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Right at the end of last month American Airlines opened up a surprising amount of Business Class award space for flights between the US and various European cities – award space which, by and large, is still available – and now some First Class award space appears to have opened up as well.
American has been busy refitting its 777-200 aircraft with new Business Class seats and squeezing in more seats to Economy Class while, at the same time, eliminating the First Class cabin from the aircraft. That’s left the airline’s 777-300ER aircraft as the standard bearers for American’s First Class product along with what remains of the un-modernised 777-200 fleet.
If you were hoping to get the newer First Class cabin then you’re going to be disappointed – this award availability is for the old 777-200 First Class cabin.
American Airlines First Class Award Availability Dallas – Paris
The route on which American Airlines has released a good amount of First Class award space is its Dallas – Paris route but, as I’ll show further on in this post, you can connect to this route from cities all around the US.
Just like with the amazing Business Class award availability which opened up at the end of May, the First Class award availability I’m seeing is for January – March 2017.
Dallas – Paris January 2017
Dallas – Paris February 2017
Dallas – Paris March 2017
And First Class award availability dies out in April….
First Class award availability on the return journey doesn’t look that good in January…..
Paris – Dallas January 2017
….but availability is wide open for February and March 2017:
Paris – Dallas February 2017
Paris – Dallas March 2017
Connecting From Other US Cities
As soon as I saw First Class award availability out of Dallas I checked to see what was available out of other cities but, at the time of writing, there isn’t anything available that doesn’t involve the Dallas – Paris flight…..but you never know when American will open up space on other routes so it’s always worth checking.
If you’re happy to take a domestic flight to connect to the Dallas – Paris route you’ll find a good number of options from various cities around the US.
Charlotte:
Chicago:
San Francisco:
With some cities you need to be a bit careful because, while you’ll connect just fine to the trans-Atlantic First Class flight, it can be hard to find First Class availability on the domestic portion of the trip:
New York:
Miami:
American Airlines 777-200 First Class
There’s no escaping the fact that the award availability is available on the older of American’s 777 aircraft, a fact confirmed by the seat map showing 4 rows of seats (the more modern 777-300ER has just 8 First Class seats):
The cabin is definitely old and definitely not something to compare to any modern First Class cabin that you may have heard about. Still, it’s not like the cabin or seats are an abomination.
There’s a good amount of space in the cabin…..
American Airlines First Class 777-200
The seats are a very good size…..
American Airlines First Class 777-200
American Airlines First Class 777-200
And they even rotate 90 degrees to face a desk that looks out of the ample supply of windows (you’ll have to take my word for that because I don’t seem to have a picture showing the seat in that position).
Bottom Line
If I’m being honest then I’d have to say that I wouldn’t spend 85,000 AAdvantage Miles (one-way) for travel on American Airlines First Class….but then that would apply equally if these flights were on the 777-300ER.
American Airlines does not do premium cabin service well when you compare it to the airlines that most of us would like to fly up front – that’s just a fact of life – so it’s not always easy to justify the mileage outlay.
AAdvantage Miles will soon be lot harder to come by (at least from flying) and, when you can fly between the US and Europe in American’s newer Business Class seats for almost 30,000 miles less (each way), it’s hard to justify splashing out on American’s First Class.
Still, I can say that because I’ve tried the product out (on the 777-200). If you’ve never flown First Class with American and you’ve wondered what it’s like then this is as good an opportunity as any to try it out.
If you decide to book one of these awards then allow me to offer one piece of advice: Book First Class in one direction and book Business Class on the 777-300 in the other. You’ll save 27,500 miles, you won’t miss out on too much and you can put those miles towards another award trip somewhere down the line.
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