American Airlines is introducing premium transcontinental service between Los Angeles and Boston onboard its signature A321Ts. But there’s a catch…
Starting on April 02, 2019 American Airlines will operate two flights daily between Los Angeles and Boston utilizing the A321T. Flights will depart from Los Angeles in the morning and late night (redeye) and from Boston in the morning and in the evening.
From Los Angeles to Boston:
- AA156 dep LAX 7:45AM arr BOS 4:16PM
- AA2455 dep LAX 9:55PM arr BOS 6:22AM (+1 day)
From Boston to Los Angeles:
- AA211 dep BOS 7:24AM arr LAX 11:10AM
- AA2542 dep BOS 5:45PM arr LAX 9:28PM
If you’re not familiar with the A321T, it is a great aircraft in terms of density. It includes 10 seats in first class, 20 in business class, and 72 in economy class (including 36 Main Cabin Extra seats).
The Catch
Here’s the catch. American operates up to seven flights per day between Los Angeles and Boston. Only the flights I indicated above will have premium service, both in terms of soft product and of course the hard product (seat) onboard.
Why such inconsistency? The answer is simple. American doesn’t have enough A321Ts. But AA had little choice but to offer a “partial-fix” to start. JetBlue operates MINT service between BOS and LAX and both United and Delta offer lie-flat beds in business class.
AA allows its business and first class passengers to access its Flagship Lounges when flying on premium transcontinental flights. These lounges are a step above the Admirals Clubs, with a great selection of food and drink. We’ll see if United ever lets its premium transcon business class passengers in its soon-to-open Polaris Lounge in Los Angeles.
CONCLUSION
You could say that AA had no choice but to add this premium service. But it’s welcome news for passengers between Boston and Los Angeles and will hopefully keep fares competitive on the route.
> Read More: American Airlines A321 First Class New York to Los Angeles Review
(H/T: One Mile at a Time)
AA markets their domestic routes as First/Economy. Could you buy a “First Class” ticket on LAX BOS before they load the plane swaps and argue to be put into first class when the swap happens? You’ll be in a business class inventory but since they market it as First Class you can certainly have a good argument.
i don’t think so because they are diff fare categories and US flyers know that domestic F isn’t the same as the rest of the world’s F…. buuut maybe someone can weigh in on buying regular F on a different (presumably cheaper) flight and then same day changing to the A321T?
i’m sure they can prevent this, but do they?
When it comes to upgrades, American now classifies two-cabin F as C/J and only three-cabin F as axtually F. I’d imagine the same will be true in this scenario.
This is an interesting question because I had a peculiar situation happen to me with regard to this. Booked SFO-GRU with AS miles in J with all legs on AA. Our actual routing, however, went SFO-JFK-GRU. We were booked into the First cabin on the A321T SFO-JFK and J for the long-haul JFK-GRU leg. We didn’t question it and just selected seats accordingly. I’m wondering if that was a fluke or what.
Do you think United will offer Polaris lounge access for LAX/SFO-EWR and SFO-BOS?
I tend to think they will…eventually. At least at LAX.
Delta has remarkably decreased their Delta One (“flat bed,” etc.) offer from BOS to LAX, and there is no longer such as service in the flights between BOS and SFO. I learned it the hard way (with no apologies from Delta!)