American will fly its swankiest plane to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas
Short of flying on a private jet, American Airlines will offer perhaps the most premium way of getting to the Super Bowl.
Over the weekend, the Fort Worth-based carrier added eight special flights between New York and Las Vegas — the host city for the 2024 Super Bowl — between Feb. 8 and Feb. 12, 2024, all of which will be operated by American's Airbus A321T.
Additionally, after arriving in Las Vegas, the A321T will continue onward to Los Angeles on select frequencies, giving flyers on this short 236-mile route a welcome upgrade to the onboard experience.
The A321T is one of the poshest planes operated by a U.S. airline. It features three cabins, including 10 Flagship First pods, 20 Flagship Business lie-flats and 72 economy seats, half of which are in an extra-legroom Main Cabin Extra configuration. With just 102 total seats, American's A321T features a whopping 126 fewer seats than Spirit Airlines stuffs on the exact same type of jet.
Usually, the A321T is exclusively deployed on transcontinental routes from Boston and New York to Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco in California. But every so often, American uses the plane for premium-focused missions to special events.
In this case, American seemingly believes there will be plenty of demand for its fancy cabins to the Super Bowl. If you book a ticket on the A321T in business or first class, you'll enjoy lounge access in New York at either the Greenwich or Chelsea lounge, respectively — both of which are posh spots to relax before your flight.
Aside from flying the A321T, American will also upgauage select flights from Miami and Philadelphia to Las Vegas on Feb. 8, Feb. 9 and Feb. 12. These flights were originally supposed to be operated by domestic narrow-bodies, such as the regular configuration of the Airbus A321 and the Boeing 737, but they'll instead be operated by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
In total, American says that it'll offer more than 150 lie-flat seats to and from Vegas during Super Bowl weekend.
Interestingly, this is the third time in just a few months that American will deploy the A321T on routes to Las Vegas. In November, it'll fly the jet there for the Formula One race, and in January, it'll be deployed on flights to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.
Over the years, American has also used the A321T to shuttle film executives and aficionados between Los Angeles and Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival, but that's basically been the extent of the non-transcontinental flying for the A321T.
Either way, these one-off special trips on the A321T will come to an end in the coming years. That's because American will retrofit these 16 planes with a standard domestic configuration as it debuts new Flagship Business cabins on the upcoming deliveries of Boeing 787s and Airbus A321XLRs.
The Super Bowl isn't the only special event to catch American's attention. In fact, the carrier is also making special arrangements for flights to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress trade show taking place between Feb. 26 and Feb. 29, 2024.
From Feb. 23 to March 3, American will operate nonstop service between Dallas-Fort Worth and Barcelona — a nonstop route that isn't currently served by American but will operate as a summer seasonal service starting in June.
American will also upgauge flights from Miami and New York to Barcelona for the convention between Feb. 22 and March 3. These flights will be operated by the Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 777-300, respectively.
"With more than 6,000 additional seats in and out of Las Vegas and Barcelona, we're adding more convenient ways to connect fans and enthusiasts to experience all the action," said Jason Reisinger, American's managing director of global network planning, in a statement about the move.
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