American 777 New Business Class Delayed: Rough

Intro

Earlier this month, we saw American Airlines debut its brand new business class on select 787s operating from Chicago-London and Los Angeles. Well, the airline has been planning to retrofit their 777s with this brand new product, but is currently running into a couple of issues...

The Details

A report from JonNYC on X has indicated that American sent its first 777-300ER off to Hong Kong about a month ago to be retrofitted, and it has now returned to back to the United States, exactly the same way it left.

Why? Well, while American was thinking that the first 777-300ER would hopefully be operable for the summer season, it turns out that there are supply issues with the new seats on the 777s.

American Airlines' new Business Class

The Ongoing Issue

But here is where the issue lies. American Airlines has been attempting to abolish Flagship First Class for a few years now, but with these delays, the timeline will keep getting pushed back.

Additionally, the product on the current 777-300ER is beginning to show its age, with many reports indicating certain elements of the seat not functioning properly. All of my flights have been fine in the past, just stating what has been stated.

I personally don't mind Flagship First sticking around a little bit longer, but I am in the minority here.

So, where does this leave us with the timeline? I would suspect that we definitely won't see any of the current fleet be retrofitted this summer, as American is already short on aircraft, and summer is the peak travel period.

If the manufacturing issues were to be resolved quickly, I would expect the first plane to head back to Hong Kong sometime in late September. Just my thoughts.

Final Thoughts

American Airlines was set to begin its retrofitting process on the dated 777-300ER, but after flying the plane to Hong Kong, the jet has come back a month later in exactly the same configuration. Due to manufacturing issues with the seat, I would expect Flagship First to stick around a little bit longer on the 777s, which some might like, but other not so much.