Flying in comfort
I was just thinking the other day: why don’t airlines have more widescreen/letterboxed movies? My favorite airline when it comes to the onboard entertainment is Singapore Airlines because they have a decent selection of Asian movies subbed and in widescreen. But in this regard, they’re the same like any other airlines: the foreign movies (i.e., non-English) are mostly letterboxed and subbed while the regular movies (e.g., Mission: Impossible III) are pan’n scan.
What gives?
Then it dawned on me. Economy class PTVs, where they exist, are tiny–this was driven home on my Sydney – Jakarta flight at the beginning of the month. Understand that I started flying SQ in business and only flew economy with them only once and I don’t recall a PTV during that flight. Either way, I had always thought the PTV in business class was kinda small, but very watchable, and was standard.
WRONG.
I took a rough estimate of the PTV in SQ’s economy class and they came out to about six inches. That 10″ PTV in business now seemed like a luxury.
I’ve also wondered just when it was that they’d design an economy class cabin where a reclining seat wouldn’t bother the person sitting behind.
Well, wonder no more.
I decided to hop over to the FlyerTalk Forum earlier this evening (writer’s block) and discovered that Cathay Pacific has unveiled a refresh of not one, not two, but of all three classes! The most amazing was the economy seat recline that doesn’t disturb the person sitting behind you, but next after that was the nine inch PTV!
I checked out their new business class offering as well and it looks like they’ve done away with their angled bed seats (ala SQ’s SpaceBed and QF’s SkyBed) and have gone with true flat-bed seats ala NZ’s new (as of late last year) business class seats with the major difference being that CX’s lie-flat seats goes into recline without the customer ever having to get off the seat, the major reason I disliked NZ’s offering.
Then I saw the PTV offering: 15″ 16:9 screen!
If it weren’t for PPS Club with SQ and SQ’s service (which I do think is better than CX), CX is going to quickly become my new favorite airline.
Really makes me wonder what SQ’s new offering will be like for first and business (not sure if they’re refreshing their economy class cabin as well). While I’ve never tried first, even I’ll admit the SpaceBed is aging at the moment.
