigured 777-200 tomorrow, Monday, October 6, 2014.
American will initially fly the refurbished 777-200 between Dallas and Santiago three days per week, as follows:
AA945 Dallas to Santiago departing 9:45PM arriving 9:05AM (+1 day) [Mon, Thu, Sat]
AA940 Santiago to Dallas departing 10:20PM arriving 6:15AM (+1 day) [Tue, Fri, Sun]
The other days of the week the route will be operated by a 767-300 featuring the old business class product.
It’s also interesting to note that American has changed the “designation” for their reconfigured 777s. Ordinarily the 777-200s just show “777” as the aircraft type, like on this flight between Dallas and Tokyo.
However, the reconfigured 777s show the aircraft type as “772,” so that’s an easy way to tell if your flight is scheduled to be operated by the new product or not.
You can also tell by the fact that the reconfigured 777s no longer feature a first class cabin, so if you’re on a 777 and they’re not selling first class, it’s a reconfigured aircraft.
I believe American has plans to reconfigure a majority of the 777 fleet in the next year, though I haven’t seen the new seatmap loaded onto any other routes yet.
I’m curious to read reviews of this product, given that it’s an entirely new seat, different than what they had on the 777-300ERs and 767-300s. I would’ve tried to get on the inaugural, but I’m traveling at the moment, and even the remote possibility of running into His Excellency kinda outranked this.
Does anyone have plans to try American’s new 777-200 business class product?
(Tip of the hat to JonNYC)
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