American Airlines: Main Cabin Extra vs. Preferred Seating – What Are the Differences?

When it comes to seating on American Airlines, not all options are alike. For those in the back of the plane (the “Main Cabin”), there are 3 seating options: standard Main Cabin seats, Preferred seats, and Main Cabin Extra.

Here’s a look at the differences between Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seating, the best ones on each type of aircraft, and the perks that come with where you sit.

American Airlines — Classes of Service

No one loves sitting in economy, but if you’ve got to be in the rear part of the plane, you can definitely be a savvy traveler and pick seats that improve your onboard experience.

Here’s a look at all of American’s different seat types, as a brief reference, before diving into your economy options:

Flagship First

Flagship First is American’s top class of service and is only available on 3-class aircraft, including the 777-300ER and the A321T, that fly transcontinental from coast to coast. Flagship First includes access to the Flagship First Dining area at select airports and the Flagship Lounge. Onboard, you’ll find personal “pods” for every passenger without being near others.

It’s worth noting that Flagship First is being retired and will slowly be phased out over the next few years.

Flagship Business

Available on wide-body international flights or transcontinental A321T flights, Flagship Business is American’s standard business class offering, complete with upgraded dining, Flagship Lounge access, and additional amenities on select routes. On wide-body aircraft, seats are staggered in a 1-2-1 configuration or a 2-2 arrangement on cross-country planes.

You can pay to upgrade to Flagship Business Plus to receive additional free checked bags, Flagship check-in, and Flagship First Dining on select itineraries.

Premium Economy

Premium Economy is the middle ground between Main Cabin and business class. Here, you’ll find seats similar to first class on domestic flights, which are larger leather recliners. With seats in a 2-3-2 or 2-4-2 configuration, this cabin provides more legroom, recline space, and amenities than the economy cabin. Customers will receive premium-style meals and inflight entertainment on larger seatback screens.

Domestic First Class

On 2-class narrow-body planes, first class is situated at the front of the aircraft and arranged in a 2-2 seating style. With additional recline and pitch over Main Cabin in the rear, first class is certainly a more comfortable area to sit. Amenities include pre-departure beverages, coat hanging, and meals, depending on flight length.

Hot Tip: Fly American often? See our in-depth article on the best credit cards for frequent AA flyers to help you maximize your miles, as well as benefits such as lounge access, priority boarding, and more!

Main Cabin Extra 

Located in prime areas of the main cabin, Main Cabin Extra seats receive 3 to 6 inches of additional legroom. These seats are in the bulkhead, the first few rows of the plane, or in exit rows. In addition to extra legroom, Main Cabin Extra customers receive free alcoholic beverages.

Preferred Seats

Preferred seats don’t receive any extra legroom, but they are in better locations of the Main Cabin that are closer to the front of the plane, allowing you to access your seat quicker when boarding and exit more quickly when getting off.

Standard Seats

Standard Main Cabin seats are located throughout the Main Cabin but are mostly concentrated in the rear. These seats have no additional amenities and only standard pitch and recline.

Differences Between Standard Seats, Preferred Seats, and Main Cabin Extra Seats

For reference, here’s a chart that summarizes the difference between your coach options:

Main Cabin Extra Benefits in Detail

Preferred Boarding

American has 9 boarding groups, so it’s important to understand where you fit in the boarding picture. If you’re not an elite and you purchase a Main Cabin Extra seat, you will board with Group 5.

Here’s what that will look like:

• Pre-Boarding: ConciergeKey (invite-only) members
• Group 1: Uniformed military plus first class (on a domestic 2-class plane, transcontinental, or international 3-class plane) or business class (on an international 2-class plane), Executive Platinum members
• Group 2: Platinum Pro members, business class on a 3-class plane, and Oneworld Emerald customers
• Group 3: Platinum members and Oneworld Sapphire customers
• Group 4: Premium economy (international-equipped flights), AAdvantage Gold members, Oneworld Ruby customers, Citi^® / AAdvantage^® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard^® cardmembers, travelers who purchased Priority boarding outright, and AirPass members
• Group 5: Other qualifying American Airlines cardholders and Main Cabin Extra
• Group 6 to 7: Main Cabin customers in no particular order; all AAdvantage members, at a minimum (including Basic Economy)
• Group 8: Basic Economy to and from Europe
• Group 9: Basic Economy customers on U.S., Canada, Central America, Mexico, and Caribbean flights

If you’re seated in Main Cabin Extra but are an elite passenger, you’ll board ahead with your elite boarding group. So, for example, an Executive Platinum seated in Main Cabin Extra will board with the higher Group 2.

