American Airlines Adding 777s On New York To Los Angeles Route

Intro

For the longest time, we have seen American Airlines solely fly the New York to Los Angeles route with dedicated A321T (outside of Covid). As a matter of fact, these planes had been designed for premium transcon routes, serving JFK-LAX/SFO/SNA, as well as Boston to Los Angeles. Well, with the A321T set to say goodbye shortly, American will now be adding 777s to this high-premium route. 

The Details

As of October 5th, 2025, American Airlines will be adding 1-2x daily frequencies from New York to Los Angeles utilizing a Boeing 777-200ER. With American currently serving this market 9x daily, this will mean that 7-8 will still be operated by the A321T, while 1-2 frequencies will use a widebody. 

For customers, this is an extremely exciting development for a number of reasons. 

• The 777-200ER features a whopping 37 business class seats, laid out across 2 cabins. This means that upgrades should be somewhat easier to come across, although transcon routes are always tough in general 

• With the addition of the 777-200ER also comes a brand new premium economy product that will be offered on this route. American had lagged behind Delta and United on this front, and American will be stocking the PE product as if it were an international flight with new bedding and upgraded catering. 

• The only downside here is that there will not be a First Class product on these routes, so say goodbye to the Chelsea Lounge, sadly. 

American Airlines will be adding widebodies from LAX-JFK

The only thing that I wish is that American offered their new 78P on this route, doing the LAX-JFK-LHR rotation daily. However, these planes are currently stationed at ORD and soon to be PHL, not JFK. 

So Why? 

I think that there are a couple of different factors as to why American is now offering widebody frequencies on this route going forward (unsure for how long), and these consist of the following: 

• The A321T is slowly going to be phased out, and due to the interiors being stripped and converted into the Domestic First config, widebodies can take over these frequencies. 

• Which brings me to my next point, during the peak summer period, American is shorthanded on widebodies, but during the winter season, they have ample to throw around. Thus, there is very little downside to serving a couple of daily rotations. 

• Then there is the fact that American wants to compete by offering a premium economy product. This is by far the most profitable cabin at the moment with airlines across the world, and it makes sense that they want in early, especially before the 321XLR launches with a premium economy cabin. 

• Lastly, and I am not sure if this has anything to do with it, but I believe that Terminal 4 and the new gates should be done somewhat soon. Whether that impacts anything, I am not sure, but it would line up. 

Final Thoughts

For the first time since COVID, American will be serving New York to Los Angeles at least daily with a 777-200ER, featuring 37 business class seats, a dedicated premium economy cabin, and a huge capacity upgrade in economy seats. Presumably, this is only temporary, but I imagine if the demand stays, American might keep this around.