Flat beds best for long-haul flights

 Sade Williams

Travelling on long-haul flights can be demanding to the body, but you can be comfortable throughout the journey if you wish for some amenities in the air but at extra cost.

If you are a frequent flyer and you always fly the long-haul routes, you would know that it could be tiresome sitting or just crossing your legs and watching that musical video or movie.

This avenue is not to castigate the economy flyers though; mega carriers have now devised means of upgrading the economy to a level that will even attract business elites from their usual cabins.

They sometimes call it different names even if the features that are upgraded are just few or one sided, the name attached to the redesigned economy cabin alone may convince you to change your mind about the upper classes. But when you get in there, the choice is yours next time on that flight.

For international flights, the expectations are even higher as travellers spend countless hours inside the aircraft. For long-haul routes, travellers in business or first-class cabins hope to see a fully lie-flat bed as they file into the plane.
And these days, travellers in those cabins look out for what will provide comfort throughout the journey as against economising the purse.

If you have the opportunity, I mean the financial wherewithal, to travel on a long-haul journey, I recommend you go for the best because you will forever be grateful to yourself for choosing to be in the best cabin.

Airlines are installing these versatile seats in their aircraft at a rapid pace, as they too recognise the need for business and leisure travellers alike to rest comfortably as they fly across time zones and country borders.

For instance, Delta Airline’s enhancement to the customer experience, which includes converting the entire transoceanic wide-body fleet to flat-bed seats in BusinessElite, has been completed. In fact, it has been introduced to the Lagos-Atlanta route.

Every flat-bed seat also has direct aisle access and in-seat charging ports. More than 32 percent of Delta’s wide-body fleet has received the upgrade to date, with all aircraft featuring this product by mid-2014.

“Just last week, I experienced Delta’s lie-flat seat firsthand on a business trip to London. As I flew over the water for eight-plus hours, I was grateful for the opportunity to begin and end my trip with quality sleep!” confesses a frequent flyer.

Delta’s daily non-stop service between Lagos and Atlanta operates with a 201-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, offering 36 full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite.

The design of Delta’s new BusinessElite seats optimises each passenger’s space, giving them privacy to work or relax in order to arrive at their destinations, ready for the day’s business.

Each seat converts to a 180-degree fully flat-bed and offers direct aisle access in a 1x2x1 configuration. The new seats are forward-facing and 22 percent wider than the seats they replace. All feature a 10.6” individual screen and a broad range of on demand entertainment in addition to a 110v AC power source and USB port.

Delta will offer more than 500 of these seats each week between Nigeria and the United States.

“Lagos is an extremely important market for Delta and with its strong commercial links to the United States our new full flat-bed product will provide a new level of comfort to our premium customers,” states Bobby Bryan, the airline’s sales manager, West and East Africa.

United Airlines also has begun installing new 180-degree BusinessFirst flat-bed seats in its BusinessFirst cabin, which gives travellers a new level of comfort and convenience on most flights to Africa, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, South America and the South Pacific.

It is expanding lie-flat seats to all trans-oceanic aircraft by the beginning of 2013, ensuring that you will be able to rest comfortably on a future United Airlines flight.

Etihad Airways, which newly began operations into Nigeria from the United Arabs Emirates, has so many amenities on its Pearl Business Class flat beds which are currently available on IRS wide-bodied aircraft such as A340-500, A340-600, A330-200/300 and B777-300ER.

You can sit back and relax in luxurious business class flat bed seats with 49-inch seat pitch and generous recline and enjoy a world of space and privacy with business class seats placed in 1-2-1 configuration, offering direct aisle access to every guest. A privacy shell around every flat bed seat on Etihad adds that extra touch.

You can sleep on seats that stretch out into 6ft 1-inch full flat beds. When you fly on the PearlBusiness, from limousines to lounges, to onboard, you will experience comfort, luxury and an intimate atmosphere with dedicated attention of your own Food and Beverage manager recruited from the finest restaurants.

On Emirates Business class, you can tailor your entire flight experience to suit your own preferences. Your seat extends to form a flat bed up to 79 inches long. The seats include personal storage, a built-in mini-bar, and a privacy divider. And, on the Emirates A380, every seat has independent access to the aisle.

An in-seat power supply for laptops along with an extra-large table provides a comfortable workspace, and up to 1,200 channels of ice entertainment are available on a big-screen personal TV.