First Class Seats - aircraft - technology

Qantas to put Business Passengers in First Class Seats

Published on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 2:21 am

For around four months this year Qantas will scrap first class on some of its flights without reconfiguring the planes, so some lucky business class travelers will fly in first

Before we go anywhere, it?s not everything it seems. Yes, some business class travelers will fly in first class seats, but the service will still be a business class service. Qantas announced today that it would be scrapping its first class product between July 6 and October 31 on the following routes: Sydney to San Francisco, Melbourne to London via Hong Kong, Sydney to Buenos Aires.

All the flights are currently served by 747-400 aircraft, some with Premium Economy class installed. Being that it is for a short period only (Qantas hopes), the airline will not be reconfiguring the aircrafts to get more seats in, but rather will seat some lucky business class passengers in first class seats while still providing them with business class service.

What difference does this make? According to Seatguru.com, a Qantas Airways Boeing 747-438 4-Class, used on the Sydney to San Francisco run, has business class seats with 60-inch pitch and 21.5-inch width. First class though has a huge 79-inch pitch and a 22-inch width. Not to mention that the first class cabin has a very exclusive feel with only 14 seats, everyone with instant aisle access.

For those of you who have been living blissfully under a rock, Qantas? reason is the GFC, with business and first class seat sales down 20-30 percent last month, the Australian said.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 2:21 am and is filed under Aircraft, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.