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“Upgrade your experience,” purred an email from an airline that was about to fly me on a 16-hour work trip the other day. “Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the Business Class experience!”
If I could, believe me I would, I thought. Instead, I did what a lot of business travellers do and prepared for what airlines call the “main cabin” and the rest of us know as the noisy, knee-crushing misery of economy.
I say “a lot” of business travellers, but this is understating things. Just over 90 per cent of people travelling for business in busy British airports flew economy in 2018, the last year UK officials issued such figures.
Many were doubtless making a quick hop between European capitals, but even on longer flights elsewhere, a business trip by no means guarantees a seat in business class.
In the US and Canada, 57 per cent of company travel policies allow business-class fares at least sometimes, especially once flights last longer than five or six hours, according to the Global Business Travel Association.
But that is a lot less than the 64 per cent allowed for premium economy, the slightly roomier class between basic economy and business that the association says is now a mainstay of corporate travel programmes.
All this goes to show that turning right on a work trip means you will be in good company. And as it happens, life in economy is finally about to look up.
Airlines that have spent years boasting about the fine wines and velvety pyjamas they hand out in business have finally begun to turn their attention to the wretches down the back.
The other week, United Airlines announced it would soon start selling tickets on long-distance flights in Relaxed Row, a line of three economy seats that can be turned into a couch. Not a couch long enough for me to lie flat on, but better than the usual sit-up seating.
Germany’s Lufthansa and Japan’s ANA already offer something similar. But the idea was pioneered more than 15 years ago by Air New Zealand, which is now taking a big leap further with one of the best developments in cconomy flying I have seen for, well, ever.
It’s called the Skynest: a pod of six bunk beds that passengers in economy and premium economy can book for four-hour periods from next month, initially on the airline’s 17-hour New York to Auckland flights.
This will cost an extra US$495 and I imagine there will be no shortage of takers.
True, it is not entirely pleasing to think of climbing into a bunk bed someone else has just vacated, even though fresh bedding will be provided. There will doubtless be snorers, grunters and would-be conversationalists to contend with and Air New Zealand warns that users will need to get in and out of the nest on their own, “which may involve bending, kneeling, crawling, or climbing”.
But the idea of being able to stretch out for several hours on a very long flight is delightful in the extreme.
And the good news does not stop there. On a lesser but still encouraging note, the UK’s easyJet budget airline has just announced there will be two inches of extra legroom on seats it plans to install on new planes from 2028.
No one should think these developments are due to the goodness of the collective hearts of airline executives.
The new easyJet seats will be more than 20 per cent lighter than existing ones, which should cut the cost of the jet fuel that can be the largest component of operating costs when fuel prices are high, as they are now.
Likewise, the economy upgrades at United and Air New Zealand are no sign that airlines are abandoning their lucrative passengers in business and first class.
Air New Zealand recently joined the many carriers adding an upgraded business class option. Its “premier luxe” business seats have a fully closing door for extra privacy and an ottoman that can double as “a guest seat for companion dining”.
As for the new economy seats, they will doubtless turn out to be an extension of airlines’ endless drive to entice us to pay more for added comforts, at prices that gradually rise.
Still, for the many business travellers who do not actually fly in business, they are a welcome glimmer of hope. And with luck, they will not be the last of their kind.