Originally Posted by
lrdpenn
Exactly why it's hard to take AA's "premium" talk seriously. Almost everything the last year has been standard/routine evolution of existing product and approaches, rebranded under this aura of "premium". It's hard to call the XLR for example premium with the tight J and two rows of MCE (both of which are exit rows); it's a standard new AA aircraft for mid/long haul missions with new J seats and PE. PHL FL was already under construction for years. The price of wifi was woefully uncompetitive today and something needed to change. Etc. I guess drinkable coffee will be a legit "improvement" but at the AC, it was AA just 1 year ago that terminated La Colombe, so it's more just a vendor change. IMO the execs are just hawking "premium" because the market says they should be talking about it, but not really doing it.
You're spot on with the MCE issue - AA's 789Ps are the same as the XLRs with only bulkheads/exits for MCE, nothing else. Remove 3 seats on one side and use that to make 24 additional MCE seats. United has 38 fewer Y seats on their High J 789 (bigger J and PE cabins) and manages to have more than twice as many extra legroom coach seats as AA. United's XLRs will have 3x the number of extra legroom coach seats compared to AA.
There are two issues with AA's premium push:
1) They have no cohesive brand message with these announcements, like Premium is Our Priority. It's not everything, but look at these 3 inflight service press releases:
Lavazza coffee from October,
Bollinger champagne in September, and
improved BOB from a couple weeks ago. There is no statement that weaves through all of them outside the word "elevate" being used. It really feels like piecemeal bandaids. There have been improvements, but it feels like they are coming in bits and pieces without a lot of holistic thought behind it.
2) I haven't seen anything with these announcements that feels like AA is gaining a new competitive advantage over DL/UA. The three offerings above are just coming to par with the other two carriers. What new competitive advantage has AA added in the last 12 months from an inflight or on-the-ground product perspective?