From flying beds to golden taps
TOULOUSE (DPA) - Long-distance flights have never
been as comfortable as they are today, always
assuming you can afford to fly first class, which on
transatlantic flights can cost up to 5,000 dollars.
But you get plenty for your money, and it can include a
bed in the sky.
British Airways pioneered this idea in 1995, replacing its
sleeperettes on long-distance flights with sleeping
compartments separated from each other.
All you need to do is press a button and a one-person
compartment consisting of a seat, a visitor's seat and a
folding table is converted with a restful whir into a bed
two meters long: horizontal and ready to sleep in.
Air France joined the fray that same month, introducing
first-class sleeper seats, and Lufthansa transformed its
first class into a sleeper's delight too.
Asian airlines have long made a point of sleeperizing
their first class compartments. First-class passengers
with Singapore Airlines, Korean Air or All Nippon Airways
can fly flat out too, to name but a handful.
The idea of the flying bed is not new, of course. In 1926,
the year Lufthansa was founded, Deutsche Luft Hansa,
as it then was, fitted out its Albatros L 73 propeller
planes with sleeper seats.
"Passenger comfort is well catered for," wrote Flugsport
magazine, "with all seats upholstered in leather and
featuring reclining backs.
They are designed to convert four seats into two sleepers
in next to no time." But it failed to explain how four
seated passengers were to share two sleepers.
This is not a problem that needs to worry today's
premium-class passengers. You have a seat to yourself,
although nearly all airlines have retained two seats side
by side, with the result that you usually sit and sleep
alongside a total stranger.
Yet a number of airlines, including Japan Airlines, Air
France and Lufthansa, provide a partition between you
and your neighbor, ensuring a trace of privacy.
British Airways and Singapore Airlines have improved on
this, however. In first class, seats are staggered and laid
out at an angle, not arranged side by side, so that every
seat is three-quarters screened off from its neighbor.
That is fairly effective in preventing your neighbor from
taking an unwelcome peep at you, not to mention
keeping his snoring, for instance, at bay.
Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer, has already thought
one step further, designing bona-fide beds for super
long-distance flights.
For both the Airbus 340-600 and the proposed A3XX
jumbo, separate, lockable sleeping compartments with
bunks are envisaged below the passenger deck.
"They will be like a sleeping compartment on a train,"
says Barbara Kracht, press spokeswoman for Airbus in
Toulouse, France, "for two to four passengers each,
depending on the airline."
Virgin Atlantic Airways will be one of the first airlines to
offer passengers this luxury. In 2002, the first A340-600s
with sleeping compartments, showers and keep-fit
facilities will be airborne, says Virgin's Updesh Kapur.
The comfort in which passengers sleep is not the only
comfort and convenience provided in first class. The food
is a cut above the contents of the plastic trays that
tourist and economy class passengers are served.
In first class you usually dine a la carte, as in a
restaurant, and food is served in chinaware with silver
cutlery. And there are at least three menus from which to
choose. Singapore Airlines even offers a choice of six
eight-course menus. Caviar, lobster and champagne are
more or less de rigueur.
Many airlines also try to set themselves apart from the
competition by offering little extras. Lufthansa, for
instance, welcomes every first-class passenger on board
with a red rose and, more practically, provides a power
point for the traveler's laptop.
Cathay Pacific brews fresh espresso and sends a
complimentary Fleurop floral greeting to a person of your
choice in your country of origin. Air New Zealand
presents first-class passengers with an aromatherapy
set. In selected cities, Iberia, All Nippon Airways and
Turkish Airlines offer passengers a limo transfer from the
airport to their destination.
Japan Airlines offers passengers traveling in first class
the latest development in video technology: the Eye
Treck, video spectacles that can be worn lying down and
let you watch the film as though it were on a cinema
screen. And if you fail to see why you should dispense
with first-class comfort in the smallest room on board, fly
Royal Brunei, where the toilets are fitted out with
gold-plated taps.
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