Originally Posted by
ijgordon
OK, jumping back on here. We flew HND-HKG in the JL SkySuite III(?) - the Cirrus seat being discussed, a few weeks ago. We had windows behind one another. They definitely felt tighter than the AA/CX versions of these seats.
I noticed that one side of the center seats lifted "up" in flat bed mode, and the other side went "down", such that the feet of the two pax in the center would be overlapping in bed mode. The "up" side must be horrific because your feet would be so close to the top of the shoebox.
I'm wondering if this layout (the 3D referred to earlier?) allows them to angle all of the seats more sharply while keeping aisles wide enough, and thus get more seats into the same space. I know that AA uses the Cirrus in 3-class F on its narrowbody A321 transcons, and those, while not tight per se, are somewhat more difficult to get into and out of because of a sharper angle. Perhaps the JL SSIII takes this to another level? That would explain the apparently fewer windows per seat.
Bottom line for me, it wasn't a great version of this seat, although I'd still probably be okay with it as a flat bed as I'm not that big, but it was somewhat tight for relaxing. This was part of a longer F/J ticket, but if I were paying cash, I would think PE would be totally fine for a flight of this length.
I tried the middle seat the other day and surprisingly I actually prefer it over the window one because of the extra space in the footwall (my feet no longer need to push against a wall).
Yes, the whole point of this 3D layout is to fit more seats into the cabin.