Brings back memories. ORD-DFW, F, dinner flight. Warm nuts, salad with a choice of dressing, steak, a baked potato with the fixings, and a cheesecake for dessert. A choice of breads, warmed, from the basket. Unlimited drinks and wine. Cordials, coffee. Bailey's. Service with a smile. Executive Platinums, Platinums and Golds. Complimentary upgrades. Love and passion. And when landing at DFW, the only thing we were waiting for was to fly on American again!
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I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but not the part I highlighted. AA has actually been quite sparing of its 772 fleet — the complex pattern that they have been operated in, with comparatively long ground times in South America and Japan and LHR to be utilized for their high-premium cabins rather than maximizing time in the air has resulted in a fleet with even the oldest airframes just around the 100,000-105,000 hour and 13,000-14,000 cycle mark. There's easily 35,000-40,000 hours and 7,000-8,000 cycles left before the AA 772s become uneconomical from a maintenance perspective.

My guess is that there is no way these refurbs will happen until after the summer 2026 schedule is over. The 77W refurb has yet to begin (putting things into perspective). And to be quite honest, I have had more delays with the 787s due to maintenance over the past 2 or 3 years, than I have had with the 772s.

In the Q3 earnings call they said a 25% increase in premium seating. We can speculate that to mean 2 more rows of J (going from 37 to 45) and 1 more row of W going from 24 to 32. This would likely lead to a loss of a few rows of Y, or a reduction of lav and galley space throughout the plane, or a combination of both along with fewer MCE seats. That's all guesswork at this point, of course.

Lest we forget the 789P and A321XLR with new seating was announced in September 2022. It took nearly 3 years to realize that. Mind you, some of that was due to Boeing issues on the assembly line, AA pushing deliveries and A321XLR certification delays followed by seat certification delays. I suspect if the 77W Olympus program gets moving the 772's can begin after that during a low season.

I take your point, for sure, but I'm not convinced. I won't invoke the 763s in the same manner the earlier poster did, but they do at least portend not good things. I have already seen anecdotal stories about the AA 77E fleet's dispatch rate slipping. I don't know whether that is true or not, but I would frame it as remaining a question if AA has the wherewithal to spend the money that must be spent to make the 77E fleet reliable in its waning years.

Isom said in the Q3 investors call that the refurb is giving AA a “capital spending holiday”. The refurb cost per plane is far less than a new plane. Factoring in reliability deficiency costs, they’ll still come out way ahead. It also gives them time to strategize their replacements in the next decade.

Your guesswork is as good as mine. I wonder if the 772s end up similar to BA's latest 3-class 77E configuration (which also uses Super Diamonds btw): https://www.aerolopa.com/ba-77l

AA hasn't made any decisions on new widebody orders, so I think it'll be great for AA to buy those relatively young dozen or so of JAL's 77W's as JAL is replacing them with A35Ks, at a much better price than new planes. Anyone knows where those JAL 77W's are going? I'm sure JAL maintained them very well and they can get the same total refurbishment along with the 20 other AA's existing on the plan. What a wasted opportunity.

Are you dreaming? Premium customers would be disgusted at the experience of a nasty legacy AA plane and a clean, well-maintained JL ship.

Heck I don't think the JL 77Ws need a refurbishment. Just sell first class as flagship suite preferred (8 seats, same as 78P). Business class has the Apex suite product which they can probably call it a flagship suite. It's got 40 W seats so reasonably large. Only issue is Y is considerably smaller at 147 seats but transpac Y fares are quite low atm as well. Pull a page from Delta who flew ex-LA A350s to SCL... AA could exclusively run those ex-JL 77W to HND and maybe ICN/PVG. I think japanese and east asia customers will receive it well :)

In addition, I feel like AA's 789 and 772 aren't exactly configured for Asia flying. Their business (30/37) and Prem Econ (21/24) cabins are really small: ok for the 7-9 hours transatlantic/deep south america hops, but people do demand bigger seats for those 13-15 hour Asia runs. Moreover, 1 or 2 business class seats on the 789/772 have to be blocked for crew rest on these routes, which further reduces available seats. The new AA retrofitted 77W - does it even have enough galley space to store 2 full meals and some snacks?

The 787s have a crew rest area behind the cockpit (and above). Not sure about the 77W, though I thought it also did.

They do, but apparently AA pilots' contract requires them to have a seated rest area as well as bunks and while the 787 forward crew rest includes this feature but that of the 77E does not.

I believe AA's normal 789 has crew rest space for 1 pilot, while 772 does not have any. And PHL is right that the 77W has crew rest space for 2 (or more perhaps) cockpit crew.

If you poke around the seat maps: 772 flights to Asia (DFW-ICN) consistently shows seats 1A and 2A blocked. 789 flights to Asia (HND flights) has seat 1D blocked. 77W flights (SYD) does not have any blocked. All these Asia flying are ultra long (>12h?) and require 4 pilots - so my guess is that it requires crew rest spaces for 2 pilots.

I am less familiar with the transatlantic side, but my cursory check shows 772 flights from JFK has no seat blocked - from DFW have 1A blocked. 789 does not show any seats blocked.

All that is to say is that I think AA's 789 and 772 are more optimized for transatlantic and deep SA hops (despite the 772 having Japanese on the lavatory signs, that is). They probably saved some crew rest spaces because it's more efficient to block 1-2 J seats when these planes are (not so frequently) flying to Asia than to commit to walled-off spaces. In that case if the JL 77Ws are available and prices are right - I think it could make sense to buy them and fly them outright for a while