This row converts into a very cozy lie-flat bed, but… (Image: Nancy Branka)
It was a fantasy, for sure: A fully horizontal night of sleep during the long flight from San Francisco to Auckland—at not much more than an economy fare. Last month, my husband Joe and I flew that route on an Air New Zealand Boeing 777, and I was admittedly smug about what I thought was a well-kept secret in the airline industry: the Skycouch.
(TravelSkills contributor Nancy Branka wrote this Trip Report)
The Skycouch works like this: You buy two lowest-fare economy tickets, then pay a single upcharge (for us, $600). The lowest roundtrip economy fares for March trips between SFO and Auckland are currently around $1,200.
You now are guaranteed the middle seat will be empty, and the three seats in your row will fold out to create a bed. Note that the seatbacks do not move, but instead, a segment folds up by your feet like a recliner’s footrest to create the flat bed. You sleep together (recommended for couples only!) perpendicular to the aisle.
The Skycouch was going to get our trip off to a remarkable start, I thought giddily.
My elation about the prospects of the Skycouch—not to mention the fact that Joe and I were embarking on a much-anticipated 10 days without the cares of children, work or life—floated us through a pre-flight celebratory glass of wine and a relaxed boarding process. Then we arrived at our row. Hmm. I quickly sized up the seat pitch and could clearly see this was going to be neither as spacious nor romantic as the photos on Air New Zealand’s website made me think.
Air New Zealand’s Skycouch (Image: Air New Zealand)
When the cabin lights dimmed and we prepped the “couch,” we raised eyebrows at each other. Joe is 6′ and slim. I’m 5’4″ and relatively small. Yet this would be tricky. As we put up the footrests to create the bed, it didn’t take a scientist to calculate what a tight squeeze this would be. I’ll spare you the details of the acrobatics required to get in position, but 10 minutes and several tries later, we were wedged in a “spoon” position in the space, our four feet poking into the aisle, with my backside tight up against the seat backs and Joe’s nose about one inch from the tray table.
Now we had to attach the seat belt. Air New Zealand has very cleverly packaged special seatbelts for the Skycouch. We picked what they called the “cuddle belt” and Joe contorted himself to hook it to the special clip on our middle seat, then locked it into the hook below the middle seat in front of us.
An optimist by nature, at this point I thought, “OK, the hard part is done. Time to sleep.” I failed to take into account one very important factor: heat.
About 10 minutes later, warmed quickly by being wedged against the furnace of Joe, I was dying. I whispered, “I’m boiling up. I have to take off my sweater.” Since we had no wiggle room—literally–this would require new acrobatics. Joe contorted himself to unhook the cuddle belt. I inched myself into a sitting position—which couldn’t be accomplished without Joe doing the same. I peeled the sweater off. Acrobatics resumed and the cuddle belt was clicked back in.
Economy & Skycouch™ 777-300 from Air New Zealand USA on Vimeo.
It shouldn’t surprise you that about 15 minutes later, Joe was the one sweating, and we repeated the same maneuvers so he could remove his sweater. Humpf.
About two hours later, unable to even toss and turn, the only things asleep were our arms that were wedged beneath us. We decided to put two seats back into upright position to sleep sitting up. Which was actually much better.
The Skycouch is an example of a brilliant idea on paper. Or perhaps it was conceived (by the otherwise-admirable design firm, IDEO) when seat pitch was bigger. For us, though, it was so uncomfortable that it made sleeping sitting up seem like a pleasure. We had new appreciation for being in position to control the temperature, feel all our body parts and twist and turn at will.
Oh well. Another airline hope dashed. Happily, the Sky Couch experience was the only disappointment on what was an extraordinary trip. And, in fairness, our Air New Zealand experience was otherwise lovely. Flight attendants shared that special Kiwi hospitality, food and wine were excellent, and I was thankful to have real pillows and a biz-class-worthy blanket.
On our flight home, we embraced the current culture of gratitude mania and reveled in our fully-upright seats. Less sleep, more movies: that works, too.
This post first appeared on NancyBranka.com
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I hope you got a refund on this misleading seat!
I think Mark Roddis indirectly makes the counterargument here: namely, not enough people think it’s “inhumane” enough to deal with the alternatives. Part of the problem here is that many people are purely price sensitive (why else does AC fit 458 seats into their 77Ws for longhair travel with tiny 17″ width, 31″ pitch seats?) and part of the problem is ANZ has long had an effective monopoly into AKL.
