Class Wars

The often-antagonistic relationship between the two carriers, including the infamous “dirty tricks” campaign in the early 1990s, led to an arms race for passengers. Like any good war, the technological advancements were significant and spread widely. Angled lie-flat seats and fully flat beds in business. Premium Economy. Airline pyjamas. A whole series of hard and soft product improvements that have irrevocably changed the airline passenger experience in Australia and beyond. The latest of those is reflected in a series of UK patent filings by Nigel Goode of design firm Priestmangoode on behalf of British Airways for a new Club World concept to be used on the Airbus A350XWB.

It’s a new take on the concept of the fully flat bed with direct aisle access, surprisingly – and going against the trend of reverse herringbone seats facing the window – arranged in a herringbone facing the aisle, Virgin Atlantic style.

The main seating area is wide and curved, allowing a range of positions that exceeds either the existing British Airways or Virgin Atlantic products. When it’s time to relax, a legrest swings up (in the space where Virgin’s current product lacks a legrest), and extendsto an ottoman for bed mode. It’s a fascinating evolution, drawing on many different products to create something quite novel.

Of course, it’s possible that the idea is entirely a think-piece, a hypothetical or a bluff. BA’s next-generation seat may look nothing like this – but even if it doesn’t, the gauntlet has been thrown down.

The idea draws on nearly three decades of incremental and revolutionary changes driven by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic in fierce competition with each other. These airlines drive seat design and passenger experience throughout the industry – and have for decades.

Sleeper seats dominated through the 1990s

Both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways offered a series of non-flat sleeper seats in their business class products, Upper Class and Club World, through the late 1990s. While big, squashy, comfortable and popular enough for most passengers, the first move towards flat beds was on Virgin Atlantic’s side.

It resulted from the 1992 introduction of Mid Class, and its rebranding in 1994 as Premium Economy, leading to the conundrum feared until just this year by late-entrant premium economy airlines like Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines: cost-conscious business travellers and leisure passengers didn’t see the benefit of flying Upper Class rather than the middle cabin.

Virgin angles for an Atlantic advantage

In November 1999, the same month as Virgin Blue was announced, Virgin Atlantic launched its J2000 angled lie-flat seat, among the first of its kind. Pitched at what now seems a relatively tight 55 inches, the seat slid downwards in a way that frequent business class travellers today try to avoid.

And the smooth fabric covering contributed to the principal reason for the seat’s relatively swift demise. Passengers, especially anyone wearing a skirt or suit trousers, found themselves sliding inexorably into a heap at the bottom of the seat, often while their clothing remained in the same place it started.

BA goes flat to get ahead

In 2000, British Airways stole a march on the airline industry worldwide by introducing the first fully flat business class seat.

Its Club World bed was – and remains – uniquely arranged in a yin-yang configuration, alternately arranging seats forward and backwards. It’s a highly efficient way to stack passengers end-to-end: 2-4-2 on a Boeing 747 main deck or 777, 2-2-2 on a 767, and maintaining a 2-2 layout upstairs on a 747.

The only other contemporary airline to decide on a forwards-backwards configuration in business class was United Airlines,which introduced a new business class seat in 2008, in the same eight-abreast density on a 777 or 747 main deck as British Airways, but without the yin-yang configuration. As a result, the seat was and remains problematically narrow, as Australian business class passengers will remember from the United Boeing 747‑400 services to Melbourne and Sydney, replaced by newer Boeing 777-200ER aircraft (and newer B/E Aerospace Diamond seats) as recently as April this year.

New features included an ottoman that unhooked from the seat or bulkhead in front of the passenger, swinging down to provide one of the three sleeping surfaces in flat bed mode, and a fan-shaped divider to mollify the particularly British horror of looking at the person travelling opposite.

One problem that the 2000-era Club World seat did not resolve wasaisle access for middle or window seat passengers, who must spring, antelope-like, across the slumbering feet of their aisle neighbours.

