Several readers have complained in recent days that they’d booked the American Airlines Chicago O’Hare – Los Angeles flight in order to try the new Boeing 787-9 suites business class.
They were flying just to experience it. And American cancelled the flight, or in an earlier spate of incidents replaced the aircraft with a Boeing 787-8 that doesn’t have this product.
- Last month American’s new 787-9 registration N846AN was having real teethng pains, including issues with the door seals.
- Now, the plane N842A appears to be struggling.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC explains what’s going on with this aircraft: issues from the factory.
The issue here is with the cabin lights, seemingly a bad wire harness. Boeing is helping fix it
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) July 21, 2025 at 8:16 PM
These planes are gorgeous, but they’ve also been sitting awhile while the planemaker has been under scrutiny and while it was unable to deliver, and Boeing has become famous for issues with its aircraft coming out of the factory.
It’s likely that the teething issues on these planes will be sorted through, rather than being considered some kind of ‘lemons’. But in the meantime, American’s customers are facing delays and cancellations.
“No God, Please No!” –Michael Scott.
I was supposed to be on this bird twice in the last week on ORD-LAX-ORD. I bailed a day before on 7/16 and moved to an earlier flight and happy I did as the ORD-LAX flight cancelled. I stayed on 2321 on Sunday (7/20) but was changed from a 787P to 787-8. I was in coach in a PE bulkhead and after the plane change stayed in a PE bulkhead so no harm done.
Flying these birds ORD-LHR-ORD in a few weeks so hopefully no issues then.
@ Gary — AI did your writing on this article? Sounds like it.
Guess Boeing is putting speed of delivery over quality control. Shocking, not really.
I’ve had my in-laws booked on ORD-LAX-ORD over the last week. The first flight was cancelled and they were rebooked on a 787-8 replacement flight that was added to the schedule for 8 hours later (the flight wasn’t available for sale and they reported that there were about 40 people on the entire plane). When the second flight canceled we called AA to see if they would do anything to compensate: we had booked them in PE on the return flight, technically MCE as the booked cabin. Given the two cancellations, and that there were no flights available with true PE, we asked for accommodations in First on a flight with plenty of availability. AA refused, only offering MCE on the remaining narrowbodies. Furthermore, no communication or compensation offers beyond the cancellation notices. Pretty funny that when I flew this with inoperable doors they gave me 5k miles automatically, but completely throwing you off the plane and putting you in far inferior seats gets you nothing without asking. Agent told me to reach out to CS.
As usual, service recovery from AA remains terrible despite their supposed moves to be a premium carrier. I would think this would be area #1 for improvement, but instead they’re focused on better snacks.
@Gene – nope.
@Darin — This is why the USA needs an EU261 or Canada’s APPR equivalent air passenger rights legislation that would provide affected passengers with actual compensation when a significant delay or cancellation occurs like this when in the airlines’ control. Alas, currently, we get nothing.
This is not a mere unavoidable safety issue, severe weather, or FAA/ATC staffing (one of the new favorite excuses for failing to operate timely); it’s American Airlines (and Boeing)’s faults, and they have the deep pockets; those companies can choose to insure for this; it shouldn’t fall onto passengers (the little guy) to foot the bill for those companies mistakes. So, I say, in addition to a refund, or an alternative flight in a similar class of service, there should be several hundreds of dollars owed to you for the inconvenience. Again, the EU/UK/CA do this. It’s not hard. We just have to not allow special interests to pollute our society (yes, I do partially blame Citizen United, and the court that has allowed all this dark money into politics). Also, yes, Congress has to act. Ugh.
Anyway, by comparison, if it were Delta, as a Diamond, I’d expect like 20-50K SkyMiles, sometimes without even asking (they’ve done that in the past, as a pre-emptive apology for situations like this); United has even given me a $50-250 credits out after mechanical issues a couple times; with AA, I’ve never experienced any of that, even as an EP back in the day; AA just says ‘sowie.’
@Shaun — Had you booked specifically to fly the new aircraft type, or was that just a coincidence? Some of us were most-interested in trying out the new Flagship suites.
@Steve — Yeah, and let’s get any whistleblowers into witness protection, quickly please.
Gary, thanks for writing this. I was one of those that got screwed over with these things having the reliability of an ’87 Yugo with no oil in the crank. Was supposed to be on 2012 on Saturday 7/19 – had planned an entire trip around trying the new biz class (booked before the inaugural and all the subsequent reports of issues on N846AN, N842AA, N845MD). Made Chicago just fine, but trashed the rest of the trip after we saw it had been subbed out for a 788. Been on plenty of those.
I wrote in expressing my extreme disappointment – told them I didn’t blame AA for Boeing delivering a brightly polished dog turd, but that I did blame them for not making schedule changes and pulling it out of service sooner. I got a “we’re sorry and will do better” response. I didn’t really expect miles but it would have been a good opportunity for them (which they of course missed) to do something token.
Note to self: book that trip again in about 4-5 months when they finally squash out all the bugs.
