I flew a brand new American Airlines A321XLR from Los Angeles to New York in Flagship Business Class and enjoyed the sleek new cabin and individual seat. It’s not a perfect business class seat, but it is a big upgrade from the A321T seat we’ve seen for so many years on the same route.
American Airlines A321XLR Flagship Business Class Review (LAX-JFK)
While writing my SFO-EWR United Airlines 777 review (a nice comparison of premium transcontinental service on the competition), I realized I never published my full review of the AA A321XLR, so here it is.
I had to travel from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh and while I could have flown nonstop for the same price (38K miles, though not any longer since AA suspended the route), I saw that flying via New York JFK on the new AA A321XLR was an option for the same price. Booked!
My 6:15 am departure meant a very early morning, but it was nice to arrive to a very quiet LAX. I made myself a coffee in the Flagship Lounge and had some fruit and eggs before boarding my flight.
Boarding began 40 minutes prior to departure from gate 41 right around the corner from the lounge.
American Airlines 118
Los Angeles (LAX) – New York (JFK)
Thursday, January 15
Depart: 6:15 AM
Arrive: 2:31 PM
Duration: 05hr, 16min
Distance: 2,475 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A321XLR
Seat: 1F (“Flagship” Business Class)
Stepping onboard, I found a swanky cabin with mood lighting…it immediately reminded me of JetBlue.
Seat
The cabin has 20 seats: 10 rows of 1-1 seating. Stepping into my seat (1F), I found it narrow, but not uncomfortable and very private. Padding was excellent and there was enough room for my feet. I like the suite finishes as well.
Seats are listed with 32 inches of pitch, but that’s misleading since you sit angled out toward the aisle and have a lot more legroom. Seats are 21 inches wide and recline 180º to a lie-flat bed. Sliding doors offer additional privacy.
I appreciated the easily-reachable power outlet and USB-C port and also liked the round AA “marble” coaster, an artistic accent that is well-done. The stitching and fabric on the seat is nice and the wireless charging worked well.
Seat controls were on the side panel and included a reading light button and “do not disturb” mode that alerts the flight attendants not to wake you up for meal service.
Above that, there’s a literature rack and storage for headphones.
Below it, storage designed for a water bottle.
1F is unique in also having a small storage shelf above the seat (against the bulkhead) that I used to store the bedding:
The cabin includes individual air vents:
That said, there are some cons to this new seat. First, the aisle is very narrow in Flagship Business…it is tight walking down the aisle. Second, you are seated with your back to the window, so looking out requires a rather awkward turn.
I did not personally run into the issue of the monitor being a hindrance to service. I had it open during breakfast and when my drink and later breakfast tray was served, the flight attendant simply moved it aside for a few seconds. There was some talk about what a design flaw this was, but it just struck me as minor annoyance.
I did briefly put the bed into its lie-flat position to check out the comfort and space and found it sufficient for my 6’1” frame. With nice bedding from Re-Thread by John Horsfall (duvet and pillow), I’m confident I could sleep well on an overnight flight.
Food + Drink
Breakfast was served after takeoff, with menus placed on each seat prior to boarding:
First came a hot towel and beverages, served with biscottis. The new A321XLRs do have espresso machines onboard and I enjoyed a respectable espresso macchiato with breakfast.
I ordered the “American Breakfast” which included scrambled eggs, bacon, roasted potatoes, herbed tomato. I quite enjoyed it. It was served with a side of fruit and a choice of croissant, cinnamon roll, or biscuit.
Midway through the flight, both a cheese plate and snack basket were offered.
Prior to landing, AA’s signature hot chocolate chip cookie was served. United offers a much heartier pre-arrival meal on its premium transcontinental routes, but I certainly did not walk off this flight hungry.
IFE+ Wi-Fi
This was a work day and I spent most of the flight on my laptop. The internet, provisioned by Viasat, worked very well (now complimentary) and I was thankful to accomplish a lot of work during the 4.5-hour journey. I find the Wi-Fi much more reliable on AA than United.
In terms of IFE, the interface has received a much overdue refresh for those used to traveling on the A321T. While I did not watch anything, there was a nice selection of films and television shows onboard.
The Bang & Olufsen headphones, however, did not work! These are an expensive investment, but AA better make sure they actually function!