The issue wasn’t new to the Club World seat, but the horizontal bed raised the problem both literally and figuratively: whereas in previous cradle sleeper and angled lie-flat seats the aisle passenger’s feet were much closer to the floor, the horizontal nature of the new seat meant that an awkward straddling position was required to span the aisle passenger’s ottoman and legs.

And those legs weren’t supported by a legrest while seated, only when in bed mode. The Z-bed position with an ottoman that changed angle and height wouldn’t be added until the 2006 Club World update.

Superseded nearly a decade ago on most British Airways flights, the 2000-era Club World seats remain in operation in Club World on BA’s dwindling long-haul Boeing 767‑300ER fleet, and in the Biz Bed cabin on its OpenSkies subsidiary, operating Boeing 757-200s between Paris and New York.

While Etihad’s new Airbus A380 business class and American Airlines’ unique 777-200 reverse herringbone seats will also take an alternating forwards-backwards arrangement, both those seats are arranged to allow for direct aisle access for every passenger. For more, see Cabin Pressure, June 2014.

Virgin’s Suite — and undisturbed — dreams started a flipping trend

A month before announcing plans to operate flights to Australia, Virgin Atlantic launched its Upper Class Suite in June 2003, revolutionising the world of business class.

The seat consists of a leather reclining chair set at an angle towards the aisle, with a fixed ottoman that can double as guest seating, including double dining over the extra-deep tablethat springs up from the glossy pearlescent wall separating each suite from its neighbours.

While the suite only reclines slightly in seat mode, a revolutionary innovation was bed mode, where the seat pivots at the intersection between back and bottom cushion, flipping over forwards to reveal a differently padded, extra-squashy mattress on the other side of the seatback.

The airline that started the trend of a glamorous, chic business class being the zenith of its hard product eclipsed other airlines’ first class seats in one fell swoop.

The Upper Class Suite made business class what it is today

A true precursor to today’s seats, the Upper Class Suite established three principles that still drive business class today.

First, that business class seats should have direct aisle access for every passenger. It has taken over a decade, but passengers and airlinesnow concur that the best business class seats are arranged so that every passenger can get up and reach the aisle without climbing over another person. More dense fully flat and angled lie-flat seating without aisle access is still being installed, but on airlines that either operate in a less-competitive environment or are aiming for a different segment of the widening business class market.

Second, that business class seats can flip over. Singapore Airlines introduced its first fully flat business class in 2006, currently found on long-haul outfitted flights from Australia and elsewhere via Changi. While not universally beloved – the seats are so wide (over 30in) that the carrier had to add a square bolster cushion for use as an armrest, and the diagonal sleeping position takes some passengers aback – Singapore Airlines is clearly convinced that the flip-and-sleep model works for its primarily long-haul and ultra long-haul flights.

Third, that the most efficient arrangement of modern business class seating is on an angle to the aircraft’s centreline. So revolutionary was the Upper Class Suite’s aisle-facing herringbone pattern that several airlines set out immediately to do something similar. Virgin Atlantic believed that imitation was the sincerest form of patent infringement, and said so in an ultimately unsuccessful court action.

But the end result was a series of competing fully flat business class seats with direct aisle access in a herringbone layout pointing towards the aisle that still fly to Australian and New Zealand destinations today – on Delta’s Boeing 777-200LR between LA and Sydney, Cathay Pacific’s Airbus A340-300 between Hong Kong and Auckland, and Air Canada’s Boeing 777-200LR between Vancouver and Sydney.

All three of those airlines have since selected other business classseats for their newer or refitted aircraft – and all three have opted for the next-generation reversed herringbone Cirrus seat designed by Sicma Aero Seat, now Zodiac Seats France, which has design lineage leading back to both the BA and Virgin seats.

By the numbers, the Upper Class Suite was worldbeating…

Armed with a barrage of tape-measure facts at launch, Virgin extolled the Suite’s virtues compared with the competition.

“2in wider than British Airways’ First Class seat… the bed is 3. 5in longer, 13. 5in wider in the all-important shoulder area and 3. 5in wider in the lower bed area.

