Last week in Germany, French seatmaker Stelia unveiled its newest premium accommodations that, it claims, offer passengers much of the moving, stretching and relaxing space more traditionally associated with first class.
“We wanted you to feel like [you’re] at home, like a sofa,” Alain Bordeau, Stelia vice president, said during an unveiling at an industry gathering in Hamburg known for its splashy reveals of new seats.
A 'honeymoon' setup
Stelia’s new pod, named Rendez-Vous, includes an option for what the company is calling a “honeymoon” configuration.
Passengers can opt to slide the privacy doors shut, open the center partition and transform the two lie-flat seats into a “real double bed in the sky,” as Bordeau put it.
Along with seat temperature controls and a ton of storage, the seats’ unique positioning inside a hollowed-out shell of sorts offers passengers a lot more shoulder space and maneuverability, Stelia claims — ideal for a long-haul trip.
“When you are in flight for 14, 15, sometimes 17 hours like from Asia to the U.S.,” Bordeau said, “you want to be free to move around. To relax.”
Business class over first class
To be clear, this is no La Premiere.
After all, Air France’s ritzy new first-class installations are hard to top, with a whopping 38 square feet of space complete with two 32-inch 4K monitors and tablet-powered controls — along with an armchair and a separate chaise lounge that turns into a lie-flat bed.
Debuting last week on a flight from Paris to New York, La Premiere instantly became one of the nicest seats flying between the U.S. and Europe.
However, Stelia’s new Rendez-Vous concept may actually be more emblematic of where the broader airline industry is focusing its attention these days.
Over the last decade, many carriers have reserved their most creative and innovative touches for the business-class cabin, often in place of a separate and distinct first-class offering.
It’s that largely profit-driven approach (first class takes up a lot of floor space) that will soon spell the end of American Airlines’ Flagship First seats in favor of a higher total number of business-class seats. But notably, in phasing out Flagship First, American will introduce its first-ever business-class suites featuring privacy doors.
“We think, where the market is, having a few more seats, and a good premium economy section ... a little more [passenger] volume in economy ... it’s just a better use of the real estate,” American’s top network planner, Brian Znotins, told TPG last fall about the shift away from a traditional international first-class offering.
Pushing the envelope in the business cabin
American isn’t alone.
From Japan-based All Nippon Airways’ The Room to Qatar Airways' Qsuite, airlines are pushing the proverbial envelope in business class and have turned the once-novel concept of lie-flat seats and universal direct aisle access into baseline features travelers look for when making a big-ticket purchase or redemption.
Today, travelers redeeming a large sum of points have a host of even more nuanced factors to consider, from whether an airline sports fancy inflight entertainment systems in its business-class suites to whether it offers access to a high-end lounge — like the ones Delta Air Lines introduced last year at three airports for customers flying in its Delta One cabin.
Read more: The best luxury suites in the sky and how to fly them
Creeping back toward first ... or extra-special business
But that’s not to say airlines have completely soured on the idea of a truly elevated experience above the standard business-class cabin.
Its new first-class Air France product aside, Stelia continues to hear from airlines wanting extra-spacious front-row business-class seats, Bordeau said. He walked me over to one example: a "business-plus" concept Italian flag carrier ITA Airways recently debuted on some Airbus A320-family jets.
For several years, JetBlue has offered a similar concept, in the form of its larger Mint Studios at the front of planes that sport its premium Mint cabin.
In other cases, airlines are opting to offer a small number of highly luxurious first-class suites, such as the ones that just launched on a handful of Lufthansa's A350s with its new Allegris interior — or what Japan Airlines sports on its new A350-1000s.
"Less passengers but much more exclusivity in the product and in the service," Bordeau said.
So it was for La Premiere, which, on top of its standout features, also includes high-end service ranging from caviar courses to free-flowing Champagne and turn-down service with luxury French linens.
Expect to see airlines offer more of this, Bordeau predicted, in the not-so-distant future: top-tier options for those with the cash — or the points — to land these coveted spots on the plane.
“The number of passengers [is] reducing," he said. "But the investment that the airline is putting inside is skyrocketing."
Related reading:
- When is the best time to book flights for the cheapest airfare?
- The best airline credit cards
- What exactly are airline miles, anyway?
- 6 real-life strategies you can use when your flight is canceled or delayed
- Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
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- What are points and miles worth? TPG’s monthly valuations
