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Update 9 October 2017: American has extended the dates that its A330 will operate this route. Where initially the A330 was scheduled to go back to other duties on 14 December it will now continue operating this route through 3 March 2018 (with a few minor interruptions).
In its latest schedule update American Airlines has provided passengers flying between Philadelphia and San Francisco with a very nice temporary aircraft upgrade. Travelers on this route are normally subjected to the airline’s narrow-body Airbus A321 aircraft but, from early October, one of the daily flights will be taken over by a wide-body aircraft fitted out for international flights.
From 5 October 2017 American Airlines will fly an Airbus A330-200 aircraft between Philadelphia and San Francisco on the following schedule:
AA723 PHL 15:45 – 18:45 SFO (Daily)
AA722 SFO 08:00 – 16:17 PHL (Daily)
The A330 will replace an A321 (of the non-transcontinental variety) that currently operates these flights…but only through 3 March. After that it looks as if the A321 returns under a different flight number.
The A330-200 is a legacy US Airways aircraft and I have to admit to having never flown in it….but it looks and sounds like a very nice improvement on the other aircraft American flys on this route (if you in the premium cabin).
The front cabin is set out for international Business Class and comes with 20 lie-flat “Envoy Suites”…..
American Airlines A330-200 Envoy Suites
…..in a 1-2-1 cabin layout:
American Airlines A330-200 Business Class Seat Map – Courtesy of SeatGuru
That’s an all-aisle-access Business Class cabin on a domestic route!
Not only are the Business Class seats considerably better than what is found on the A321s that normally fly this route but there are also 4 more of them too – that should help improve people’s upgrade changes a little bit.
Having said all that, there is a downside here and it comes, unsurprisingly, in the Economy Class cabin.
Where the Airbus A321 offers 18 Main Cabin Extra seats with 34″ of seat pitch and 18″ of seat width….
….the A330-200 offers two fewer at just 16:
American Airlines A330-200 per AA.com
Also, as you can see from the tables above, the regular Economy Class cabin of the A321 offer seats with 18″ of width (which is very generous by American Airlines standards) while some of the Economy Class seats on the wide-body are eye-wateringly narrow at just 16.3″.
Bottom Line
If you fly this route regularly of even if you think you’ll be flying it in the period when the A330-200 is flying I would set an ExpertFlyer alert just in case a miracle happens and American opens up SAAver award space on this route – this would be a pretty good use of AAdvantage Miles at 25,000 miles each way).
if you’re not booking directly into the premium cabin I would also make sure that you secure a Main Cabin Extra seat as soon as possible (or possibly even actively avoid this aircraft if you can’t book an MCE seat on it) – the Economy Class seats don’t look like ones I’d like to find myself in.
Featured Image: Transport Pixels via Flickr
