There are a lot of very bad airline takes on the internet, but this is one of the worst.
“American Airlines just showed the door to customers who aren’t rich”
An article was published by ZDNet that tries to draw conclusions about society based on the new Boeing 787-9 configuration. It was recently leaked that American's upcoming Boeing 787-9 deliveries will have a more premium layout.
The planes will feature new business class seats with doors, and they will have more business class and premium economy seats. This configuration is only available on certain aircraft that operate business routes with lots of premium demand.
The points in the ZDNet story don't make sense, so it's not surprising that the story doesn't focus on anything more than a sentence or two. We all agree with this part of the story.
What’s different about American’s latest Dreamliners is that they lean much more heavily toward customers who have, well, a lot more money.
These will have 51 Business Class seats. No, wait. 51 Business Class pods.
And these pods have doors. Welcome to the gated community, at 36,000 feet.
The latest Dreamliners will also have 32 Premium Economy reclining seats.
In total, there’ll be 41 fewer seats on these planes, as compared to American’s previous 787-9s.
It’s easy to fly to conclusions.
The conclusions the author comes up with are odd. Among other things.
American’s new Boeing 787s are compared to how Southwest is now allowing its fares to appear on Kayak, but only for those who are part of a company
This reflects the greater inequality in society of haves and have-nots
This is going to cause a problem, because economy class passengers have to walk past “Fancy Class passengers who are already on their second glass of champagne,” and research suggests that walking past fancy seating is linked to increased unrest among economy passengers
“You’d think that airlines have already had enough unrest from passengers during the pandemic”
Airfare has “recently risen by around 20%,” which somehow has something to do with these seats?
This is a “slightly difficult situation,” because “it’s not like a restaurant, where the food is the same, the ambiance is the same, but some people order ridiculously priced wine”
Passengers may “see a greater, more palpable division of a potentially uncomfortable kind”
“If you’re a regular American Airlines Economy Class customer and you have to walk through the gated community, how will you feel when you get to your own seat?”
“One day, you might get the chance to fly in the gated community and open a door to your seat, it’s what they call the American dream”
American will introduce business class seats with doors
No, no, no, no, no
I agree with you that inequality is a big problem, but I want to focus on the ridiculousness of this. The author's conclusions do not reflect reality, and the whole piece just seems to piss people off.
Where do we start?
Airlines often have subfleets with different configurations, reflecting that demand is different depending on the market; American isn’t reconfiguring existing planes with this configuration, but rather the airline realizes that it doesn’t have enough business class seats to meet demand in some markets
The existence of doors generally doesn’t increase the footprint of a seat, so it’s not like anything is being taken away from economy class passengers to offer a more competitive experience in business class; this paints economy passengers as being incredibly catty, and just for no reason being opposed to those who paid for something nice
This more premium configuration has little to do with the pandemic, and has more to do with American’s projections of long term demand among business travelers (along with premium leisure demand)
Even Spirit Airlines, the ultra low cost carrier, has the “Big Front Seat,” and arguably nearly all the points being made above would also apply to that
I guess the author would love the direction American has been taking in general, by cramming more seats into planes, ripping out TVs, etc., in order to offer a more low cost experience
On major global network airlines, business class passengers are subsidizing economy class passengers in many business markets; that’s why long haul economy airfare is often so cheap
Take a flight between the United States and London in winter, and you may very well find that there are more passengers in business class and premium economy than in economy
American’s 777-300ERs have 52 business class seats
Bottom line
There are a lot of things we can criticize American Airlines for. American Airlines should not introduce a new premium Boeing 787 configuration. Products created by airlines meet demand in different markets.
The demand for business class between New York and London won't be the same as the demand for business class between New York and Athens, so it makes sense for airlines to have different configurations.
The upcoming Boeing 787-9s are intended to be American's new flagship aircraft, eventually replacing the carrier's fleet of Boeing 777-300ERS, which have even more premium seats.
It's weird to suggest that economy class passengers should get their pitchforks out because doors are being added to business class seats. To each of them.
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