American Airlines is promoting its new retrofitted cabin on Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, and what was odd is that the press release did not contain any new information that hadn’t been announced previously. So I went looking for ‘why now?’
This didn’t seem like an evergreen story that might come out every day, though they really should have a better storytelling cadence to promote their premium efforts from nicer lounges to business class suites to improved wine and coffee on board.
- American Airlines is adding a row of first class seats to both A319 and A320 aircraft
- And they’re putting new seats in as part of this process. That means the legacy American Airlines A319s that still have seat back entertainment lose it.
- And they aren’t taking out any coach seats from the A319 to make room for those first class seats. Coach is reduced by the same number of first class adds in the A320. So they’re cramming in the seats.
- But the seats themselves are much nicer, and the cabin aesthetic is much nicer!
They have already started flying the A319s with new interiors. What turns out to be new is that the very first Airbus A320 with an extra row of first class and new interiors has now entered commercial service.
Credit: American Airlines
The 1999-era US Airways Airbus A320 MSN 1052 went in for retrofit, flying from Dallas to Paine Field on March 2. It took a test flight on June 16, and then returned to Dallas on June 21. And it’s now in service.
I admit I like the aesthetic of the cabin. These planes finally have bigger overhead bins, and first class seats have wings at head level for a bit of an illusion of privacy, and American is using the new design scheme that rolled out with its Boeing 787-9P aircraft last year.
Credit: American Airlines
So we see a bit of a design commonality with refreshed regional jets and with the Airbus A321XLR as well.
As the transition ramps up and whle some of these planes will have an extra row of seats so they will be overprovisioning first class meals on flights scheduled to have a smaller cabin, in case of an aircraft swap. That way last minute upgrades will have meals, if a flight suddenly finds itself with four extra seats.
Credit: American Airlines
The retrofit plan for American’s Airbus A319s and A320s is something that dates back four years. It came long before the current ‘premium push’. So there’s a bit of a wasted opportunity, continuing to densify planes rather than offering enough extra legroom seats to have a real ‘buy up ladder’ the way that Delta and United do. And they continue to take screens out of planes while Delta, United and JetBlue lean into them.
@Peter — *cries in MCE*
They removed 4 seats from coach to maintain the 150 total seat count so they wouldn’t need to add a 4th FA. We don’t have an official seat map or dimensions yet but I did confirm the number of total seats at least based on the flights N107US has flown since returning to service.
Based on other recent mods, they reduced pitch to 30″ for main cabin, added more main cabin extra seats (going from 18 to 33 according to an insider I follow), and smaller bathrooms in the back to accommodate (this one is more of a guess). Overall, I this this as a net improvement (along with the nicer design aesthetics) and a plane I look forward to flying on given the better upgrade odds.
I liked in the 8F A319 design that, in row 2, you had a rigid divider behind you. Thus, you reclined into space that was not available to those in the first row of Y (Y+) seats. Thus, even the jerkiest first-row, Y, “nobody every gets to recline” pax had no basis to complain if you reclined. I hope the new row 3 has that feature. I can’t tell from photos or videos. Though, the first Y row does have tray tables in the armrests, a good sign.
@This comes to mind — If you’re still running into fellow passengers who don’t want you to recline, you need to recline-harder.
You didn’t mention what else they did on the 319. Yes, they did not reduce the number of rows in coach BUT to carve out the room they put the two coach lavs in the rear GALLEY!! The FAA requires a FWD facing jumpseat so they put it on the LAV DOOR!! I can’t even begin to say what an idiotic move this is. The FA’s try to take carts out, nope, there’s a line of PAX waiting to use the LAV!! This is beyond stupidity…
AA is showing 3 rows of F (J) on its A319 flights to STT in December. I suspect the EOW A319s are the first being retrofitted.
I just looked at the seat map, and the seats that were removed were 8ABC and 30E. First Class is rows 1-4. I haven’t seen any pictures of what (if anything) replaces 8ABC (perhaps a closet). Presumably 30E is blocked by a fixed tray table between the two armrests (which would make 30D and 30F pretty good seats, despite being in the last row). Main Cabin Extra is rows 8 to 11, plus the Exit rows of 13 and 14, for a total of 33 MCE seats.
