Originally Posted by
johan rebel
J class seats apparently cost well over € 100,000 each. It is amazing how many airlines happily spend a fortune on such seats, yet often don't even get the basics right.
I think you'll be surprised by how much testing goes into seat design. The seat is not unique to SAA and all but the largest airlines taken an off-the-shelf design these days. This specific seat is the Thompson Vantage XL which has also been used by ANA, Delta, Swiss, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Philippine Airlines, American, JetBlue, Edelweiss, Air Canada, Air Astana, Qantas, Finnair, SAS, China Eastern and Aer Lingus.
I'm pretty sure it has been extensively tested!