Is Synthetic Business Class Possible?
 

With the difference between business class and coach fares rising again, can't a passenger book 3-adjacent seats in coach (at a substantial discount to a single business class seat on long-haul international flights), for a quasi-lie-flat experience; rent a few good videos for your i-pad; pack a meal from a good deli; buy a few drinks from the inflight service, and stretch out and snooze. All of that comes at a material discount to business class and on many airlines provides an (almost) comparable experience... Possible? I see that Air NZ offers a somewhat similar product dubbed "cuddle class" on some long-haul flights.

The best thing about Air New Zealand's Sky Couch are they are designed to convert into a nice flat bed area (i.e. foot pedestals go up enough to meet the seat). I wonder what happens if someone steals your seats and it is a full plane with the spares scattered around in a few middle seats - what will the FA do then?

The worst part about a Sky Couch - if you're not able to see the load levels you may have just bought yourself 2 extra seats in unpopulated plane with plenty of free rows already.

I beleive most airlines will allow you to buy a second seat for your use. The one major consderation in doing this is that the three seats may not be together. Remember, the airline simply agrees to provide the seat, there is no gaurantee that the seats will ne next to each other.

So if you buy three seats and there is equipment change or the airline separates the seats, you have little to no recourse and no use of the extra seats.

Airlines have ways of making sure that two are together. People who are too wide to fit into a single seat often buy two seats. A wide person would find that having 12B and 27F is of little value when s/he tries to sit down. Airlines know this.

This also involves making sure that the two seats aren't in a row with arm rests that don't swing out of the way or that has some other problem preventing the two from being used as one wide one.

I don't know if any airlines will do it for three seats, though. A passenger too wide to fit into two economy seats would probably also not fit through the door.

Yes, but will the airline guarantee two (or three) seats together for a person who doesn't need them for a physical reason but simply wants no one sitting in them?

Airlines have ways of accommodating people who need the seats but only if you make sure and let the airline know the facts. Otherwise the airline can separate the seats as it wishes.

Sorry, lying across three seats in coach (assuming you could get them together and the armrests go all the way back and the people in front of you don't recline) is not anywhere near comparable to a business class seat. It may make it a bit easier to get some sleep, but it's like lying across three metal folding chairs at home to watch TV instead of stretching out on a leather couch, it's just not the same.

It's got little to do with the drinks, food or movies.

Some airlines (Qantas springs to mind) will not allow passengers to lie across seats, for safety reasons (so they say, and that may well be genuine).

Is that something new on QANTAS? I had a row of 3 seats to myself several years ago on QF and nobody said anything when I put the armrests up and laid down.

As others have noted whether the airline lets you select 3 seats together and keeps it that way is an open question.

Depending on the route a C class ticket may not be that much more than 3 Y tickets would cost you. And it's certainly much more comfortable to be in a single lie-flat seat than to try laying across three coach seats. Your C class "bed" will be quite a bit longer. So unless you are very short it won't be so comfy. Certainly it would be better than 1 coach seat.

I've never seen it as an official Qantas policy (though, mind you, I've never specifically looked for it either). But I have been on two or three Qantas flights where it has been made perfectly clear that passengers would not be permitted to do this. Perhaps it's up to the individual pilot, I don't know.

I raise it only because it would seem a waste of money to buy three seats in a row so that you lie down only to discover that it wasn't allowed! That'd be a lot of space for your book and so on...

I have witnessed people lying across seats on Qantas on many occasions.

Aren't you required to have a seatbelt fastened at times? How could you wear one while stretched across 3 seats - would it even be safe?

Only when the seatbelt sign is lit. At other times while seated wearing a seatbelt is recommended but not required. Having said that, I have managed to wear a seatbelt while sleeping across five seats on a near-empty trans-Altantic redeye just after 9/11.

Absolutely. Its quite easy to sleep with a seatbelt still on across 4/5 Y seats.