Originally Posted by JDiver

No; while it’s true cabin crew and passengers can’t lower the partitions, the problem is there’s no SOP for maintenance, so they’ll adjust the partitions as they see fit - usually up one row, down the next. One can’t count on the configurations.

AA promised a long time ago they’d fix the partition and the “Motion over the ocean” attached-at-the-head seat-induced motion, but: Zodiac is the designer-manufacturer. AA sued them. Who’s going to engineer and modify the “orphan” Zodiac seats and spend the time to shepherd it all through the FAA to get the required STC? It’s not cheap, and certainly Zodiac has no interest - and I’ll bet the beAAn counters don’t want to spend American’s money either.

They’re removing minicabin seats to make room for Premium Economy. That’s the only reason. AA is sticking with the Zodiac seats in the 772 subfleet of 19 and the soon-to-be subfleet of 20 788s, apparently. (I believe the remaining 22 788s will be delivered “out of the box” with Premium Economy and most likely B/E Aerospace (now Rockwell Collins) Super Diamond seats.