American Airlines Announces Los Angeles – Auckland Service

The rumors started a few months ago and grew louder as the year wore on. Last month they reached levels that couldn’t be ignored anymore – it sounded like American Airlines was preparing to launch a service between the US and Auckland, New Zealand.

While most airline rumors remain just rumors, these were coming from a couple of  sources that had a very good track record of getting things right – but American Airlines was keeping tight-lipped about anything in their pipeline.

Just a few months earlier, back in June, American had announced that they would commence service between Los Angeles and Sydney thanks to a new agreement penned with fellow OneWorld partner Qantas. So the rumors of an Auckland route seemed almost too good to be true.

American Airlines’ had a weak trans-Pacific (TPAC) network for some considerable time and, compared to Delta and United they had really fallen behind. But, in recent years, the addition of routes and services to Beijing, Shanghai, both major Tokyo airports and Hong Kong has seen them improve their offering considerably. The announcement of the Los Angeles to Sydney route was something a lot of us didn’t really believe would happen anytime soon but it happened and it reinforced managements stated plan to boost American’s offering across the Pacific.

Yesterday, the American Airlines media team sent out a quasi-cryptic message that looked like this:

Even for those who hadn’t been following the rumor-mill the message was hardly veiled – American was about to announce a second route to the South Pacific. And that left just three questions unanswered:

• From where?
• Which aircraft?
• When?

Today American Airlines answered those questions for us when it announced a new non-stop service between Los Angeles and Auckland.

The service is scheduled to commence on 23 June 2016 and will be flown by an American Airlines Boeing 787-8.

The schedule looks as follows:

LAX 22:45 – 06:35+ 2 days AKL
AKL 13:20 – 06:30 LAX

The flight will be operated as part of American’s joint business with Qantas, which remains subject to regulatory approvals.

The American Airlines 787-8 Dreamliner features 28 Business Class seats, 57 Main Cabin Extra seats and 141 Economy Class seats.

Click to enlarge seat map

Screenshot from SeatGuru

The Business Class cabin features a brand new offering from American Airlines with 6-across seating (meaning all-aisle access for passengers) and a seat that converts into a fully flat-bed.

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

Reports from passengers that have flow this product are varied and, while it’s clearly not a bad way to fly at all, don’t expect the same amount of space as you get in a Business Class seat on one of American’s 777-300ERs

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″ isn’t a bad seat pitch at all especially when you consider that most true-Premium Economy cabins only offer 38″ (and you have to pay a hefty premium over Economy Class 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.

Economy Class cabin on American Airlines’ Boeing 787-8

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 there’s no way I’m flying to New Zealand in a seat that tight and with that little leg room.

The LAX-AKL flight will be, approximately, 13 hours long and the seat dimensions in American’s 787s Economy cabins don’t look like they’re going to make the flight feel any shorter!

Overall

It’s always fantastic to have a new route to fly on and, even though American Airlines looks like it’s going to be reducing my annual Systemwide allocation from 8 to just 4, I’m looking forward to trying to snag an upgrade on one of these flights. I’m unlikely to book a ticket unless I can confirm the upgrade at the time of booking as I’m not prepared to risk 13+ hours in a seat that’s just 17″ wide – at some point airlines are going to have to stop treating us like veal calves!

For anyone who hasn’t been, New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever visited (especially the South Island) so, if you get a chance, you should really go – let’s just hope that American throws us some nice cheap fares at some point 🙂

Featured image: Loïc Lagarde via Flickr