“7. 5in longer, 13in wider in the shoulder area and 3in wider in the lower bed area than British Airways’ Club World seat.

“2in wider than the First Class seats offered by 23 major airlines including British Airways, Lufthansa, Qantas, United Airlines, and American Airlines. ” Yet Australians more familiar with Virgin Atlantic’s Airbus A340-600 aircraft might look at those numbers and assertions askance, and rightly so.

The Upper Class Suite comes in three main Virgin Atlantic varieties: the standard on the main deck of a Boeing 747, a 2. 5inlonger version on the 747’s upper deck, and a noticeably narrower version on the Airbus A340-300 and -600 fleet.

The angle at which the herringbone layout is arranged also varies between aircraft types, leading to a fair amount of dissent among business class regulars about exactly how much neck-twisting is required to look out the window when seated.

…and it’s almost unparalleled for ultra long-haul flying…

There are few airlines whose intercontinental services are more focused on ultra long-haul than Air New Zealand.

In June 2004, the Kiwi carrier announced plans to purchase eight Boeing 777-200ER aircraft – and two airframes of what was then called the Boeing 7E7 – and to outfit them without first class, replacing the top cabin with the Upper Class Suite, branded as Business Premier.

Those 7E7s, in the guise of the 787‑9 aircraft now flying between Australia and New Zealand in preparation for long-haul services, are even now outfitted with the Upper Class Suite, updated slightly in 2011 with the introduction of Boeing 777‑300ER aircraft.

It’s a mark of the Upper Class Suite’s suitability that the upgrades are predominantly cosmetic: in addition to new materials, Air NZ introduced a new foam mattress pad, upgraded entertainment, and new power sockets, but that is in essence the only upgrade from the original 2003 version. It’s difficult to say that about any other business class seat.

In its Business Premier guise, the seat was then and remains ideal for the 12 to 14-hour segments that Air New Zealand predominantly requires of it. That’s particularly true given that Air New Zealand’s fleet of 747, 777 and now 787 aircraft are wide enough to take the largest of the three models of the seat offered on Virgin Atlantic’s aircraft.

…but as an all-round seat, it has been overtaken in the decade since its introduction

The main criticism of the Upper Class Suite, particularly in recent years as competition has grown, is that the range of positions for actually sitting in the seat is actually quite narrow: the seat just doesn’t recline all that much, and the ottoman doesn’t move with it.

That’s not a huge drawback for Air New Zealand, which primarily uses the seat on long-haul routes where 8-10 hours can be spent in bed.

But for Virgin Atlantic, many routes are either daytime westbound flights or short red-eye overnight flights, so the requirement to put everything away, get up, flip the seat into a bed and then retire – and to do the same before landing – is a ten-minute faff not required on airlines whose seats recline to flat rather than flipping over.

And BA’s 2006 update of the Club World cabin does just that.

Club World’s 2006 upgrade is today’s BA business seat

Six years after it was introduced, the 2000-era British Airways’ fully flat Club World seat was looking a little long in the tooth.

With competition from the Upper Class Suite, as well as the new angled lie-flat seats in business-first hybrid cabins on board US airlines, BA saw the need to upgrade its bread-and-butter business class seat.

The 2006 version of the Club World seat was very much an evolution rather than a revolution.

The yin-yang arrangement continued, but with increased tapering of the seat to give more shoulder room, high walls separating the seats, and replacing the fabric fan with an electronically controlled translucent plastic screen.

More importantly, the lounging benefits of the US airlines’ angled lie-flat sleepers – and the lack of recline on the Upper Class Suite – were replicated with a reimagined ottoman. The 2006 ottoman moves vertically and also pivots at thefar end, enabling a popular Z-bed position for lounging.

But the seat didn’t fix the aisle access problem. Window and middle seat passengers still have to vault across their neighbours to get out. And personal storage is still a problem.

