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There are 2 different seats. I’ve flown both. Here’s you can tell which you’ll get.
If you’ve done much flying on American you already know that their business class seats come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Luckily, these will be all retro-fitted to lie flats by sometime in October, but the 772, in particular, will continue to operate two different retro-fitted products. Originally the contract was with Zodiac. The reviews weren’t great once the seat was put into operation and AA canceled their order and placed a new one with B/E Aerospace for a fantastic seat called the Super Diamond. Depending on the route, you could end up with the Zodiac or the Super-Diamond. Here’s a helpful, simple guid to which business class you’ll get on a retro-fit AA 777-200.
The clear and simple way to tell is by the seat map.
Here are the two different seats.
This is the seat map for the Zodiac ( from an LAX-LHR route) booking on the AA website.
This is the first retro-fit that AA installed on their 772. I reviewed it last year from London to Chicago and enjoyed it quite a bit. I noticed none of the complaints of others.
- As you’ll see below. Pay attention to the rear business class cabin. There are 6 rows. This signifies the first retro-fit.
If you use Seat-guru it’ll look like this…
- Notice how there are 5 rows in the forward cabin in a 1-2-1 arrangement with one seat in the 6th. This is followed by 6 rows in the rear cabin all 1-2-1.
- Some of these seats face backwards
- Notice the Economy cabin. Configured 3-3-3. This is the 1st retro-fit economy. The later one is a dreadful 3-4-3
Again you will get this seat:
This is the business class seat map for the Super-Diamond. An incredible seat and cabin.
Two cabins. The first has 5 complete rows of 1-2-1 and 1 loner seat in 6. If I were flying alone I’d most certainly snag that seat. The rear cabin is 4 rows ( 7-10) all configured in 1-2-1. Personally I think the forward cabin is more private as the rear cabin is separated from coach with a curtain. I walked through a couple times and the noise isn’t filtered as much as I’d like.
If you use seat guru it would look like this.
- If you look at economy…you can see that it is laid out 3-4-3. This automatically means its the newer retro-fit
You will get this seat.
Quick Recap:
- Check the difference in the rear business class cabin. If it goes to row 12 then you’ll get the old cabin
- If the economy cabin is 3-4-3 then you’ll have the newer super diamond seats in business class
You do know that AA has more that the 2 versions of J with Zodiac and Super Diamond. They have some 777-200’s with 37 J seats and some with 45 J seats. I believe there are 5 configs on the 777-200’s in the fleet.
dk – send me links – i’ve only ever seen two retro fit configurations as shown above 37/45. There is a 3rd configuration pre-retro that I didn’t include as the post focuses on the new cabins
Seat Guru seems to show rear-facing seats for Super Diamond. Aren’t they all forward-facing?
Hey John – Yes, they are all forward facing
The seat maps for both configurations look identical after AA installed premium economy on the 777-200’s, so this no longer works. Both configs have the same number of seats in J and Y.