American Airlines launches its new Airbus A321XLR this week, flying New York JFK to Los Angeles. It features business class suites with doors, and an improved premium economy product.
They’re the first U.S. airline to operate the ‘extended long range’ narrowbody that’s capable of flying from the Northeast to Europe, and from the South to South America.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC shares that this new plane will start flying New York JFK – San Francisco in the spring as well.
JFK-SFO will be the next XLR transcontinental route, sometime in the Spring.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) December 13, 2025
The plan is for American to use this plane first on premium cross-country routes: filling out the schedule to replace the Airbus A321T on New York JFK – San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orange County and Boston – Los Angeles.
There’s also talk of “more transcon” routes that American might add. I’d love to see New York JFK to Las Vegas and San Diego, and Washington National to Los Angeles.
The first transatlantic route it will fly is New York JFK – Edinburgh. They plan to add secondary cities in France, Germany, the U.K., and Spain and Miami and Dallas to South America (presumably secondary cities like in northern Brazil).
There’s been talk in the past about using this smaller plane to move some Philadelphia flights from summer-only to year-round, as well as operating out of Charlotte and Chicago O’Hare. Notably, the plane’s range isn’t as long as was once expected and it doesn’t strike me as being as likely to operate out of Chicago. I don’t think anyone is flying the plane farther than Madrid – San Juan yet (3,448 nm). Routes like Charlotte or Chicago to Paris would both be longer than 4,000 nm.
Officially American Airlines has 50 of these aircraft on order. I’ve heard that they converted 10 from XLR to A321neo aircraft, but do not believe that the airline has publicly confirmed this.
This is a beautiful new aircraft and American has made the most of what can be done with a narrowbody. Their brand new Boeing 787-9P is nicer overall, because there’s simply more space in – and spaciousness to – a widebody aircraft. But a lot of thought has gone into the detail and premium experience in this plane.
I’d choose business class on this plane over business class on the current A321T which flies cross-country. And the premium economy seats are better than the premium economy American has been flying on its Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft for the past several years.
I will miss having a ‘first class’ though and would choose the current A321T first class (even with seats a bit long in the tooth) over these flashy new suites because (1) these suites seem a bit tighter, and (2) they face away from the windows – not a deal breaker, just a preference.
This is a new high-quality premium product that can open up new routes. And it’s going to be enjoyable to fly, even if it’s not the spacious experience of a widebody.
As for the back of the plane, though, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. There’s still nice entertainment, power and wifi. But the Airbus A321T currently flying premium cross-country routes offers more legroom in coach.
Iberia flies the XLR between Madrid and Santo Domingo, a slightly (9 miles on the Great Circle) longer leg than Chicago – Paris. Chicago – Madrid only about 50 miles further, so probably feasible, too.
It looks nice, but I can’t believe they chose the same layout as the old Virgin Air business class … back of head to the windows with feet to the aisle. Can’t see out of the window and packed in nearly horizontal to the direction of the plane. It wasn’t my favorite on Virgin and I thought it was gone. Not mentioned in this article?
The 321T is a great way to fly JFK-LAX in economy on a narrowbody. 72 economy seats, 36 of which were MCE. Two full sized bathrooms for 72 people. And even with all of that, on a 6.5 hour flight transcon going westbound, Delta still had the advantage, because flying on a widebody in a 2-3-2 config is objectively nicer than flying on a narrowbody. Probably would have ranked DL > AA > B6 in economy (I’ll ignore Frontier in this comparison because… yeah.). And that’s even with B6 having an extra 1″ of legroom in standard economy, just because of how nice the 72 person economy cabin is.
With the XLR and its lack of MCE seating (including complete lack of MCE for anyone unable to sit in an exit row – like children or anyone with a disability), B6 clearly now has the advantage in the back of the bus. So with its brand new plane, AA has downgraded itself into third place in the race for… the most number of people on the plane.
In business, they’ve now matched B6 on seat, and B6 now has a lounge at T5 (such as it is), so that’s much more of a wash. AA no longer has a first cabin, which was objectively the best seat in the skies from JFK-LAX, so that’s a downgrade as well. And folks understandably complain about D1 on the 767s because of how narrow the seat feels in lie flat mode, which is true, but so many of these flights are daytime flights anyway, and it’s not as if these new AA seats are not going to also “feel narrow” in many ways. Some folks prefer an open cabin versus one that may feel a bit claustrophobic.
