American Reveals 777-300ER Premium Economy Plans

American Reveals 777-300ER Premium Economy Plans

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In late 2015 American announced that they planned on adding a premium economy cabin to much of their longhaul fleet. While the airline has long offered an extra legroom economy section, this is the first time they’re offering an actual premium economy cabin.

American has been retrofitting their longhaul planes at a surprisingly fast pace, and back in May we learned American’s intentions to reconfigure existing planes with the following timeline:

  • American’s A330-200s will be reconfigured between September 2017 and December 2017
  • American’s 787-8s will be reconfigured between March 2018 and June 2018
  • American’s 777-200s will be reconfigured between June 2017 and March 2018
  • American’s 777-300s will be reconfigured between December 2017 and June 2018

As you can see, American’s 777-300s should start their reconfiguration process right around now, and it looks like we now have more details as to what these planes will look like. That’s because American has just started the process of reconfiguring their first 777-300. American’s 777-300ERs are the only planes in the fleet featuring international first class, and the plane is in a fairly premium heavy configuration.


American’s 777-300s have 52 business class seats

A lot of us have been worried that on the 777-300, premium economy seats would come at the expense of business class seats, rather than economy seats. Here’s how the seat count on American’s 777-300s is changing:

  • The plane will maintain eight seats in first class
  • The plane will maintain 52 seats in business class
  • The plane will get 28 premium economy seats
  • The plane will go from having 250 economy seats to having 216 economy seats

In other words, we’re seeing a net reduction of only six seats, which isn’t bad from American’s perspective.

We only know this because American seems to have loaded their new 777-300 seatmap for all flights as of April 19, 2018, as noted by Traveling For Miles. However, they’re not yet selling premium economy on the plane, but rather the seats show as blocked for now.

First & business class looks the same before and after:

Here’s what the economy seatmap between doors three and four looks like before the changes:

And here’s what the economy seatmap looks like between doors three and four after premium economy is added:

The one big loss here is that previously American’s 777-300 Main Cabin Extra was in a 3-3-3 configuration, while the rest of the cabin was in a 3-4-3 configuration. That always seemed far too generous given the bean counters that work at the airline, so it’s no surprise that this will be eliminated. This is actually the same area where premium economy will be after the changes.


American’s 777-300 Main Cabin Extra

Bottom line

While I’m sad to see American eliminate the spacious Main Cabin Extra cabin on their 777-300s, at least they’re maintaining the same number of first and business class seats.

With premium economy installation expected to be complete within about seven months, the next big question is what this means for upgrades. As of now American continues to let you upgrade from economy to business class, but once premium economy is readily available, will American enforce their policy of only allowing systemwide upgrades to be used for a one cabin upgrade?

Presumably award redemptions will also eventually be allowed in premium economy. While that doesn’t necessarily have to result in an award chart devaluation, historically airlines have used that as an opportunity to devalue their award charts.

(Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)

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  1. Wyatt Guest

    100% upgrades from Y will only go to Premium Economy. Customers can pay the fare difference to Prem Econ without a change fee then wait-list the upg to J.
    Employees have already been trained and AA is waiting until enough aircraft have been reconfigured before making implementing the change.

  2. Omar Guest

    Hey Ben,

    Not related to PE, but have you seen AA’s new holiday video? You should write a post about it since you share holiday videos across the industry:

    https://youtu.be/KwzWXl7ue10

  3. steeve Guest

    Im going to miss the 3-3-3 MCE mini section on the 77W, I think its one of the best Y seats in the world. I actually dont mind sitting in this seat for 9+ hours.

  4. Tony Guest

    i think it’s pretty much written on the wall that SWUs will be a one class upgrade. Goodbye to Y to J upgrades unless it’s a 763.

    As far as a devaluation, would love your take. Worst case scenario, they follow DL in which some airlines will be placed in a T1 earning category and airlines such as QR being in a T4 category.

  5. Ben Guest

    Why are rows 20 and 21 2x4x2 while the rest of the economy is 3x4x3? Your calculations suggest that rows 20 and 21 are NOT prem economy. Maybe they're MCE? Am I missing something?

  6. Jeff Guest

    I actually like MCE on the 777-300 when SWUs don't clear. This is a big loss for those of us rolling the dice on waitlisted SWUs. The question will be how AA prices PE once they formally add it as a fare class.

    The other question is how badly do they devalue the award chart to fit PE in as well?

  7. henry LAX Guest

    even if econ can continue upgrading to biz, those upgrading from PE will be far ahead in terms of priority, so it would become that much harder.

    Regular Econ upgrading to J for non-EXP ? pretty much forget it unless you're flying on 12/25.

  8. AdamH Diamond

    Are those actually MCE or just seats available for elite members? Did they take out a row behind the PE section to increase the leg room starting at row 20? I don't get how that would be possible given they have the same number of seats before and after the reconfig.

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Globe Road Warrior Guest

Great observation on the one cabin upgrade option for systemwide upgrades. Time will tell.

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Wyatt Guest

100% upgrades from Y will only go to Premium Economy. Customers can pay the fare difference to Prem Econ without a change fee then wait-list the upg to J. Employees have already been trained and AA is waiting until enough aircraft have been reconfigured before making implementing the change.

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Omar Guest

Hey Ben, Not related to PE, but have you seen AA’s new holiday video? You should write a post about it since you share holiday videos across the industry: https://youtu.be/KwzWXl7ue10

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