When the so-called "friendly skies" are mentioned, a few airlines in particular come to mind:
Virgin America,
Singapore Airlines and
Qantas, for starters. Starting today, you can safely include Air New Zealand in that discussion. In a bid to turn long-haul international travel on its head, the outfit has today revealed a freshly outfitted Boeing 777 with a coach cabin that
easily puts every coach cabin found in the US to shame. Designed by Recaro, the world-class coach area includes 11 rows of Skycouches that can actually fold flat in order to create (admittedly short) beds for two. The best part? The "third seat" in the row will only cost a couple 50 percent of what it normally would, making it somewhat more affordable to buy a bed without springing for first class. You'll also find power sockets, USB ports and iPod connectors in every single coach seat, leaving the plane a
Gogo-module away from being absolutely perfect. Pop those source links below for a hands-on at the Auckland unveiling by our good pals at
Gadling.
posted January 26th 2010 11:17AM
@jccalhoun your whining probably has something to do with the being single part of your miserable life.
I wonders what engadget is talking about, Air New Zealand has had comfortable cabins for quite some time now.
I can understand calling Virgin and Singapore Airlines friendly skies... but Qantas? With their stewardesses serving you with flying trays and certain amount of arrogance, fairly impersonal attitude..... That is not what I consider friendly skies. I've taken quite a few airlines in the last 12 years, but Qantas is beyond failure in their services.
@darkmax
Quantas is one of the best rated airlines by people who rate airlines professionally. Plus, they have the best safety record in the world, on top of some of the most advanced jets/cabins.
Ill go with raw stats over a few of your anecdotes.
@darkmax
You were describing your experience when you tried to hit on them? Which airline is the easiest in your opinion?
@stabbytheicepic
Yes, they do have one of the best, but not the best. In all the years SIA has been in operations, it had one major incident, and that was partially due to the stupidity of some control tower staffs.
Go read up on customer experience with Qantas and you will know what I'm talking about. Professional surveys are often skewed. Australian aare well known for bribing their way into the good books of anything.
@onlymyrailgun
No, I don't fancy women who are more than 10 years my senior.
@darkmax
Qantas having senior air hostess is most likely due to unions protecting them. Just look at American air hostess and you will see the same thing, probably worse actually.
I definitely don't agree with the airlines being forced to use them as air stewards, since like various other jobs, this job is better suited for younger people. It doesn't mean they fire all of the old stewards, they can promote them to the head stewards or allow them to take up a more ground oriented roles.
When can we have those sleep cabins they had in The Fifth Element? I don't mean the gas sedative part, but I'd much rather lie down in a cramped little space than sit up in a cramped little space. You could fit a lot more people in a smaller volume that way, too.
nice idea but how does the price work out?? look at the picture, a row of 3 seats but obviously fits 'comfortably' 2 passengers laying down. so they would have to buy the entire row?? paying for the additional seat?
@GN1 nvm i should have just RTFA ... :p
Forget skycouches...I just want my airline to carry my suitcase without charging me.
@DigDug To be fair, even the greedy domestic airlines carry your bag for free when you fly overseas, which is the only point of a pimped-out plane like this.
I predict the Mile High Club membership will soar!
this just sums up one thing; all domestic U.S. airlines suck.
especially you, Delta, you hear me? you SUCK!
@Woody
Delta is the best non virgin america/jet blue airline in the US.
:(
They are trying!
Lol - safely include ANZ in that group? Must be why they didn't win the recent "best in the world" ranking while ANZ did. Even without these seats being available.
The pictures are taken in a 777-300 replica somewhere in downtown Auckland.
They have also improved their premium economy seats - and their business class lie flat seats, which were pretty damn nice to start with.
@balthazar
oh yea,
the last round of ANZ upgrades onto their long haul fleet was before the iPod wave really kicked in. So the current 777-200's and 747-400s do not have USB plugs, even in business class.
Their pacific fleet (aussie/pacific islands) using A320's and 767s both have USB adapters to chage up the mapple products.
could you imagine fucking in one of these things?! fucking in the air! air fucking!
@skaterdude wow. you must have barely made the minimum age requirement for comment registration.
@oakie shut the fuck up man. you must be one of those analytical fucking dickheads that never had friends in his life. you just reply to peoples comments to say negative shit. get the fuck outta here with that nonsense. i look at your profile on here, and all i see is you talking shit to people in comments, disagreeing with EVERYTHING someone says, just shut the fuck up you miserable... little... bitch.
I like the word skycouch
"leaving the plane a Gogo-module away from being absolutely perfect."
ahem.
Gogo doesnt work over water.
Man, so many hatas. Hey everyone, go design your own plane and put it in the sky, oh hang on, that's right, you can't. And as for Qantas, they had a real bad run in regards to safety over 08-09 which nearly saw a couple of crashes over about a 2 month period because of poor mechanical standards and saw a lot of share holders bail out. All i can say is, it's good to see a world wide airline making an honest attempt with the very limited space they have to try and make customers air travel a bit more comfortable.
Good idea...cause New Zealand is SO FAR AWAY!!
I did a trip from Amsterdam to Auckland...took me 24 hours of flight time!
Way to jack up a person's carbon footprint.
lol good thinking but well i'm sure even me an average chinese guy can't fit in it(i'm 179cm).... never mention the seat patch is like 32 inch or wht ever its very narrow.....
Considering that Gogo Wifi works by talking to towers on LAND and an Air New Zealand flight will go mostly over WATER, i don't think gogo will be much of a help.
They didn't even try to make this a realistic mockup...just copy and paste skies outside and keep the highlight fixtures in the photo.
Talk about amateur.
@gerrrg It's not a company photo. Taken by Gadling.
When will we have beds like they do in Fifth Element?
is it just me or is that chick totally spread eagle in that picture?
Air New Zealand says the legroom will be 33". That's 2" more than their current seats.