[rferguson]

Just to stir the hornets nest mwahahahaha.

In this trip report on the 777-300 the author does describe the QR seats as ‘angle flat’.

“The B777 is configured 2-2-2 in the premium cabin and 3-3-3 in economy. Business class seats are angled lie-flat, which I don’t generally consider to be particularly comfortable for sleeping, but as this was a day flight it was not such an issue.”

http://www.businesstraveller.com/tried-and-tested/airlines/qatar-airways/qatar-airways-b777-300er-business-class-2

I guess unless it IS 180 degrees and parallel to the floor, it’s open to interpretation.

As Cityprofessional notes however – the majority of people would not notice a three degree incline especially since aircraft generally fly nose up by a similar degree. Which is why I like the backward facing seats on BA!

[cityprofessional]

Alex, as per your own article from 18 months ago, QR is replacing angled seats with flat beds on A330s:
http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/100191/qatar-airways-upgrading-a320-a330-business-class

See also here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar-airways-privilege-club/1547516-qr-qatar-refurbished-a330s-horizontal-lie-flat-business-class-seats.html

The high density A340s are also (allegedly) flat bed in J class

Albeit these are all the B/E Diamond bed, like the A319 and the old United 747/777s

As for the QR 777 – I’ve done a few sectors on these in the past year, and you can definitely get a good night’s sleep – arguably a more spacious bed than the new A380/A350/787 seat, but without the benefit of all-aisle seating

[ExecPlatAA]

Seriously misleading title for the post for sure. The 777 on QR DOES offer an awesome product (I would argue that the seats and config are better than the reverse herringbone as the cabin on 777 is more open and space per pax is huge). The seats are by no means angle lie flat, no matter the semantics.
Too bad re subs – would hate it if it happened on long haul – even medium haul being replaced from twin aisle to single aisle is a problem. But NONE of this can compel most to agree that backward facing, dated, at best prem economy service, club world on BA is better!!!

[MrDarwin]

All QR 777s have horizontal-lie-flat-ideal-for-pilates seats. The 777 is an old favourite of mine, the huge sense of space you get is great for long haul.

Of the 333s, 10 have horizontal beds and 3 have sloped beds. Of the 332s, 12 have horizontal beds and 3 have sloped beds – with 2 of these older ones due to be retired soon.

You’re increasingly unlikely to get a substituted aircraft with a sloped seat. With hundreds of 350s, 777s and 787s on order and all the remaining older aircraft being refurbed or retired, soon the sloping seats will be gone altogether. It’ll be great once there’s some consistency at last, and at least it’ll be a consistently excellent hard product (and soft product IMO).

[batterytraveller]

I’m sitting in the lounge at DOH having recently got off the flight from PER and waiting for a connection to London. Based on the trip o would say that the seat is not quite parrallel with the floor but there is no way you could slide down it. I found the slight angle good as I like to make sure my head is slightly elevated (when I camp I pitch my tent on a slight slope). The seat has a lot of space, much more than the equivalent EK or MU versions of this style of seat; you’d have to be a good deal taller than my 186cm to touch the seat in front.

I guess my only, slight, complaint is maybe the padding could be a little deeper but this is a minor quibble as I managed to get a good 6 hours sleep in which his as much as I get most nights.

Does anyone know of a table of cabin densities for the various different seat styles used in business class? As mentioned above this style of seat seams very spacious, more so than most others I’ve tried in J. All aisle access designs also seem to pack more people in.

[AMcWhirter]

battrytraveller – Thanks for the feedback. You never mentioned the aircraft type but I presume it was a B777-300ER.

As we’ve said so many times, space is the most precious commodity or real estate on any aircraft.

So naturally if an airline wants to provide direct aisle access the space must be found from somewhere or else its costs will increase.

Unfortunately what can happen is that the space (for direct aisle access seats) has been taken for the economy class cabins where B777 seating goes from nine to 10-across.

That was KLM’s solution with the B777-200.

But interestingly Air Canada’s solution with its high-density B777-300ER was simply to reduce the number of seats in business class from 36 to 28. As economy class passengers are already densely accommodated, I guess there was little it could do, other than to remove seating.

New Air Canada international B777-300ER layout.

https://www.aircanada.com/en/about/fleet/77W.html

Previous or current Air Canada B777-300ER layout. Note that the retrofitting will not be completed until mid-2016.

https://www.aircanada.com/en/about/fleet/77W.html

[Author]

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