First Look Inside American Airlines New A321XLR — Business Class Suites With Doors On A Narrowbody, Better Premium Economy And Hot Meals In Coach

American Airlines launches its new Airbus A321XLR aircraft next week. It’s the extended range narrowbody that’s being used for ‘long, thin’ routes – a small plane doesn’t need as many passengers to cover its costs and make money, and this one can fly from the Northeast across the Atlantic, or from the South to parts of South America.

This opens up new opportunities for the airline to fly routes that don’t have enough demand for widebodies like a Boeing 777 or 787. It needs to be premium, though, to make money with fewer passengers. So they have plenty of business class and premium economy seats. And this plane features both business class suites with doors, and a new premium economy that’s an improvement on what they’ve mostly flown for the past several years.

And since it’s so premium, they’re taking the opportunity to use this as the plane that will fly the cross-country routes with demand for lie flat business class seats, like New York to Los Angeles, and to convert the existing Airbus A321s on that route that date to 2014 into standard domestic aircraft.

I had a chance to preview the plane at New York JFK on Wednesday, and speak with some American Airlines executives about their plans.

Business Class

There are 20 business class suites on American’s Airbus A321XLR, set up with one seat on each side of the aircraft per row (1-1 configuration).

The seats are set up in an inward-facing herringbone configuration – with the seat angled toward the aisle (you “look” aisle-ward, and your back is up against the window). That’s how other airlines (like JetBlue) which offer flat business class seats on narrowbody aircraft set things up. But it means you’re not gazing out the window.

These are real suites with doors, but the doors on the suites aren’t certified yet, so they’re locked open for now. That’ll change, certainly by the time the plane starts flying internationally.

The seat is a Collins Aerospace Aurora with 17″ 4K screen and bluetooth audio, plus AC, USB (60W), and wireless charging. There’s a cocktail tray, water bottle holder, and storage tha fits a laptop. But I wouldn’t characterize there being a lot of storage space.

There is one lavatory at the front of the cabin, just past the galley before the cockpit. It’s a standard domestic-style lavatory, so quite small. It does have the same cloud wallpaper you’ll find on the new Boeing 787-9P which I quite like and which reminds me of KLM lavatories (rather than clouds theirs has Delft houses).

Premium Economy

I wasn’t a fan of American’s older premium economy on the Boeing 787s and 777s. I do like the new premium economy on their Boeing 787-9Ps. They’ve fixed the problem of not having footrests on all except bulkhead seats, and they still do have foot bars as well.

This premium economy seat isn’t the same as the one on the widebody, but it’s similar, and it’s gorgeous. The Airbus A321XLR features a cabin with 3 rows of 4 premium economy seats. Basically you have 2-2 seating like in a domestic first cabin, so 12 seats with 37 to 38 inch pitch, 21 inch width, and modest recline.

The seats have winged headrests for modest privacy, wireless charging, a 13.3″ 4K screen with bluetooth, as well as both AC and USB power.

The premium economy cabin shares the 3 lavatories in the back of the aircraft with coach. There’s no dedicated lavatory, and on most international flights passengers are expected to largely stay in their ticketed cabin and so may not be permitted to move forward to business class to use the one lavatory in the front of the aircraft. That’s a real compromise.

However, for many of the shorter missions that this plane will operate on, premium economy feels like a real sweet spot. Business class isn’t so spacious, while premium economy will be comfortable, especially on a day flight.

Economy

There are 123 coach seats on this aircraft. Each one features an 11.6″ 4K touchscreen with bluetooth. There is both AC and USB power.

Notably there is very little ‘main cabin extra’ seating in the cabin. The extra legroom seats are the exit and bulkhead rows, but there’s no dedicated section.

Seats have tech, and they’re sharp-looking. They were comfortable sitting in for the few minutes that I was on the aircraft. However I don’t have a feel for how that’ll stretch out over the course of a flight. From the thickness of the seat padding my guess is that they will be… what we’ve come to expect from economy in recent years. Nonetheless it’s an attractive cabin.

A couple of notes on seating. Bulkhead seats have underseat storage in front of them, which is a plus, making those extra legroom seats more desireable. But row 25 has no window.

One thing I hadn’t realized is that American has put ovens in the rear galley. That means they’ll be capable of delivering hot meals in coach. I don’t think I expected that, and it’s a real plus compared to some competitors.

There are 3 lavatories in the rear of the aircraft. These are tight; what we’ve come to expect from modern domestic aircraft. These did not have the cloud wallpaper found in business class.

Where Will This Plane Fly?

There were rumors that American Airlines might announce a new Airbus A321XLR route at this event, but they did not. Brian Znotins, Senior Vice President of Network Planning, laid out their plans for the plane:

• First it will fly premium cross-country routes: filling out the schedule to replace the Airbus A321T on Boston – Los Angeles, New York JFK – San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orange County.

• More transcons: Znotins mentioned that in addition to those current routes that it would fly “more transcons” but did not name routes.

• The first transatlantic route: was previously announced as New York JFK – Edinburgh.

• Additional transatlantic flying: They plan to add “secondary” France, Germany, U.K., and Spain destinations.

• South America: from Miami and Dallas – Fort Worth

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.

American Airlines A321XLR Bottom Line

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. So that’s an improvement. 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.

What’s exciting, though, is to have a new high-quality premium product that can open up new routes. This isn’t sticking an aging Boeing 757 on secondary transatlantic flights. 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. And American has installed ovens in the back galley, so they’ll be able to offer hot food to places JetBlue does not. But there’s no real ‘Main Cabin Extra’ extra legroom section (just bulkhead and exit rows). The seats are stylish but there’s nothing obvious that screams greater comfort on a long flight.

There are going to be compromises in food and beverage, due to the limited space dedicated to galleys. This works on domestic runs, but will be more challenging on transatlantic flights where the expectation is for two full services and perhaps some snacks in between. One thing I did learn from conversations with executives is to expect American to bring back some historical food items both in lounge and on board as part of the airline’s 100th anniversary next year.