Fly American’s Premium A321T Fully Flat Business Class for $99 (and First for $178)

One Mile at a Time writes that American is flying its premium-configured Airbus A321Ts between New York JFK and Boston. Most of its flights between the two airports through January 4 are operated by this plane.

The American Airlines Airbus A321T is a 3-cabin aircraft with economy (including Main Cabin Extra extra legroom seating), fully flat business class, and 1-1 seating first class. It’s the most luxurious, high-end narrow body aircraft and the best plane flying domestically in the U.S. (and I include the Qantas Boeing 747 that flies Los Angeles – New York JFK in that assessment).

And flights on the route are priced well, too.

Lucky points out that “the business class seats are being sold as economy, so if you’re an elite member you should be able to snag one of those seats for free.”

In fact anyone can book business class seats on these flights for free.

The interesting thing is that ‘Main Cabin Extra’ seats are charged, while fully flat business class seats are coded as regular economy. Here’s the seat map for a booking I walked through while not logged in at AA.com.

First class on the A321T is the same seat as American’s best international business class product, on the Boeing 777-300ER.

Here’s business class:

I previewed the aircraft two years ago and flew the inaugural Los Angeles – New York JFK flight.

This is a really short 187 mile flight, you may find yourself on the ground as long as you’re in the air, but it’s a cheap way to experience a pretty cool plane for the next couple of weeks.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. @Steve good point, although certainly a higher percentage of premium seats by far on the A312T and the 77W is 10-across in (non-main cabin extra) economy.

  2. Oddly, I was just on one of these flights one week ago, when it flew with its usual 737. I was comp upgraded to first on the early morning flight, 24 hours ahead. While waiting at the gate an agent announced they were looking for four passengers to downgrade from first to coach due to a weight imbalance issue — a $300 voucher was availed. Of course, I stepped up to grab it.

    $300 for suffering through the indignity of an exit row on a 30-minute flight with only 35 passengers aboard? Best downgrade offer ever!

  3. As an EXP I was able to reserve the first-class seats on the MIA-LAX 77W. I purchased a cheap business fare.

  4. Personally I’m holding out for a seat on one of those narrow-body Qantas 747s. Do they charge 50 cents a mile, too?

  5. That’s it? Such a great opportunity to discuss the origins of Airbus. The first time you ever flew on any Airbus. You could have cited any time you discussed Airbus in any press. You could have discussed Logan Airport. Pity.

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