Tag: skycouch

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Air Asia X Will Charge Anti-Social Passengers Extra

February 21, 2012 at 11:40 AM | by | Comments (0)

In the States we've seen airfares go from "bundled" to a more a la carte, "unbundled" model. Then Uncle Sam stepped in and claimed it was unfair and moved to a more transparent pricing structure. Naturally, some spirited airlines stomped their feet. All of the pricing changes lately with US carriers actually make us thankful we don't regularly fly Air Asia X.

The long haul cousin of Air Asia has been hugely successful with ancillary revenue, regularly raking in some of the highest figures worldwide. The low-cost carrier only charges customers basic flight prices, providing higher levels of service for further fees. We're not just talking about adult beverages or pillows and blankets; on short and long-haul service, Air Asia charges for food, entertainment and seamless flight connections.

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A History of Air New Zealand's Crazy Celebrity Videos, Now Including the 'Playboy' Twins

October 10, 2011 at 1:51 PM | by | Comments (0)

They call it "Cuddle Class," but we affectionately think of it as "Economy Kama Sutra." That's right, we're talking about the infamous Air New Zealand Skycouch.

It's an unconventional seating idea—selling three economy seats with extra room as a kind of convertible bed for two passengers—and AirNZ has been going about marketing it in unconventional ways. But then, when have they ever been conventional? They have a pitch-black plane and body-painted crew for goshsakes!

Lately, however, Air New Zealand has taken the celebrity route to pitch the seats, involving such unlikely names as Richard Simmons, David Hasselhoff, Snoop Dogg and now...the scandalous Playboy twin ex-girlfriends of Hugh Hefner. Watch above as they flirt with AirNZ's latest mascots.

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Airplane Bathroom Wallpaper and SkyCouches: Our Interview with Ed Sims of Air New Zealand

January 6, 2011 at 4:46 PM | by | Comments (0)

It seems like all we’ve been talking about since our visit to Boeing a couple weeks ago is Air New Zealand’s new 777-300ER and its paradigm-changing interiors (yeah, we totally just used the word paradigm). Now it’s time to look inside the mind of the man behind the airline’s whole initiative, former Air New Zealand International Airline General Manager, Ed Sims.

We caught up with Ed on the delivery flight of the plane from the Boeing facility in Everett, Washington, down to Los Angeles and heard all about what he thinks makes the plane so special. Spoiler alert: it's more than just those spiffy new SkyCouches.

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Economy Kama Sutra: We Take Air New Zealand's New 'SkyCouch' for a Test Nap

January 4, 2011 at 9:31 AM | by | Comment (1)

As you might have guessed from our preview last week, we were all up in and around the all-new interiors on the first of Air New Zealand’s five 777-300ER’s last week, when we hopped aboard the delivery flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. Of course our first order of business was to cuddle up in the new SkyCouch.

Here’s a quick video we asked one of the friendly flight attendants to make showing us how to set up the SkyCouch for slumber, and then we’ll fill you in on our experience test-napping it during the long-haul flight from Los Angeles to Auckland...

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Our First Look at Air New Zealand’s New Boeing 777, Including the SkyCouch!

December 24, 2010 at 10:48 AM | by | Comments (0)

Earlier this week, we took a pre-holiday jaunt up to Seattle for a quickie tour of the Boeing factory, including visits to the 777 and 787 production lines, with the final goal being a tete-a-tete with Air New Zealand’s new SkyCouch-equipped 777-300ERs.

At their flagship facility in Everett, Washington, just outside Seattle, we heard about the company’s strategic planning for the future and it’s twin-pronged strategy of promoting the 777 and 787 as complementary components of an airline’s service. As the giant planes ever so slowly inched along on their assembly lines, we learned that although Boeing is only turning out 5 777s monthly right now, the plan is to increase productivity to 8.3 a month by 2013, for a grand total of 100 a year.

And then we were off to visit the big guns: the 787 Dreamliner and Air NZ's new baby, a shiny 777-300ER.

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Fly on Air New Zealand's SkyCouch from LA Starting in April

October 18, 2010 at 11:30 AM | by | Comments (0)

We’ve had the chance to look at Air New Zealand’s SkyCouch from several different angles on the ground, but now it’s finally time for passengers to test out living room comfort up in the air.

SkyCouch flights were supposed to launch between Auckland and Los Angeles beginning next April, and it looks like things are totally on schedule right now. We took a look at seating options for the last week in April 2011, and both the SkyCouch and updated Premium Economy seating options are now available for booking.

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Check Out Air New Zealand's New SkyCouch and Premium Economy Seats, in Video

Where: 1960 E. Grand Ave. [map], El Segundo, CA, United States, 90245
April 28, 2010 at 11:00 AM | by | Comments (0)

Last week we shared Our Ulitmate Guide to Air New Zealand's New 'SkyCouch' Seats, complete with a few titillating photos.

This week, we're going to show you the video demo we made showing how the nifty airborne lounging seats actually work, as well as one of the new Premium Economy seating modules that will be debuting on Air New Zealand's new set of Boeing 777-300's later this year.

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The Ultimate Guide to Air New Zealand's New 'SkyCouch' Seats

Where: 1960 E. Grand Ave. [map], El Segundo, CA, United States, 90245
April 20, 2010 at 9:16 AM | by | Comments (3)


The official Air New Zealand shot of two yuppies on the SkyCouch

We’ve been eagerly anticipating the Stateside unveiling of Air New Zealand’s new SkyCouch for months now since the Kiwis got a first look way back in January, and last night, we got the chance to check out the divine divans for ourselves at the company’s headquarters by LAX.

Born out of a desire to “revolutionize the way people at the back of the plane experience their journey,” Air New Zealand has taken the typical three-seat row and turned it into a couch so that economy travelers can stretch out and practically lie flat—albeit in still slightly cramped quarters.

So can two regular people fit on the SkyCouch, and what's the deal with the new premium economy seats? Find out, after the jump!

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