Amenity Kit
A Raven-Lily co-branded faux leather amenity kit was a bright Prada-colored orange sunglasses case, with contents including:
- dental kit
- socks
- earplugs
- eye mask
- wipe to clean glasses
- skincare products from Joanna Vargas
Lavatories
Business class passengers use one lavatory in the front of the aircraft (there are three in the rear as well). One of the lavatory walls has “cloud” wallpaper.
Also, I found it interesting that the lavatory does not have ashtrays, which I thought was still required even today since you want to give people a safe place to extinguish cigarettes if they break the rules and decide to smoke?
Service
I lucked out with an excellent crew. Led by Cathleen (who was also the purser on my Doha – New York flight during the pandemic), the service was really super. The A321XLR has six FAs onboard and Ileana, who worked business class with Cathleen, along with Toni, Ellen, and Joanna in the back were all very kind (I went back to check out the other cabins and ended up having a great chat in the rear galley).
> Read More: American Airlines Flight Attendants Tell Me Why They’ve Lost Faith In Leadership…And Why They Hate The A321XLR
CONCLUSION
I like the A321XLR and prefer it to the 2-2 B/E Diamond seating on the AA321T in business class. Yes, I don’t like being seated with my back to the window, but I understand the efficiency of such a cabin layout and appreciated the privacy of the seat, so I’d call it a net positive (through first class on the AA321T was better).
AA has done a great job with catering and Wi-Fi and this flight also had excellent service.
I’d take this just for the sunglasses case! Excellent review. I still think more lie-flat on narrowbodies is the future. And, also, Flagship Suites are an improvement, even at the cost of the prior Flagship First/loss of some MCE.
It’s really the loss of all MCE. There’s two rows of exit row seating that folks with families / disabilities cannot avail themselves of. That’s it.
Do 12 PE seats make up for that? Of course not.
That said, looking forward to finally trying this product out next month.
I’m looking forward to your full review!
(I’ve got F on 773, J on 789P coming up, in June/July, personally. Was attempting to use an AS partner award for XLR, but those seem to have all dried up recently, at least for JFK-LAX. I’m still hunting for J on that to try this out.)
“Midway through the flight, both a cheese plate and snack basket were offered.”
Interesting at the cheese plate is listed as dessert with breakfast and not as a mod-flight snack…I guess it works better to spread out the food like that during the flight?
I just wish they had sundaes on breakfast flights too…my treat when I fly on a U.S. carrier!
Is it realy a replacement to the old J seats on premium transcons?
I’d say this is more of a bad replacement to the F seats with the O seats being a massive downgrade to the J seats
Of course the Viasat WiFi is a solid choice
Very random comment but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American Breakfast served with Herbed Tomato. Always seemed like an English breakfast item.
Retired Navy Flight Surgeon and ER Doctor, ~1800 hour private pilot, ~1,900,000 Lifetime BIS Miles
Sorry Matthew, I completely disagree with your assessment of this seat. I’ve saved/hoarded (NOT earned and burned) AA miles for years, in good part so I can fly AA JFK-LAX Biz awards 2-4 times per year for the past 7 years (except COVID 2020), ~ 20 roundtrips since. (No worries if it’s 32k or 50k or 56.5k or 100k, saving miles is a proven prudent strategy.) Mostly 321T, 2-3 777-200, 1 321XLR (seat 1A) 1-2 weeks ago.
My assessment of the 321XLR seat, compared to the 321 2×2 seat, is that it has far less personal storage space AND that it’s less comfortable in all configurations for all procedures AND that the cabin itself is less user friendly AND FAs don’t like it (which affects their mood and attitude).
Minimal personal storage space. I always put my rollaboard in the overhead and put a rolled up thin sweater and iPad (in a soft case) and a small water bottle and maybe my own noise cancelling headset/case in a small shoulder satchel. The 321T Biz seat has enough storage space to put the water bottle and iPad in easy reach with the satchel/sweater/iPad case in a cubby alongside the seat. The 321XLR seat had a spot for my water bottle and a space alongside the seat perfect for a laptop or iPad or a few magazines but that’s it, the satchel/sweater/iPad case spent most of the flight on the floor near my feet.
The shelf you mentioned “above the seat (against the bulkhead) that I used to store the bedding” is not really in one’s own personal space and it’s not secure enough for TO and landing, items placed there prior to takeoff (TO) will go flying as the plane accelerates, shortly before the 321 goes flying. I put my satchel/sweater/iPad there for part of the flight but I kept thinking a FA would tell me it’s not for personal storage. And for non-bulkhead seats it’s between 2 seats thus the person seated in the next row forward could easily grab it and/or it could easily fall onto that person.
