Wide-Open Award Availability on AA's New Dreamliner Flights to Cancun

Thanks to just-announced changes to the American Airlines schedule, there's a new opportunity to score a more comfortable flying experience: lie-flat business class to Cancun, Mexico. American Airlines is launching not one but three daily flights to Cancun using its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.

That means that instead of a standard "domestic first class" recliner seat...

... you have the chance to book a lie-flat business class seat:

These revised flights will operate on the following schedule:

Effective November 4:

• AA 147 — Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 8:25am Departure ⇒ Cancun (CUN) 1:06pm Arrival
• AA 147 — Cancun (CUN) 2:00pm Departure ⇒ Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 4:57pm Arrival

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Effective December 19:

• AA 1503 — Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 10:05am Departure ⇒ Cancun (CUN) 2:49pm Arrival
• AA 1503 — Cancun (CUN) 3:35pm Departure ⇒ Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 6:31pm Arrival
• AA 2684 — Dallas (DFW) 12:50pm Departure ⇒ Cancun (CUN) 4:34pm Arrival
• AA 2684 — Cancun (CUN) 5:43pm Departure ⇒ Dallas (DFW) 7:40pm Arrival

Effective December 19, both daily Chicago-Cancun flights will be operated by a Dreamliner. However, on the DFW-CUN route, the Dreamliner will only be on one of six of the daily flights. So, you'll want to choose your flight carefully.

In a growing trend of selling "domestic first class" (including flights to Canada, Mexico and Caribbean) at a reasonable price, round-trip nonstop business class flights between Chicago and Cancun are available starting at just $695 per person. And if you wanted to fly the long way to Cancun from Miami for fun, you can can get almost nine hours of lie-flat business class seats for $642 round-trip:

With American Airlines' irritating new way of releasing saver award availability, it can be rare to find award options on nonstop flights. But, that's not the case right now on this new Dreamliner-operated route, where award availability is wide-open:

However, if you're an AAdvantage elite, you don't have to book a business class award to get a lie-flat business class seat. Cancun is a destination covered by 500-mile upgrades, so any American Airlines elite on a paid flight can list for an upgrade. American Airlines Executive Platinum elites get complimentary upgrades on both paid flights and award flights.