Hot Tip: If you’re an elite member, make sure you board with your dedicated boarding group and don’t wait until Group 5! There will be fewer people boarding with you and more room for your luggage if you board earlier.

Keep in mind that Group 5 is a fairly large boarding group — you’ll be boarding with a sizable chunk of the Main Cabin, including American credit cardholders. Be aware that there can be quite a few on a hub-to-hub route.

Complimentary Snacks and Alcoholic Beverages

Along with receiving a small snack of either Biscoff cookies or packaged pretzels, those in Main Cabin Extra will receive unlimited complimentary beverages, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic.

Note that snacks are offered to all customers, not just those in Main Cabin Extra. Unlike Delta Air Lines, which offers a dedicated snack basket to its extra legroom seat customers, American only offers the complimentary alcoholic beverage as an extra onboard amenity.

This said, you can certainly purchase any of the snacks on the onboard menu. If you’re an Executive Platinum or ConciergeKey, you can choose your fresh meal on select longer flights.

If your flight features a full beverage service, you can select from any of American’s onboard alcoholic drink selections. You’ll be able to have as many of these drinks as you wish, within reason — this is subject to flight length and flight attendant discretion depending on how many you’ve had.

Your selections may include:

Hot Tip: Most flight attendants on longer flights will make a second pass for drinks, at which time you may be able to select another; otherwise, feel free to ring your call button to request another.

If you’re an AAdvantage Executive Platinum or ConciergeKey member, you will still be able to select your complimentary alcoholic beverage as well as a snack or fresh food item, so there’s no difference if you’re sitting in a Main Cabin Extra seat.

Seat Location

Main Cabin Extra seats are the best places to sit if you have to be in or near the rear of the plane. Sure, everyone likes those fancy lie-flat or recliner first class seats up front, but reality says that at least some flights will probably be in economy.

In economy, Main Cabin Extra seats have the advantage of being located in the most prime spots, including:

• Bulkheads — You may be seated directly behind a wall or other divider between classes
• Emergency Exit Rows — On some planes, there may be more than 1 emergency exit row
• First Few Rows of Main Cabin — Additional legroom and a better location to put you among the first few coach passengers to exit the airplane

Hot Tip: SeatGuru and Expert Flyer are excellent tools to use for figuring out what type of plane you’re flying on, seat maps, and more. 

Depending on your aircraft, Main Cabin Extra seating can look slightly different. Keep in mind that there can be aircraft swaps at any time throughout your journey, as well, so even if you book your ticket on 1 plane, it can be substituted with another at the last minute.

As you can see, most planes in American’s fleet have Main Cabin Extra seating and a decent number of those seats to choose from. Depending on the route and time of day, however, these Main Cabin Extra seats may be consumed by elite passengers who can select them for free. Even if you’re willing to pay for them, there may be fewer to choose from.

The chart below is the list of all Main Cabin Extra seats on specific aircraft. Keep in mind that some different seating arrangements may be available on different models of planes, so you may notice some slight variations.

Occasionally, American also updates what it classifies as a Main Cabin Extra seat, so you may find that some seats are labeled as extra legroom on one plane whereas the same seats on a similar aircraft may not be. This is most often the case on smaller regional aircraft.

Dedicated Overhead Bin Access

On all planes with dedicated Main Cabin Extra sections, you’ll be able to stow your bags in overhead bins marked “For Main Cabin Extra customers only,” which reduces the amount of non-Main Cabin Extra bags that get stowed there.

Still, as the plane begins to fill up, customers tend to put their bags in any open bin they find. And sometimes, customers elect to put their bags farther forward even though they are seated in the back so that they can access their bags quickly as they exit the plane.

The designated placards will help prevent this, but they aren’t necessarily a guarantee — there’s not a ton of policing, though savvy flight attendants will close the bins over these seats to help preserve space. 

Bottom Line: Main Cabin Extra seats come with dedicated storage, which gives you a place to stow your bags without having to fight for overhead bin space.

