Tag Archives for seats.
Occasionally readers question why doors are necessary in business class, going so far as to suggest doors make a seat feel claustrophobic. It’s a more expensive value proposition for airlines. Why has everyone seemingly jumped off this cliff?
Not to be left behind, Air France will retrofit 12 Boeing 777s with a new business class offering doors. They expect that it will begin flying in September, first on the New York JFK – Paris route. The planes won’t have first class, so presumably will swap with existing Boeing 777-200 frequencies that do not offer first either.
When you have special needs on a flight, it pays to do your research. If you’re wide or tall, Ryanair probably isn’t your best choice. However one British passenger took to TikTok to shame Ryanair over its seats and size of its seat belts.
This represents innovative thinking on the part of American to balance their desire for a top shelf product (business class suites with doors on a narrowbody aircraft) without taking up a lot of real estate on the plane
There’s a lot of competitive pressure now to do more than just Polaris for United, especially as that carrier pursues a strategy that seeks to attract premium business. And the planning cycle for a new business product, from selection to production to installation across a fleet, is many years-long. So it’s not surprising that United is now planning for a new business seat with doors.
We’re not just looking at a new seat, but also more premium seats. I wrote last fall that American Airlines is planning to put more business class seats on planes. That’s true both for their widebodies and also their Airbus A319s.
We’re getting some sense now just what this means from two separate recent reports that I’ve confirmed.
To much fanfare American AAdvantage announced that its elite members would have access to JetBlue extra legroom ‘Even More’ seats if available at check-in.
In fact it is not available to AAdvantage elites at check-in 24 hours prior to departure, it is only available at the airport when booking codeshares.
Gone or on the way out are Boeing 777-300ERs, 777-200LRs, and Airbus A330s. Gone as well the Airbus A380s featuring one of the world’s best first class products. Their long haul fleet instead will consist of Boeing 787s, 777-9s (when those are eventually ready), and Airbus A350s. Only a subset of Boeing 787s will even offer a first class cabin.
Etihad has finally revealed their Airbus A350 with new business class – or at least photos have been shared, rather than the airline officially releasing them.
Women have wider hips on average. Men crowd into women’s space. Women are less likely to speak up to defend their space.
A week ago I wrote about why codeshares are great for airlines, not customers, and why you should almost never book one. There are edge cases, but in general they’re a hassle – whether because you need to get rebooked due to a schedule change or even just have a seat assigned.
What prompted me to write about this is that American Airlines, despite its close alliance with JetBlue in the Northeast, is unable to assign seats on JetBlue flights. American’s workaround wasn’t working, so now there’s a new one.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
