New: American Airlines Will Bring Flagship Suites To Boeing 787-8s, Overhauling Tiny 20-Seat Business Class Cabin

American Airlines is planning to retrofit existing Boeing 787-8 aircraft with new Flagship Suites. Right now, they have fantastic business class seats, but they have too much variability in their widebody premium product. The 787-8s don’t have enough premium seats, and they have an older business class product, but the airline had been silent about plans for the aircraft until now. Boeing 777-300ERs have old Zodiac Cirrus lie flat seats American Airlines Zodiac Seats On 777-300ER Boeing 777-200s have both front- and rear-facing ‘Concept D’ seats and Super Diamond seats American Airlines ‘Concept D’ Seats On 777-200 Boeing 787-8s have both front- and rear-facing ‘Concept D’ seats and Super Diamond seats American Airlines Super Diamond Seats On Boeing 787 Boeing 787-9s have both Super Diamond and Adient Ascent seats American Airlines Adient Ascent Seat On Boeing 787-9P The 777-300ERs are losing first class and will be standardized with the business class suites that debuted last year on new delivery Boeing 787-9Ps. Boeing 777-200s are going to be refreshed with that seat as well. However the 787s have previously been left with a hodge podge of seats. The 787-9s might have smaller business class cabins and older (though perfectly nice) seats, or the new flagship product. Meanwhile, 787-8s have two different older seats – one that was designed before US Airways took control of the airline 13 years ago. And the 787-8s just don’t have enough business class. There are only 20 seats in the cabin. That’s was once fine for leisure-oriented routes, but even leisure has gone upscale and an airline with American’s cost base needs a layout of seats designed to maximize revenue. This layout made no sense on flights to London Heathrow, their primary transatlantic destination where joint venture partner British Airways is hubbed. However, American’s management had focused on the low end of the market and got themselves in a financial hole. When they took over the airline at the end of 2013 they began removing business class seats from planes. The US Airways experience was they only sold those through discounting. That was the wrong model. Now CEO Robert Isom says “that work to refresh cabins will soon expand to American’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.” American Airlines Has Been Aggressively Adding Great New Premium Seats American Airlines has been adding premium seats to planes, and business class and premium economy are both a step up. American’s new premium Boeing 787-9 entered service last year with 51 Flagship Suites with doors, 32 Premium Economy seats, a redesigned coach cabin and the product is just gorgeous. The premium economy seats also are a huge leap forward compared to American’s prior version that lacked footrests. The Airbus A321XLR has entered the fleet and is a narrowbody aircraft with business class suites with doors and premium economy. These are used on premium cross-country flights and short transatlantics from the Northeast. The business class seats are narrow, and a bit awkwardly designed, but better than business class American was flying cross country on premium routes previously – and the doors on the suites have finally been certified for use. slight difference in statement on dates: pic.twitter.com/x7CQsxZI2p — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 18, 2026 They’re Already Retrofitting Boeing 777s American is retrofitting Boeing 777-300ER planes to this new standard (sadly losing first class) and will retrofit Boeing 777-200ERs as well. A year ago I wrote that American was considering extending the lives of its Boeing 777-200s and that a retrofit would accompany a life-extension decision. And I ultimately scooped that American intended to retain its 47 777-200ERs, replace Panasonic connectivity with Viasat and refurbish the interiors American confirmed the program in October 2025. Extending the airplanes’ lives defers roughly $7 – $9 billion in replacement spending through the end of the decade. Narrowbodies Get More Premium Seating, Too American is also putting Airbus A319 and A320s into service with an additional row of first class, larger overhead bins, and a redesigned cabin. These are denser in coach, and there’s less space for flight attendants to work, but overall they’re nice planes. Regional jets also got high speed wifi and more mainline-style interiors. Topics on this page