American's Vice President of Planning Vasu Raja told employees on Thursday that the future of the airline's 757s with lie-flat seats is on domestic routes. "What we would like to do with the 757 is increasingly it is a much less competitive international product. But it is a great domestic product especially flying on the transcon where business travelers can get a full flat bed on it," Raja said, according to View from the Wing.
TPG's Katie Genter reviewed AA's lie-flat 757 service from Philadelphia (PHL) to Amsterdam (AMS) earlier in March. The business-class cabin is equipped with 16 B/E Aerospace Diamond lie-flat seats laid out in four rows of 2-2 seating. She found the 2-2 arrangement made the cabin tight, and the seats weren't the most spacious at 21 inches of width and 58 inches of pitch.
TPG reached out to American, and the carrier says there are no details yet on what exact domestic routes will get the lie-flat 757s and no timeframe on when this will go into effect.
