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American Airlines’ new Flagship business-class suites are expanding to another set of its airplanes.
The Fort Worth-based carrier on Monday confirmed it plans to install the suites — which are complete with sliding privacy doors — on its fleet of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.
It’ll be a nice upgrade for the business-class cabin on those jets.
Currently, American’s 787-8s do have lie-flat pods with 100% direct-aisle access.
But the new seats they’re getting will be the latest-generation Flagship product that American debuted just over a year ago on its larger 787-9 planes.
Full on-board refresh for American’s 787-8s
It’s not just business-class getting a glow-up.
The 787-8s are slated for a larger cabin refresh, which CNBC’s Leslie Josephs was first to report over the weekend.
Expect those planes to get the sleeker new-look interior — which includes brighter blue seats in economy — that the airline has been rolling out across an array of aircraft.
Which American Airlines planes have Flagship Suites?
These upgrades to American’s 787-8s will also give frequent AA flyers another fleet type with the airline’s newest, most state-of-the-art premium product up front.
American first introduced the Flagship Suites last year on some of its newly delivered 787-9 Dreamliners.
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But it remains a bit of a unicorn seat offering today, as only a small handful of planes sport the new suites.
You’ll find the new Flagship product on 11 of those Boeing 787-9s right now — not to mention on Americana’s brand-new, single-aisle Airbus A321XLRs.
However, expect to see the suites on many more planes in the future. Later this year, American expects to debut the Flagship Suites on its largest plane, the Boeing 777-300ER, and 20 of those jets are slated for retrofitting in the coming years. Additionally, 47 of its 777-200ERs are also in line for the new cabin and Flagship product.
Now, add the carrier’s 37 787-8 Dreamliners to the mix.
American did not announce timing for these new retrofits, but did offer this comment:
“We look forward to providing customers with an elevated premium travel experience on our wide-body fleet,” an airline spokesperson told TPG.
Premium arms race
American’s planned on-board upgrades come in the middle of a proverbial arms race, of sorts, among the largest U.S. airlines: The goal is to win big-spending customers over with luxe seats, lounges and other bells and whistles.
Earlier this year, United Airlines unveiled its next-generation Polaris business-class product on a plane that sports a whopping 99 premium seats.
Delta Air Lines is plotting a new-look version of its popular Delta One cabin, which will make its debut on the carrier’s new Airbus A350-1000s next year.
Looking ahead
Something worth watching is just how many business-class suites American decides to configure its 787-8s.
Those planes currently have 20 lie-flat beds.
The airline leaned much more heavily into premium, though, with the newest 787-9s, which sport 51 suites, including eight extra-spacious Flagship Suite Preferred seats in the two bulkhead rows.
The 787-8 will likely have fewer business-class suites than the larger 787-9 variant. But don’t be surprised if the carrier makes its front cabin bigger than what those planes have right now.
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