Some First Class seats are first-classier than others, particularly on American. Its best First Class seat (171-degree recline and 23 inches wide with the privacy divider raised) is on B767-300 and B777 aircraft, which are primarily used on international routes. But here are three domestic routes they fly:
• To Hawaii,
• Several transcon routes
• Some short-haul routes from American’s Chicago, Dallas, and Miami hubs
The chart to the right shows the routes and flight numbers with the better First Class seats—especially valuable if you must make a connection anyway. For example, flying from Kansas City to Los Angeles, book your connection via Dallas to catch flight 2421, a B767 aircraft.
Your best return on miles is to get the seat on high priced routes such as Los Angeles to Miami, a First Class seat easily costs $2,000. American charges 50,000 miles for that ticket, or 4¢ per mile. Transfer 40,000 Starwood points, though, and you’ll see a 5¢ return on your miles.
Mileage Upgrades: Spending 30,000 miles to upgrade a fivehour transcon flight that offers the better seat is usually a good value; doing the same for an 8-hour+ flight to Hawaii is a no-brainer, even with the $150 surcharge each way.
Great Access to Upgrades: We surveyed all domestic routes mentioned in the chart below and found upgrade space to be good on all flights in both directions over the next 11 months. With the exception to Hawaii, where space was very limited over the summer and holiday months.
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