American Airlines Announces a CHANGE for First Class Seats

Flying is not exactly a walk in the park right now.

Airfare has been expensive lately!

A variety of things, including staffing shortages, severe weather, COVID-19, changing flight prices, and cuts in flight schedules, can make it more difficult to get the flight that fits your budget and your needs. And now one airline is making changes that could affect your flights in the future.

According to WESH2 News, American Airlines is replacing their first-class cabins with more business-class seats. Vasu Raja, American Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, stated that this change is due to customer demand.

Raja said, “The first class will not exist…at American Airlines for the simple reason that our customers aren’t buying it.”

©American Airlines

Raja also noted that “the quality of the business seat has improved so much,” and that American Airlines customers “most want or are most willing to pay for” business class seats.

But it might not impact as many flights as you’d expect. According to CNN, American Airlines later specified that Raja was only referring to international flights when saying “this class will not exist.”

©American Airlines

CNN shares that planes utilized on domestic routes will generally continue to have standard first-class seats at the front of the plane.

According to Mike Boyd, one airline consultant who spoke with CNN, “This is mostly a name change. Business class at most carriers is what we would have called first class 20 years ago.” In fact, CNN reports that many of the planes American Airlines uses on international flights have already dropped the “first class” designation.

We’ll be watching closely for more developments.

Flying

American Airlines had previously announced that they would be working on new Flagship Suites — which are meant to be a consolidation of Flagship First Class and Flagship Business Class. These suites will have privacy doors and more personal space, as well as the ability to convert to a bed.

According to CNN, this announcement from American Airlines is essentially a reiteration of these changes.

©American Airlines

In the meantime, if you’re in the process of booking a flight for a future Disney World trip, we’ve gone over ways to save on flights through apps such as Hopper or Skiplagged and on sites like Google Flights. We’ve even tested the Internet’s most trendy flight tips to find out which ones actually work. Make sure you check out our posts so you can secure the best deal!