Originally Posted by
AndyPatterson
Interesting, thanks for sharing! But the "solo" units with their staggered seating and footwells is not great. Those tiny footwells are like the tiny footwells on the business class lie-flats on United and Delta. No room to spread your feet while sleeping. Not comfortable for anyone over 5-10"
Advocates have been clamoring for this option for many years, a lay-flat seat that's more economical than roomettes. Railroads including Amtrak used to have spacious slumbercoaches back in the day. This will be a modernized homage to that concept. While it seems logical that the seating modules might originate in a commercial airline design, it's a leap to assume that the footwells will be tiny. The RFP calls for a 34" seat width, which is more in the league of international first class (or perhaps NH's "The Room" business class). The rendering doesn't look too restrictive to me (especially without reference scale), simply that the adjoining SoloSuite footwells will horizontally offset each other at a diminished width compared to the rest of the very spacious seat. Regardless, I think it's important to reserve judgment. This entire product reimagining is a huge and overdue evolution.