Originally Posted by
pinniped
How comfortable did you find being in PE for 14+ hours?
Next year, my wife and I are planning to fly in CX J - destinations within Asia TBD but I'm going to be booking the TPACs in the next few weeks. But now we're sort of thinking about bringing the kids (teenagers), and in a lot of my first searches I see flights available for partner bookings as 4 PE and 2 J. Finding 4 J is pretty rare. The CX PE seat is 40" x 20", which doesn't sound horrible if there's some decent recline to get some sleep.
The recline in VA PE is definitely "decent," better than what you typically find in domestic US F. I usually pop an Ambien CR on any flight longer than 8 hours, so I did, and I slept very well with no difficulty. Not as nice as J, which I was also able to fly (QF, not VA) on one trip to Down Under, but fully adequate when I was awake and I didn't feel all cramped and creaky when I woke up. Decent food, as well, and cabin crew that not only knew what a flat white is but were able to make one on board! (That's when I know I'm in Australia/New Zealand*: when asking for a flat white gets you a flat white, not a "what's that?" stare.)
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*Or, oddly enough, in a U.S. Starbucks. Maybe not the best I've ever had, that would be in Auckland, but good enough.