When you wake up, you're in New Zealand.
The "Skycouches" were designed by Air New Zealand for the first 11 economy rows on their new 777-300 planes, which will fly from Los Angeles [been there!] and London [been there!] to Auckland [um, heard of it! Lord of the Rings!]
In addition to providing shagommodations for two adults--or hell, why not three? Pack in like sharecroppers!, The Guardian notes that, "The increased space could also provide a valuable play and sleep area for those travelling with small children. "
Yes, and if Air New Zealand has designed vertical seatbelts that you can lash across your prone waists, you won't have to be woken and forced upright by the flight attendant when the light comes on.
Or maybe by "increased space," they mean the awesome little fort that's formed on the floor under the footrests. Just put the kid in Velcro pajamas and tell him to watch for duty-free carts before he sticks his head into the aisle.
Air New Zealand unveils first lie-down economy bed [guardian via bb]
And if you're under 5'2" you won't have to worry about your feet getting taken out by a drink cart!
This makes no sense- are you going to buy 3 seats for yourself (or you and a friend)? Otherwise, when was the last time you actually had 3 seats across to yourself? I can tell you exactly: 1989, on an L-1011 from Dallas to JFK.
You can buy the third seat at half price, which is a bit more than you'd usually pay for an under-two kid seat but not tons more. We're just bummed that these planes won't be in service yet when we next fly back stateside (with 2.25 yr old and 1 mth old in tow), and that they're only on the AUK-LAX route (LAX is a pit of hell; AUK-SFO is sane and so is AUK-VAN, but they won't have the skycouches.
You've never been able to attach a seatbelt while lying down? Get a belt expander! It works!
Are there really that many people traveling from Alakanuk, Alaska to the city of Van in Turkey?
Wow, now if they would just let me take on a box of juice and some animal crackers for the kids we'd be all set. I freaking hate flying now.
And I remember the days when you had three seats to yourself and the flight attendant didn't huff about leaving you the entire can of coke.
Auckland Vancouver....
Now that is brilliant! I just saw yesterday that some airline is considering "stand-up" seats kind of like a rollercoaster, to cram more people into the plane. How sad that would be.
I wish all planes were like this! When our son was younger we always asked to be seated next to an extra seat and would lay him down on the middle seat to sleep. We used that infant belt that they give you to strap to your own belt (or in our case the tightened "empty seat" belt) to keep him in place, but this would be a lot safer!
OMG that is freakin' awesome.
@JJ Daddy-O: You were on an L-1011 for a year?