Is This When American Airlines Will Officially Introduce Premium Economy?

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Considering how much the product has been discussed it’s surprising we still don’t know quite a few things about American Airlines’ new Premium Economy product. We don’t know for sure which aircraft will have the cabin and which won’t, we don’t know what percentage of seats in each aircraft will be given over to Premium Economy and, perhaps most importantly, we don’t really know when American Airlines plans on fully unleashing its Premium Economy product on the flying public….but we may now have a hint.

We know that the first aircraft to be fitted with American Airlines Premium Economy seats will be the new 787-9 Dreamliners that will start arriving from the end of this month and we know what the seating configuration looks like for that aircraft’s Premium Economy cabin:

American Airlines 787-9 Dreamliner Premium Economy Seat Map

For the time being American Airlines is allowing OneWorld Emerald and OneWorld Sapphire card holders to reserve Premium Economy seats free of charge when booking an Economy Class ticket (something I’ve done for an upcoming trip to Sao Paulo) but the airline isn’t actually rolling out the full Premium Economy product just yet.

While some passengers are able to reserve the Premium Economy seats on the Dreamliners they’re not expected to receive the other benefits of Premium Economy that American Airlines has outlined:

• Noise Reducing Headphones
• Priority Check-In & Boarding
• Amenity Kits
• Enhanced Meal Service

American Airlines image of a Premium Economy Meal

These benefits will only become available when American officially launches Premium Economy and starts charging for the product…..but we don’t know when that will be.

All American has said so far is that Premium Economy will launch fully in early 2017….

……but I think the airline is now giving us a hint as to when exactly that will be and it’s the seat maps that could be the clue.

As an Executive Platinum member (OneWorld Emerald), when I log in to my AAdvantage account and look to book a flight with Premium Economy seating (like the Dallas – Madrid route) this is what I see on 1 April 2017:

And this is what I see on all dates from 2 April 2017 onwards:

I cannot reserve Premium Economy seats past 1 April 2017 and that leads me to wonder if that’s the date that American Airlines has chosen to launch its Premium Economy product in full.

Bottom Line

Clearly Premium Economy would have to be put on sale some time in advance but 2 April 2017 could well be when we’ll finally get to see what American’s Premium Economy product is really like.

It will be interesting to see if the airline has learned how to offer a meal to true Premium Economy standards (i.e what you can expect from Premium Economy in airlines like British Airways, Virgin Australia and Cathay Pacific) and if American has found a way to get its crews to offer a true Premium Economy service on board.

This is all pure speculation on my part and there could be some other perfectly reasonable explanation as to why American won’t let me reserve a Premium Economy seat past 1 April….but there’s a reasonable chance I’m right on this one.