American Airlines has taken delivery of its first two ‘block two’ Boeing 787-9s from the order for 25 of them placed in 2018. These planes are equipped with 51 business class suites as well as a new premium economy.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC has the first photos from inside the newly delivered aircraft. My first reaction is that the business class screens look smaller than I thought, that I like the tan headrests (and use of that color across all three cabins), and that the premium economy and coach seats look like they may be quite hard? I also think that the photos American Airlines provided of the interiors were quite fair renditions of what was coming.
789p interior pics
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 7:37 PM
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 7:51 PM
The product is likely to be a huge upgrade for the airline. The bulkhead row in business class has extra space and is marketed as ‘Flagship Suite Preferred Seat’ and comes with additional bedding (branded Nest Bedding mattress pad, throw blanket, memory foam lumbar pillow, Nest Bedding pajamas) as well as a differentiated amenity kit with additional skincare items.
I wrote in March that the first route to get the new planes was likely to be Chicago O’Hare – London Heathrow after first operating domestically Chicago – Los Angeles. In fact, according to aviation watchdog JonNYC the plan appears to be:
- Start with Chicago – London
- Add new configuration 787-9s to the route so that all 3 flights are operated by this aircraft
- And place the aircraft on Philadelphia – London as well
- This could be accomplished by late summer.
My guess would be something like this:
June: 1x ORD-LAX, 1x ORD-LHR
July: 1x ORD-LAX, 3x ORD-LHR
August: 1x ORD-LAX, 3x ORD-LHR, 1x PHL-LHR
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 9:58 AM
It makes sense that American Airlines will send these planes to London Heathrow. These are premium-heavy aircraft and that’s a premium-heavy destination. However Chicago and Philadelphia are in some ways surprising.
While American executives complained back around the time these planes were ordered that Chicago – London didn’t have enough premium seats to sell, because the airline had been removing premium seats from its existing widebodies, it’s also a city that the airline has largely ignored coming out of the pandemic until a recent announcement about increased flying that comes contemporaneously with the city’s announcement that American would lose gates at O’Hare in order to provide more gate space to United.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia is American’s connecting gateway to Europe rather than primarily being a conduit for high fare local traffic. Normally airlines place premium planes on their most premium routes, like New York JFK – London Heathrow. However, it’s worth noting that American’s position in New York is weak outside of London routes and joint venture partner British Airways already has premium heavy aircraft flying between New York and London.
With fewer seats than current 787-9s, they also weigh less, and might be better-suited to longer-distance routes that challenge the range of the aircraft. The plane had been set last year to debut on heavily-subsidized Dallas – Brisbane before delays meant they needed to place an older, heavier 787-9 on that route.
Regardless, I can’t wait to try out the new product! This is a really exciting development for American and its customers. Meanwhile, JonNYC also reports that the first of American’s Boeing 777-300ER to go into retrofit for the new cabin will be ship 7LU, starting this month.
Oh boy, thrilling! I can’t wait to sit in my shiny new “premium” seat and be aggressively ignored for several hours straight because the crew’s been whittled down to three overworked zombies on their last nerve. Then comes the highlight: a steaming pile of mystery slop that tastes like it was scooped out of a prison dumpster, lobbed at me by someone who clearly fantasizes about strangling passengers for sport. But hey, at least the seat’s new! Or it was… before half of them quickly became unserviceable.
I’m excited, wish one was going to August on my BCN-ORD flight, but LHR makes more sense. For those who want to track them:
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N846AN
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N845MD
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N842AA
Nice! Nitpicking but the brown seems…kind of off? Would love to try ‘em out one day. (And look! Doors!)
It’s beautiful. Genuinely excited for this. Now we just need the new Flagship at PHL, then AA is back.
@L737 — I’ll live with the poo-poo. Once folks start to soil it themselves, it’ll all blend-in anyway.
@Mike Hunt — Woah, buddy, cheer up. As to ‘slop,’ you mustn’t be referring to their delicious fully-loaded ice cream sundaes, because those are still awesome. Hey now, why donchu share some more satirical poetry with us!
