When it comes to sleeping on an airplane, I go back to my college years when I mastered the difficult art of sleeping with my head on the tray table while in that dreaded center seat.
So how far have we come from there, especially in the back of the plane? Not that far at all.
But now, Airbus has teamed with a design company to transform the cargo hold of one of its planes to create real lower deck sleeper berths. These new bed modules will first be offered on Airbus A330 planes in 2020. There’s no word on how much they will cost, but these are real lie-flat bunks and a welcome addition, especially on long-haul flights, even though you’ll be sleeping in the cargo section.
And what about the coach section of the plane? A few years ago, a flight attendant designed something called the sky couch, a coach seating option that turns a row of three coach seats into a small bed for a couple or family of three to sleep on. Air New Zealand called it cuddle class, and I’ve tried it. It really works. But I know of no other airline offering this option. So hats off to Air New Zealand. After all, anything beats trying to sleep on that tray table.
By Peter Greenberg for PeterGreenberg.com
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