Youngtraveldude

I get the standardization part, but that’s 104 less business class seats for us to get upgraded into 😔

https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...rdize-product/

iadisgreat

I asked about this in the PE refit thread and no one knew and it seemed weird their hadn't updated any of the 45 seat J birds yet. Now we know the answer and why.

A pity - #goingforgreat .

FlyerTalker688786

From my past experience, AA LHR routes which use B777 heavily can always have very high premier load but very bad in the back unless big holidays and summer trips. I think AA needs to keep 45J birds for premier heavy routes (LHR, Japan and others) and 37J birds for secondary Europe and south American routes.

rfett2

I find it funny that they are doing this to standardize the number of seats, but they aren't going to standardize the style of seat. I wish they would make every 777 the B/E Super Diamond seat, but it sounds like we are still stuck with a subfleet of the awful Zodiac seats.

thunderlounge

I can understand why this is being done, but they have a chance to fix the small subset of zodiac and correct those issues. Of course they are not doing so and will remain with zodiac's on those aircraft, and instead will lead to even further confusion on "which seat" the plane will have onboard.

Now it's somewhat easy, as you absolutely know a 45J is zodiac, and if it's 37J then the chances of zodiac are very slim. Not so much now.

bse118

Honestly - from a business / operations standpoints I can't blame them for this move.

Not something I'm going to get bothered by or emotional about.

george 3

Actually, we are stuck with US Air thinking.

econometrics

If they did that, why not refit the entire 788 fleet, too (20 frames)?

Don't forget they have the 20 77W with a different seat, the 767/757s with different seats, and the A330's with different seats.

So standardizing the 772 fleet to 37J and leaving 19 frames with the Zodiac and 28 with the Super Diamond is truly not all that strange.

This now will leave AA's INTL fleet with:

42 BE Super Diamond reverse herringbone seats (14 789, 28 772)
39 Zodiac forward/reverse seats (20 788, 19 772)
24 Zodiac Envoy seats (A330 fleet)
24 Thompson Vantage seats (767)
24 BE Diamond seats (757)
20 Cirrus reverse herringbone seats (77W)

Meanwhile, how many variants does UA and DL have? 2 for UA and 2 for DL, right?

3Cforme

Gleff's article addresses why: seat count by cabin. Booking to 45 passengers and bringing a plane with 37 J seats is a problem.

Do you think AA cares whether it provides seat type A or seat type B? I don't think they care.

SpinOn2

Agreed. Also, I'd venture to guess there are still a lot of people out there who buy J who really don't know the difference ahead of time, they see lie-flat, they are more than happy. They don't research to find that there are better and worse J lie-flat seats on AA.

Gig103

Its also 104 less seats for us revenue passengers to buy, which changes the supply/demand curve

Dallas49er

Once again, AA gets the mine, and the (insert noun here) "__________" gets the shaft. YMMV

A. Elites

B. Premium PAX

C. Potential for lower premium cabin fares

D. Other

E. All of the above

Austin787

Adding PE could reduce demand for paid J, in that case standardizing on 37J makes sense.

JDiver

The 45J config was the original plan; US Airways executives reduced that to 37. They’ve likely been targeted for some anger by “downgraded” passengers scheduled for 45J birds when equipment substitutions inserted a 37J bird into the schedule, as well as some upset among Dispatchers and cabin crew.

They’ve now decided to standardize the fleet as much as possible, without spending significant money for 104 new Super Diamond seats (and attendant spares). As a small bonus, they get 104 spare seats - Zodiac and AA are done with seat contracts for now, and I’m imagining with the “make me a one off cheaper version” seat fiasco they may never have gotten much in the way of spares.

Much of this could have been avoided if the discount mentality had been shelved and the best in class 77W Zodiac Cirrus seat had been ordered and the entire 777 fleet standardized for Business Class seats, but AA passengers apparently weren’t worth it. SMH. That mentality won’t admit mistakes or order additional B/E Super Diamond seats.

econometrics

I think you're right, and that it already has.

The 45J flights I have taken have been extremely easy to upgrade either at booking, or long before day of departure. Currently, they are only specifically being used LAX/JFK/RDU-LHR.

The other night on EZE-DFW, I cleared my SWU 28 hours before departure. At T4, my colleague and I were the only ones in the rear J cabin. They filled it for departure, though (only 5 were on the UG list).

Since I am based at DFW, reducing these 13 frames to 37J is not a big deal, as all the 772 flights ex-DFW are 37J right now.

Lastly, I would not like having an SWU clear into a 45J bird, only to have it swapped 2 hours before boarding to a 37J, meaning an involuntary downgrade. Standardizing the seat count makes sense, operationally and from a business perspective for AA.