American Airlines will start selling Premium Economy on New York JFK – Los Angeles on Monday for some flights beginning October 5th. This represents pulling the Airbus A321T that currently operates the route – with first class, business class, and economy – and replacing those with Boeing 777-200s.
Customers who choose Premium Economy on American’s transcontinental route receive Priority check-in, security and boarding. Once on board, customers will find a personal amenity kit with premium skincare products and travel essentials. During the flight, customers can relax in wider seats with more legroom and comfortably rest with an Ostrichpillow® lumbar pillow and crepe weave blanket.
- The plan has been to run new Airbus A321XLRs on the route, but delivery of fully finished planes with seats is delayed.
- And American plans to retrofit the A321Ts into a standard domestic configuration. That means no seatback economy screens on the aircraft, no lie flat seats, and less legroom.
Selling premium economy between the coasts is good, but the Boeing 777-200 is a lot more capacity than an Airbus A321T. I expect over time we’ll see fewer American Airlines flights on the route, at least until the XLR comes online.
- The A321T has 102 seats, including 10 first class; 20 business class; 36 Main Cabin Extra and 30 standard coach.
- The 777-200 has 273 seats including 37 business class; 24 premium economy; 66 Main Cabin Extra and 146 standard coach. That’s a much higher percentage of standard economy seating.
And this is… fine in business class (although 777-200 business class has two different seats – Zodiac ‘Concept D’ seats where half are rear facing, and Super Diamond seats), even without first class that comes with Chelsea lounge access at New York JFK.
Concept D Business Class
Super Diamond Business Class
Premium economy on the Boeing 777 is far inferior to American’s new premium economy on their 787-9Ps. Instead it’ll mean foot bars instead of foot rests for all but bulkhead seats, and TVs in the armrests for bulkhead.
I have to wonder whether we’ll see the promised free wifi on this route, as American’s plan for 2026 free wifi sponsored by AT&T has the offering on Intelsat (Gogo) and ViaSat-equipped aircraft, but not the Panasonic wifi offered on these aircraft.
AA needs a better ground game at T8 to compete with DL on this route, even with the 777s (which are good, but as you note, you may be riding backwards). Telling that they are billing this as a PE upgrade not an overall experience upgrade. D1 lounge is much much better than Greenwich, let alone Soho (and AA elites do not get access to Soho on transcons). And unless you are buying business plus to get access to Chelsea (probably not many takers there), much better lounge experience with DL.
And what about PE – if you are in PE (or even economy) on DL but hold a major credit card, you’ll be spending time at the SkyClub, Centurion, Chase or CapOne lounges at JFK T4. AA T8… well, there’s the Admirals Club IF you are an Admirals Club member or maybe you’re itching to get one of the new Strata Elite cards for those four sweet Admirals Club passes. And 767s may not be amazing but they are pretty good in a 2-3-2 economy configuration versus 3-4-3 economy.
It’s nice that AA is finally putting a real competitive airplane on this route though. Waiting for the XLRs for another couple of years never made sense. They said the other day they want to keep building out JFK – the proof will be in the pudding I suppose (and I’m sure any pudding is better than those premium sliders!)
Well, more ‘premium’ in-total per aircraft, but without ‘First,’ that’s less Chelsea lounge access at JFK T8; Soho isn’t bad, but still, a slight loss; doesn’t make a difference at LAX, because AA still has First Dining shuttered there. Wish AA would have swapped it for the new 789 with the Flagship suites (alas, those aircraft are having ‘issues’). The real shame is the delays on the a321XLR. The NYC-LA premium route has heavy competition between DeltaOne (with DeltaOne lounge access at both JFK, LAX, arrival and departure), United Polaris (no special lounge access, which is lame), and jetBlue Mint (which has the best food, but no lounge). I didn’t include Alaska, because it’s just recliner.
Good for AA. They are trying, which feels strange to say but it’s like they just decided to try. What were they doing before – just not trying?
The 321Ts are quite long in the tooth and the 772s are quite a reasonable aircraft for this route. I will have fond memories of the 321Ts.
Greenwich Lounge has flaws but one notable strength. Self-serve alcohol. Perfect way to get wasted prior to, or even after, your flight.
