American Airlines will be modifying their Airbus A319s to have an additional row of first class. They won’t be taking out coach seats – they’ll net be adding seats to the planes and reducing legroom.
The A319s that had been ordered by American Airlines prior to being taken over by US Airways management had seat back entertainment screens. These new, densified aircraft will no longer have seat back screens.
The planes have only 8 seats up front, compared to 16 on Boeing 737s and 20 on Airbus A321neos.
American has limited its revenue potential without enough first class seats to sell to passengers. It’s not that upgrades are tough on these planes – buying first class can be tough on many routes.
Legacy American Airlines Airbus A319 First Class, With Just 8 Seats And Entertainment Screens
It’s not just legroom that’s going to be squeezed on Airbus A319 planes to fit in more seats. They nip and tuck everywhere on the aircraft. For instance, this is the last row of the ‘densified’ Oasis configuration 737 that American Airlines flies.
They squeeze the lavatories for space. They squeeze the galleys for space. They’re even going to stick a flight attendant jump seat on the lavatory. Here’s a sketch from the crew manual:
And here’s the layout, showing the number 4 jump seat attached to the lav in the rear galley:
When American Airlines introduced smaller lavatories, with sinks nost deep enough so water sprayed back onto passengers and with doors that slammed into each other, then-CEO Doug Parker defended their cabin layout decisions as being not as bad as Delta’s, whom he mocked for a lavatory setup he thought was worse… putting in jumpseats that blocked the lavatory.
What did Delta do with these same lavs though, Delta had like the crew seat on the door or some ridiculous thing (cackles) that’s not a threat, I just.. I don’t know why I felt.. that’s really funny.. I don’t know why I felt compelled..
United now does this, with the Spaceflex lavatories they use on their Airbus A321. Here’s what it looks like:
With the A321N becoming more frequent, please keep this in mind.
byu/InformalCommittee507 inunitedairlines
Parker, though, doubled down and promised American Airlines would never do something like this,
Delta has done an amazing job with their product and their customer service. They get more seats on the same size airplane than we do. They do things for example like put flight attendant jump seats on the door of the restroom. I promise. You can’t sit in your jump seat if someone wants to use the restroom. We’re not ever gonna do anything like that.
Yet that’s exactly now what they’re doing. It’s not just customers who get squeezed at American Airlines – it’s flight attendants, too.
Once upon a time, there were full service Legacy carriers then low cost began to evolve. Delta, United and American then descended to that level. Remember when Jetblue was low cost? Remember when Legacy carriers fed you? Remember when you had legroom? USA air travel has become the Greyhound of the skies.
Correction. PAX will not be using that lavatory when I’m needing to take my jumpseat. Sucks for passengers and crew.
I gave up on AA long ago. They caused me to miss two important once in a lifetime events and twice had us on the tarmac waiting for the pilot to arrive!! Although AA warned me that accrued credits would be expiring within 6 months, encouraging me to book a flight…they have continued to encourage me to book—two years later!! Never again if I am lucky. They can keep the money.
Luckily I can fly JetBlue to Boston from LAX. They have the best legroom in coach by far. The new seats allow a full stretch legroom under the seat in front of you. Very impressive. I won’t fly AA period no matter the ticket price.
Never have flown American and now I am really really glad about that choice. Delta is right out as well
Delta has NO jumpseats secured to the outside of any lavatory door on any aircraft in its mainline fleet. This is not, imo, a safe practice as it dues not provide a stable, secure point of attachment on an aircraft for a jumpseat. During impact, the likelihood of a lavatory door becoming detached presents a devastating scenario for a FA occupying a jumpseat on a lavatory door. This seems to be strictly a revenue-motivated option which compromises the overall safety.of FAs and their passengers.
Hey, the unions wanted U.S. Air management over their own legacy leadership which is what enabled them to do the deal. If the FA’s are now getting screwed, tough toenails.
Lmao these comments are hilarious … I clean planes at night and ALL THE BACK LAVS ARE WHERE THE GALLEY IS …there’s usually those two in the galley or one in the galley and one at the threshold or both at the threshold across from each other . Like … it’s an airplane …. Where else do you expect for the galleys and lavs to be ….
If this is the way american airlines will be i will choose another airline.
@bobpatriot on.behalf of my fellow flight attendants; SHOVE IT UP YR ASS, Bob. And you might wanna display your hate and racism a little more discretely, fool. One of us might know exactly who you are and, you might want to think twice before drinking anything aboard your next flight, ya douchebag.
I used to fly AA back in the day… But not anymore… I haven’t flown AA in over a decade now. I’m strictly a United flyer!
@Zod — From the frying pan into the fire… ‘for a less disappointing travel experience, please consider Delta.’ (@L737, I hope @Matt is doing alright; haven’t seen him around in a while.)
Yet again AA preaches one thing and practices another. They claim to want to be more premium. And now they are just cramming in more seats to make the experience for most customers and the employees who serve them much worse. Not that I’m surprised. It’s Isom’s management style. Can’t wait until someday there’s a new CEO, perhaps one with some actual leadership capabilities.
