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New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

cnn.com

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Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#431

Post by 0xffff2 »

reroute1 wrote: post #396
0xffff2 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I can't prove that it's disabled, but that doesn't matter much. There are people out there who probably could and would be more than happy to publish their results if they did. More importantly, the difference is in intent. I don't intend to carry around a device that's always listening to me. Anyone with an Alexa device is intentionally inviting Amazon to listen to every word spoken in (part of) their home.

Right but you just mentioned siri, which is included on every iphone. People do carry that around and don't expect it to be listening.

It is always listening. A coworker has Siri enabled and it regularly interrupts meetings because it thought some random noise was a wake word. It then proceeds to do whatever Siri does, which I assume involves sending whatever it hears after that point back to Apple.

I carry around and iPhone where I've done my best to completely disable Siri so I expect it not to be listening. That's antithetical to the use-case of Alexa and similar devices.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#432

Post by 0xffff2 »

oh_sigh wrote: post #415
0xffff2 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I can't prove that it's disabled, but that doesn't matter much. There are people out there who probably could and would be more than happy to publish their results if they did. More importantly, the difference is in intent. I don't intend to carry around a device that's always listening to me. Anyone with an Alexa device is intentionally inviting Amazon to listen to every word spoken in (part of) their home.

But the intent isn't there for Amazon to listen to everything you say - which is why hotword detection is done locally on Alexa and only then is an audio stream sent to their servers.

I have a coworker who has Siri enabled on his phone. It regularly wakes up and starts recording seemingly at random. Maybe "always listening" isn't the correct phrasing. "It might be listening at any time" might be better.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#433

Post by moftz »

zhte415 wrote: post #124

To drop some personal anecdote.. By far the best sleep I've had on an aircraft was an Alitalia flight in the early 2000s, a 747 from Italy to Hong Kong, economy class. The upholstery was thin worn-down carpet, the seat felt like plywood with metal reinforcements in important places, hopes of in-flight entertainment were confined to headphones operated by a wheel-dial fixed the the seat, there was nothing as fancy as…

Plastic/fake leather is easier to clean. Cloth seats will smell, will stain, and can even hold lice. I'd rather have the plastic material I can give a quick wipe down on before resting my head against it. The in-flight entertainment is nice but I could do with just a USB port to keep my phone or tablet going. Half the time the headphone jacks for the TVs are on the armrest in such a way that you risk breaking your cable because it sticks into your sitting area rather out the end of the armrest. Airlines are doing the thing now where there are no TVs and all of the movies are accessed via WiFi.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#434

Post by logfromblammo »

crazygringo wrote: post #388

Wow, I can’t believe how dismissive most of the comments here are. The idea of adding folding wings to existing seat dimensions could be a huge, huge improvement for sleeping on flights. No, it’s not changing or solving anything else. Yes the model is tiny. No this isn’t solving existing recline issues if you’re 6’5”. If you have incredibly broad shoulders then you might not be able to use the wings but you can still…

I'd appreciate that this possibly could make airline economy flights better, if I believed that airlines had nonzero interest in improving the experiences they offer their economy passengers.

Airlines are interested in three things: more paid passengers in the same cabin volume, less weight per seat, and less turnaround cost on the ground. I'm not sure how the new seat design serves any of those factors.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#435

Post by holoduke »

sonofhans wrote: post #419
rpiguy wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say this adds 10 pounds to each seat times 150-400 seats. No way the airlines would go for it they are trying to cut weight from the planes to scrape every ounce of fuel economy out of the airframe. It is a non-starter. Airlines also have zero incentive to increase passenger comfort because most airlines operate near capacity (all flights full/overbooked) on most routes because of deregulation. You have no alte…

I hear what you mean about the empty planes. The best flying in my memory was in the 1970s. Everything was much more casual, less populated, and slower-paced. I remember eating freshly-fried eggs for breakfast on a 747, with metal silverware, in coach. After 9/11 I remember a lot of fear. I got searched a lot. Everyone was tense. All connection points became more isolated (e.g., you can no longer walk your family to…

Yes and you paid like 4000 dollars for a London New York return ticket economy class. You can still fly relatively comfortable for that price. But they call it first class now.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#436

Post by kortilla »

tyingq wrote: post #256
kortilla wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it makes it even more annoying to get out for the window seat behind.

I've not been able to exit from the window seat without both of my seatmates getting up for some time. I don't see this setup as any worse when seat pitch is tight.

Congrats, you’re either not flying economy or you’re flying with small neighbors and you are small too.

In economy, a 6ft person will have their knees touching the seat in front of them. Getting out without them standing up will require straddling them like a mile-high stripper. Additionally, if you’re big (6ft 240lbs), getting between the economy seats when they’re empty is inconvenient and it requires weird bending over when the seats in front are reclined.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#438

Post by chrisgd »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #411
rpiguy wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say this adds 10 pounds to each seat times 150-400 seats. No way the airlines would go for it they are trying to cut weight from the planes to scrape every ounce of fuel economy out of the airframe. It is a non-starter. Airlines also have zero incentive to increase passenger comfort because most airlines operate near capacity (all flights full/overbooked) on most routes because of deregulation. You have no alte…

There are a bunch of reasons this prototype will fail, but weight doesn't seem like the top of the list. "The seat prototype on show at the launch was a carbon fiber, lightweight design -- but the designer insists the wings could be fitted to most existing seats, whatever their material." This article has raises a number of issues. The biggest being increase of turnaround time from the complexity of cleaning, and als…

It will be a 4th layer of premium economy!

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#439

Post by freehunter »

aidenn0 wrote: post #405
freehunter wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The blog is called "depressing Finland" which is kind of a Finland meme. It's certainly played up on the Internet but it's got a kernel of truth. I have a couple of very good friends in Finland and I've visited the country and it's a lovely land filled with lovely people. But it's true they can be aloof to other people at first. My Finnish friend joked that Finnish people don't care about others until you get drunk w…

Germany is that way to a lesser extent. I know my German friends visiting the US find it very odd that people who do not know each other well (or at all) will greet each other when passing by. It seems superficial and fake to them. To a lesser degree, I felt that way after moving to Southern Californa from the East coast: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cvzm3sZWAAETO_b.jpg:large

I'm from the Midwest and I find NYC and LA to be incredibly alienating for that reason. I'm surrounded by people but none of them acknowledge my existence. If I'm walking around my own downtown almost everyone who passes by will nod or wave or say "nice day isn't it?" just to be polite.

I held a door open for someone when I was in NYC last time, which turned into a big mistake. Everyone else hadn't been paying attention and when they saw me holding open the door they must have assumed I was a doorman and everyone flooded through the open door not giving me the chance to catch back up to my group. Meanwhile in the Midwest, if someone is a few steps behind you and you let the door close, they're going to be complaining about how rude you were for hours.

Re: New airplane seat design to make it easier to sleep in economy

#440

Post by vanniv »

teh_klev wrote: post #385
selectodude wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're for long-haul premium economy. Those are already 2-4-2 on larger jets vs 3-4-3 or 2-5-2 in the steerage.

Nowhere in the article does it mention these are specifically for "premium" economy, these seats are, according to the article, supposedly meant for your run-of-the-mill economy cabin.

CNN is just wrong, though. These are being marketed as premium economy seats.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/the-future-of-premium-economy/

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2019/12/10/wings-out-interspac...

CNN got this wrong, and the rest of the major press is citing CNN as the source.

But if you look, you can see that these seats are clearly not economy seats -- they're too wide, and they have all the premium economy trappings (doubled armrests, drink tables, etc.)

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