The double-decker airplane seat is back. Here's what it looks like now

[brooklynite]

CNN

It might not sound particularly appealing on paper, but 23-year-old airplane seat designer Alejandro Núñez Vicente believes double-level seating is the future of economy flying.

You may have seen a photo of Núñez Vicente’s Chaise Longue Airplane Seat prototype floating around the internet. Following a CNN Travel exclusive last year, Núñez Vicente’s concept went viral – igniting furious debate and prompting a flurry of reactions from would-be passengers – some outraged, some bemused, some intrigued, some all of the above.

...snip...

Núñez Vicente’s concept started small – as a college project back in 2021. A nomination for the 2021 Crystal Cabin Awards – a top prize in the aviation industry – catapulted the concept into the public consciousness. Núñez Vicente paused his master’s degree and put all his time, money and efforts into making his vision a reality.

Fast forward to today and Núñez Vicente has sponsors, partnership deals and is in regular conversation with “the biggest players in the industry.” He believes his double-level airplane seat is the future of economy flying and is working around the clock to make it a reality.

[Tommy Carcetti]

1. And immediately back into mothballs it should/will go.

I'm not exceedingly claustrophobic, but when I had to do a MRI it did a number on me. This isn't much better than that.

[roamer65]

2. Mooooooo!

Definitely cattle class.

[jimfields33]

6. You get what you pay for

I hear people brag all the time over 39 dollar flights and then have the nerve to complain that it Isn’t nice and comfy. Sheesh.

[Marius25]

22. 39 dollars is one thing.

I paid $700 for my last flight to Europe in economy and it was extremely tight and uncomfortable. Seats should be comfortable for 8 hour flights at $700+.

[BlackSkimmer]

3. I'm not even going to speak aloud my first thought upon seeing that pic.

But I'd much rather be on the upper rack, assuming I'd fly in such a plane. Not.

[Raven]

8. I bet it was my first thought too and I'm embarrassed!

[BlackSkimmer]

39. Lol!

[TxGuitar]

49. I'll say it:

Farts.

[Raven]

51. Great minds think alike. :-)

[Trailrider1951]

52. Yep. Better hope that the guy in front of you didn't have atomic bean burritos for lunch

[Solomon]

64. Which means they will charge more for it.

[lame54]

4. Stacked ass to face

[sarcasmo]

16. Does face get a discount?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

23. Just hope the person in front of you doesn't have gas

[NowISeetheLight]

25. Airport Taco Bell

They'll have to post warning signs!

[Hekate]

40. Airport Taco Hell

[UpInArms]

5. 1st and 2nd class ... definitely

Since 2nd class gets someone’s ass in their face

😨

[moonscape]

31. I'd take it for the leg room! Dreading a cross-county

flight with my sciatica. Stretching legs out? Priceless!

Edit: was so taken with the leg room that I didn’t even see the no recline. Changing my vote to a no and just staying the hell home! Or being on top

[Sogo]

7. No way!

Some of the previous comments have made all the points why....

[mentalsolstice]

9. Nope!

What could go wrong? Severe turbulence, crash landing, the bottom person could end up having their brains splattered all over the place.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Zero recline in at least the lower seats.

That's an automatic "no" for me. I'd have a bachache for weeks.

I typically fly the cheapest economy class. Even though it doesn't allow you to pick seats, my back is a disability which allows me to get a reclining seat assigned to me. If you aren't aware - if you have a disability which requires a particular seat structure (e.g. reclining)/location (e.g. near the bathroom) there is a process for accommodations.

[zappaman]

11. Who doesn't love a fart directly in their face?

I know I do!

[waddirum]

43. depends in the "brand"

[MuseRider]

12. I am sorry to be gross

but I was on a very long flight from New York to Moscow long ago. We were all packed in and someone a row or two ahead of us had apparently had some stomach issues. After about 4 hours one of the people down the row pulled out a can of deodorant. It helped a bit. The problem lasted the entire flight. No one knew where or who it was but that was in all ways the longest flight I have ever been on. When I see this picture I just shudder.

