Now that American and US Airways have combined reservation systems so that they’re a single airline from a passenger perspective, I’ve written that what they absolutely must do is have a common product. That means introducing ‘Main Cabin Extra’ extra legroom seating into the legacy US Airways fleet.
I personally fly American as my primary carrier but avoid legacy US Airways routes and equipment because if my upgrade doesn’t clear I don’t even have the option to pay for extra legroom seats (other than exit row) let alone receive them as a loyalty benefit.
Here’s what we know about their (slow) progress:
- Legacy US Airways Airbus A319s are getting Main Cabin Extra seating as well as seat power. (Some US Airways aircraft had seat power prior to the America West merger but it was removed to save weight and fuel.)
- The legacy US Airways Airbus A330s will get Main Cabin Extra when they’re retrofitted to get Premium Economy. They hope to have certifications done to begin the process by the end of 2016, and this will take a couple of years to finish. (Existing seat power ports, which had been turned off, have been turned back on for these aircraft.)
- Some internationally-configured legacy US Airways Boeing 757s will retrofitted to a domestic configuration with Main Cabin Extra added and will be used for Hawaii flying. These aircraft will be based out of Phoenix.
The Airbus A330 addition of Main Cabin Extra seemed implicit in the Premium Economy announcement two weeks ago, since the announcement suggested the A330 would get premium economy and that aircraft with premium economy would also have Main Cabin Extra. However, American has now confirmed this.
I believe that the news of Boeing 757s being retrofit with extra legroom seating — and converted from angled business class to domestic first class seating for the premium cabin — is new information (at least it was new to me).
There’s been a FlyerTalk thread about the 757 conversion going for a couple weeks. The seat maps for the converted version have been visible on aa.com for PHX-OGG and maybe other routes too.
What about those awful A321s that seem to have 88 rows packed in economy?
As far as I know, none of the legacy US Airways 757s now have or have ever had angled business class seats, so the last sentence of your post may need to be updated for clarity. 🙂
@John-Paul US Airways has flown 757s to Europe. Their ‘Envoy’ seating on those aircraft was 2×2, 60″ pitch, angled flat business seats.
How is it possible that they haven’t said anything about the A321 fleet? The 319’s are great, but they’re often used for short/medium length routes. The A321’s, however, are the primary aircraft on most of the legacy transcon routes. From a passenger perspective, it seems those should have priority given the much greater proportion of 4-5 hour flights the 321’s are flying.
@Gary, I think John-Paul is saying those seats on the US 757’s aren’t angled flat – and having flown them, I would agree – technically, they’re more of the old “barcalounger” style – seat; even when fully reclined, it’s not flat (even angled flat).