For SFO-AKL, if I couldn’t afford business, I’d probably buy business on HA, PE on QF and connect via SYD, or go via AA’s LAX-AKL which will soon feature PE.
I meant “unoccupied,” not gratis.
Mark, I understand your thoughts on war and famine, but this has nothing to do with that.
I use to fly a lot and one of the reasons why I don’t is that I can’t stand it. At 59 flying around the United States has become a hassle so I now have done things to work at home instead.
Of course things like war and famine is the most important thing, but frankly since my world revolves around dealing with people and having to fly to meet them, yes my biggest nightmare is flying.
It’s a personal issue and one important to me.
See it sounds like you don’t care wedging yourself in a can for four to 8 hours, I can no longer physically and mentally handle it.
See if there are more people like you that puts up with this, then the airlines will step all over you. But if through blogs like this and with our wallets, basically tell the airlines we aren’t putting up with this, then maybe they will change.
All I am asking for is more humane flying conditions for flights over 4 hours. I don’t want to sit six across anymore and be wedged in a seat. I don’t want to feel like cattle being herded onto a plane for my journey.
There has to be a happy compromise on this.
So you may say that I am flying first class anyways, so what is the big deal. It is, because I have to only fly once instead of five times, so it is much cheaper, even though I pay for first class.
I would love to travel more, just have to pick and chose when now instead of just taking a trip.
Again, I don’t mean to insult your way of thinking, but airlines really, really suck these days and have made travel terrible.
I’m there with you Salvatore! I was audited last year and I’ll take another audit before flying coach from SFO to New Zealand.
China Southern can get you into biz class for around 1/2 that but still way more than economy . If I was able to still do coach on those long flights I would because I’d rather have the extra $$$$ for later .
Socially your observation is correct & I always flew economy when younger .
I still do for hops under 4 hours but longer than that is NO longer doable .
Actually even 4 hours is pushing it because I’m only marginally ambulatory after the Rigor mortis sets in from the cramped space .
It takes a whole day to recover .
Yes , people are starving around the planet but us sitting in a super confined space that Decreases in size yearly does NOT result in increased food for them .
You are talking apples and not even oranges but apples & concrete .
Still with you tho on that 1st world problem thing tho . . .
Technically since they paid for the 3rd seat it was ’empty’ but not ‘free’ .
Yes but then you have to buy 5 tickets which would finally cost more than business class . This couple only had to buy 3 tickets .
When thousands of children die through war and famine every day, is this really your biggest nightmare?
Where people find themselves on the street at night, without a roof over their heads or food to eat? Inhumane?
Last year I flew from London to Singapore (and back) 3 times with SIA and every time in Economy.
Sure it would have been nicer to be sat up in first but when I looked down out of my window as Nepal beneath me on the very week that the country had been devastated by an earthquake, things were brought quickly into perspective.
Down there were people who had lost their entire families, had no homes anymore and did not know where their next meal would come from.
Meanwhile I was 40,000 feet above them eating hot food, drinking beer and watching the latest hollywood blockbuster. All in en inhumane and nightmarish seat!!!
I think somebody needs to take a reality check! #firstworldproblems
What a great trip report, and what a horrible way to sleep. In fact, the only thing more horrible would be to sleep like this with a stranger.
They should go 10 abreast in a 5-5 configuration with a single aisle. Then you could really sleep!
I thought the same thing until I recently did JFK-TPE in a middle seat in coach. It was just fine and I’m glad to have a few $k in my pocket afterwards. I might pay a few hundred extra for J, but $6-7k is insane, even if you are well off.
Given that seat widths in economy are less than 20 inches ,
3 seats together are still only 60 inches , significantly less than most adults .
You need at least 72 inches for most males to NOT have their feet hanging in the aisle .
Not in a million years. But this was a very entertaining report.
My biggest nightmare, coach on a San Francisco to New Zealand flight. I’d rather get root-canal or pay taxes. There is probably only one thing worst, that is getting audited by the IRS.
Again at the end of the day it’s better to spend the $6 or $7,000 to get a business class seat instead of going coach or “skycouch”
When will the airlines realize how inhumane this is and give us something that is between coach and business class at a reasonable price.
Not a surprise, unfortunately, as ANZ crams 10-abreast seating into their 777s. At least you had the middle seat free. 🙂