It’s a trucker’s dream: Tired and with a 10-hour flight in front of him, at the tail of the plane, he watches as passengers pass one by one, no one sits next to him. The cabin doors close, and then he realizes that the whole row is at his disposal. You won it in the lottery!

Now, some airlines, according to a New York Times report, are giving passengers the option to pay for this…travel ecstasy by offering a bed in the main cabin. Designs vary, but the basic idea is that passengers who book what is often referred to as a “sofa in the sky” “cover up” a whole row of seats. After takeoff, they can spread like kings even in the middle of the cabin.

Design variety

Some airlines keep the service at a rudimentary level. At Lufthansa, either at check-in or at the boarding gate – if you can see that there are few people on the flight and this allows – you can order Sleeper’s Row, where for about $ 200 you “close” what the company describes on its website. like “a thin mattress plus a quality business-class duvet and pillow” to turn a row of seats into a slightly more comfortable mini-bed.

However, carriers that are really committed to the … sofa concept, such as Air New Zealand, Vietnam Airlines (Sky Sofa), Brazil’s Azul Airlines (SkySofa) and Kazakhstan’s Air Astana (Economy Sleeper), have equipped their aircraft with a sofa. seats designed for… transformation.

In these, the footpegs can be raised to the same height as the seats, creating a flat surface that extends almost to the backs of the front seats. With three or four seats in a row, it starts to look like a double bed.

In some cases, airlines have additional services: Air New Zealand provides sets with thin mattresses, duvets and full-size pillows. Air Astana provides a similar package but allows economy class passengers to access their airport’s business class lounge.

Air New Zealand has offered this feature for over a decade and it is now standard on all Boeing 777 and 787-9 aircraft. Other airlines have had…sleepers from time to time, such as China Airlines from 2014 to 2018 and Thomas Cook Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019. More recently, however, a critical mass of carriers have begun experimenting with… the sky sofa. .

Cost per passenger

The price, according to the NYT, depends on the airline. In Vietnam, booking a sofa costs about $500 in addition to the cost of the ticket. Azul Airlines and Air New Zealand are equally dynamic and demand driven and can be purchased at the time of booking.

Of course, it was always possible to buy all three or four seats in a row, but in this case it would be wiser to book a business class ticket. Under current pricing models for the new service, in most cases, booking a seat of choice will end up being cheaper than booking each seat individually.

Julia Barrett, a 49-year-old resort administrator, recently used a “sky sofa” on a flight from Oakland to Honolulu. “After a heavy seven-hour sleep, I woke up and saw sloppy and noisy passengers around me. I felt completely renewed,” she said. “It was the best investment I have ever made.”

“Without finishing. No hot towels or champagne,” said Dr. Amanda Meltzer, 44, from Dallas, who has flown from the US to New Zealand many times for work and frequently booked an Air New Zealand Skycouch economy room. “You can get enough sleep and avoid two weeks of terrible jet lag. To be honest, I wouldn’t have flown to South Zealand any other way,” she said.

Source: New York Times.