Flt. 2183 JFK-DCA on 3-class A321T? (to merge)
 

Flight 2183 today from JFK to DCA (leaving at 2:55 pm) is listed as being on an A321 (Sharklets) plane. The plane is great: a 3-class plane. Main Cabin Extra seats are like international business class, and first class has lie-flat seats. It’s an A321T.

Is this a rare equipment swap or does this flight usually have this great plane?

Looking at next Saturday, the flight is a 321T as well. I have flown on 321Ts between BOS and JFK a view times over the past couple of years on weekends. Since there are less transcons on the weekend, AA does these quick turns sometimes using the 321T. I've heard of them appearing on LAX-SFO in the past as well for utilization purposes, though have not heard of that happening recently.

Nice! It is indeed being sold as 2-class next Saturday (didn't check beyond), which means that the J seats can be selected as MCE (That is what OP refers to: when they do this, J gets treated like MCE. There are "true" MCE seats, 32 of them IIRC, as well).

Good for DC to get some love - personally I think it would be great for AA to have this aircfaft on the DCA-LAX route full-time, since DL has upped the ante with the lie-flat 757 seats. BOS-SFO is another one that would make sense to me too. Hey AA, there are cities on the East Coast other than NY, ya know?

Does AA even fly BOS-SFO anymore?

I don't even want to get my hopes up about seeing those aircraft on DCA-LAX. I flew DCA-LAX in paid F a couple days ago, having purchased my ticket about two days prior to departure. When I booked, there were only two unassigned seats left in F class (one of which I grabbed), which leads me to believe that very few, if any, of the F pax on the flight were upgrades. Perhaps AA could consider using an intl-configured 757 of the route, as 30 premium seats is quite a lot to fill, but 16 seems very easily doable (and perhaps in the future if the 321s are reconfigured with 20 F class seats, that will be the perfect aircraft for the route, assuming that 321s can make it off the runway at DCA fully loaded for a flight to LAX).

I had no complaints about the actual service from the FAs on the flight, as they were young, energetic, and polite. But, the soft product left a lot to be desired as it was treated like any other domestic flight. Our aircraft was an older 738 that did not have the BSI, so obviously no AVOD. We didn't receive noise canceling headphones, and just received the normal F class blanket, and not even a pillow! I remember a couple of years ago, AA would at least give you an international-style pillow and duvet on Transcon flights, but it appears that those have disappeared as well. I would have appreciated a thicker, larger blanket, as I was primarily interested in sleep on this flight, and the aircraft was kept quite cold. It was a breakfast flight, and there were only two entree options. There was NO snack basket offered prior to landing as there should have been, either, as I was awake for the last 60 minutes of the flight and even asked the FA about it.

The flight literally felt like a flight to MIA or any other midcon destination in F. I'm sure the DL experience on this route would absolutely blow AA out of the water. Hearing that DL would have offered me a lie flat bed gives me buyers remorse and now I'm jealous, as I would have loved to have a lie flat bed to sleep in, seeing as that was my goal and I had about three solid hours of it (I had only slept about an hour the night before the flight).

Going for great!

Does AA need a "Plan B" A321T transcon plane?
 

The 3 class thread got me thinking about AA and their transcon business.

Living in SFO I have had the pleasure of flying AA to JFK quite frequently. The 321T is a great aircraft in business and first, but is really premium heavy relative to DL, B6 and UA. Would it make sense for AA to take some of the other 321's and configure them in a biz/econ model that would look similar to the Int'l 757 fleet? Imagine no first, 20-28 business seats and the rest 120-130 econ? Would this make economic sense? I could see routes making sense to BOS, MIA, PHL, DCA, CLT and ORD from LAX/SFO.

Just a thought, but would love to hear input.

Can a fully loaded A321 with enough fuel for a six hour flight to LAX take off from DCA? The runway might not be long enough for an A321 that heavy.

If they were to deploy the A321T as currently configured (102 seats total), I don't see why not, seeing as the 738s with 150 seats can make it off just fine. With a denser ~180 seat configuration A321, however, you might be pushing its limits.

I think they'll just end up using the 757s for that, where necessary. Already rumors of that for next summer on routes like BOS-LAX, for example. The 757s then get replaced when the A321neos arrive. Big question is what config they get and whether they opt for another premium subfleet for transatlantic or transcon.

The elimination of First would upset me.

What's the argument that paid fares will go up enough to offset the greater pitch vs. domestic F in the front cabin?

I'm not sure it makes sense. LAX/SFO-JFK are lucrative and extremely competitive when it comes to the highest yielding traffic. AA sees value in investing in what it sees as the competitive advantage of a premium-heavy aircraft with 3 cabins on those routes, and related investments in Flagship Lounges, Flagship First dining, etc.

If you look at markets like PHL (which might not exactly lose money with a configuration like you describe) and CLT (which might), there is no reason for them to offer anything more, because they own that market share and don't have to compete for it.

Not for the time being. What you describe is exactly what's AA will be doing with 75Ls. I believe the launch is only limited to 3 routes, though.

If Delta keeps growing their domestic Delta One service, I expect AA will continue following (but probably feature it on fewer routes.)

No, but if they wanted to build back up the presence at BOS it would be a great route to start with!

This is good news.

There was a lot of talk that the LAX-MIA route justified something special due to the entertainment industry premium demand and AA ran a decent mix of widebodies for quite a while. Now however they decided to just send nearly hourly 737s due to the total lack of competition. At least LAX-JFK has UA and DL offering a decent product to compete but to Miami the only true competition with a superior premium product is B6 and VX out of Fort Lauderdale. The only thing that will force any airline to upgrade its offering is competition and none of the routes you cite provide any true competition for AA premium customers, thus we can expect to see plenty more brand-new planes with no amenities and tighter pitch. Just look at how they have outfitted the new 737 Max. What an embarrassment for a brand-new plane for the next 25 years!