Staying Fit
American Airlines may have surprised travelers when it announced plans to eliminate first-class seating on some of its international and long-haul flights, but that doesn’t mean the era of free-flowing in-flight champagne has come to an end.
The airline’s announcement, which came on a quarterly earnings call Thursday, affects a subset of 36 American Airlines planes that have a separate first-class cabin, including 20 planes that fly internationally, and 16 that fly transcontinental from New York and Boston to California, according to Andrea Koos, a senior communications manager with American. “The domestic first-class product will remain on all of our domestic aircraft,” she says. “There’s no change to that.”
American’s Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja told investors and industry analysts during the earnings call that the airline was eliminating some of its first-class seating because demand had dropped and “our customers aren’t buying it.”
AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.
The airline’s reconfiguration will allow more space for business-class seats, and customers willing to pay top dollar will still be able to travel in luxury.
“It may not be as exclusive as traditional first class, but it will still be super-premium,” says Zach Griff, senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy, a consumer travel website.
Before the pandemic, first class was generally the domain of business travelers, whose companies were paying for the seat. Now with business travel dropping and budgets tightening, demand has dropped, Griff said.
Griff also suggests the cut largely represents a change in the name, not quality. “The new seats that they’re coming out with are so much nicer than America’s legacy first class,” he says.
American’s new business class Flagship Suites include lie-flat seating, a separate compartment with a privacy door and extra storage space. The new service will begin in 2024.
But Bryan Del Monte, president of the Aviation Agency, an air transportation marketing firm, says the airline’s change is part of an unfortunate trend.
“U.S. air carriers seem to be on a quest to punish all of their passengers starting with those who pay the most and are the most loyal,” he said in an email as he was boarding a flight. “Where other airlines try to make their travel a great experience, U.S. carriers focus entirely on slimming down costs."
More on travel