Looking back with the benefit of eight years’ hindsight, it’s easy to speculate that British Airways could have stolen a march on its competitors (and prolonged the life of its product) by adding, say, eight inches between each seat – or shared between two seats – to create a gangway between window and aisle seats, in the way that Airbus Group’s Sogerma Solstys seats, or some layouts of Thompson’s Vantage seats, allow. Numerous conceptual proposals circulated at industry conferences and expositions essentially propose a similar shared gangway approach.

It was in the context of BA’s 2006 decisions to evolve Club World rather than create a cleansheet design that Virgin Atlantic created the Upper Class Dream Suite in 2012.

The Dream Suite had a nightmarish introduction. . .

By 2012, Virgin Atlantic had originally planned to be operating a significantly newer fleet than its inefficient Boeing 747-400, Airbus A340-600 and -300 aircraft. At the heart of these plans was the much-delayed Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and Virgin Atlantic had started taking delivery of a fleet of Airbus A330-300 aircraft in 2011, partly as a stopgap measure and partly thanks to the aircraft’s persuasive economics on routes such as Virgin’s transatlantic core and burgeoning near East and South Asian market.

While Air New Zealand had recently updated its own licensed version of the largest version of the Upper Class Suite, Virgin Atlantic’s slightly smaller, narrower A340 version that would be used on the identical cross-section of the A330 had not been included. And with every inch of space in the cabin under scrutiny, the airline decided that it was time for a new Upper Class – the Dream Suite.

After manufacturing delays withthe Dream Suite that caused Virgin to lease its first A330s to Taiwan’s China Airlines, then accept its next A330s as leisure market versions lacking Upper Class, the Dream Suite launched in the middle of 2012.

Another evolution, not revolution, the Dream Suite built on the Virgin Atlantic herringbone, but increased density significantly thanks to two key changes.

Most strikingly, the centre section of seats, rather than being a single column facing either port or starboard, was an interwoven staggered herringbone with alternate seats facing either way. The layout added space, but packed passengers in more tightly, thanks to a helix-shaped wall replacing the original Suite’s vertical faces.

With updated entertainment, plugs, USB sockets and all the bells and whistles, the seat looked good, and felt good in bed mode, yet was quite hemmed in and still fell short as a seat. Yes, it reclined half again as much as its predecessor, but half of not very much is still not very much.

…while Club World stands still. . .

Surprising many, British Airways gave its Club World product only the lightest of facelifts for its Boeing 787 and Airbus A380. All that changed was surface materials, a new 2-3-2 layout for the cross-section of the Dreamliner and the A380’s upper deck, plus an upgrade to the plugs and entertainment.

So the time is ripe for change on BA’s side, the best part of a decade on from its 2006 introduction of the current product, which makes the patent filings rather persuasive.

That’s especially true since the competition seems to be treading water.

…and Virgin goes back to Upper Class basics

Boeing 787 cabin width, at 5. 49m, is slightly wider than the Airbus A330’s 5. 28m. So it’s quite surprising that Virgin Atlantic, rather than installing its newer Dream Suite, appears to be returning to its original Upper Class Suite for its newest aircraft.

While Virgin hasn’t made a firm announcement, the seatmaps published lack the staggered herringbone arrangement of the Dream Suite, instead resembling Virgin’s A340 aircraft and Air New Zealand’s 787 Business Premier arrangement.

In fairness, the larger original Upper Class seats that look to be on track for Virgin’s 787-9 are the Dream Suite’s equal in comfort and superior in personal space. Overall, it’s a smart move to return to a winning product – but a passenger experience problem for the airline is that British Airways’ new seat means that the direct aisle access Virgin once had will disappear, without Virgin correspondingly fixing the lack of a recline possition.

It’s a fascinating fight that will continue to shape how we fly

With Virgin Australia due to announce its lengthy decision on what John Borghetti assures will be a seat to beat Qantas’s upcoming Thompson Vantage XL seat, whatever its choice (the Zodiac Cirrus is our tip), the seat will continue to draw (as both Qantas and Virgin’s existing seats do) on the developments made by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

If BA’s next-gen pod is indeed as passenger-pleasing as it appears, Qantas and Virgin may need to go back to the drawing board for a successor generation of seats sooner than they might have thought.