World’s largest airline unveils game-changer economy class bed

United Airlines has broken new ground with the announcement of its United Relax Row, a big win for economy flyers looking for a more comfortable time on long-haul flights.

The United Relax Row is a row of three economy seats that transform into a couch for more comfortable long-haul travel. The leg rests in this row fold up at a 90-degree angle, creating a wide bed with more room to sleep, stretch out or watch the in-flight entertainment. That’s enough room for an infant or young child to snuggle up next to an adult, with improved sleep and a more relaxing flight for all.

Flyers who sign up will get a custom-fitted mattress pad to smooth out the bumps in the seat, custom-sized blankets and extra pillows. Young flyers get a stuffed toy to cosy up to. Launching in 2027 and available on more than 200 Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 widebody aircraft (about one-fifth of the airline’s 1000-plus fleet, the world’s largest), Relax Row seating will be available on up to 12 rows per flight. The cost of the seats has not yet been revealed.

While the innovation is a welcome move, it’s not the first of its kind. Air New Zealand’s innovative Skycouch has been around for well over a decade. This is a row of three economy class seats on its Boeing 777-300ER and 787-9 aircraft that can be made into a bed 1.55m long. As with the United Airlines Relax Row, the leg rests on these seats can be raised to a 90-degree angle to create a 74cm wide base. Air NZ provides extra bedding, a seat liner and Skycouch kit with an adult/child loop and belt.

The cost of a Skycouch varies, depending on the season and demand, but it’s sometimes comparable with the cost of two seats, which makes it popular with families travelling with infants, since they can snuggle up for some shut-eye. However, the Skycouch is only available on Air NZ flights between Auckland and New York. United’s Relax Row promises to offer far greater availability of lie-down seating on many routes for economy class travellers.

Another world first for Air New Zealand, Skynest is a lie-flat economy class sleep pod. Located between economy and premium economy cabins, Skynest consists of six lie-flat beds stacked in three tiers, which can be booked in four-hour slots. Originally scheduled to make their debut in 2024, the launch has been pushed back to this year, initially on long-haul flights on Air NZ’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners between Auckland and New York City.

Although airlines are always looking to carve the space between seat rows in their economy cabins, giving them more seats, economy class seating has hit a ceiling. It is almost impossible to squeeze more bodies into a low-cost economy cabin. The latest generation of slimline seats have pared seat backs to a bare minimum, but there have been some brave efforts to claw back yet more space.

Unleashed at Hamburg’s annual Airline Interiors Expo in 2019, the Aviointeriors Skyrider 3.0 has a polyester saddle-style seat with minimal padding that sits the passenger bolt upright and with zero recline. Seat pitch is a knee-crunching 58cm, 13cm less than the current seat pitch on the meanest of the low-cost carriers. Tray table? You must be joking. The seat is a hard plastic butt-biter with zero cushioning that promises to ramp up the agony factor to excruciating new levels. Although Aviointeriors claimed the design would allow airlines to increase the number of passengers by 20 per cent, none have signed up.

California-based start-up Zephyr Aerospace has come up with a game changer, a lie-flat seat with direct aisle access designed for all economy class travellers on long-distance flights. This requires a double-decker seat arrangement which makes good use of the empty overhead space in wide-body aircraft. Access to upper-level seats is via a small, fixed ladder, but regulatory problems have so far stymied the Zephyr’s implementation. Aircraft certification rules decree that an aircraft cabin must be fully evacuated within 90 seconds in an emergency, and unless those upper-level seats are occupied exclusively by athletes, the double-decker configuration makes such swift evacuation almost impossible.

While lie-flat seats are taken for granted in business class, Finnair made a bold play when it introduced non-reclining AirLounge seats to its business class in 2022. This is a radical departure, but the immediate impression of the Collins Aerospace AirLounge is its size – more than a metre across at its widest point. When it’s time to sleep, the footrest on the contoured shell seat elevates to form a flat surface that joins with the ottoman in front, completely covering the footwell and creating a tapered 198cm bed.

While a non-reclining seat might sound like a new form of torture from penny-pinching airlines, the feedback from flyers is overwhelmingly positive.

The concept of lie-flat seating in economy has been slow to catch on with airlines. With its embrace of genuine comfort rather than creative compression, United’s Relax Row shows the way forward for long-haul economy flying. The move kindles hopes that the airline industry reads the room, decides that bearable isn’t good enough and follows suit, but what a missed opportunity for Qantas on its ultra long-haul Project Sunrise flights.