@1990 – you don’t get Soho if you are not flying qualifying international though (unless you are non-AA OWE). You only get Greenwich if you are flying transcon business, even if you are EP/PPro. And D1 Lounge is better than Soho anyway, let alone Greenwich (although I did have a lovely shaved watermelon salad at Soho last weekend, plus the fries are pretty good!). As for Chelsea, I believe you can buy ‘business plus’ if you really want it, but that’s a lot of money to spend to not even get a first class seat. Delta is the clear winner on this route, and JetBlue took a lot of AA’s business here with a better onboard product, even without a lounge. I hate T5, but don’t have to look too far into the future to see T6 and those announced UA flights from JFK… AA needed to do something right now to try and stop the bleed that may only get worse. If they don’t expand Soho access for this transcon route, they are out of their minds.
@Joseph – I think your assessment is correct. They have just now decided to try and before they were not trying. When the 321Ts contained mostly operable seats, they were fine for their time. XLRs are long overdue but you can’t wait around for them forever – as the article from the other day showed, they’ve clearly lost a lot of revenue to their competitors on this route.
@Peter — Good catch!
So, in that case, this aircraft swap and the lack of First, is a little disappointing on the lounges when departing JFK with only Greenwich eligible for most circumstances.
I’m with you on T6; can’t wait, and hopefully some nice new lounges there soon!
I found it interesting that Gary felt the need to tell us that JFK is in New York.
@Mike P — Bah! Which ‘New York’? Supposedly, there are others…
In England:
New York, Lincolnshire
New York, North Yorkshire
New York, Tyne and Wear
In the United States:
New York, Texas
New York, New Mexico
New York, Florida
New York, Iowa
New York, Missouri
New York, Kentucky
The real quiz: Which borough is JFK (the airport) in?
Some would think Brooklyn, because it’s ‘southwest,’ but it’s actually Queens, like LGA.
Also, there’s a somewhat notable ‘Manhattan,’ Kansas, which is quite different than ‘the other one,’ though it does has some pretty good ‘burnt ends’ BBQ (I know, more of a Kansas City, MO thing, but still.) Good lunch stop if you’re making a day-trip from KC to the Eisenhower Presidential Library nearby in Abilene, KS. Anyhoo…
And those 777-200s are definitely Geriatric Jets.
So isn’t the hard product on a A321T the same hard product on a 787/777? Could not understand why the first class on the A321T is no different than the business class on a 787/777 and the business class on a A321T is no different from the premium economy on a 787/777. And the so called flagship first service was horrible, especially when you had a NY based flight attendant on call for a 6am flight.
@JohnC — No. For instance, First on 773 is largest, has the swivel chair to desk, 1-2-1 configuration; a321T, doesn’t swivel, slightly smaller space, 1-1. For business class there are multiple configurations for 787, some similar to 772/773, others with some reverse facing; a321T is 2-2 lie-flat, but similar to Delta and United’s 757s.
Those Zodiac Concept D seats are just awful. So awkward having to stare directly at a complete stranger for 12 hours at a time.
@Mike Hunt — Yup. But don’t worry, they rebranded them as ‘Safran,’ same seat, still rear-facing, new name. Wonder if that’ll trick anyone into ‘liking’ them…
What a dumb headline…typical Leff nonsense.
no-one thinks about AA’s A321T’s as “boutique”
@1990,
The Little Apple, aka Manhattan KS is a wonderful town, I have a second home there. But burnt ends? There is exactly one BBQ place in MHK and it’s awful. Stick to KC for the burnt ends.
@Pilot93434 — Bah! I went to Cox Bros in ‘the little apple,’ and it was decent to me. I just really like the burnt ends style, generally. Couldn’t get enough of it during my visit to Kansas City. (Also went to the Truman library there; they do an excellent job with the history.)
@ 1990 — Who cares about lounges? Just arrive at the terminal one hour prior to departure and spend 10 minutes in the lounge. What happened to airports being for flying as opposed to shoveling food and alcohol in one’s pie hole?
1990 – no one would EVER think JFK is in Brooklyn. Not even a question
@Bob – American has described its JFK operation precisely as boutique