Gonna be a nightmare since the crew has received zero training on how the service is supposed to be done.
AA – good hard product, terrible soft product. But as long as I can clear some SWUs and use miles, I’ll fly it for longhaul since it’s the primary option at our local “fortress hub”.
For domestic, I’ll fly JSX every chance I get.
These look nice. My problem with these just as jetblue has is go na be maintenance of these doors. As we know passengers destroy everything on an airplane and dont care.
Also what about the already existing 787-8-9? Are they gonna get the new seats and what about the new 787-8 they ar3 also receiving? Seems like so many mixed bags. Its not uniform
“Flagship Suite Preferred Seat” is a genuinely terrible name. Something that may sound decent on paper but you secretly hate yourself when you need to say it out loud. Did any of the AA geniuses in marketing ever speak this abomination out loud before committing to it?
This actually looks terrible. Seats look tiny and cramped. Look cheap as hell. Monitors are tiny. What is this? 1985? Wow. Epic fail.
@ 1990 — Aren’t we optimistic, today?
@Gene — Yup, pumped for these new suites. Probably setting expectations too high. Bah!
@Brian — Oh, come on… if this isn’t an improvement, nothing will ever be good enough for folks like you. If so, please just stay home then. Let the rest of us enjoy this. You probably book Basic Economy anyway. Teehee.
@raylan — Less is more. Agreed, would’ve just gone with ‘Flagship Suite.’
@Nigel — Maintenance? Sounds like ‘jobs’ to me. If all the other airlines with doors can keep them operable, I don’t see why AA can’t handle it. Delta’s 767s and a350s with doors do just fine. QR’s Q-Suite has never let me down either. ANA’s ‘The Room’ seemed to work well, too.
@hal — Good luck clearing those SWUs. After years of EP, waitlists, I opted for the points last time, and didn’t even try to renew, settling on PP, for OW Emerald, which is what I really wanted out of it.
@Nicholas Ramirez — What you said above was objectively silly (‘zero’ training, psh, nice strawman). Of course the crew at AA and all airlines (in the USA, at least) is properly trained. Safety first, then your comfort. If you want something different, then purchase tickets elsewhere. Not hard.
Disappointing these won’t be on DFW LHR. I suppose since AA already dominates that route they see this new config as a way to better compete with UA out of ORD.
@ 1990 — If SWUs can be confirmed at booking, I’d be happy just to have a lay flat seat! At least they shouldn’t be brokern yet, unlike other AA aircraft where you can never be sure. Maybe I’ll even bother to trigger the 3 MM SWUs that have been within reach for more than 5 years.
PE legroom looms tight in the photo. What is the pitch versus current PE offering?
Not impressed; why didn’t you mention seat width? it looks quite narrow; hope its 22″ or more; and personal space looks small, very cramped, walls are too close to where you’re sitting; a very small area compared to Thai Air’s A350 spacious seats in bus.
This is scary, I find myself again agreeing with 1990 (it was a short post so I read it.). The ice cream Sundaes on AA are awesome. I’ve had to limit myself to westbound only due to not needing to take in 3,000 calories in one sitting. It would appear that Gary has also been passing on the Sundaes.
BTW, Gary, good post. If one is going AUS-Europe on AA then you’re probably going through LHR (personal preference over PHL, CLT or JFK). Thanks for the info on the new 787-900. Did they increase the number of lavatories for J? Which reminds me, since Seatguru is no longer updated and I find SeatLopa lacking, any suggestions?
@One Trippe — I agree with you as well on-occasion. Regardless of diets and GLP-1 assistants these days, I can’t resist the sundaes. They’re delightful.
And yes, I do enjoy to reading-up on what Gary and the others say here. Feels like a decent community, even if relatively anonymous.
Flying over the Bermuda Triangle with Delta at the moment, and thankfully the ‘free’ onboard WiFi has been decent. Quick, some tell @Tim Dunn!