Flew one of the A330Neos last night in business, 5K. I found the new seat acceptable and comfortable though did not try the full bed as it was a daytime flight, I wasn't tired enough to sleep and not curious enough just to check it out. Though I did find a lack of storage, particularly a place to stow newspapers and magazines (the space in the rear seat side cabinet only holds TAP's inflight magazine, safety card and barf bag).
However, the point of this thread is to answer the mystery of the [supposedly] packing foam between seat pods and the fuselage. If this is meant to be insulation of sort, permanent to overcome some design deficiency, why are they not covered in some vinyl or leather instead of appearing so bare?
This is behind the last pod and the rear cabin wall.
Between the pod and the fuselage wall.
Arm rest and fuselage wall.