Originally Posted by
sfvoyage
Thank you for this report. I'm a CI newbie and am researching its PE product for SFO-TPE.
My main criterion is seat recline, as that determines whether I'll be able to get some sleep in the air. Does anyone know the degree of recline for PE on this route?
Also, I've had bad experiences before with hard shell seats on other airlines in Y (not PE); mainly I felt as if I was still upright even while reclined as fully as possible, which wasn't much to begin with, to be fair. You mentioned that you found the seat recline acceptable: did the hard-shell seat give you the same level of comfort as a regular reclining seat when fully reclined?
The seats slide forward, they do not recline. So your leg space gets reduced. This is somewhat compensated between using the legrest and adjustable thigh support, but no traditional "recline" in the sense you get in a normal Y seat.
Whether you can sleep on these types of fixed-shell seats is something only you can determine. I had a day flight- départ 11h local time with a 12h flight, so just a nap was sufficient and all I wanted. But honestly, to get sleep, you need to bump up to J and the flat bed- as is often the case.