Exclusive: First Video Inside American’s Retrofitted 777-300ER—70 Business Suites With Doors But No First Class

View From The Wing has obtained the first video from inside the first American Airlines retrofitted Boeing 777-300ER, showing its new 70-seat Flagship Suite business class cabin.

American has released renderings of this interior, and the same basic seat is already flying on its new premium-heavy Boeing 787-9s. But this is the first look at what 70 of these suites actually look like inside American’s largest aircraft.

The cabin looks like a sea of high-walled suites. You can see the pale gray shells, caramel-colored headrests, patterned gray upholstery, champagne-colored door panels and vertical silver reading lamps. Seat indicators are illuminated, while a few protective tags remain. The video moves through what the standard business class cabin around row 12. It doesn’t show the more spacious Flagship Suite Preferred bulkhead seats.

This Will Be A Familiar Suite To 787-9P Flyers

I first toured American’s new Boeing 787-9P before it entered service. There doesn’t appear to be visible downgrades from the 787-9P product which is the same Adient Ascent platform and looks like the same customization. I’m looking forward to seeing in person how the width and pitch at each seat measures up.

• Reverse-herringbone seats with direct aisle access
• Sliding privacy doors
• The same light shell, tan headrest and gray upholstery
• The same blonde door panel and vertical silver lamp
• The same seat shell storage seams and illuminated identifiers
• American’s unusual chaise lounge position between sitting and sleeping

The obvious differences come from the airplane rather than the seat. The 777 has smaller conventional windows, different sidewalls and an extraordinarily long business class cabin with 70 seats instead of the 51 found on American’s new 787-9P.

This Is Almost Certainly N718AN

N718AN is the only American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER known to have completed the retrofit.

I reported when N718AN was sent to Hong Kong in December. It returned to Dallas on August 13 after nearly eight months at HAECO’s Hong Kong facility.

Its last tracked movement remains the special AA9814 ferry flight from Hong Kong to Dallas. It is now undergoing final work, testing and certification before it can carry paying passengers.

A second aircraft, N723AN, was ferried from Dallas through Los Angeles to Hong Kong on August 5. (N720AN also recently visited Hong Kong, but returned to service with the old four-cabin interior; that appears to have been heavy maintenance rather than Project Olympus work.)

American Is Adding 26 Seats — All Of Them Premium

The reconfiguration removes American’s eight-seat international Flagship First cabin and changes the aircraft from 304 to 330 seats.

Cabin		Existing		Retrofit		Change
Flagship First		8		0		-8
Business		52		70		18
Premium Economy		28		44		16
Main Cabin Extra		28		30*		2
Regular Main Cabin		188		186*		-2
Total		304		330		26

That means lie flat capacity increases from 60 seats across First and business to 70 business suites. This should be good for paid business class inventory, mileage awards and upgrades.

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— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 14, 2025 at 6:24 PM

American Found Space By Cutting More Than First Class

Removing First Class does some of the work, but American also squeezed space elsewhere in the plane. The preliminary Project Olympus layout shows:

• The walk-up business class bar disappearing
• Lavatories being reduced from approximately 12 to 9
• Substantially less galley space
• Business class pitch reportedly shrinking by about an inch
• Extra-legroom coach pitch reportedly shrinking by an inch

This is still an unusually premium-heavy Boeing 777-300ER. United’s current version has 60 business class and 24 premium economy seats, compared with American’s 70 and 44 — while United has 50 more coach seats.

Seventy business class passengers also create a service challenge. A competitive seat isn’t great if it takes two hours to complete the first meal service, and the crew will be working with less galley space. American has a strong hard product, but we’ll have to see what service delivery looks like.

Flagship First Class Is Disappearing

The eight-seat Flagship First cabin was spacious, and its seats could swivel toward the window or turn to face another passenger. American dismantled its differentiated onboard service, though. It’s no surprise that an aging product with meals the same as business class (plus a soup) weren’t drawing a significant revenue premium, in a downward product spiral that led to costs cuts and eventually justified removing the offering from service.

Still, eliminating it ends the last true international First Class product offered by a U.S. airline and it did come with first class check-in and lounge and better amenity kits at least! The eight Preferred suites at the bulkheads of these retrofitted planes will provide more room and upgraded bedding, but they are still business class (potentially paired with first class ground service).

Commercial Service Should Begin Soon

American hasn’t announced a first revenue flight or dedicated route for the retrofitted aircraft.

However, this video suggests the plane shouldn’t be far from certification and ready for revenue service within a few weeks.

• The most logical route for more lie flat density is New York JFK – London
  
• Daytime American Airlines flight 142 is scheduled with a 777-300ER. American also begins scheduling a 777-300ER on AA100 starting September 9.
  
• But American continues selling eight First Class seats on existing 777-300ER routes. That means downgrading pre-booked first class passengers (though these cabins often wind up lightly booked, with seats redeemed as awards and upgrades, and leftovers dubbed ’employee class’).

The Rest Of The Fleet Will Take Years

American has 20 Boeing 777-300ERs. One is completed and a second appears to be undergoing the retrofit.

Aviation watchdog JonNYC reports that American hopes to have three 777-300ERs undergoing work in Hong Kong this winter and one in El Salvador. The Hong Kong work is being done by HAECO. El Salvador would mean Aeroman.

If all goes to plan, there will be 3 777-300 in Hong Kong this winter and 1 in El Salvador. I assume all will be getting the retrofit and heavy maintenance

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) August 13, 2026

The first aircraft took eight months, but that was a prototype and included engineering work and certification work that won’t have to be repeated. It seems theoretically possible to complete work by the end of next year, but they’re unlikely to want four widebodies out of service simultaneously during peak summer. Winter is when it makes sense for them to do aggressive work on the planes. So 2028 seems more realistic as an early projection.

American has also committed to installing Flagship Suites and new interiors on:

• All 47 Boeing 777-200ERs
• All 37 Boeing 787-8s
  
• It hasn’t announced a retrofit for the 22 older Boeing 787-9s that have only 30 business class seats.

Ultimately the seat looks good. We don’t yet know where passengers will be able to catch it on this aircraft, or exactly how long the retrofit will take to roll out across the aircraft type.