Ugh, what a let down for an aviation enthusiast — hope that’s sorted out soon.
@1990 – a very apt reference
American made junk.
@lavanderialarry — Hey! I give Boeing plenty of crap, but it’s not where it’s made that is the issue; it’s corporate malfeasance, profits over people, etc., and that’s not uniquely American; greed is human, and we gotta do everything we can wherever we are to fight that urge. Hoping AA and Boeing get this fixed soon so we who care can finally experience it firsthand. And if we have to whine about Airbus, where’s the a321XLR, because we’re still waiting…
I was a victim of AA over-promising and under-delivering too this past weekend. Their complete indifference may be what drives me to stop focusing my flying on them and become a free agent. I know I am small potatoes at 250k LPs per year but I am certainly not a kettle. Though, at this point I am not sure that they care since they want to be a bank instead of an airline.
@Darin.
So you purchased a MCE seat or got it free due to your status? Sometimes you score a PE seat domestically for the same price because there s no enhanced service that goes along with the bigger seat domestically. Yet somehow you feel entitled to a business class seat for your inconvenience. That is absolutely hilarious. You purchased a coach seat therefore hats what you get. FYI I am traveling from PHL to MIA later this summer. The original jet was an A321. We had MCE seats and one day they put a 787 on it. Moved my seats to PE for no charge. Again it’s a coach seat domestically. Nice attempt to spin in your favor.
@John Krajewski — Nice humble brag, Mr. EP. You’re at least ‘Golden’ mashed potatoes, in my book, good sir. How nice that you earned just enough for ‘2 rewards’ under the new LP scheme. Personally, I think it’s absurd that they don’t give you the option of additional SWUs at 200K anymore (quite the negative change). Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I don’t bother beyond Platinum Pro with AA anymore. Like, gimme OneWorld Emerald, and I’m done. Besides, those SWUs were rarely clearing in-advance, and I don’t like the anxiety of a Waitlist until the gate scenario for a long-haul where its the difference between a recliner and a lie-flat.
@1990 didn’t mean it to be a humble brag or any brag. I am starting to think your strategy of PPro is the better one. I really dont do anything unusual to get to 250k most years. That may change and I might diversify my flying and get UA or DL status
@John Krajewski — It’s VFTW; brag all you want, or not. Anything goes. Bah!
For real, though, when I was based in MIA, it made sense to focus on AA, because they ‘run’ that airport. And, but for crediting a bunch of long-haul J itineraries with Qatar Airways, I wouldn’t have earned EP or PP with AA. In retrospect, I probably should have credited those QR trips to QR, because they actually allow access to Flagship lounges with OW Emerald, whereas, AA is stingy.
But, since then, now in NYC, and I’ve done the ‘diversification’ strategy, which has been ‘good’ so far. Focused on Delta and United, earned Diamond and 1K. I prefer DL’s Regional Upgrade Certificates and Global Upgrade Certificates actually confirm well in-advance; even so, probably only earning Platinum this year, so a few more RUCs. However, I am not a fan of UA’s PlusPoints; until recently, I was rarely if ever getting confirmed until the gate, if at all. It’s not fun to take a 6+ hour flight in an Exit row, even if they give you a complimentary ‘Takeoff’ snack box, when you should have been ‘up-front.’
All that said, fellow regular @Gene may have the right method: WFBF. Want first buy first. Eh.
@Coffee Please – You seem to have very low expectations for customer service. These seats were for my no status in-laws, so yes we did pay extra for the MCE seats (over $100 each). When making that purchase, the airline showed us a 2-3-2 seating map, and was heavily promoting the new features of the 787-9. We went out of our way to book those specific seats on those specific flights, relying on their own marketing and sales practices. We paid $200+ expecting a “premium” experience that wouldn’t even be replicated by an upgraded seat in first on a narrowbody plane, but asked if they would be willing to do that for us given the inconveniences they imposed upon us. I don’t think that’s unreasonable at all. As others have noted, DL would do it in a heartbeat, UA maybe. And my overall point was that they did NOTHING. Not an apology, not a token compensation offer, etc. If you think this is acceptable, you’ve been take captive of AA’s very low overpromise and underdeliver strategy.
@Darin — You have to realize that folks like @Coffee Please love to carry water for big companies and oligarchs. They’re like Fry from Futurama, “someday I might be rich. And then people like me better watch their step.” They just can’t stop ‘carrying water’ for big money; they don’t realize that we, the people, need to create and enforce regulations that actually protect consumers (and workers) from being abused, like you were, under these circumstances. For now, I wish there was better recourse, but, sadly, we’re on our own at the moment.
@1990 I had a trip planned for ORD-LAX-ORD but specifically grabbed those flights to try out the new 787P and have lie flat seats. If it was just me I would have probably taken my chances on the 787P flights going…but the trip was a graduation trip for my niece. She couldn’t tell you the difference between a 777 and a E-175 so plane type didn’t matter to her. Our flight ended up being cancelled after 5 or 6 hours of rolling delays so would have really blown up the first few days of a 4 day trip.