Now that is doubling down.
The designer of the much-ridiculed double-decker airline seats — which spawned a thousand memes — has now rolled out a prototype for first-class.
“Now that we all know economy works, and now that’s moving forward, we thought, ‘Why not go to the opposite end of the cabin and do a business-class/first-class hybrid?’” Chaise Lounge founder Alejandro Núñez Vicente told CNN on the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, where he’s displaying his company’s bi-level sky chairs.
His original coach class arrangement — which features one row above one other with the highest level accessible by stairs — was designed to permit lower-seated passengers more legroom as there was no seat directly in front of them. Doing so required Núñez Vincente to eliminate the overhead luggage bin.
The visionary’s first-class iteration, dubbed “elevated class,” is actually the identical concept except with a rather different layout. Whereas the economy version has the usual three seats, this upper-crust configuration features just one seat on the underside row, and two on the highest like a settee, allowing for rather more space and luxury.
Núñez Vicente said he desired to elevate air travel by creating “extra space for more seats within the airplane” while also providing “a fair higher experience than they get today in business or first-class.”
Specifically, he envisioned the underside seat as an enclosed cubicle with a spacious footwell that passengers can stretch their legs out into under the upper level — perfect for the solo traveler. Conversely, the more couch-like upper tier was designed for people traveling with a plus one in addition to lone flyers who need extra space.
The shortage of an overhead luggage locker may appear disconcerting, nevertheless, Núñez Vicente claims that that is offset by the roomier footwells, which give all of the storage a passenger may wish.
“The true estate that you just’re getting is a lot larger than the one you’ll get in any business or first-class,” declared the entrepreneur, who founded Chaise Lounge as a 21-year-old college student, inspired by economy flights that didn’t accommodate his 6-foot-2 frame.
Unfortunately, his economy prototype became the topic of ridicule, with critics deeming the layout claustrophobic and bizarre.
“Fresh hell just dropped,” wrote writer Amber Sparks on X in response to a CNN article concerning the design. Fellow author Kaz Weida tweeted: “I’ll be back to comment on this once my claustrophobia lets me breathe again.”
Indeed, the highest row’s design is such that passengers will only have 4.92 feet of space between the seats and the highest of the plane, stopping them from standing as much as get out.
Meanwhile, one Redditor claimed that those seated within the lower quadrant would break each of their knees at the identical time should they encounter turbulence.
Nonetheless, Vincente stays undaunted by haters, declaring, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
“Many of the things that modified the world are normally from radical those who include a crazy idea – like Steve Jobs with the iPhone,” insisted the seat honcho, who claims that “big players” are excited by the economy class design.
Núñez Vicente says he’s also anxious for “elevated class” to get off the bottom, gushing: “We’ll put our fame on the road, again, and see the way it seems.”
The visionary’s not the primary to design a seat that ostensibly saves space sans sacrificing comfort.
Earlier this 12 months, an Italian aerospace company unveiled a convertible “sofa-bed”-style business class seat, which they claim could transform the face of air travel.
