BEST BUSINESS CLASS FLAT-BED SEAT

 

There are three airlines in the world that offer what we would describe as a true "flat-bed" seat in Business Class - British Airways, South African Airways and Virgin Atlantic.     Results

British Airways are now upgrading their seats, from the product that was tested in this review

Many airlines have, or are in the process of installing angled "lie-flat" seats in their business class cabins. These include Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Qantas, Air France etc. 

However, whilst the "angled" lie-flat seats provide a flat seat surface, this should not be confused with the fact that angled seats do not provide a true horizontal sleep surface - in general, when you have these lie-flat seats in full recline, you are tilted downwards in a flat surface mode towards your feet. 

Allied to this, to fit within a smaller seat pitch, angled lie-flat seats will inevitably mean that your feet are resting in a footwell area - that is carved out of the seat back in front of you.

Looking at true "flat bed" seats, British Airways Club World was the pioneer in the sector - it's flat bed seats well known for the forward and backward facing format.

Virgin Atlantic introduced a flat-bed concept into their Upper Class cabin - a business class product, and this is available across most of their aircraft.

More recently, South African Airways launched it's new Premium Business class seat across their fleet of Airbus A340-600 aircraft.

PRODUCT TEST RESULTS

The Product Tests for this flat-bed analysis were conducted independently by Skytrax Research, over a 2 month period. Long haul flights to evaluate the different airline seats were compared on a like for like basis with similar flight durations. The same research staff applied identical comfort testing to each of these finalist airline's flat-bed seats.

Commenting on the results, Peter Miller of Skytrax said "the past couple of years has seen a fairly constant battle of words between British Airways and Virgin Atlantic about who had the best Business Class seat, and I am sure it will come as a surprise to many that we selected the new South African Airways flat-bed business class seat over both of these airlines."

"We applied a wide criteria to the final quality analysis, and one has to remember that both BA and Virgin have opted for an unconventional seat layout to achieve maximum space utilisation. The end result is that BA has the forward and rear facing format (liked and hated in equal amount by customers), whilst Virgin adopted a herringbone layout  (seats facing away from the cabin  windows). South African Airways opted for a more luxurious, traditional layout, using a 2x2x2 standard format in their Airbus A340 cabins".

"We found that negatives on the BA seats were the width of the seat, and somewhat flimsy (although re-designed) seat dividers.  Clambering in and out of the seat over your fellow passengers can be something of a problem in the BA cabin, and there is also a surprisingly poor amount of seat storage area". (British Airways are now upgrading their seats, from the product that has been tested in this review).

"In the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class cabin, the herringbone layout tends to make the cabin feel somewhat claustrophic, but more particularly, it is the height of the actual seat pod used which has a negative impact on overall comfort and travel enjoyment. Clearly BA and Virgin have decided that their Business Class cabins will only suit passengers travelling singly - the layout and seat style not being conducive to anyone wanting to sit next to, or converse with a travelling partner."

"South African Airways have not stinted on seat pitch (73 inches equating to or indeed better than many airline First Class standards), and have retained the traditional cabin layout - window and aisle seats, all facing forward!"

"In the standard sitting position, there is little to choose between the seats, aside from the aforementioned lack of outside views with Virgin, and staring back at your fellow travellers with the BA reverse seat layout - here, the SAA cabin layout and overall ambience winning out.   However, when it comes to sleeping, it is a two-horse race between Virgin Atlantic and South African Airways - BA's seat is indeed flat, but it is the narrowest and by far the hardest seat base to lie out on".

"Virgin uses a reversible seat cushion to offer a non-leather sleeping surface, and to extend the legroom support, a separate ottoman is used - no divider needed, as there is the overpowering seat pod wall to give privacy in the sleep position. The SAA seat provides a good flat bed position, good seat width in full flat-bed position (24 inch width against Virgin's 22 inch), and the back section of the seat pod offers good privacy - supplemented by a separate side seat divider."

"We found the Virgin cushion support to be slightly softer than SAA, although for the final sleep rating analysis, both of these seats scored 9.2 points out of the maximum 10."

"In naming the South African Airways seat as Best, we have taken into account the different uses and stages of a long haul flight - sitting and dining positions, sleep comfort, sleep privacy, cabin ambience etc.  The more spacious cabin layout - combined with a top quality seat -  takes SAA into this prestigious position, and the accolade for the World's Best Business Class Seat. Of course this is a market where product development does not stand still, and the coming 1-2 years will be an interesting time to monitor further changes in the industry".

For any further information, please contact:

Mr Peter Miller,

Director Marketing

Email:  miller@flatseats.com