American Airlines 787-9s Land Next Month—Finally, A Business Class Upgrade Worth the Wait

Next month, American Airlines will receive the first two of the Boeing 787-9 long haul aircraft that it ordered back in 2018 starting next month. That’s according to aviation watchdog JonNYC>

One hears AA is beginning to look at extending the lifespan of the 777-200 fleet. No idea what the threshold is but I'd imagine they're looking at the oldest aircraft going in for heavy check to get an estimate for review

Also, 11 787s expected this year, starting with two in April

— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 10:09 AM

What makes this special is that the planes will come with new premium seats. They planned for a new soft product to accompany this.


New Business Suites, Credit: American Airlines


New Business Suites, Credit: American Airlines

New widebody aircraft come with new premium economy seats as well.


Credit: American Airlines


Credit: American Airlines

The bulkhead row in business class has extra space and is marketed as ‘Flagship Suite Preferred Seat’ and comes with additional bedding (branded Nest Bedding mattress pad, throw blanket, memory foam lumbar pillow, Nest Bedding pajamas) as well as a differentiated amenity kit with additional skincare items.


Credit: American Airlines


Credit: American Airlines

These planes were supposed to start arriving in 2023 but Boeing has faced delays. American expected to launch their new Dallas – Brisbane flight with the aircraft in October 2024, but didn’t make that deadline. FAA red tape contributed to the delay as well.

New Boeing 787-9s come with 51 business class suites, up from just 30 on existing 787-9 aircraft, and will come with 32 premium economy seats compared to 21 on current planes. That increase in premium cabin seating should be good for airfares, upgrades, and awards.

American’s most recent plan, disclosed in their February 10-K filing, showed just 8 Boeing 787-9s in 2025 but does not include more specific timing estimates. Delivery schedules can change frequently and rapidly. An American Airlines spokesperson offers, “we typically update our fleet delivery schedule every quarter in the 10-Q.”

So receiving 2 Boeing 787-9s in April – subject to change – and 11 this year – would indeed be news.

Unfortunately, while American Airlines plans to retrofit Boeing 777-300ERs with these products (and eliminating Flagship First Class) starting next year, there is no announced plan to update the products on their existing Boeing 787-8, Boeing 787-9, or Boeing 777-200 aircraft.


American Airlines ‘Concept D’ Business Class


American Airlines ‘Super Diamond’ Business Class

JonNYC’s further suggestion, though, about American keeping their 777-200s longer and performing heavy checks on them could align with investing in those interiors. Airline CEO Robert Isom emphasized today at the J.P. Morgan investor conference that the airline planned for low capital expenditures. Keeping their Boeing 777-200s rather than ordering new planes would be consistent with.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. About freaking time. Have been waiting for what seems like ages. This is my only hope for AA to turn things around. I know, not a lot, but it’s something.

  2. 1) I don’t like the brown accent colors. It reminds me of wood paneling from the 70s.
    2) The ‘Flagship Suite Preferred Seat’ sounds stupid and confusing. I’m assuming they will charge a premium for J+ which isn’t first class, doesn’t have a window, or offer privacy for solo travelers. I just see this as a money grab.
    3) The seats are an improvement, but I don’t see this as any sort of quantum leap.

  3. Any word on what the initial launch routes will be? Surely with two arriving next month they’d be on the schedule by now.

  4. @Pat –> It’s only a “Quantum Leap” if Scott Bakula happens to be onboard…but it IS about f***ing time!

  5. @ Gary — Why do I suspect that this will turn into AA’s next big disapoointment? At first, the seats will be great and the service will be better. From there, death by a thousand cuts awaits.

  6. I had “front row” on AA’s B789 when I recently flew PHL-DOH. I actually liked the seat, it was quite comfortable.

    Looking forward to these new B789’s.

  7. Any guesses on what domestic routes this wide body operates? What happens to the transcon a321t?

  8. @Jacobin777 — PHL-DOH, on AA, not QR? Hope it was a good price, or a redemption, at least; otherwise, I’d say QR is hands-down best for that route, especially if they operate with Qsuite, though sometimes QR uses older an 2-2-2 business class or the 1-2-1 non-Qsuite lie-flat. By ‘front row’ I presume you meant, row 1, like, business class, not like, the first row of economy, bulkhead. And if it was business class with AA, it’s a shame the new Flagship at PHL isn’t open yet.

  9. Foxtrotlimamike,
    They won’t be flying any domestic routes unless it’s for repositioning,the 321XLR will be replacing the 321T,they should start getting some maybe Q3 most likely Q4 this year

  10. Internet sleuth Ukrainian terrorist sympathizer Jon NYC. Even if true you’ll still be served bottom of the barrel food with your complimentary upgrades. An indefinite 10 year conundrum for American with these new aircraft. Oh boy.

  11. @1990:

    QR no longer flies PHL-DOH. It was on AA metal. It was in J – seat 1L. I flew SFO-HGK on CX’s B789 a couple of weeks ago. To be honest, I found AA’s B789 just as comfortable as CX’s A359. I was going to fly on CX’s new B77W J-suite however due to a missed CX connection out of KUL, it was another A359.

    Yes, QR can be a “hit or miss” and I’ve flown on QR from literally 5 or 6 different US cities so I wanted to try something a bit different.

    I’ll have to admit, staff on CX is fantastic. Is it a product differentiator? All things being equal, certainly however there are other factors I look at as well.

    PHL as an airport needs a lot of work..LOL. That being said, it’s not as large as JFK so connecting through from ORD was actually quite easy. I didn’t too much time to use the lounge either.

  12. Wish there’s an edit button:

    “I didn’t too much time to use the lounge either.”

    * -I didn’t have too much time at the lounge either.

  13. @Jacobin777 — Oh no! Had not realized that–took the PHL-DOH route with QR back in 2021 (was on their 787, lie-flat, not Qsuite). I’ve also flown QR quite a bit from North America (JFK, YUL, ORD, MIA, IAD, PHL, SFO, BOS).

    Flown American metal plenty, but crediting Qatar flights to AA is really how I earned Executive Platinum for many years. Glad to hear that AA’s existing 789 hard product was ‘good enough’ but their soft product is no match for the Middle East or East Asian ‘heavyweights’.

    Agreed on Cathay, I’d totally expect their service and food to be far superior, on almost any aircraft, and their lounges are excellent as well (and not just at HKG, like at LHR, CX is best OW lounge at T3).

    And yes, in its current state, PHL is not ‘fun’ at all, especially on tight domestic-international connections–like CLT, it’s dated, has an awful layout, end-to-end, like terminals A (International) to F (American Eagle), which AA’s itineraries do sometimes include, is at least a brutal 30-minute walk through hell, and each of the existing Admirals Clubs are ancient. They probably should knock it down and rebuilt it entirely, in stages, like LGA. But I guess we’ll just have to accept it as-is and await the new Flagship lounge, whenever they finally open it.

    I wouldn’t hold your breath on an edit button here, but regardless of typos, at least Gary’s a decent host for our conversations.

  14. @1990.

    IIRC QR and AA changed in end of 2023 where AA no longer flies JFK-DOH. I believe I was on AA’s PHL-DOH flight the first week they started service.

    I’ve flown on it a few times, few in J and few in Economy Plus. Yes, service level isn’t like CX or QR but it’s not bad, especially going to DOH where it’s a redeye and I can get some decent sleep.

    Yeah, if AA want PHL to be a more competitive gateway, they and the “City of Brotherly Love” need to invest some $$$$. Doubt it will happen so we’ll just have to deal with the dingy airport..LOL.

  15. @FoxtrotMikeLima, the 321T is being converted back to normal 321 configuration.

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