How To Access Main Cabin Extra Seats

There are a few ways to access Main Cabin Extra seats — some at a cost and some for free.

American Airlines Elite Status

Platinum, Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum, and ConciergeKey members on American Airlines can select Main Cabin Extra for free at the time of booking (for themselves and up to 8 companions on the same reservation). Gold members can select these seats for free 24 hours before departure.

This can be phenomenal savings: Main Cabin Extra on transcontinental flights can cost $100+ and can be double that on international flights.

Oneworld Frequent Flyer Status

If you’re a Oneworld Sapphire or Emerald member and have status with British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, or Japan Airlines, you can select Main Cabin Extra and Preferred seats for free at the time of booking for yourself and up to 8 travel companions on the same reservation. Oneworld Ruby members of the previously mentioned airlines also have access to book these seats within 24 hours of departure.

Wait Until the Last Minute

On some flights, fewer people are willing to purchase Main Cabin Extra seats, or there aren’t enough elites to grab them for free. If you can’t select a seat in the rear, are on a Basic Economy ticket, or don’t have a seat assignment, wait until you get to the airport before checking in.

At the counter or the gate, you may be assigned a Main Cabin Extra seat for free, simply because it is one of the only remaining seats on the plane. This actually happens quite a bit — certain routes aren’t elite-heavy and the regular seats fill up.

If no one is willing to purchase Main Cabin Extra, American still has to assign those seats to accommodate everyone — so by waiting until the last minute, you may get lucky. It’s worth noting that even if you receive a Main Cabin Extra seat for free, you still receive all of the perks that come with it (namely the alcoholic beverages). 

Buy It

It’s the most expensive option, but for those without elite status or who aren’t targeted for some sort of reward, it’s one of the only ways. When you purchase a seat assignment in Main Cabin Extra, the cost depends on the seat you want — even in Main Cabin Extra, middle seats cost less than their aisle or window counterparts in the same area.

As mentioned above, these seats can come at a hefty price tag, so you’ll want to grab a really good seat if you have to pay up. The bulkhead and exit rows will usually get you the most bang for your buck since they have the most legroom.

Monitor Upgrades

Here’s a trick that not many people know about. On all of American’s domestic routes, including Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean flights, American offers complimentary or earned upgrades to elites. On the vast majority of these flights, there will be some sort of upgrade list at the gate. While some passengers may have been upgraded before this point, inevitably there will be some passengers who haven’t cleared yet and are waitlisted at the gate.

If there are still seats open in first class, ask the gate agent which seats the first few people on the upgrade list are in. If the gate agent is willing to tell you, you may be able to ask to swap into their seat (which is usually a Main Cabin Extra seat) as soon as their upgrade is processed. This isn’t a sure-fire way but can be useful in last-minute situations.

A Word About Upgrades

To upgrade on American (whether complimentary, using instruments like systemwide upgrades, or miles/copay), American considers Main Cabin Extra to be in the same cabin as Main Cabin. This is important because when upgrading, you are moving from 1 cabin to the next.

Here are some examples of how this can look on a domestic/Canada/Mexico/Caribbean flight if you’re using some sort of instrument, such as a systemwide upgrade:

• Basic Economy to business/first
• Main Cabin to business/first
• Main Cabin Extra to business/first
• Premium Economy to business/first

And if you’re on an international 3-class plane, it will look like this:

• Basic Economy to business
• Main Cabin to business
• Main Cabin Extra to business
• Premium Economy to business
• Business to first

There are some airlines, such as Delta, that consider an extra-legroom economy seat to be a true upgrade, and its elite program solidifies this with requests to be able to be upgraded to such a seat.

American doesn’t have this type of system — so, regardless of where you’re sitting in the economy cabin, your next upgrade could truly be to business/first.

Bottom Line: Main Cabin Extra is considered part of the economy class cabin, and it’s not a separate area for the purposes of using miles or instruments to upgrade.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, Main Cabin Extra seats really are some of the best economy class seats on American Airlines flights — there’s no doubt about it. If you can’t secure one of these seats, Preferred seats offer a great location on the plane, but without the additional legroom.

When you’re flying American, try to find ways of sitting in Main Cabin Extra — whether using elite status or a buy-up. If not, be selective about where you sit in the Main Cabin, grabbing a Preferred seat if you can.