American Airlines has embarked on a mission to make its experience much more premium, but you might not realize that with some of the odd decisions that the carrier has made with the latest aircraft to join its fleet – the Airbus A321XLR.
Capable of flying 4,700 nautical miles or 11 hours non-stop, the A321XLR (standing for eXtra Long Range) will soon start to operate on transatlantic flights, but passengers sitting in Economy Class have got a nasty surprise in store for them.
Flight attendant shows miniature tray tables on the Airbus A321XLR
Heather Poole, a serving American Airlines flight attendant, has revealed in a series of posts on X that, baffingly, the carrier has decided to install miniature tray tables on its Airbus A321XLRs.
It might seem like a minor point until you consider the impact that this decision will have on passengers flying on long-haul routes.
Better view of the tray tables in coach on the XLR. Notice the laptop. That’s fully extended so.. if meals are served on long haul flights they’ll have to be served on half trays. Just an entree?? pic.twitter.com/yoSTg8S1L9
— @Heather_Poole (@Heather_Poole) January 30, 2026
Want to get some done on your laptop? Good luck trying to balance your computer on the super slim tray table because the table is about half the size of a standard laptop.
And then there’s the obvious issue of how American Airlines plans to serve meals on these planes because its current long-haul Economy Class meal trays are about double the depth of the trays that they might be served on.
What does that actually mean for you and me? Well, expect American Airlines to introduce new tableware that will require smaller portions and perhaps even the complete disappearance of some service items, including the humble bread roll.
In response to some questions that Heather received on X, no, the tray tables do not extend or fold out. What you see is all you get!
Where is the American Airlines A321XLR flying?
American’s A321XLR entered service on December 18, 2025, operating transcontinental flights between New York and Los Angeles, but the airline soon plans to deploy these jets on transatlantic services.
The first international destination for the A321XLR will be Edinburgh, Scotland, from both New York JFK and Philadelphia.
- New York JFK – Edinburgh commences on March 8
- Philadelphia – Edinburgh commences on March 28
How about the experience in Business Class?
Along with 123 Main Cabin seats, the American Airlines A321XLR comes with 12 Premium Economy seats and 20 Flagship Suite lie-flat seats. These Business Class seats are now, however, without their own controversy.
Given that space is very limited on a single-aisle jet like the A321XLR, airlines need to be quite creative with their cabin configuration layouts to optimize the space as much as possible.
American Airlines has opted for so-called herringbone lie-flat seats that face away from the windows and into the cabin. The suites do, at least, have privacy doors, but given that they haven’t yet been certified by the FAA, they have to remain locked open for the timebeing.
NY-LA: Greetings from the new A321XLR. Business class passengers are stretched out in tiny slivers of space about as wide as their bodies facing the aisle with a little wall between them but a locked door that you can see over when you walk down the aisle. It looks like luxurious… pic.twitter.com/HcACMMCcSe
— @Heather_Poole (@Heather_Poole) January 30, 2026
Heather’s description of these seats is quite eloquent, with her saying in another X post: “Business class passengers are stretched out in tiny slivers of space about as wide as their bodies, facing the aisle with a little wall between them but a locked door that you can see over when you walk down the aisle.”
“It looks like luxurious coffins or dog crates.”
Ben Schlappig at One Mile At A Time has also written about his experience flying in these suites, saying he has “never witnessed such a negative reaction” amongst his fellow travellers to a new Business Class seat.
Ben also noted other issues with the seats, including:
- Very limited storage space
- Limited space around the shoulders
- A flimsy tray table
- And a fold-out TV screen that had to be restowed every time a flight attendant served something.
At least the experience is marginally better than Iberia
The overall experience doesn’t sound great, but it might just be a tiny bit better than the setup Spanish flag carrier Iberia chose as the launch customer of the A321XLR.
Along with the same Business Class seats and miniature tray tables in Economy, Iberia also opted to install the ‘Space Flex’ aft galley and lavatory setup on its A321XLRs.
Rather than having a full-sized galley for flight attendants to work at the back of the plane, Space Flex chops the galley in half, and the remaining space is filled by two super slimline lavatories.
Airlines love Space Flex, and it’s popping up on airlines operating A320-series aircraft around the world. Using Space Flex allows airlines to squeeze as many as six extra Economy Class seats on board, although American Airlines has an agreement with its flight attendant union not to adopt this concept… at least for now.
Her post/pictures may be misleading. It looks like the Economy table has two layers so it may actually flip open to a larger size in addition to sliding back and forth.
No sir! Unless there’s a secret way to way that tray bigger that no one has figured out, that is the full size. It doesn’t extend or fold out.
I came to say the same thing…the top part looks like two layers that unfolds to make a larger tray.
NO? That’s the size of the table? I wonder if that was a manufacturing problem and nobody bothered to make sure the trays were functioning propertly. Somebody needs to check that out! SO WRONG.