The debut of a new premium Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner for American Airlines is just days away, and on Thursday, journalists and other members of the media got to take a real-life tour of the luxury new jet in Dallas Fort Worth ahead of its first commercial flight on June 5.
Amazingly, however, the flight attendants who will be working on this plane have been denied the very same privilege of touring the aircraft, and some say they haven’t received “any real service training” for what AA dubs the 787P (for Premium).
This is a potential issue as the 787P is the biggest change to American Air’s onboard product in years, featuring a brand new type of Flagship business class suite and new working practices to accommodate for the fact that the airline has configured the aircraft in a very dense layout.
According to sources who spoke with aviation insider XJonNYC on X and Bluesky, the first flight attendants who will work on the 787P won’t get a tour of the aircraft until they work on it for the first time and the airline is, allegedly, yet to share catering diagrams or service flows with crew members.
“Expect [the] first few weeks of 789P ops to be messy, long services in front (in Flagship business class),” the source told XJonNYC.
The 787P has been in the works for years and represents a significant upgrade for premium passengers, with 51 enclosed business class seats with sliding doors and four new Flagship Preferred Suites at the front of the plane with even more space, privacy, and storage.
As well as new seats to learn about, flight attendants will have to get used to new working practices, especially in the galleys where meals and drinks are prepared.
In order to cram larger business class suites in the plane without compromising on seating density, American Airlines had to significantly alter the so-called LOPA (which stands for Layout of Passenger Accommodations).
Essentially, the 787P will be a very different aircraft to work on than American’s existing Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and it will take flight attendants some time to get used to this aircraft.
In a memo, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents AA’s crew members, sought to calm jittery flight attendants, telling them that the airline planned to have ground staff at airport gates ahead of 787P flights to provide “support and assistance.”
The airline has created an aircraft familiarization guide ahead of the plane’s debut, and flight attendants are being encouraged to fully review all the documentation before the plane goes into service.
From June 5, the plane will start operating one domestic flight from Chicago O’hare to Los Angeles and one international flight from Chicago to London Heathrow.
Matt’s take – expect slow service times to begin
A change as big as this is undoubtedly going to take some getting used to for flight attendants, who will have to find new ways of working in smaller galley areas – unfortunately, that means service times are likely to be extended for the first few weeks and potentially even months of the 787P going into service.
Airlines are increasingly looking to make the very most out of every inch of space in the passenger cabin but this does create challenges in terms of running an efficient and well-paced service.
The most obvious example is probably the rollout of British Airways’ Airbus A350, which passengers still complain has a slow service flow (more than five years after the plane was introduced).
Like British Airways and its A350, American Airlines is also dealing with the issues thrown up by ripping out galley space, with reports that the airline might banish bread and butter from passenger meal trays in Economy to help save space.
That is completely false. Looking at photos of the reveal, you can clearly see some of our flight attendants sitting in the seats. Check your sources.
total BS about the Training…… they have All been Trained just may not have been ON the actual aircraft. AA rolled out a series of Training Midules Specific to this aircraft. sTOP with the bread and butter nonsense pretending you are a Town Crier….,, that was a specific Test for future flights on the 321XLR where space is limited Stop talking about crap you know Nothing about….. Social Chatterbox that needs a grip