180-degree lie-flat seats

It is confusing; I always take “lie flat” as a marketing con for a wedgie bed, whereas fully, 180 degrees flat is a proper bed.

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/business/default.aspx

It looks flat. This is not the question. What I don’t understand is why they use “lie-flat” for a 180 degrees…

I think that what we are all forgetting is that to use “lie-flat” to describe what is in effect an extended recliner is taking technicalities a bit too far.

So, really the whole fully flat seats cannot be described properly due to marketers taking over the vocab for the more popular (among airlines) other type.

I agree, this is what we wrote in the Airline Survey a few years ago….

What about degrees of recline?

This can be measured in a number of different ways and despite our best efforts over many decades compiling Business Traveller’s Class Survey we have never managed to standardise it. Take economy class for instance. Would you consider the angle of recline to be the difference between the seat when upright and when reclined (so perhaps 7 degrees) or should that fully reclined position be recorded as the difference between vertical and the reclined position (so perhaps 25 degrees), or should it be from a horizontal position (so 119 degrees). And if horizontal, should that be from the angle the seat cushion is at (often not horizontal), or true horizontal, whatever that is when an aircraft does not fly horizontally.

In the case of business class, a seat can recline 180 degrees and still not be fully flat, although it will be lie-flat. Some find these seats adequate and certainly you can fit more of them into a cabin than in the case of fully flat, but how can this be recorded in statistics? Beyond a certain point, does anyone care? Well they would if we could find a consistent way of recording it, because a few extra degrees of recline in an economy seat on a 12 hour sector can often seem the difference between life and death – if not your’s, then the person behind who keeps banging your seat, or the person in front, who has reclined too far.

Yes Martyn, it may not be PC following the appauling abuse the disabled lady suffered on the BBC website yeaterday for complaining about having been stranded by a train operator, however if tallness was seen as a disability them we tall people would get a fairer deal from airlines.

I also feel very sorry for passengers with back problems, as airline seats are hardly orthopedically optimized particularly for 11 or 12 hours.

Martyn, sorry if i highjacked post. Obese people are charged for second seat. If you look at this commercially rather than attaching blame, this makes sense. Tall people are not given the option. Exit row seats and First Class offer more legroom. On most carriers both involve paying more though elites often can get exit row if limited avialability is there.

I would gladly pay for two seats in coach if they took the seat in front out or offered rows with double legroom but they don’t. So obese people get better treatment. If however I am classified as disabled then ADA or Uk equivalent means airline has to accomodate me.

Yes Jetblue has great seats, some of the pilots… Need the flat beds … In a nice facility