Last month I experienced the neglect of American Airlines premium seats. The footrest had fallen off, maintenance said they’d normally velcro it back, but even the velcro was gone.
Here’s the state of an American Airlines A321T seat. These just haven’t seen much maintenance lately at all.
Airline executives acknowledged that the A321Ts were getting long in the tooth as far back as 2019, but didn’t want to refresh them.
They did promise to clean them better.
As an airline vice president put it six years ago,
I was actually in Los Angeles last week and heard some similar feedback [that interiors are a little bit fading and dated, and that it’s time for a refresh]…People have been sharing with me they feel like it’s a little bit worn, and that’s something I raised within the maintenance teams and the cabin appearance teams that do the cleaning in both JFK and LA.
I don’t know of plans on a full refresh of the cabin but taking better care of what we have.
I know it’s more a lot of bags banging against the first few rows of the seats and the entry bar so it’s something we have the team working on.
Now, though, they’re removing the plane’s premium interiors and will cram in more seats.
The biggest difference on former A321T routes will be that coach will offer less legroom.
And since the interiors aren’t going to hang around, they certainly don’t want to make investments in them.
However, while these planes are still flying, they’re the premium domestic offering and this plane is operating on important routes like New York – Los Angeles.
They make big investments in the ground experience on both sides of that route, but the in-air experience (which also lags in food, beverage, and service) makes customers regret choosing the airline. American has fallen behind in both the New York and LA markets.
It’s one thing to say ‘we don’t want to invest in these interiors because we’re about to rip them out’ but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t ensure the seats are functional and not broken.
And the condition of the cabins has been a known issue for executives dating back to at least 2019.
