smashr

I really, really dislike the high density configuration. However, I am very thankful for the MCE seats still in a 9 abreast config. Remember, UA's 787s are all 9 abreast (17.0" seats) in economy+ and regular y - a far worse situation IMHO.

Net net, 90 of the seats on this plane are a major upgrade from anything else AA is flying over an ocean. I suspect FTers will do fairly well at avoiding the other 214 seats.

Upgraded!

I guess I never noticed it in the previous threads' pictures, but does J actually offer slightly more privacy (the seat itself, not the cabin) than F? It looks like a greater percentage of the seat is surrounded by a shell, which appears higher than the walls in F, and it also looks like one doesn't have to lower the armrest in J to get the full width of the bed (as one would have to do in F).

F still obviously wins on personal space and, presumably, service, but for those who really care about privacy (and previously booked F largely for this reason) I wonder if J actually offers a little more of it.

jspira

Actually you do have to lower the armrest (or you can lower it, I should say) and the full width of the bed was measured with it down.

In addition, armrests have to be lowered for takeoff and landing.

Re privacy, you are a bit more enclosed in J; that is something I noticed as well. However, first has more space overall so it's a tossup in that regard.

Upgraded!

They have to be lowered in J? Never heard of that! Does it have to do with FA's ability to see your seatbelt?

While I'd still always take F given the opportunity, I must say, the new J looks not unlike UA's latest F offering!

rayhurst

Not sure if anyone has posted this link yet, but it is a great article reviewing the inaugural 77W flight as well as some history of AA:

http://airchive.com/blog/2013/01/19/...ugural-flight/

chicoflyer#1

I can't check my reservation on aa.com for a technical reason right now, seatguru says 3L, but you are probably right about 3J. The top right business class seat, anyway.

I would pick that seat over 3A since it is further from the lavatory and therefore slightly less traffic, noise etc.

jspira

The armrests could block you from quickly exiting in an emergency.

Antarius

Very detailed and great pictures. ^

BizJet

In addition to the Airchive review mentioned above, the author also has a very extensive Flickr photo gallery with 250+ pics from the inaugural flight. (The Airchive website is absolutely awesome, by the way.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/airchiv...7632663077587/

A few comments:

1) The overall cabin aesthetic is very impressive, and the F and J seats look terrific for a long-haul product. Delta's newer BusinessElite lie-flat seats (especially the 747, but also the 767) are really great, but the appearance of the AA 77W cabin is much more refined.

2) The F seats are clearly more spacious than J, but I stand by my point upthread that with such a great J product, I'd be surprised if AA can really generate enough incremental revenue from F to justify the real estate on the plane (2.5 J seats for every 1 F seat).

3) The photos of the Y cabin filled with passengers make the cabin look awfully cramped. With every seat filled, even MCE looks tight, let alone the 3x4x3 main cabin.

4) Chalk this up as "least substantive thing you can complain about" (and I'm not actually complaining), but is anyone slightly creeped out by the IFE welcome screens with smiling AA FAs? Especially when you see rows of monitors with different faces looking back at you. I know other airlines (EK) have smiling FAs on their IFE during boarding and it's great that AA is showing pride in its people, but I find it slightly creepy.

Upgraded!

Given the routes these planes will debut on (LHR and GRU) I think that F is intended as an "I'm going to do this simply because I can" purchase. It wouldn't matter if the only difference was two inches longer bed and two additional wine selections; there would be that small subset of people who would pay the extra $5k or whatever it is just for that because, well, they can.

FWAAA

I don't think your math is sound, and here's why:

The no-First class CX 77W does have 26 (not 28) J seats between the first sets of doors, but note where it chose to place the lav: aft of the 2L door (reducing the size of that cabin) while AA placed that lav ahead of the 2L door (reducing the size of the front cabin). If that is the accessible lav, it's about twice the size of the typical lav, and that eats up a lot of space.

From my review of the pix, there's no way you could fit five rows of the new J in the same space as the two rows of F occupy. Definitely two rows, perhaps three rows, but I doubt you could squeeze in four and I'm certain not five (since not even CX could do it if the CX lav were situated where AA placed that lav). So my guess is that the eight FS replace 12 new flat J, for a ratio of perhaps 1.5, not 2.5, J seats per Flagship Suite.

If the FS required the space of 2.5 J seats, then I don't think we'd see any of them on the 77W.

Who will buy F? People with too much money to spend (either theirs or OPM) who are willing to spend for the exclusivity. People like that w-t singer - Britney Spears. David Beckham is a frequent BA F passenger between LAX and JFK during his time with the Galaxy. Not every famous spendthrift flies their own G-V, and they're part of the target market.

OW RTW first class tickets are still willingly sold, so there's some more buyers. I doubt AA has hundreds of people pounding on the door every day anxious to spend $24k or more for a round-trip unrestricted full-fare F ticket to some far-off land, but the 8 FS on the 77W may be the right number.

Recall that the 772s had just 14 FS for sale on very long-haul flights due to the pilots - but that's no more. On short flights, they still got one FS, so depending on the route, AA has 6 or 7 fewer FS for sale with this new plane, a reduction smaller than 50%. With decades of experience selling F, I'd be willing to bet that AA knows that 8 is the appropriate number of First Class seats.

elitetraveler

Looks fantastic ^

The bar snacks look very good too -

jspira

This is why AA moved from 16 to 8 and put such great improvements into J.

ESpen36

Is this link dead for anyone else? No luck on Mac OS X.....Safari or Firefox.

jspira

Site is probably down or link is bad. Not working for me either.