Last week I wrote that American Airlines is expected to receive the first of its new slate of Boeing 787-9 widebodies. That’s exciting because,
- American has been short on long haul aircraft since retiring their Airbus A330, Boeing 767 and Boeing 757 planes during the pandemic.
- The Boeing 787-9 will be the first with American’s new premium economy and business class suites.
- New Boeing 787-9s come with 51 business class suites, up from just 30 on existing 787-9 aircraft, and will come with 32 premium economy seats compared to 21 on current planes. That increase in premium cabin seating should be good for airfares, upgrades, and awards.
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.
Credit: American Airlines
Credit: American Airlines
We now know something about what routes will see these new planes first. Aviation watchdog JonNYC says that the plan is for the plane to operate domestically Chicago to Los Angeles and back, before going into international service on the Chicago – London Heathrow route.
In any case, late spring/early summer, AA will initiate 789p service ex-ORD is how it seems for now
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Thinking ORD-LAX followed by ORD-LHR at first.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) March 19, 2025 at 1:56 PM
It’s not yet clear which frequency the plane will operate or what the start date will be. When the airline is able to put the plane into service hasn’t firmed yet. Currently, all three of American’s Chicago – London flights are scheduled to operate with Boeing 787-9 aircraft. I’ve heard rumblings that once American moves new aircraft into international service it’s likely that the late flight gets the new suites first.
Niiice! Have been looking forward to this for a while. Please, don’t delay this any further, American. Like, honestly, other than the Chelsea and Soho lounges, lately, this ‘promise’ of these new Flagship Suites are the only thing that has me ‘excited’ about anything with the airline these days.
Seems a bit weird sticking them on domestic first while they have 26+ year old 777-200s doing transatlantic. Why not just move some more 772s to domestic?
They need the capacity on ORD-LHR. Biz frequently sells out well in advance–pushing anyone who wants to fly biz to LHR to UA, which uses its “high J” 767 (and thus typically has the inventory closer to departure).
I don’t get LHR-ORD-LAX — a route that, in flying time alone, is over 12 hours, not including ground time. This means they can’t do it with one aircraft alone. Seems they could better utilize such valuable metal.
no goat slaughtered?
@Disco a sub fleet of 1-2 planes is never going to be used efficiently in the beginning. I’m sure crew training will happen while it’s on the ground. Keep in mind that AA uses a lot of domestic 787’s to ORD because towing a plane from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 takes a lot of time.
It’s only a matter of time before a frame does LAX-HND-LAX-ORD-LHR-ORD-LAX.
As a Chicago flyer this is great news! As another said, J frequently sells out weeks in advance. Do upgrades are non existent. Have had some success getting upgrades in the way back, but the only SWUs I’ve ever missed in 15 years are ORD>LHR.
I have been looking forward for these! Very nice product.
Considering new new hefty departure tax the UK announced on Premium seats I don’t think the plane will be on the ORD-LHR route for very long. My understanding was the orginal plan was to fly it domestically for a short time to work the bugs out and then put it on long haul flights such as DFW-BNE or ICN where the demand for premium seating is high becauseof the length of the flight. The 787-900P is also causing internal issues at AA as they want to reduce the minimum crew to 7 instead of the current 8. Seem odd that they what to reduce the number of flight attedants when they are saying public that they want to return to being a preimium carrier. Having so many premium seats is going to put a big demand on the Flight Attendants to provide a high level of service.
I’m curious what makes JonNYC a “watchdog” (a term you’ve used to describe person in the past). Does he have some kind of regulatory enforcement role? Wouldn’t it be more correct to describe him as an “insider” or similar?
Any new premium hard product needs to be assigned to DFW. Way more long haul opportunities than from ORD.
ORD needs more seats to London in a big way. Every flight I’ve taken has been packed with nary an open seat. SWU are exceptionally rare on this route in either direction. Hopefully these planes will remain out of ORD. AA made a statement that it intends to add significant service to bring flights at O’Hare back to pre-pandemic levels. This is long overdue. Flying to our second home in Scottsdale always meant 10-11 daily flights to choose from–more during baseball spring training. Often a 787-8 was assigned, so we’d snag great seats. Hopefully more flight and a widebody are part of this plan.
@DFWSteve — This is just a ‘test’ run with the very limited first batch of new aircraft. If you’re impatient, blame Boeing and AA, though Gary prefers to blame the FAA (according to recent posts on that topic), but realistically, it was the airline changing its applications that delayed things–yet, none of that matters anymore, new regime, planes going live anyway, etc.
My theory is that American wants to place these newer aircraft somewhere that it’s trying to gain more business, not where it already has a practical monopoly. At DFW, American has little competition–it’s the top dog in a fortress hub, like Delta at ATL. Whereas, ORD is one of five airports where nobody has more than 50% market share–the other ‘similar’ airports are LAX, JFK, SFO, and PHX, as of 2024. At ORD, United has about 40%, American has less market share (~20%), so maybe they want more share there, and adding these newer jets will assist (or not, who knows, because macro issues, like a recession, trade wars, etc. can derail them from their goals). For further comparison, at JFK, Delta has a major operation at T4, but so does American at T8. Likewise, United has a major terminal at SFO, but other airlines have ‘real’ operations there, too. I donno if you or anyone actually cares, and if you have a different theory, feel free to share it.
SFO basically means nothing to AA.