Starting as early as April 2010, travelers on long-haul Air New Zealand flights may be able to stretch out and sleep in coach, for as little as $150 extra.

To get the “bed,” the adjacent seat would need to be empty (a rare phenomenon in the sky these days), so there would be no guarantee of upgrading the seat before booking. Two adjacent economy seats could be mechanically adjusted to create an angled but flat seat.

Regrettably, there are no photos to show at this point. But here are some details that were provided to analysts:

Curley, head of research at Goldman Sachs JB Were, said the airline’s management was coy about revealing too much before a relaunch of its aircraft interiors ahead of the first arrival of one of several Boeing 777-300ER planes at the end of next year. But he said he believed the seat arrangement would involve a system where both seats could slide forward and the seat rest would come up so the foot room disappeared and the passenger could spread out across both seats.

Unlike the herringbone design used in business class, where the seats fold down flat, the economy class “beds” would still have a slight pitch.

Because this is a world first, the idea also has the potential to earn millions of dollars for Air New Zealand in export revenue. Its aircraft interior design subsidiary Altitude Aerospace Interiors, set up in 2008, plans to sell its new turn-into-a-bed economy seat design to other airlines.

Given the long flights from New Zealand to nearly anywhere else in the world, it makes perfect sense for this particular airline to be spearheading this. And this sounds like a fantastic idea for those looking to travel more comfortably on the cheap.

But it’s no substitute for a reserved seat in a premium cabin. There’s always a big risk that the flight will be full, and that the adjacent seat won’t be available. But this is creative thinking. I’m looking forward to seeing the design.

Related:
- Lufthansa considering bunk-bed style sleeper seating in economy class
- Airline seating: Standing, alternating, elevated, and now, sideways
- A step up for economy class seating
- Three people, six arms, four armrests: Can they coexist?

Very cute ad by Air New Zealand, mocking the fees, surcharges, and inconveniences that give discount airlines a bad name. It comes on the heels of their “Nothing to Hide” ad campaign and inflight safety video that feature NZ staff wearing nothing but body paint.

Nicely played!

(Correction: the ad is from January 2009. Don’t let its age detract from your enjoyment.)

(via @laurably)

Upgraded: The jurisdiction for Southwest’s Fashion Police
Good to see that the memo that Southwest doesn’t have a dress code made it to every employee. Oh wait… “Southwest Airlines said it will apologize to a passenger who was told he would be removed from a flight if he didn’t change clothes, the second time in recent months the budget carrier has been forced to do so.” The shirt read “Captain Jack Hoff: Master Baiter.” Har har har. Those t-shirt auteurs… such cunning linguists! Well, considering how Southwest “apologized” the last time, we should expect a fare sale with a saucy name soon. But what will they call it? “The ‘No shirt, no shoes, no assigned seating!’ Sale” ?? “The Happy Hands Sale” ?? Speculate in comments.

Downgraded: Urns
The Indianapolis Airport was shut down and evacuated because a funeral urn hadn’t been screened properly and the owner couldn’t be found. Talk about adding insult to injury for the family of the deceased. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened with those newfangled security systems that somehow keep hitting the media but don’t actually show up in widespread use at airports. Or maybe it would happen anyway. This is the TSA we’re talking about, after all.

Upgraded: Olympic fever!
Looking to visit the Olympics in Beijing next summer? Over on Peter Greenberg’s site, Mike Day rounds up the ways to get tickets, get a room, and get around. Don’t forget your asthma medication.

Upgraded: Erosion
A 2002 flood created a new canyon in Texas in just three days. And then it took five years to open it to the public!

Upgraded: Quieter hotels
Longtime readers know that one of my pet travel peeves is the noisy luxury hotel, often courtesy of a crappy door with a giant gap at the bottom, allowing in all the noise from the hall. I’m happy to read that soundproofing materials are selling well as hoteliers build new facilities. Better walls, yay! But no mention of better doors. Nice try, people! The Door Wars are still on!

Upgraded: Bio-air-travel
Air New Zealand, Boeing, and Rolls-Royce engines will test a biofuel-powered 747. If you smell french fries in the wind, look up to see if a jumbo jet is passing by.

Not to be outdone by Lufthansa’s recently-floated but still very much tentative proposal to create a bunk-bed cabin in economy class, Air New Zealand is reportedly considering an alternative economy-class sleeper configuration. “Sleeping pods.”

Air New Zealand strategic development general manager Nathan Agnew said the airline wants to introduce an entirely new type of economy cabin when it takes delivery of its fleet of Boeing 787-9 and 777-300ER long-range jets from 2010.
[...]
Cabin crew already sleep in pods during long distance flights, usually hidden away at the rear plane or in the ceiling space above the passenger cabin.

“Given that a lot of our long-haul flying is overnight, it might actually be preferable for our customers simply to have something like that rather than have a seat,” Agnew said.

Because eating in a pod might be difficult, passengers may be served a meal at the airport before the flight, allowing them to immediately go to sleep once on the plane.
[...]
Agnew said airfares would be similar to current economy fares.
[...]
Agnew stressed that it was still a theoretical concept with no guarantees that Air New Zealand would ultimately provide them in its new planes.

