The Best Seat Ever
I am, once again midway over the Atlantic Ocean on my way to Europe. For the first time, Kim and I are flying directly to Europe from San Diego. We are on our way to Egypt and Jordan for a few weeks of pure tourism. We are with Mike and Melisa and have all decided that the best way to do this is to fly to Rome and spend a few days there before heading on to Cairo. Mike spent a career traipsing around the U.S. and the world in the hospitality business, mostly flying out of Dallas. That means he focused his flying on American Airlines and has the highest level of frequent flyer status possible with them. That meant that when it came time to book flights, and given that he has millions of miles accumulated, he chose to book on American and their affiliates, which in this case was British Airways. Mike considers himself quite the expert at flight booking and determined that the best way to fly was to book a multi-city round trip San Diego to Rome and then Amman to San Diego. That would only leave us to book a one-way from Rome to Cairo since our tour arranger has us getting from Cairo to Luxor, Aswan to Cairo and Cairo to Amman. Coming and going, we will be transiting through Heathrow. That means that we will have eight flights these two weeks.
When Mike explained the benefits of the multi-city round trip approach to booking, I decided to follow suit and book on the same flights. American Airlines is not normally my go-to U.S. carrier, preferring either Delta or Jet Blue. Most of us have favorite carriers based on where we tend to fly in and out of, but I certainly had nothing against American Airlines and have flown British Airways many times over the years, even having done plenty of transatlantic crossings on the Concorde when it was flying. Mike and I are on the same page when it comes to international travel, which is to say that we are both too old to do anything but fly business class. The strange exception was that on that one-way Rome to Cairo leg, I chose to stay the business class course while Mike opted for economy on the theory that it was a short flight. The flight is scheduled for slightly over three hours, which makes it longer than five of the other flights we are taking, so I’m not sure that strategy holds up well and I certainly know three hours is way too much for me to be spending in an economy seat. I suspect that by the time we board the Cairo flight, Mike will relent and find a way to get upgraded…or at least I hope he does.
Before COVID came along, I had booked flights for us on Air Canada to go from San Diego to Krakow. Since having to cancel that due to the pandemic, we have only flown through JFK for all other European travel, mostly so we can combine it with a visit with the kids in NYC. So, this flight I am on at the moment is the first one from our new home airport in San Diego across the Atlantic. Its about a ten hour flight and in the grand scheme of my flight history, I’ve been on plenty of longer flights, especially to Asia or Latin America. But ten hours is still a long haul and I have certainly noticed on our transcontinental travels of late, that the business class lie-flat seats are a bit hard and uncomfortable, better than economy to be sure, but still hard on the ass nonetheless.
Every airline seems to want to design its own business class seats these days, trying their best to differentiate themselves and create an air of exclusivity and privacy. The new business class sets are all pretty much set up to be full recliners with big screen entertainment centers and some degree of privacy and personal space. On Jet Blue Mint Service, the configuration is that the single seats alternate rows with the double seats and the singles have little doors to make a small compound for the traveler. It seems that British Airways likes that little door and has designed their seats to make sure every business class seat has a door. In fact, I am at this very moment in my little cocoon cubicle and surrounded by walls. I have a little sliding window between me and Kim, but if it wasn’t Kim, I could close that off too and be totally encased.
I have said many times that I long for the old First Class seats that were overstuffed even though they were not lie-flat because they were more comfortable. That is because Jet Blue and Delta have not adequately padded their lie-flat seats and they feel like boards. When I boarded this British Airways flight tonight, the first thing I noticed was that BA has made the aisles in business class very narrow to the point of needing to turn sideways ever so slightly to get comfortably down the aisle. I presume they cheated this space for the pods themselves, but when you get into the pod, it feels just barely big enough and no real room to maneuver (at least not for me).
But then I settled into my BA business class seat with my expectations well in check for a modestly uncomfortable ten hours ahead. But that was not to be. I now realize that these BA people have done their jobs very well, ergonomically speaking. To begin with, I’ve been in this seat now for some seven hours and I find it quite comfortable. I even put it down flat and tried to sleep a bit. I am simply no longer a flight sleeper any longer, but I can say that there were no sore hips or shoulders and the padding seemed more than sufficient. That strikes me as a big deal and I am quite pleasantly surprised since I will be on the same type of plane for the long ride home in two weeks and there will be nothing to dread now.
But in addition to the seat comfort itself, the big TV screen seems better than normal with a better selection of good movies and a very convenient entertainment plug-in center off the right hand side, where there is more shelf space than normal. This all makes for a very accommodative travel environment. They even have two nice arm rests with the outer one able to be put up and down for take off and landing. I must also note that BA seems to have finally rethought the seat belt. Remember how cars from the the early 1960’s had just lap belts and then someone in Detroit decided that we all needed over-the-shoulder belts as well? Well, BA seems to have now come to that conclusion and for take off and landing, we are required to attach a retractable shoulder strap that hides within the set back to the lap buckle so that we are strapped into our airline seat the way we are strapped into our car seats.
I know that on our Middle Eastern flights we are unlikely to have much comfort even in business class. I suspect that one or two of the flights probably define business class as an economy seat that may get an empty seat next to you. I am prepared to suffer through any sort of seating that these regional carriers throw at me now that I know that for my final long flight home in two weeks I will once again get the nest seat ever.