Do Business Class Seats Need Doors — Or Are They Just A Gimmick?

Fully flat bed seats came to British Airways business class in 2000. It remained industry-leading for some time. In 2002, Singapore Airlines introduced the SpaceBed and that was still an angled seat.

Singapore and United Airlines both began to go fully flat in 2006. These were very dense products. United’s were eight seats abreast on a Boeing 777.

Now the basic standard is:

• fully flat seats
  
• direct aisle access from each seat, no climbing over anyone
  
• and doors for privacy

Not everyone has doors! United is just now introducing those on new delivery Boeing 787-9 aircraft. They were an incredible innovation in first class two decades ago. In business class the doors aren’t usually as high and don’t provide as much privacy. Anyone walking down the aisle can look down at you. But they provide some privacy, but more importantly the illusion of privacy, especially as you’re lying down.

American Airlines has doors on its new Airbus A321XLR. Air Canada chose the same seat, the Collins Aurora, and decided not to put doors on them even though it was more work not to offer them – it meant additional design and certification work not to have doors, according to the airline’s Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr.

American Airlines Airbus A321XLR Business Class

And that’s had me thinking about the necessity of doors, when they make sense, and you give up too much to have them. According to Nasr, by removing doors from their spec:

• they got a bed that’s 2 inches longer on either side
  
• the cabin aisle is 5 inches wider at elbow level
  
• and the oversized Airspace bins come down so far from the ceiling that the doors can’t be very tall, and don’t provide much privacy anyway

Air Canada Airbus A321XLR Business Class

They put doors on their new Boeing 787-10 business suites, but not these planes. They think it’s a better experience in business class without it.

It all comes down to the tradeoff of inches in a narrowbody aircraft – the same reason for the herringbone seat that faces away from the window.

I think a door is less important at your feet (on a herringone seat facing into the aisle) than it is along your side (the way most business class products are angled). I prefer the Stelia Opera and Safran Vue seats that give you forward or more traditional window views. Those take up more space in the cabin than the herringbone Collins Aurora. And once your feet face the aisle it just seems like the door gets you less.

• I want a door on a standard business class seat
  
• I want it less when my feet face the aisle, and the door closes at my feet
  
• I want a door that’s as tall as possible (Air France first class has curtains from the ceiling to the floor)
  
• When there’s more space, on a widebody, it’s probably a good use of space. On a narrowbody the space might be better used in other ways.

British Airways Airbus A350 Business Class

The value of business class is space and privacy (really, not seeing a sea of people around you). Doors help to create a cocoon. They cordon off personal space and leave you less likely to see the people around you.

To be sure many of those doors are half-height, and some first class products provide greater privacy as cabin crew walk down the aisle.

Emirates A380 First Class

Etihad A380 First Class

The point of the exercise, though, isn’t to give you so much privacy that nyou can do you-know-what. Instead it can be as much about your own perception of the cabin around you – what you see and do not see – as about who sees you. With the herringbone layout, which is almost coffin-like, you’ve got the without shielding your feet.

I’d also add, though, that doors help in most layouts:

• shield you from lights and entertainment screens coming from other seats
  
• protect you from getting bumped by passengers and crew as they pass down the aisle

Doors have become something of a standard, like direct aisle access had been, and fully flat before that. But I wonder when doors are real value, and when they’re a gimmick – and whether Air Canada’s business class brand will suffer ‘because they don’t have doors’ on their narrowbody business class seat, or whether the actual lived experience in the seat will be better and that’s what will drive their reputation.

Fundamentally doors are a choice. If you don’t care for them, keep yours open. If you want it closed, close it. Offering doors in business class lets passengers better custom tailor their experience. Most people close their doors. The problem is when those doors come at a cost inside the suite itself, and make the aisle too narrow to be comfortable as well.

Do business class seats need doors at all? Do they always need them? What do you think?