Cabin Pressure – While you were sleeping

‘The fully flat seat swiftly relegated the angle-flat to second-tier status.’

The cabin geometry of these seats essentially requires that, in the reclined position, the feet of one passenger tuck neatly underneath the neighbouring passenger’s sleeping head. Thus the head is elevated at an angle and that’s why the sloping sleeper itself wasn’t universally popular, even at the time. Business travellers used to big, squashy, La-z-Boy-type recliners weren’t entirely convinced by the rather firmer cushions of the angled lie-flat generation of seats. Side-sleepers, too, were sceptical: it’s hard to curl up on what is essentially a flat surface when your body wants to slide down.

And slide down bodies did. One of the problems at the time — less so now in the era where a full business suit is not de rigueur in business class — was that the lining inside suit trousers and skirts let passengers glide gracefully (or not) down the incline thanks to the force of gravity, while their clothing stayed put. Certainly a business class problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.

When, just one year later, British Airways unveiled the Mohawk seat – the world’s first fully flat bed in business class – it seemed clear that the writing was on the wall for the angle-flat.

Other players quickly entered the game, with the Minipod from B/E Aerospace (later Rockwell Collins and now Collins Aerospace) notable for its ability to serve as both an angled lie-flat and fully flat seat in different cabin configurations. Readers will recall that Garuda Indonesia’s Airbus A330-200 and -300 fleet, at the time largely aimed at business and premium leisure markets, served Australia with this seat in both angled and fully flat versions earlier this decade.

But the fully flat seat swiftly relegated angle-flat to a second-tier status, away from premium airlines demanding premium prices and setting premium expectations.

As passenger savvy grew with more and more travellers connecting to the Internet, the angle flat became acceptable at a pinch for regional services, leisure and charter airlines, and low-cost carriers such as AirAsiaX which still uses the Minipod in an angled lie-flat position for its Premium products on its widebodies.

Developments in the late 2000s included the B/E Aerospace Diamond seat fully flat bed, which many Australians will be familiar with on United Boeing 787 services, and first-generation Thompson Vantage staggered seating used by many carriers including Malaysia Airlines. These seats relied on smart twists of the cabin geometry to tuck feet into cubbyholes and side tables to maintain density while enabling a flat bed.

Further developments of the geometry concept into a third dimension followed, such as Stelia’s Equinox 3D business class seat, where seats in pairs recline to flat at different heights so the “upper” passenger’s feet can be tucked above the lower’s in a slightly S-shaped cubby arrangement. Zodiac’s Aries development of the popular Cirrus family (the former used on Japan Airlines’ regional fleet, and the latter on dozens of airlines including Cathay Pacific and American Airlines’ 777-300ER) is another example, but the 3D trend has not truly materialised.

Australia’s (and to a lesser extent New Zealand’s) unusual position at the border of “regional service” for many Asian carriers means that these seats are still sold on a surprising number of routes by those airlines that have not made further seating changes. Singapore Airlines’ old Weber 7811 lie-flats have been plying the airways on the carrier’s Airbus A330 and older “regional” Boeing 777 jets, with infrequent travellers surprised to find an older seating style on a top-tier carrier at no discount from the fully flat beds with direct aisle access on other services.

As they continue to disappear, though, they engender disappointment. Nobody wants to be sold the latest and greatest in seats to end up on something that is a long way behind in terms of development. Imagine if you bought an iPhone X but opened the box to find an iPhone 5S.

But if you do strike it unlucky, as your author did recently, perhaps consider it a fascinating retro experience. Think back to what you were wearing some 20 years ago, and think about just how far the airline passenger experience has come — and so quickly.