Vistara’s A321neo - the first plane in south Asia to offer flat-bed seats on a narrow-body aircraft - has the potential to open up more medium-haul routes for Vistara. I recently got the opportunity to fly the plane on its first day of commercial service.


Due to Covid restrictions, there was no service available on this flight, so my review will only focus on the hard product (the business class seat). My flight was between Chennai (MAA) and Delhi (DEL), with a flight duration of 2 hours and 40 minutes (the plane had just arrived from Delhi, so I actually took the second commercial flight of Vistara’s A321neo).

Booking the flight

We decided to use a combination of miles plus a one-cabin upgrade voucher. This business class flight between Chennai and Delhi cost 13,500 miles plus one upgrade voucher and INR 400 taxes.

Vistara A321neo business class review

The business class cabin felt very fresh and almost instantly put a smile on my face the moment I stepped in. Business class has a total of 12 seats, set up in a 2-2 configuration and there’s a cabin divider at the rear of the cabin, separating business class from premium economy. I was seated in 3C (aisle), and was one of only four passengers in the cabin.


The toilet was really small and there wasn’t much room to move, plus it didn’t have anything available inside other than a hand wash bottle, which only had a little fluid left in it.

The seat had multiple setting options. It could be reclined to your liking, and even turned into an 84" fully flat-bed.

The seats have a seat pitch of 63” and can be positioned to your liking using the seat controls.


Aisle seat or window?

In terms of privacy, the window seat is a clear winner, as the neighbouring passenger is mostly out of your view.

The aisle seat, on the other hand, is exposed to the opposite aisle, as well as the passenger on the window seat, as the view of the window passenger isn’t blocked completely from this position.

Since most of the cabin was empty, I had the chance to try out both the seats by turning them into a flat bed. The aisle seat feels more open and has the privacy issue where everybody walking down the aisle is visible, though the aisle passenger on the opposite side gets blocked from the view.

The armrest can be dropped down, so that makes some room for movement, but doesn’t make as much difference as it does in the window seat.

For sleeping, the window seat is the winner for me - for multiple reasons. First of all the bed is slightly longer, plus there's extra room in the footwell. If you are tall, I’d definitely suggest you go for the window seat.


The second thing is that when you drop down the arm rest, you get to access a lot of extra space, which is a huge plus for when you decide to lay down, as it gives you a lot more room than the aisle seat.

Both the seats have the same ample storage space - enough to comfortably stow your laptop, phone, passport and other handy items. Storage is divided into two different compartments, one is under the IFE screen and the other next to the headrest.

The one next to the headrest has a 3-pin plug point, though my iPhone 18W USB-C power adapter somehow wasn’t working. There is a USB port above the plug point as well, and in the same compartment you’ll also find a cupholder and the headphone socket. There is storage space for you to keep your shoes as well.

The tray table is located next to your leg and is conveniently positioned. While the size is adequate, I expected the tray table to be slightly bigger. There is a coat hook provided at the seat as well.

Summing up

Although my interaction with the crew was very limited, they were warm and made me feel at home. Though I would have liked the airline to at least offer water, as Air India is doing.

Overall, I was a happy and satisfied customer walking out of the plane in Delhi. I can’t wait to fly on this aircraft when the full service is back on, and be able to get a full feel of this on a longer route.

Find more details and photos on my blog (link below).

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Source: my blog, https://takeoffwithguru.com/vistara-...-class-review/