American Airlines Schedules New 787-9 Dreamliner Routes – Bookable Now

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American Airlines will be taking delivery of its first 787-9 Dreamliner somewhere around the end of this month and we already know that the inaugural flight will be on the Dallas – London route (a one-off roundtrip) and that the airline will be using the Dallas – Los Angeles route for crew familiarization. We were told back in July that the first international routes would be between Dallas and Madrid and Dallas and Sao Paulo and now American has scheduled the 787-9 on two more of its long-haul routes.

American Airlines Schedules 787-9 Dreamliner On Dallas – Paris Route

From 9 January 2017 American Airlines will be swapping out the old 777-200 that currently operates this route for a new 787-9 Dreamliner.

The new aircraft is already loaded in the systems (as this ExpertFlyer screenshot shows)…

…and is bookable on AA.com.

While the aircraft swap will mean the end of First Class on this route this news will be music to the ears of Business Class passengers who, up until now, have had to put up with American’s worst wide-body Business Class seat.

The 777-200 that currently operates the Dallas – Paris route is one of the old unmodified 777s still rattling around the American Airlines fleet and so still offers 3 seats across the middle of the Business Class cabin…..…no all-aisle access and seats that are only angled-flat. The product is very old and very different to what the new 787-9 Dreamliner will offer.

American Airlines Dreamliner Business Class seat

On the negative side the aircraft swap will see the route go from having 53 premium cabin seats (16 First Class and 37 Business Class) to just 30 Business Class seats – not good news for upgrades or awards.

While this is good news for Business Class flyers it’s bad news for those traveling in Economy.

One of the redeeming features of American’s old-style 777-200 cabins is the fact that Economy Class only has 9 seats across the cabin…. and that gives passengers more room than they’re going to find on the narrower Dreamliner which also features 9-accross seating.

Notably the 787-9 will be the first American Airlines aircraft to offer a Premium Economy cabin so that will be something new for this route.

DFW – CDG – DFW Award Space

If you were hoping to try out the new Dreamliner by burning a few AAdvantage miles then think again – American’s notorious lack of SAAver award availability strikes again. The typical screen you will see when searching for awards on this route is this:

I couldn’t find a single SAAver Business Class award on this route through the end of the schedule so, if you don’t want to part with cash, a one-way Business Class trip will cost between 110,000 and 135,000 miles (compared to 57,500 at the SAAver level).

American Airlines Schedules 787-9 Dreamliner On Dallas – Seoul Route

From 16 February 2017 American Airlines will be swapping out the refurbished 777-200 that currently operates the DFW – ICN route for a 787-9 Dreamliner.

As with the DFW-CDG route, the new aircraft is loaded in the reservations systems and is open for bookings.

This aircraft swap doesn’t really affect the cabin products that passengers can expect as the DFW-ICN route is currently operated by a refurbished 777-200 aircraft featuring new Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 layout…..…which is what the 787-9 will feature.

But what passengers looking for Business Class seats/upgrades will notice is the decrease in premium cabin seating. The refurbished 777-200 on the Dallas – Seoul route offers 37 Business Class seats compared to just 30 on the Dreamliner…and that’s never a good thing.

Another major difference passengers will see is the introduction of the American Airlines Premium Economy cabin which will offer a slightly better seat and a little bit more room than passengers will find a little further back in the aircraft.

American Airlines Premium Economy

DFW – ICN – DFW Award Space

At the time of writing I can see just one date with Business Class award space on this route (while the 787-9 is operating)….

…but, as it’s the same date in both directions, it’s not much use to someone looking to fly a round-trip on American.

On top of that, as ExpertFlyer shows, there’s only one Business Class SAAver award seat in either direction so I’m guessing they’re not going to be around for long.

Read more details about the American Airlines 787-9 Premium Economy Cabin here.

Bottom Line

The addition of the 787-9 to the Dallas – Paris route is a big improvement in hard product for Business Class passengers (not so much for Economy Class passengers looking for a bit of room) and will offer the Premium Economy product that some have been looking forward to (I’m definitely not one of them!) – but the loss of so much premium cabin seating is disappointing.

Flyers on the DFW-ICN route will probably not notice too much of a difference in the hard product they see in the cabins but, once again, the number of premium cabin seats is decreasing and that’s just going to make already hard-to-find SAAver awards and upgrades that much harder to find.

[HT: Routes Online for the new routes]