This Airline Will Soon Offer Bunk Beds In Economy & You Can Sleep Through A Long-Haul Flight
Would you try it?
Air New Zealand's Skynest beds are shown in a demo video.
Air New Zealand just revealed its plan to offer the world's first sleeping pods for economy airline passengers and honestly, it's about time.
The airline says it's in the process of adding six full-length sleeping pods to the wide-bodied aircraft in its fleet, meaning you'll soon be able to take an ultra-long flight while lying down the whole way.
Air New Zealand has been working on these beds, called Skynest, for years. However, they're finally preparing to launch the idea on long-haul flights beginning in September 2024, a spokesperson told the Washington Post.
A 2020 demo video shows what Skynest will look like, with six bunk beds stacked three-high in a capsule positioned at the front of the economy section. Each one is lit with soothing purple light and features a curtain so you can block out other passengers.
It's basically the next step up from Air New Zealand's existing Skycouch, an alternative seat design that lets you stretch across multiple spots in economy, if you choose to buy all of them.
The beds are expected to cost more than an economy seat and less than business class, according to the Post, which recently sent a reporter to try them out.
Some airlines already offer first- and business-class seats that transform into beds, but the idea of sleeping at an economy price is definitely special.
Still, you can image there will be a few tradeoffs to buying such a spot. For instance, you might start to feel a bit claustrophobic after lying in the same spot for 15 hours, because you can only sleep for so long. We can also only imagine how awkward it would be to eat in a bed with very little headroom. And what happens in turbulence?
On the other hand, New Zealand is one the longest flights you can take from North America, so you just might want to pay extra to sleep through the trip.