American Airlines Adds 787 Dreamliner To Domestic Route

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner is American Airlines’ latest aircraft and was introduced into its fleet to, primarily, operate on long-haul routes on which demand is good…but not good enough to warrant the use of a larger aircraft like a 777. The efficiencies of the 787 Dreamliner make such routes viable for airlines where, in the past, it really wasn’t worth their time.

A very good example of a route the Dreamliner was brought into American’s fleet to operate is the new service between Los Angeles and Auckland, New Zealand.

Air New Zealand can justify a 777 aircraft on the route because it’s a continuation of their flight from London (they’re not solely reliant on customers originating in the US), but there simply isn’t enough demand on the US-Auckland route to justify a US airline using aircraft that were around before the Dreamliner – those aircraft either didn’t have the range or they were too expensive to run. The Dreamliner changed all of that.

With all of that in mind it was surprising to find out that American Airlines has scheduled one of their 787-8 Dreamliners to operate on the Chicago – Los Angeles route from June this year.

Airlineroute.net isn’t specific as to when in June the service was expected to start but Expertflyer is showing the aircraft first appearing on 2 June.

It looks like American Airlines will be using the aircraft to operate AA361 and AA1044 on a daily basis on the following schedule:

AA361 ORD 17:28 – 20:01 LAX
AA1044 LAX 09:45 – 15:54 ORD

This is definitely more than just a few crew orientation flights as the 787 appears to be scheduled to fly the route all the way through December – this looks like a long-term scheduling.

American Airlines Dreamliner Cabins

American Airlines flys its 787s with just two cabins, Business Class and Economy class, and, while Economy Class is definitely nothing to get excited about the Business Class cabin is definitely worth a look.

Economy Class

The Main Cabin extra offering has both good and bad aspects to it. Bear in mind that this isn’t a Premium Economy cabin but an enhanced Economy section that elite flyers can book for free – so you’re not going to get better seats than you get in Economy Class or better food, but you are going to get more leg room.

On American Airlines’ 787-8 the Main Cabin Extra seats come with a seat pitch of 36″ and a seat width of 17″ – 18″ (per SeatGuru).

36″ is a pretty good seat pitch to be offered, especially when you consider that most true-Premium Economy cabins only offer 38″ (and you have to pay significantly more to get those seats).

Based on the width of the aircraft than the fact that American has squeezed in 9-across seating thought Main Cabin Extra and the regular Economy Class cabin, I suspect the seat width will be closer to 17″….and that’s very tight.

American Airlines 787 Dreamliner – Economy Class Cabin

The Economy Class cabin shares the same tight seat width as the Main Cabin extra seats but the Economy Class seats have a seat pitch of just 31″ – and that’s really not very good at all.

Business Class

The Business Class cabin is a whole different story and will be the best premium cabin American Airlines flys domestically with any regularity.

The cabin features a new product from American Airlines with 6-across seating (all passengers get all-aisle access) and with a seat that converts into a fully flat-bed.

American Airlines 787 Dreamliner – Business Class Cabin

American Airlines 787 Dreamliner – Business Class Cabin

The seats in the cabin are set out in a ying-yang layout meaning that American, for the first time, offers backward facing seats.

I flew the American Airlines Dreamliner for the fist time a couple of weeks ago (coincidentally that was on a domestic route too) and there is definitely a difference between the front-facing and back-facing seats (I’ll go into more detail in my review which should appear on Traveling For Miles on Monday).

Whichever seat you get it will be a huge improvement on the domestic First Class product that the Dreamliner is replacing. 

Awards & Upgrades

There is plenty of award space and upgrade space available right now so, if you’ve been looking for a way to try out the American Airlines 787 premium product without flying overseas (or spending a lot of money) this could be your opportunity.

I picked some random summer dates on Expertflyer and most of the days I checked had availability that looked like this:

AAdvantage Executive Platinums should have a decent chance at snagging upgrades with the larger-than-normal premium cabin which has 28 seats.

If you’re not an Executive Platinum member or if you simply don’t want to trust in the upgrade Gods then a one-way award ticket will set you back 25,000 AAdvantage miles if you want to sit upfront.

Possibly not the greatest use of miles if you don’t have a particularly large balance but by far and away the best product you’re likely to be able to redeem miles for on a domestic flight.

Bottom Line

I’m not entirely sure why American has chosen to employ a 787 Dreamliner on this route but then, as consumers, do we really care? What is important is that American Airlines flyers appear to now have a regularly scheduled wide-body option for travel between Chicago and Los Angeles…and that’s fantastic.

While this is very good news for Chicago & LA based flyers, it’s excellent news for travelers from Europe. I’ve seen a lot of well-priced Business Class fares between Europe and LA routing through Chicago. In the past this wasn’t the best idea as you’d be paying to fly in a domestic premium cabin for over 4 hours…but now, if you can connect to the Dreamliner, it’s a whole different proposition.

Featured image courtesy of LoadedAaron via Flickr