The seat is TOO much angled to the side, requires contortionist skills to look out the window at any time, particularly during TO when I was pushed by G forces at an angle into the corner of the seat. (That’s the reason why military and high performance and acrobatic aircraft only produce high G forces in the Longitudinal Axis (G_x, chest-to-back), the axis that a human body can best tolerate high G forces.) For meal service, the FA slid the main tray under the screen which looked to be quite a balancing act, I was quite pleased the meal didn’t end up on the floor or in my lap. For sleeping it seemed narrower and more confined than a 321T seat.
The suite doors were looked open for the entire flight. Having flown JFK and ORD-LHR in a suite with functioning door my assessment is that’s it’s 80-90% gimmick and only slightly more private. The door is only about 4-5 feet tall so most people walking by can easily see over the top of the door.
On the 321T midflight snacks are placed on the shelves in front of the bulkhead seats near the aisle, easily accessible without disturbing anyone. On 321XLR those shelves are not present so the snacks are placed, for much less time, in the galley and I felt like I was imposing on the FAs when looking at the snacks.
I’ve flown in 321T bulkhead seats many times, my favorite, for easy access the inflight snacks, don’t even need to stand up and FA noise has never been an issue. On 321XLR the volume of noise and conversation from the galley was MUCH higher, unsure if that’s due to cabin sound dampening or proximity or something else but it was loud enough to interfere with sleeping.
Even with the benefit and comfort of 321XLR 1×1 seating vs 321T 2×2 seating, my preference is the 321T. 1×1 seating doesn’t even come close to outweighing or balancing all the problems and discomforts of the 321XLR seat, I’d gladly climb over someone (or vice-versa) 1 or 2 or 3 times to avoid flying in an 321XLR seat again. I’m amazed that they actually paid megabucks for the design and construction of such a lemon.
I may be in the minority (it seems Ben from OMAAT also did not like the seat and of course FAs hate it), but I really thought was okay.
“Retired Navy Flight Surgeon and ER Doctor”
1990 strikes again. I work with surgeons and clinicians. They don’t talk this way. Fake lawyer syndrome. Verbal diarrhea from the dumb.
Santos: I avoid feeding trolls but in your case I’ll make an exception, it’s mildly pathetically entertaining for a moment or so. Your arrogance and stupidity in attacking me, who you’ve never met and know nothing about, is mind boggling and indicative of severe psychiatric problems. Sorry moron, mopping up OR floors doesn’t qualify as “working with”. I didn’t talk anything, it’s called writing you imbecile. I’ve BEEN a clinician for over 40 years, there’s no “way” we write or talk, each of us is an individual with an individual style. Verbal diarrhea from the dumb, obviously your version of projection you idiot. Fake lawyer syndrome, like Flat Earthers and Vaccine Deniers and of course MAGAs, defies rational reply. Maybe your attempt to be as infantile and stupid and disgusting as your Dear MAGA Leader. Please crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from you SHPOS (if you’ve worked with clinicians who are as vile and repulsive as you are then you’ll know what it means).
None of your regs actually fly for work so let me be the first to say wow, didn’t realize there was a direct LAX-PIT. Makes sense; the ‘Burgh is a big biotech and filming location. Great city.
Keep arguing DL/Tim and pretending, fellas! See you next time.
Congrats to AA!
For aviation enthusiasts → AA has officially taken delivery of 5 A321XLR aircraft, with a remaining order book of 40 jetliners. Of these deliveries; 2 jets are in active service, primarily operating transcontinental U.S. routes (like JFK – LAX and JFK – SFO), 3 jets are temporarily parked in Europe (Czechia) awaiting installation of specific seats due to supply chain issues.
I prefer the A321T in F. The only thing better is the IFE on the new planes. Also at JFK you lose access to Chelsea as you are no longer in Flagship First but Flagship Business. Was not happy when I tried to make entry. The seat is ok not great not terrible. Crew coming out of LAX was great out of JFK not so much. The seats were better than Delta One though. Ground service not so much.
@Matthew
Maybe a more in depth comparison with 321T F, which I personally think is more comparable than the 321T J.
I’ve never flown this configuration yet but it sure looks tight.