Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Lufthansa is trialling sleeper seats in economy

New seats will be available between now and mid-December as part of the trial

Qin Xie
Wednesday 25 November 2020 15:36 GMT
Comments
Lufthansa Sleeper’s Row
Lufthansa Sleeper’s Row (Lufthansa)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Lufthansa is trialling new sleeper seats for economy class passengers with a view to rolling them out across a number of intercontinental routes.

The new seating concept, named “Sleeper’s Row”, is being tested on long haul flights between Frankfurt and Sao Paulo from 18 November until an as-yet unconfirmed date in mid December.

Essentially, passengers already flying on the route are given the option of upgrading their economy experience by booking an entire row of three or four seats for themselves, either at check-in or at the gate.

Available on flights LH506 and LH507 only, the upgrades will cost €220 or US$260 one-way, with payment made by credit card.

The seats will be for their private use for the duration of the flight and, because it depends on how busy the flight is, no advance reservation is possible.

As part of the service, the passenger will receive a soft topper mattress, cushion and blanket. 

They will also receive priority boarding, meaning they can board the plane with business class passengers and settle into their row ahead of other economy passengers.

The airline said that depending on customer feedback they will be looking at rolling out the concept across more intercontinental destinations on the Lufthansa Group network.

Lufthansa is far from the only airline offering a lie-flat option in economy.

Air New Zealand was the first to offer it, launching the concept back in 2010.

The Economy Skycouch allowed an entire row of seats to be transformed into a couch that could be shared with another adult or even a young family.

It has since been copied by a number of different airlines around the world, including Air France’s budget subsidiary, Joon, and Thomas Cook before their collapse.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in