TravelSkills

News and Tips For Your Trips

American Airlines eyes new perks – and packs in more seats

American’s single-aisle planes will get new seats — and more of them per plane. (Image: Jim Glab)

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said this week that he has a plan to make sure his airline will never have another money-losing year. Part of that plan involves providing more perks for passengers; but another part involves cramming more seats into American’s single-aisle aircraft.

One new perk that Parker promised is free in-flight text messaging for passengers, using apps like Apple’s iMessage. It’s the same free service that Delta just announced it will offer to passengers starting October 1, and that Alaska Airlines introduced last winter. Parker didn’t give a date for the launch of American’s free texting.

He also said that in the first half of next year, American will introduce free drinks and dedicated overhead bin space for customers who buy American’s Main Cabin Extra seats, the economy class seats that provide extra legroom and priority boarding (took that from the Virgin America playbook). And he said that the airline will make more AAdvantage award travel seats available at the lowest award levels – in response to customer complaints that such seats are too hard to get.

American is also rolling out new Casper brand sleep products – including pillows, pajamas, blankets and slippers – for premium passengers on long-haul and key domestic transcon flights.

American is introducing new Casper sleep products for premium passengers. (Image: American)

But American also has plans to renovate its 737-800 and A321 aircraft (except for A321Ts specially configured for AA’s primary transcontinental markets) by installing new, thinner seats. When airlines announce the installation of thinner seats, it generally means they will cram more seats onto each plane, and that is what American intends to do.

The A321s will each get another nine seats, and the 737-800s will get another 12. However, Parker said the airline intends to stick with a standard 30-inch pitch in economy class (except for Main Cabin Extra). The cabin overhauls won’t start until 2019. And the work will not include the installation of seatback monitors for in-flight entertainment. The company noted that with nine out of 10 passengers carrying their own personal electronic devices, streaming entertainment systems will make seatback screens unnecessary in the future.

With these changes and other trends in the industry, “I don’t think we’re ever going to lose money again,” Parker said. He noted that American has earned more than $19 billion in pretax income over the past four years, helped by lower fuel prices, a lot more passenger fee revenues, and a decline in competition due to industry mega-mergers. He said that even in a “bad” year, American should earn at least $3 billion in profits.

Do you fly American Airlines much? What do you think about the changes AA pushed out this week? Please leave your comments below. 

ICYMI, see the 25 most recent TravelSkills posts right here

Reassessing your card strategy? See our “Credit Card Deals” tab to shop around! It helps us help you!

Don’t miss out! Join the 185,000+ people who read TravelSkills every month! Sign up here for one email-per-day updates!


Print pagePDF pageEmail page

Comments

  1. I’m a 3M miler on AA and the skinny and thin seats are ridiculous. There is a rule of diminishing returns, and flying across country shoulder to shoulder with a stranger is no fun. Gets worse and worse all the time.

  2. The airlines will likely not be getting rid of first class in the near future. Last I checked a round trip coach seat from GRR to SFO was less than $400. A first class round trip was over $1500. I think the airlines make more money per square inch off of first class (even with the extra perks of that class of seating) than off of coach. There are also people like me that are just too large to safely fly in coach seating (I am about 450 pounds and six feet tall) — if all of the airlines get rid of first class they will have a discrimination lawsuit filed against them on grounds that larger people can no longer travel via the airlines. They also get to soak me for an extra $1100 or so every time I fly due to my immense size. I think that extra money is too enticing for the mainline airlines to give up.

  3. I’m happy to hear they are opening up more American award flights. It’s very frustrating searching for international flights when they have their system programmed to mostly default to BA flights which they charge 50 times more for. The cost for an award seat should be the same if they are partnering with them. If not, make all AA flights available. As an AAdvantage member, I did pay AA for the flights I took to earn the miles so make it a true reward in return for being loyal to the airline.

  4. So American is going to join United Airlines with having the most uncomfortable seats in the air. Sorry but I am finding other ways to avoid any of these thin seats which are very uncomfortable. Jet Blue and Southwest are about the only ones without them.

  6. Hey CEO Parker…you want to make more money…all the more power to ya…but just cut out the pretense. If you just get rid of first class, business class…you can cram even more seats. Better yet why don’t you just restrict your passengers to those who have a waist line of just 29 inches. That way you can cram more seats and get make even more profit…I don’t fly all that often but when I do I try hard as heck NOT TO FLY American and United. Why don’t you and United just start a airlines called Steerage I’m sure your profit margins will soar and your investors will be happy….regards DanC

  7. Absolutely! and… lets not shoot the messenger: it’s American which is going to crowd us further ;(

  8. Perhaps I am reading this wrong. By adding free messaging, American will match Delta and Alaska (and I suspect United soon). By adding free drinks in their economy+ cabin, they are matching Delta. By not installing video screens, they are choosing to offer less than Delta and others (just because I carry my iPhone does not mean that I want to watch video on it during the flight or search for content that is readily available with seat back screens). By adding more seats, they will slow boarding and deplaning and make the luggage bins more crowded. I am hard pressed to see how these changes will help to improve the AA bottom line. What is the path to that hoped for success? It is unlikely to be through these attempts to be less behind.

  9. “I don’t think we’re ever going to lose money again,” Parker said. I hope he remembers those words, when…

  12. If this article were honest it would say that American is going to make it’s cabins more uncomfortable and will roll out some new premium services.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Editorial Disclaimer: This editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program. Responses in the comments section are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.”