First the Cup, Now the Flat-Bed

Kiwis aren’t just beating the Americans on the water; they’re whipping them in the air too. Forbes’ travel correspondent Katie Kelly Bell put the new flat-bed business class to the test, comparing the Delta Air Lines offering to Air New Zealand’s. No prizes for guessing which company came up trumps.

Despite Delta’s superior accoutrements – headrest adjustment, lumbar, even a massage button – the New Zealanders came up trumps, although Bell concedes the “lilting Kiwi accent was a trifle persuasive”.

“Flat-bed is great,” she writes of the Delta version, but the seat seams soon had her “tossing and turning” as Bell searched for a comfortable position in vain.
By comparison, “those clever Kiwis” have solved the snag of a seamed flat-bed by folding the back of the seat forward and down, placing the seam well below the waist. It all happens with the push of one button.

“It’s all topped with a two inch mattress; oh, hello dreamland.”