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Currently, American Airlines operates a sub-fleet of A321 aircraft which it has configured especially for a select number of high-profile domestic routes on which there is strong demand for a premium product that’s considerably better than what passes for ‘First Class’ on most domestic routes.
The A321T (as American Airlines designates this aircraft) offers First Class and Business Class cabins that come with lie-flat seating as well as an Economy Class cabin with 36 ‘Main Cabin Extra’ seats and 36 regular Economy Class seats.
This is the most “premium heavy” short-haul aircraft that American Airlines currently operates, but that’s set to change.
Going forward, the airline will be taking delivery of a fleet of A321XLR aircraft which will be used on its most premium domestic routes as well as some of its shorter transatlantic routes (the aircraft will offer 20 Flagship Business inward-facing herringbone seats with doors) and this aircraft, the A321T will be reconfigured with a much denser cabin layout (the hateful “Oasis” layout) and will only offer recliner seats in the frontmost cabin.
For now, however, the A321T is still the aircraft you’ll find American Airlines operating on its JFK-LAX route, and what follows is what you can expect onboard.
American Airlines A321T Business Class
The Business Class cabin in the American Airlines A321T aircraft offers 5 rows of seating set out in a 2-2 layout.
The seating arrangement doesn’t give all passengers access to the aircraft’s one and only aisle (you’ll need to book the First Class cabin if you want that), but the seats in this cabin are considerably better than almost all other narrowbody seats you’ll find on offer in the United States.
Most seats in this cabin offer 43″ of pitch (leg room), are just under 21″ wide, and can be reclined to form a lie-flat bed.
When in lie-flat mode, these seats are not as spacious or as accommodating as the lie-flat beds you’ll find on some of American’s wide body aircraft, but they’re more than good enough for flights of between 5 and 6 hours in length and, personally, I prefer them to the horrible coffin-like Business Class seats found on some American Airlines Dreamliners.
The easy-to-use seat controls are located in the central armrest…
… and it’s in the central armrest that you’ll find the seat’s tray table.
The tray table is a very good size (it’s more than big enough for a 16″ MacBook).
But on this flight, the table felt very insecure and “wobbly”.
I’ve flown this route at least a couple of times a year for quite a few years and, ordinarily, I find the tables to be secure and a good base upon which to work.
Perhaps this was a one-off bad table or perhaps, now that these aircraft are 10+ years old and about to have their cabins refitted, American Airlines isn’t maintaining the interior as well as it should be. Your guess is as good as mine.
On this flight, I was seated in row 8 (a regular seat in this cabin) and this is what the forward-looking view is like from one of these seats.
The ottoman that pairs with the seat to form a lie-flat bed when the seat is fully reclined is under the IFE screen and in the seats in rows 7-10, they’re quite narrow.
When the seat is only partially relined this isn’t really an issue (you’re probably only resting your feet on the ottoman), but when the seat is in lie-flat mode, the ottoman and the space around it that encloses your feet can feel tight and confining … especially if you have big feet.
In row 6 (at the front of the cabin) things are little different.
Row 6 is a bulkhead row and even though this puts the seats close to the lavatory and galley that divide the First Class cabin from the Business Class cabin, these seats are probably the best seats in the cabin (for comfort).
The reason for this is that the ottomans in row 6 look like this:
These ottomans in row 6 are considerably wider than the ottomans elsewhere in the Business Class cabin and that can be the difference between a comfortable sleep and a less than comfortable sleep on this transcon flight.
If you’re prepared to risk being disturbed by any noise coming from the galley or from fellow passengers using the lavatory, these are probably the seats for you to choose if that option is available when you book.
This was a daytime flight, so I didn’t sleep, but if you need to get some rest, keep this differentiator in mind when booking.
Moving on …
From a storage point of view, the A321T isn’t particularly well equipped, but it still offers more options than most other domestic narrowbody aircraft.
There’s a shelf/ledge that can store an iPad (or very small laptop) under the inflight entertainment screen.
But the large shelf built into the seat at shoulder height is the best place to store most items.
And it’s by this shoulder-height shelf that you’ll find the seat’s power outlets the headphone socket and a couple of other ports/inputs that I most passengers probably never use.
On this flight, both the AC power outlet and the USB-A port worked just fine, but be aware that American Airlines has a terrible track record of maintaining its onboard power outlets so it’s good idea to have your devices fully charged before you board.
As far as the seats and seat areas go, the last thing to note is that the American Airlines A321T offers passengers reading lights and air vents above the seats.
This is good news as it means that passengers have some semblance of control over the temperature in the area around them and aren’t at the mercy of the cabin crew (who often seem to think that passengers require a sauna).
Entertainment and wifi
The A321T’s Business Class cabin features a 15.4″ touchscreen through which a wide variety of movies, TV shows, games, and music options can be accessed (see here for American’s latest onboard offerings).
American Airlines also encourages customers to steam content to their own devices rather than relying on the screens in the aircraft.
If you choose to stream, you don’t have to pay for inflight wifi.
The controls for the IFE screen are built into the central armrest and can be extended to act as a remote control.
The fact is, however, that the sensitivity of the main touchscreen is so good that you only really need to use the remote control when you’re out of reach of the main screen.
The headphones offered onboard are high-end Bang & Olufsen over-ear headphones that can offer surprisingly good audio quality…
… although I’ll always choose my own headphones over anything that an airline provides.
American’s A321Ts come equipped with inflight Wi-Fi and on this particular flight, there were two packages on offer.
If you only need wifi for a very short period (~20 minutes), there’s a free option available which you can access by watching a short advert from one of the airline’s partners.