As a current mainline flight attendant here in the US, the problem is not that the jumpseat is located directly in front of the lavatory door. AA’s 319 current configuration already has the #4 FA seated in front of one of the lavatories. The issue is that now both lavatories will be located inside of the galley area. There is already a ‘personal space’ issue on the 737 and 321 aircraft where the lavatories are located just after the last row of passenger seats/ and in front of the galley area. There is absolutely no privacy or space for flight attendants as is to prepare for service, or even to take a short break to eat something quickly in the air. (Hello galley yoga- and please never return again. Thanks!) By re-locating the lavatories into the galley itself- is like having someone come into YOUR personal office and take a shit behind your desk. No one wants that. Please respect the small space that is allotted for the 4 flight attendants working these aircraft (on most domestic flights) as is, there’s barely enough room to complete the beverage service that is so desperately demanded of us. (Even during severe turbulence). Now, think of adding to that severe turbulence, I also have to get out of my FAA assigned jumpseat to let you take a piss (and yes, the FAA can/and will fine me personally for sitting in the incorrect jumpseat during taxi/takeoff/& landing… please also note that “landing” begins once we have descend below 10,000 ft (approx 20 min before touch-down). So yeah.. I see this as a major issue considering the majority of the public has no desire to take common courtesies into account and are so ready to shit or piss wherever they like, as animals do. No thank you.
What is missing from this article is that the flight attendant cannot use the other jump seat’s because the lavatory door cannot be opened if the jump seat is down leaving the flight attendant standing during most of the flight
Usairways purchased/took over AA. What is so difficult about realizing this after 10 years? AA was in bankruptcy and about to completely go under and start selling off pieces. Usairways was the only airline that had the money to buy them. Legacy AA is still talking about this ( they took over USair. Hahaha. So crazy that AA legacy flight attendants still think this. Smh.
Flying now is like spending time in the country jail. Good luck going to the restroom. They always have the fasten seat belt sign on.
American is just continuing its downward spiral in customer satisfaction and comfort. Reason? As long as those seats are full they could care less about all the complaints!!
“There is no limit to the torture that airline execs inflict on passengers. Although “first class” costs (NYC / PAR) $14,768 vs $648 coach, the front of the plane is still an insult to the luxury in the Golden Age of Flying. In fact coach on the first 747’s puts today’s First Class to shame.” I flew coach and first class in that era. Your memory is terrible inaccurate.
Humans complain but they’re stupid enough to pay for it so of course they’re going to do what they can to make the most money out of you useless idiots and then you just complain about it but let’s be honest it doesn’t matter and nobody cares. You could die A million lives and nobody cares what you have to say if you’re stupid enough to pay for something that you know you’re getting screwed on nobody cares about your complaint nobody says anything good when they have a good trip they only complain about this garbage and yeah these companies wouldn’t be making billions of dollars if it weren’t for idiots like you paying for it and then complaining and going and using it again. There’s another useless human that’s going to make offspring that makes another useless human or more and that’s why this planet is going to be trash because of the useless morons that can’t keep their legs closed or their mouths shut.
Stop blaming the airlines and start blaming those at fault: the people buying Y tickets. AA expanded Y pitch a number of years ago. They were not rewarded for that by pax. It went away. I offer 31″ Y pitch. They offer 28″. I charge $325; they charge $315. A pax will fly them at a less convenient time to save $10 (and b!tch about legroom). When airlines find Y+ sells out first, things might change. But, my friends, complaining about the airlines and tight seats is like complaining about how lousy chain pizza is. You keep buying the $8.99 large chain special and complain it’s not as good as the non-chain $12.00 pie you can no longer get because they went out of operation for lack of sales.
My new rule is the following. If you don’t buy Y+, you can’t complain about legroom. Simple enough. The default “coach” seat is Y+. If you choose steerage, you can’t complain about steerage conditions. Good news. Y+ is likely cheaper that pre-1980 Y adjusted for inflation.
United is already doing this on the Airbus Neo. The galley are tiny and not flight attendant friendly
As a current mainline flight attendant here in the US, the problem is not that the jumpseat is located directly in front of the lavatory door. AA’s 319 current configuration already has the #4 FA seated in front of one of the lavatories. The issue is that now both lavatories will be located inside of the galley area. There is already a ‘personal space’ issue on the 737 and 321 aircraft where the lavatories are located just after the last row of passenger seats/ and in front of the galley area. There is absolutely no privacy or space for flight attendants as is to prepare for service, or even to take a short break to eat something quickly in the air. (Hello galley yoga- and please never return again. Thanks!) By re-locating the lavatories into the galley itself- is like having someone come into YOUR personal office and take a shit behind your desk. No one wants that. Please respect the small space that is allotted for the 4 flight attendants working these aircraft (on most domestic flights) as is, there’s barely enough room to complete the beverage service that is so desperately demanded of us. (Even during severe turbulence). Now, think of adding to that severe turbulence, I also have to get out of my FAA assigned jumpseat to let you take a piss (and yes, the FAA can/and will fine me personally for sitting in the incorrect jumpseat during taxi/takeoff/& landing… please also note that “landing” begins once we have descend below 10,000 ft (approx 20 min before touch-down). So yeah.. I see this as a major issue considering the majority of the public has no desire to take common courtesies into account and are so ready to shit or piss wherever they like, as animals do. No thank you.
It’s the same old story. The rich keep getting richer because we consumers purchase their products without consequences. Why should they change to help the consumer if we continue to support them.
Why does anyone fly any domestic line any more? Amtrak or international carriers!!!