ACA321

Have heard reports that N821AW, a former US A319 has re-entered service after having its cabin reconfigured. Apparently it now features the same cabin config as the LAA A319s: 8F seats, 120Y Power in every seat now, but no PTVs.

I wonder, where will this bird be deployed? Would make sense to initially deploy it on LAA A319 routes where pax have bought tickets for that configuration. However, if it is substituted for an LUS A319 with 12 seats of booked F, there will no doubt be some unhappy pax bumped back to Y. Could also explain why AA seems to be holding back 4 seats for gate upgrades on the past few A319 flights I've been on...maybe priming the market to expect less upgrades.

Not a positive change at all as far as I see it.

jlb3

"Not a positive change at all as far as I see it."

As someone who's flown almost exclusively in pre-merger US Airways A-319's, I see this as a huge positive. Those planes are old and uninspiring. Any remodel is a plus in my book. I'm happy in coach.

ACA321

I'll certainly give you this, but I'm referring more to the reduction in F seating. Even though most of my travel is in paid F, having one less row on the prolific A319 makes the prospect of keeping my seat in F should a delay/misconnect happen just as unlikely as the pax in Y hoping to score an upgrade...

bse118

Does the reconfig include adding MCE?

If it does, that's certainly an improvement, no matter what's going on up front.

brc757rr

It looks like the flight it will do tonight, IAD-LAX, shows row 8-10 as MCE and only 8 F seats.

KBMIFlyer

There are three rows of MCE along with 8 F seats.

This plane is despised by flyertalk AA flyers, here a link to the discussion. I don't think US flyers will think this is a good thing.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...mixed-bag.html

bse118

I've flown the LAA A319 several times. It's fine, not the best plane in the fleet, sure, but perfectly fine.

The question is not how does the reconfig LUS A319 compare to the LAA A319, its how it compares to old LUS A319 config. I'll take a plane with a few rows of 34" pitch MCE over a plane with mostly 31" pitch Y, anytime.

rjw242

There's plenty of teeth-gnashing in other threads about AA holding back more upgrades until the last minute these days. Ostensibly this is part of the reason. The past few times I've flown in F and run into irrops, I've been reaccommodated in F on the next flight. No doubt this resulted in some unhappy campers on the upgrade list.

ACA321

I wonder what happens to pax who reserved row 4 on those flights where this aircraft is deployed. Row 4 is the bulkhead listed as MCE on the LUS A319. On this new config the bulkhead is row 8. Are pax originally seated in rows 4-7 now automatically reassigned rows 8-11 or are they just displaced to other open seats anywhere in the back? Seems that would be unfair, but wouldn't put it past AA... am interested to hear some first hand experience as these planes make their way around the LUS system.

All the more reason to diligently babysit those existing reservations on A319s in either cabin.

Data point: Currently flightaware.com shows N821AW scheduled to be flying flight 780 (LAX-IND) tomorrow- Nov. 15th, and the return flight 460 IND-LAX on the same day. Seatmap on AA.com shows original LUS config though (3 rows of F, bulkhead Y row 4). Looking at the seatmap for flight 780, it's obvious there are already more pax assigned seats in F than are available on the new config. If ship 821 does indeed operate this flight, there will be some pissed of pax for sure...

AANYC1981

Pics?!

3Cforme

Fleet commonality is a long-term goal, years and years away when there are so many US-origin A319s to be converted. Delta is still flying multiple DL-config and NW-config 757-200s seven years after the merger. (DL somehow managed to acquire enough lie-flat/aisle access business seats for all of their 777s and 767-ERs so we see where the priorities rested. )

AA config A319 vs. US config A319 probably was never a realistic choice: it would come down to one config A319 (fleet and crew commonality) versus RJs. Are mainline AA config A319s better than Envoy-operated RJs? Absolutely - check the performance metrics for on-time, cancellations, baggage handling...

aztimm

That would be a former HP, or perhaps US-West, aircraft.

iplaybass

Just wait until the reduced MCE availability puts you in the 30" Y section for 3 hours.

Col Ronson

Yes lets complain about the less F seating, meaning less free stuff for everyone. Nevermind that we finally have power outlets and updated seats, oh! and main cabin extra.

ThreeJulietTango

It would make the most sense, but I don't know if LAA pilots can fly LUS metal yet, though. Going by the later posts, it's sticking to LUS routes at this time.

Ideally, it should shift the passengers in rows 4-7 back to rows 8-11, but in practice AA's algorithm for reassigning seats after a configuration change seems to just randomly assign new seats most of the time without consideration for the previous assignments.