@Jan Cadwell – I have written extensively on this! e.g. https://viewfromthewing.com/american-airlines-new-a319-adds-first-class-seats-without-removing-coach-back-galley-photo-shows-flight-attendants-have-nowhere-to-stand/
@jan
True. The two lavs are in the back but Delta airbus have had that design for about a decade and new UA airbus do as well. JetBlue as well
FAs may not like it, but it’s a standard layout in the US airlines and most customers will be familiar with it unless they exclusively have been flying AA.
… and first class seats have wings at head level for a bit of an illusion of privacy.”
Yeah, just like blinders make horses in busy/dangerous environments calmer, lol.
Don’t forget ZERO screens, for aircrafts that do the 6+ hour transcons from San Diego, Seattle, Fort Lauderdale etc. etc.
Cabin changes don’t matter at all on AA. Until the USAir incompetent team of Robert Isom, Heather Garboden and the other Useless Air executives have been fired there’s no turning AA around. They could serve lobster, caviar, etc. and have ten feet of legroom. Employee morale is gutter & sewer level amount every single work group and the service shows.
AND IT SHOWS SYSTEMWIDE.
I came off a seriously delayed flight into DFW last Friday. The line of passengers waiting for the customer service desk in terminal A stretched from gate A20 to gate A37. How many agents were working at that desk…… TWO.
Isom and Garboden and the AA Board of Directors doing what they do best!
Screwing the employees, shareholders and customers of a once great airline.
dont you love how the promotional photos conveniently omit the fact the seats are basic and have no seatback IFE
Lipstick on pigs, right?
Honestly don’t get the fascination for seat back screens. Give me free WiFi and a usb a or c port and I will bring my own device and headphones. To me these seat back screens are much like 8 track, cassette, cd, and nav systems in cars. Poof they are gone. Everyone uses their phone for all of this now. How many times have you seen inop, scratched, and faded screens?
@Coffee Please — You don’t have to use them, personally; but, having them verses not having them, is the difference between a premium airline and not. In my opinion, in the 2020s, all mainline commercial aircraft should have IFE, free WiFi, and charging ports, as a baseline. The technology is there, relatively affordable and reliable. The ones without it are just being cheap, lazy. We, as consumers, shouldn’t let those that can’t handle the investment off the hook by minimizing this.
The AA config is way better than DL’s with 157 verse 150 and DL has those 2000’s era seat back screens and boxes limiting space throughout the cabin. Plus nearly double the MCE seats plus extra row of FC, the A320 is looking like the bell of the ball of the AA narrow body fleet:
A320 – bell of the ball (new cabin)
A321s – first runner up (can’t wait for new interiors added here)
A321XLR – talent contest winner (stop whining, way better than the 757’s)
A319 – miss congeniality (new cabin)
737 – doesn’t make the cut, really need a row removed and more MCE added.
Gary, can you compare the pitch in Y and MCE to other airlines like United, and Alaska?
Coffee please- the point isn’t whether you use them, the point is that folks are booking away from cheapo AA.
My phone is too small a screen for me to enjoy. Perhaps you are young with good eyesight , many are not. I need to bring an IPad just for the flight, a waste.
And I’ve seen more inoperative charging outlets by far than damaged or inoperative screens.
@Beachfan
I’m not buying your argument on book aways. Remember when AA rolled out that “more room in coach” campaign? Seat pitch was a thing of beauty and AA thought folks would pay a little more for the extra room. Well that didn’t last long. Too bad, it was really nice.
I am OK with this retrofit. Most flights on these buses are between 1 and 2 hours, some however much longer (I flew on an A319 from CLT to St. Lucia, and it was… fine?). For the majority of econ passengers, these retrofits will make no meaningful difference (except for luggage space), and offer a nice upgrade for premium/business.