[jmowreader]

13. Eight problems come immediately to mind

First, what aircraft are you going to put this on? Boeing 737s and single-aisle Airbuses don’t have enough room between the floor and ceiling to hold this. A Boeing 777 or an A350 will hold it, but those jets already have enough seats.

Second problem: maximum takeoff weight. Anything that flies has one. This thing looks extremely heavy, you’ve got to fill it with people to make buying it worthwhile, and all those people have luggage.

Problem 2a: most of the people in this problem have carry-on luggage on normal aircraft. This seating plan ensures everyone’s going to have to check all their bags, so airports’ baggage handling systems will become even more overloaded than they already are.

Problem 3: cargo holds on most planes aren’t big enough to deal with this.

Problem 4: airlines make a lot of their profit hauling cargo. A half-full flight can still be profitable if you’ve got the cargo to make up for it. With the cargo holds full of passenger bags, there won’t be any room for that.

Problem 5: load factors. If you have a route that regularly fills 325 seats, do you want to fly it in a plane that used to hold 200…or do you want to fly it in a 777 and have all that extra room in the holds for cargo? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Alternately, do you want to remove a flight per day from your schedule so you can fill this plane…and have even less room for cargo?

Problem 6: exploding pax. Dude, airliners don’t have enough lavatories NOW! Stuff a bunch of extra passengers on a plane with one latrine at the front and one at the back and you’re really going to have problems.

Problem 7: customer satisfaction. This guarantees there will be even less than there is now.

Problem 8: what happens when you hit a patch of turbulence and half the passengers smack their faces against the backs of the seats in front of them?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. Problem 9: Safe ingress and egress to/from the upper seats.

The first thing I envisioned was a little 'ole lady's knee giving way and her tumbling onto the isle below and breaking a leg or hip.

It's actually a safety hazard to people of any age. If people designing building have to follow strict building codes for safety of ingress/egress, why shouldn't designers of flying sardine cans follow the same rules?

KY......

[ProfessorGAC]

34. Agree With Everything You Wrote

I flew A LOT. Extremely common was a full flight where there was insufficient carry-on room, so gate checking gets done which slows the boarding process. Now, we add to that time consuming step.
I'll add one more. Can every passenger get up to those raised seats?

[jmowreader]

44. It's also going to be hard to get into the bottom seats

In essence NOTHING here makes any sense.

[Hekate]

46. Jmow and KYEnviro -- excellent analysis

[JCMach1]

59. Still beats the new AA seats which seem to be made for 5'5" people

...horrific flying these to London. Literally hoping for an old plane on flight back.

[DFW]

65. I will NEVER again take AA overseas

I despise them with a passion. I even avoid them domestically if at all possible, and that’s no mean feat when your US base is Dallas.

[JCMach1]

66. Exactly, DFW as well soooo ... Will just take a muscle relaxant

And try to black out.

[DFW]

68. Since they pulled their nasty little stunt on us in 2021

We have had to take AA exactly once, due to timing and everything else being already booked full (wonder why?). It was one of their smaller planes, either Charleston (SC) to NYC or Charleston to Dallas, I forget which, But that was it, We have managed to avoid taking them ever since. As far as my wife is concerned, if that whole airline would disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, it wouldn't be too soon. I'm somewhat more lenient. I'd give them until the end of the week.

[FSogol]

14. Airlines will never be happy until they can stack passengers like cord wood and palletize them.

[Hekate]

45. What you said

[hlthe2b]

15. Only dogs seeking to sniff the butt of others would find this appealing...

[Chainfire]

17. There is another plan in the works, it looks something like this:

[Hekate]

47. Good visual -- and it stinks pretty quick

[spanone]

18. Farting in your face....How wonderful.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

19. I'm tall. If I was unfortunate enough to be

Assigned to the lower row and had to get up, I would be forced to lean over the other people, face to face, and probably even push off of the back wall. It’s bad enough in current airline seating.

[Yonnie3]

20. No first class anymore?

Just upper class

and of course lower class.