Interesting that design for crew seating, which often is found in narrow areas above or below the passenger cabin, is filtering back into passenger seating concepts.

Here’s a Boeing promotional image that shows giddily-happy flight attendants cavorting in the crew pods, having their own slumber party… with room service! The captain has turned on the pillow-fight sign! (Would that it were so.)

The Air New Zealand pod idea has potential — maybe even more than the bunk-style hive-like Lufthansa seats. But pods could get claustrophobic, and challenges remain. You might get one meal out of the way at the airport, before the flight, but on long flights, you need a second meal, too. How will you eat it? And you need to find a way to balance the desires of those who want to do nothing but sleep or watch movies, not to mention work, with the desires of those who want to mill about the cabin periodically.

Regardless, it’s good to see another airline rethinking cabin layouts seriously.

Related:
- Lufthansa considering bunk-bed style sleeper seating in economy class
- Coffee, tea, or sleep?
- Dare to dream: First class designs we’ll probably never see
- Boeing.com: Flight Crews Get Comfy on Boeing 777 Long-Haul Routes

Recognizing that a crash landing is no one’s idea of “traveling better,” but simultaneously admitting that when the going gets rough, surviving a landing might just be the best you can hope for, I give you this incredible photo of an Air New Zealand commuter flight, operated by Eagle Air, making an emergency landing at Blenheim Airport.

The plane’s landing gear failed to emerge from its bay. Pilots jockeyed the plane, a 19-passenger Beech 1900D with 15 passengers and 2 pilots on board, right down the center of the runway. Other than a damaged plane, whose fuselage was scraped down the runway, and which clearly needs new rudders on its propellers, no one was hurt. Amazing, especially when you see those hunks of spinning metal flying through the air. Great piloting.

(Full story/image source)

It’s not Halloween, it’s ‘Take Your Columnist To Work Day’!
The New York Times’ Joe Sharkey, apparently tired of writing about business travel for his business travel column, pays a visit to someone’s place of business instead. But it’s no ordinary cubiclefest, but the wacky offices of Vegas.com. Joe’s money quote that makes the whole article worthwhile, though, is this: “Once, for a newspaper story in Philadelphia, I went to the animal shelter to bail out a stripper’s boa constrictor that was part of her act (the job of the snake, who adored her, was to untie her bikini top on stage).” Baby, that’s journalism.

It’s not Earth Day, either
Environmentalists in the UK aren’t cutting KLM any slack. The airline is introducing coffee grown on “sustainable” plantations, but the announcement was greeted with scoffs. Since airlines pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a few acres of shade-grown coffee apparently don’t matter. Okay… but the airlines aren’t going to stop burning jet fuel overnight, and they have a choice TODAY regarding shade-grown vs. clear-cut-the-rainforests coffee. Give KLM a little credit.

Tehran is lovely this time of year
Iran is looking to attract tourists, and what better way to get them than to offer cash incentives? Iranian travel agents get a $20 bounty for every Western tourist they attract. Maybe they should start a rewards program for the visitors, though…

Air New Zealand goes ’round the world
Last week, Air New Zealand started flying from Hong Kong to London, making it the only airline to fly around the globe. (United gave up its Washington-London-Delhi-Hong Kong-Los Angeles-Washington circle in 2001, the previous holdout of single-airline RTW travel.) You can fly the loop for £801 (US$1521) including taxes for flights starting in London with stops along the way in Hong Kong, Auckland, and Los Angeles — cheap for a trip around the earth.

The life and times of (lost) luggage
Jane Engle follows the path of checked luggage. It’s a long but interesting tale, with some of the bags ending up at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Her suggestions at the end for making your bags identifiable are good ones, classics of travel advice. One variation on her suggestions, which I keep meaning to employ in practice, but somehow keep neglecting, is to print out your itinerary and put it inside the checked bag. That way, if the tracking tag falls off, it’s presumably easier to reunite you with your luggage.

Better food on Continental
Continental Airlines announced revisions to its menus, featuring recipes concocted by the airline’s “Congress of Chefs.” Call me a skeptic, but a stable of celebrity chefs doesn’t necessarily make the food taste any better at 39,000 feet. It still tends to taste like airline food… But change is good, and I’m all for trying out new recipes, so good on ‘em!

Air New Zealand employees are accused of trading travel for sexual favors. (or favours…) ANZ employees allegedly “negotiated ‘a mutually beneficial arrangement’ with sex workers where ‘in return for providing the hookers with discounted air travel’, the employees receive free sexual services.” Gives new meaning to “buddy fares.” Unfortunately, with Hooters Air now defunct, these employees may have ended their aviation careers.

Traveling on British Airways within Europe? Pack lighter if you’re checking luggage. BA are reducing the checked-luggage weight to 23kg from 32kg (70lb to 50lb). However, they’re eliminating the weight restictions on carry-on bags, but promising to enforce the SIZE limits. Stuff those roll-aboards!

News flash: Many Welsh hotels stink. Some are “simply awful.” Folks, don’t just grumble, post reviews on TripAdvisor!

The TSA isn’t getting all the money that travelers within the United States are paying in $2.50/segment security fees. Where’s the money actually going? The airlines appear to be sitting on it. Who do they think they are, Ryanair?

(image)