The cost of a 1-hour wifi pass has increased by ~18% in the past two years and the cost of the flight pass has increased by ~32% over the same timeframe, so it’s just as well that American Airlines is expected to start offering free wifi to members of its AAdvantage program from January 2026.
On this flight, the wifi connection was adequate (just about) but far from perfect.
Download speeds varied significantly during the flight and the service dropped on multiple occasions, so American Airlines lags far behind Delta’s offering right now and, amazing, will probably even lag behind United Airlines once United makes Starlink wifi available on the majority of its aircraft.
Business Class amenities
Upon boarding, I found an American Airlines amenity kit at my seat.
By the time you read this the amenity kit will probably have changed (it may even have changed between this flight and the day this is published), but these kits almost always contain the same things (it’s the brands that change).
Compared to the Business Class amenity kits that you’ll find on long-haul flights, the transcon amenity kit is pretty basic, but it contains all the basic essentials like a dental kit, socks, earplugs, and a sleep mask. On this flight, the hand and body lotion was by Joanna Vargas and the lip balm was by Relevant.
To round of the amenities onboard, there was also a large, soft pillow and a good-size blanket (both from Casper).
Service, dining, and drinks
Generally speaking and looking at things from a service standpoint, I don’t expect very much when I fly domestically because I find that expecting anything more than a basic level of service almost always ends up in disappointment.
Having said that, this was the second American Airlines transcon flight in a row on which I had a great cabin crew.
The flight attendants were all very friendly and helpful, and I didn’t observe any of the general apathy that is often (but not always) a hallmark of the service levels on American Airlines domestic flights.
Pre-flight drinks were served very promptly (a choice of sparkling wine, orange juice or water).
Hot towels were offered as soon as we reached cruising altitude and the seatbelt signs were switched off.
Approximately 45 minutes after takeoff, more drinks were served with a bowl of hot nuts.
The two flight attendants serving the Business Class cabin seemed to be really on their game on this flight as passengers never seemed to be left waiting to be served and drinks and nut bowls were topped up frequently.
On of the flight attendants in particular was really on top of things as when the passenger in the seat next to me requested a cranberry and sparkling water, she checked what ratio the passenger preferred before pouring!
That’s an unheard of level of service on American Airlines and the only possible complaint I could have had up to this point was that the Chardonnay could have been colder (yes, I know … first world problems!)
About 15 minutes after the drinks were served (about 60 minutes into the flight), the meal service commenced.
For my starter/appetizer I chose the pan seared shrimp with tropical fruit relish and mango gazpacho.
This was surprisingly flavorful (a couple more shrimp would have been nice) and I really appreciated being served a green salad that hadn’t been built around a mound of arugula (the devil’s own abomination).
The combination of spinach leaves, strawberry segments, goat cheese, roasted sunflower seeds and lemon dill dressing (I could have had a balsamic vinaigrette) worked very well.
The hot roll served alongside the first course was also good (there was a choice of white, brown, or pretzel roll) and, to make things even better, we were even served proper Irish butter that was soft enough to spread.
Serve me butter that I can spread with ease and I’ll be happy. Serve me Irish butter that I can spread with ease and I’ll be delighted 🙂
For my main course I chose the seared salmon with gold quinoa, green beans and pesto cream sauce.
If I was to judge this against a similar dish served down on the ground, I’d say that the salmon was a little dry. By airline standards, however, this was pretty good and I’ll be ordering it again if it appears on a future menu.
Foolishly (and not for the first time), I passed on the ice cream sundae in favor of the Belgian chocolate cheesecake tart.
The cheesecake tart wasn’t too bad (it wasn’t as terrible as some of the cheesecakes that American Airlines serves which have very little in common with real cheese or real cakes), but it was a bit too dense.
The sundaes on American Airlines, however, are almost always quite good, and I don’t know why I keep moving away from them and choosing something else.
The something else is usually bad (and sometimes terrible) so unless you have a good reason to avoid the sundae, that’s probably what you should order.
Overall, however, I have to class this meal as a success.
Whenever I find that at least 2 out of 3 courses of an airline meal are good/nice, I think of it as a win and that combined with a very efficient service from the crew (crockery and trays were collected promptly) meant that this was one of the best experiences that I’ve had with American Airlines in a long time.
The last thing I should probably note is that at some point after the meal service was complete, the flight attendants placed a basket of snacks on the shelf/ledge just ahead of the bulkhead seats (customers could help themselves) and 90 minutes before we landed, hot cookies were offered.
Overall
There’s no doubt that American Airlines Business Class on the transcon A321 aircraft is one of the better ways to travel from coast to coast (especially if you can’t somehow book a widebody aircraft on the same route), and for anyone primarily focused on the seat rather than anything else, this is a very good aircraft to fly in.
Anyone looking for a truly premium all-around experience, however, shouldn’t get their hopes up.
Aside from the good seats on offer, service levels and meals on these transcon American Airlines flights can be as changeable as they are on any of the airline’s other routes (I’m very aware that I got lucky with the crew on this flight – they were a credit to the airline), so you can never be sure if you’ll have a good experience or whether you’ll get to your destination swearing never to fly with American Airlines again.
Yes, experiences can be *that* varied.
Personally, I’m happy to fly Business Class with American Airlines between New York and Los Angeles as I have learned to switch off when service levels hit rock bottom, and because I appreciate the good A321T Business Class cabin and the earnings (redeemable miles and elite status credits) that these flights offer me.
I don’t need much more than that.
If, however, you’re looking for more, you should prepare yourself for the possibility that you’ll be disappointed.