[Initech]

21. Nooooooooooooooope.

[dalton99a]

24. Easier to make everyone lie down and pack them together like sardines - in two layers

[NowISeetheLight]

26. Standup Airline Seat

I remembered this from a couple years ago. I can't even imagine.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/standing-up-airplane-seat-testing/index.html

[newdayneeded]

37. I was going to mention the saddle seats

absolute horrible idea!

[Hekate]

48. I thought the OP might be a rerun of that gem. But no, it's a whole new fresh hell.

[NowISeetheLight]

50. Gas or Worse

They need to include a gas mask along with the airsick bag.

[treestar]

62. Another young girl used

to be the only one sitting there!

Show what it would really be like by having people in every seat and add the ceiling of the aircraft - the people on the higher level wouldn't be far from that.

[3catwoman3]

27. Not only no, but HELL NO!

That looks miserable, with only one person sitting there.

Interesting that there is no “fully loaded” photo. Probably no one would be smiling.

[Shrek]

28. Airlines respond to incentives like any other business

And no matter how it might complain otherwise, the flying public has made it clear that cheap fares matter above all else.

[Ocelot II]

29. I can't imagine that those seats would pass FAA certification, or that

an airline would want them even if they did. Of course airlines want as many passengers as possible, but what's possible is limited by both physics and safety regulations. Assuming an airplane has high enough ceilings to accommodate those seats (most don't), the weight of the additional passengers and the seats themselves would likely cause the airplane to exceed its maximum takeoff weight by a lot. In any event, even if the plane could fly, there's a point where more weight means less revenue because it takes more fuel to carry more weight. Also, there's an FAA rule that says that during an emergency evacuation all passengers have to able to get out in no more than 90 seconds. Those seats, if filled, would cause a horrific clusterfuck if passengers had to be evacuated. And who wants to sit with someone else's ass in their face? Even if you could get a cheap ticket?

[treestar]

63. +1 maybe these ideas are

floated to get people to appreciate the current state of affairs, lol!

[Snooper9]

30. I actually like it, lower seats you can stretch your legs all the way out

And also you wouldn't have somebody fucking with the back of your seat-

pushing on tray table, knees in your back etc. You would have to have a whole new plane design to make it work though...

[sinkingfeeling]

32. Wow. What an opportunity to have a stranger's butt in your face for 9 hours.

[brush]

35. No. Just no. How does one even get in the top seat?

And if it collapses, sayonara to the bottom dweller.

Reject this horrendously bad idea asap before someone gets hurt.

[taxi]

36. Spilled liquids, falling objects, and a range of vision no more than one foot.

I'll take dangling colostomy bags for $1,000.

[marble falls]

38. Does the top deck pay extra for the ability to put their seat back? At least there will no more ...

... kicking the seat backs or bare feet in between the seats from passengers in the next row.

[Earth-shine]

41. Why stop at two levels?

I can go to Wendy's and get a triple-decker hamburger.

(Actually, the two levels look like a good design to me.)

[SYFROYH]

42. What happens if you have to pee?

[Talitha]

53. The fart-smeller seats should be free.

Horrible idea all around.

[3catwoman3]

54. I showed this to my retired pilot husband.

He laughed, and the very first thing he said was, “You better hope the person above you hasn’t been eating beans.” 🫘

[Angleae]

55. The people that designed this forgot to take one very important thing into consideration.

The FAA regulation, the number of passenger seats is limited by the number of exits (CFR 25.807). Buyers of the early 737-900s found this out the hard way when they tried to make it all-coach and were told it had too many passengers for the 8 exit doors (later 737-900s have 10 doors because of this)

[LudwigPastorius]

56. That looks safe.

Nothing like cramming even more people into a long, metal tube with only a few exits.

[ZonkerHarris]

57. this man must be stopped

[GenThePerservering]

58. Many Americans are just too big for that kind of thing

sorry, but that's the way it is (I fly a lot).

[Emile]

60. No thanks!

[Raine]

61. I would go berserk and starting screaming sitting in a flying cattle car

like that ... NO way in hell!!!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

67. Hope they instal charcoal fart filters.