The new Skycouch on Air New Zealand earn an Awesome Medal

Taking Economy Class to the next level, Air New Zealand announced their “Skycouch” for Economy Class on their Boeing 777-300 aircraft.

The new seat allows passengers to choose to extend the bottom cushion of their seats to the seats in front of them providing an amble bed to sleep on. This will work great if you are flying with a significant other, but might be a little awkward if with a complete stranger.

22 sets of the SkyCouch seats will be available and will cost about the same as two and a half non-Skycouch seats.

You might notice the window shapes in the background of the videos look very similar to the Boeing 787’s. That is because Air New Zealand was hoping to introduce the new seats on the 787, but went ahead with the 777 due to the Dreamliner’s delays.

Air New Zealand will start flying the new seats at the end of the year between Auckland and Los Angeles and hopes to expand into other markets in 2011 and 2012.

I think these seats are pretty awesome. So awesome that I am giving the seats my AWESOME MEDAL!

Other things Air New Zealand will be upgrading:
* New oven technology to cook food from scratch rather than just reheating
* Extensive new in-flight entertainment system using touch screens
* Wine tasting and destination seminars
* Slip-on pillows for headrests to remove need for neck cushions (economy)
* Flight Planner to know when meals, drinks etc will be served, lights dimmed etc.
* Shared-meal experiences such as pizza for two (Premier economy)
* On-demand food and beverage service (business class)

Additional Information:
* Video from 3news.co.nz
* Review on the seats from CrankyFlier
* Video of the Economy and Business Premiere from Air New Zealand
* Check out the blog from Flight Blogger to see Air New Zealand’s Business Premiere Seats
* Video from TVNZ

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