ThreeJulietTango

In December 2015, American Airlines began the process of retrofitting the legacy US Airways transatlantic Boeing 757 subfleet with Main Cabin Extra. These aircraft will replace the LUS Hawaii 757 (former America West Airlines) subfleet.

There are currently 20 active LUS 757s. 4 of these will be retired and the remaining 16 will be receiving MCE. Of these 16 aircraft, 4 have already been retrofitted.

Hawaii (4/20) (to be retired)
190 seats (F14/Y176)

• N901AW
• N908AW
• N909AW
• N910AW

Transatlantic (12/20)
176 seats (C12/Y164)

• N200UU
• N201UU
• N202UW
• N203UW
• N207UW
• N935UW
• N936UW
• N938UW
• N939UW
• N940UW
• N941UW
• N942UW

Retrofit (4/20)
188 seats (F12/Y176)

• N204UW
• N205UW
• N937UW
• N942UW

There will be two slightly different retrofit configurations due to lavatory placement. All but 3 aircraft will receive the following configuration:



Aircraft 203-205:

ThreeJulietTango

Some unknowns:

• Considering that there are 17 rows between the L2/R2 doors and the mid-cabin lavatories on both the original and retrofit configurations, either they are installing slimmer lavs or the extra legroom for the MCE rows is coming from reducing seat pitch in the standard rows.
• What is the premium cabin product like? The seat map still shows 3 rows of F, but I don't know how they could've added an extra three rows between the bulkhead and the L2/R2 door. My theory is that the angled lie-flat beds on these aircraft are being removed and replaced with domestic F recliner seats, since the retrofit aircraft don't appear to be flying transatlantic anymore.
• I also don't know if these aircraft are being retrofitted with power outlets at every seat like the A319.

Hopefully an FT'er who has flown on one of these aircraft can chime in with their experiences.

rjw242

Sigh.

JDiver

I wonder if what we will see might not be, given fleet integration is occurring and will come to culmination in October, something like:

Transatlantic and perhaps some South America: LAA 75L with pending CIP to lie fla, full aisle access

North, Central and near South America: variant of the LUS 757 with these configurations

ThreeJulietTango, thank you for the nice work.

Seven Oscar Zulu, er, JDiver

flightline87

ThreeJulietTango, any word on a timeline? I'm wondering if we'll see any changes soon in the transatlantic flights out of PHL with these birds getting retrofits and shifting to Hawaii. Flying PHL-LIS and back this July and curious if it'll be 12 or 16 (LAA) in business class (still waiting on SWUs to clear).

Thanks for the info!

AANYC1981

I find these AA 757 re-configs so confusing for some reason

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Last week flew a LUS HA 757 PHX to DFW, still in the old USAir Livery. The F seats not really made for a long flight. Are those staying in the fleet?

OT, but I am surprised at the number of LUS A/C (mostly 321s) still in the old US livery. Flying MIA/PHL in a LUS757 tonight which I assume its a domestic a/c.

ThreeJulietTango

Happy to be of service, everyone!

That's just speculation on my part, but I can't figure out any other way that they could squeeze in 2 more rows of Y.

That makes a lot of sense and I'd wager that that's the most likely outcome.

I feel like the only South America routes that would really require the lie-flat beds would be MIA-BSB, MIA-LPB-VVI, and MIA-REC (now seasonal). I can imagine the bulk of the 75Ls being based at JFK and PHL and cycled through MIA on domestic runs.

Unfortunately, I don't have any specific timeline. As a point of reference, when this was announced in December, 2 aircraft had been completed, and roughly three and a half months later we're only up to 4.

It's definitely not being done as quickly as the A319 reconfigurations, but perhaps that's because it's a smaller fleet and perhaps they're waiting for an aircraft (like the LAA 75L) to replace the transatlantic flying.

The 757 is now the AA aircraft type with the most configurations:

LAA International: 176 seats, C16/Y160 (20 aircraft)
LUS Transatlantic: 176 seats, C12/Y164 (12 aircraft)
LAA Domestic Version 1: 182 seats, F22/Y160 (4 aircraft)
LAA Domestic Version 2: 184 seats, F24/Y160 (13 aircraft)
LUS Retrofit: 188 seats, F12/Y176 (4 aircraft)
LUS Hawaii: 190 seats, F14/Y178 (4 aircraft)

Hopefully in a year or two it'll be down to just the LAA international and LUS retrofit configurations. The LAA domestic 757s in particular seem to be getting retired at a fast pace. Interestingly, the 4 757s with the Eisenhower f seem to be sticking around longer than their siblings with the newer F cabin.

fly747first

I thought that the new AA had already gotten rid of the former HP 757s that were in 14F configuration. Are they still being used?

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I thought the Eisenhowers were long gone. DFW/MIA earlier today was a 75L. My day of AA 757s.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I'm on this ancient looking LUS 757. Old cloth seats & monitors that look older than the ones on the Eisenhower 757. Power keeps going on and off. Surely this a/c is near retirement. New livery though.

Fanjet

That has been my prediction. The AA 757s allow for more Y seats (including a MCE section) between doors 2L/R and 4L/R than a US 757 (without a MCE section). Which makes their CASM better for TATL flying.

bobert24

Do these retrofits include upgrades to the entertainment systems? I've got some family on a 757 DUB-JFK in a few weeks, and was extremely surprised to find that there was no AVOD or personal screens of any kind. That makes or breaks the flight for them. From what I'm seeing here, though, it doesn't look like they'd have a great chance of getting a retrofitted one anyway.

Microwave

To clarify, the most recent potential seat for the 75L refit does not provide all aisle access. Since nothing has actually happened it may be possible that it goes that way, but it would be very tight to get 16 seats with all aisle access in that cabin... technically possible, but very tight.

Fanjet

Nope. Just overhead TV screens. Moreover, I haven't seen any information that the Y cabins of the pmAA TATL 757s will get any work done on them. Just the J cabin. The pmUS 757s are eventually going to a domestic configuration. And the ones done so far have the same IFE system (i.e. TV screens) as before.