So AA’s AAdvantage over its competition (first class) is gone. Business… it’s a wash with B6 now (yes AA’s lounges are probably nicer than B6’s offering, but B6 has better food on board), and DL may still have the advantage for many people, although there were plenty of folks that preferred even AA’s 2-2 321T business seating to D1 on the 767, so that’s a tougher call.
If you want PE, DLs 767s have a bigger PE cabin in a 2-2-2 config with much closer access to a bathroom than trekking through the entire economy cabin.
If you want MCE, DL and B6 have the clear advantage.
So other than “having a new plane” why are we all getting so excited about this offering from AA? It’s a downgrade in the number of premium seats up front. It’s a huge downgrade in economy and not great for status members looking for MCE or upgrades. So they added a 12 person PE cabin and we’re all supposed to do backflips?
I’m sure I’m missing something! Glad others are excited about this. The XLR makes sense for unlocking secondary city pairs (and still a subpar offering on JFK-EDI – any creativity in any routing from AA from JFK would be appreciated). But just for JFK-LAX/SFO – why is this so great?
“the ‘extended long range’ narrowbody that’s capable of flying from the Northeast to Europe,”
It will actually fly all the way from Dallas to the UK (Roughly 4,120 nm (DFW-LTN) to 4,140 nm (DFW-STN)) given its range of 4,700NM (Airbus).
Checked my itinerary and I was originally booked in J on the 321T it’s now showing this configuration woo hoo! Can’t wait to try it out in a couple of months. Also made Bilt Platinum so that will be fun taking my blade flight from Manhattan to JFK to catch this flight. Just hope there are no last minute equipment swaps
@Pete I’ve flown the Mint configuration and if AA is pretty much the same seat it is far superior than DL. You have more space on a bigger plane but I spend most of my time in the seat and the 763 is just not competitive. Irony is DL flies a bigger plane but the seat is just cramped.
I’ve gotta say, looking at photos, this seat reminds me of the Cathay Pacific Business class seat on the UD of the 747. The shoulder room on that seat was awful and I couldn’t wait for the flight to end. I fear that’s what we’re getting here with these AA seats on the XLR. Time will tell, but it wouldn’t surprise me for AA to have completely failed to consider pax comfort. 30 premium seats down to 20 is bad enough. Sardine like business class – well that will be enough to migrate to B6 or others. Time will tell.
UnitedFF,
and yet AA is still flying the 321Ts, UA flies a combination of aircraft including their 757s and domestic 777s which are inferior in every cabin to DL’s 763s on their EWR transcons. B6 just doesn’t get the corporate traffic that any of the big 3 get.
And DL is going to eventually have a premium configured 321NEO; it just won’t be used for international routes and DL continues to retire the 763s.
Mint is a nice product but it is still a narrowbody which is an inferior experience for the majority of passengers.
DL is the highest revenue carrier in the JFK transcon markets so they have a product that people are willing to buy.
AA is trying to operate as a niche legacy carrier in NYC compared to DL and UA and on the transcons and the XLRs will strengthen their position.
Any notion that the XLR will significantly change the positioning of each of the 4 major NYC players is wishful at best
Seems cramped with too many doors and seats 🙁
I’m not sure if First class isn’t more preferable on the prior aircraft
And if the food will still suck how do they really offer premium anything?
My last business class flight even the fruit and cheese plate was poor with awful crackers
even Alaska has something decent
I do like airbus better than Boeing especially in this era with planes falling out of the sky
and engines failing which aren’t unheard of these days
@UnitedEF – I hear you, I just don’t think the 763 seat is that big of a deal on a daytime flight. It’s far from the best, but it’s good enough, folks are still willing to buy it as @Tim says. Is AA’s new hard product “better” though? Sure, so is B6’s.
AA could have just maintained the 321Ts so that they were not falling apart and then used the XLRs to launch the types of routes that DL and UA have been trying out. That would have been interesting. Instead, for most people, this is just a downgrade.