American Airlines will be the newest airline to offer a “Business Class Plus” experience.
The Fort Worth-based airline on Wednesday unveiled what it calls the Flagship Suite Preferred experience, which is a broader overhaul of in-flight dining and services that is expected to debut in the coming weeks.
The Flagship Suite Preferred seats will be in the front row bulkhead of the recently delivered Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the modernized Boeing 777-300ER.
Would you like to learn more about airlines?Sign up for TPG’s bi-monthly aviation newsletter.
Thanks to the partition design, those seats will offer more personal space and more garage space. They may not include other major seats like those located in JetBlue’s Mint Studio or Condor’s Prime Seats, but they will be more spacious and attractive than the rest of the cabin (just keep in mind that the proximity to the galley may prove inconvenient on overnight flights).
In addition to the additional space, American will also offer enhanced amenities for Flagship Suite Preferred seats. This includes a Nest Bedding brand bedspread, a blanket, and a memory foam lumbar pillow. Travelers who splurge on those seats will also get perks of Nest-branded pajamas and an exclusive amenity kit containing more skincare products from Thirteen Moon and Relevant from Joanna Vargas.
It remains to be seen if American can guarantee that it delivers all those extra amenities consistently on each and every flight that provides the Flagship Suite Preferred experience.
American didn’t have many more important points to share about this enhanced product, but it will still remain as part of American’s new premium Business Elegant and Economy Elegant cabins that were first announced in 2022 and are expected to take to the skies later this year.
The airline declined to provide percentage pricing data and also did not say whether travelers would redeem miles or upgrades for those seats. We’ll be sure to update this story with more data as it becomes available.
That said, TPG spoke with Raphael Girardoni, General Manager of Product and Customer Experience Design, who indicated that the existing floor experience will continue to be available to Flagship Suite Preferred passengers, hinting that they could have access to Flagship First’s dining facilities.
“We’ve focused on the Preferred Flagship Suite as a differentiated experience that presents our guests with more bedding and amenities they can enjoy no matter what flagship address they’re using,” Girardoni explained.
The arrival of the Flagship Suite Preferred product comes at a time when the industry is betting on business elegance at the expense of exclusive premium cabins.
While a handful of foreign airlines are still committed to providing first elegance in major commercial and recreational markets, most airlines are focusing on commercial elegance. That includes American, which will retire its Flagship First product in the coming months in favor of more sophisticated businesses. Elegant suites with sliding doors.
And, as airlines launch state-of-the-art business elegance products, a new cabin elegance, commonly known as “business elegance plus,” is emerging.
These products occupy the front row of the cabin and offer more space, storage and amenities that take advantage of the unique bulkhead configuration. Although JetBlue was one of the first to popularize this concept with the arrival of the Mint Studio, several airlines have since done so. revealed something similar.
Virgin Atlantic offers the Retreat Suite on its Airbus A330-900neo, but there are only two in the middle of the bulkhead and they don’t have any additional equipment. German pleasure airline Condor has unveiled a product dubbed Prime Seat in the front row of its new A330neo, and it comes with additional benefits, such as a special basket for snacks and pajamas.
Last week, United Airlines began asking consumers about a Polaris Plus product imaginable in the front-row bulkhead of its upcoming 787 Dreamliners. The visitor survey even discussed other amenities, adding a “champagne on demand” option.
While the Chicago-based airline hasn’t shown any major details about this new product imaginable, you may soon start to feel the competitive strain of American’s new Flagship Suite Preferred experience.
Related Reading:
The Points Guy believes that credit cards can reshape lives, helping you leverage your day-to-day expenses to recover money or reports that would otherwise be out of reach. That’s why we publish a variety of editorial content and map comparisons: to help you locate the best map to turn your goals into reality.
When you decide to apply for (and be approved) for a new credit card through our site, we may get reimbursement from our spouses, which could affect how and where those products appear. While we don’t cover each and every credit card available, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the research for those cards, and our content is not influenced by or subject to review by any credit card company, bank, or spouse before (or after) publication. please see our Advertising Policy and Product Evaluation Methodology for more information.