Topic of the Week: Direct Aisle Access in Business Class

Yes, aisle access is very big. I’m a Million Miller on Delta, fly international a lot on Delta. On international flights I like privacy. The potential or actual event of someone climbing over and bumping you while trying to sleep, watch a movie or working is a pain. If I’m on the inside, I feel awful climbing over or bumping the person next to me. I’ll plan my flights according to the seating. It is one of those things that once you have experienced it, why go backward.

It’s huge. And it’s also something American is moving to (though their refurb schedule is way too long…)

Having never been lucky enough to fly Business, I wouldn’t really know, but I imagine it makes a big difference. I wonder, is United doing this to try to get more people to pay for an upgrade to First? I know it doesn’t matter on Domestic, but on International, that might be some of the rational.

Yes. A majority of travelers I’ve seen/met in business class are single travelers and climbing over someone while they are sleeping is less than desirable. Unfortuately, due to my location, I don’t fly Delta as often as other carriers, but I wish them luck!

Since this is international business class we’re discussing then I have to say that I LOATHE direct aisle access. When I am flying internationally 95% of the time it is with my wife and we would rather not have an aisle separating us. I can understand where @Ben is coming from on disturbing your partner, but in my case my wife has expressed her dislike of having to get out of her seat to come talk with me or her inability to steal food from my meal selection.

Coming from the Travel Sales side of it, yeah its a big deal. People want the personal space. Its easier to justify a bit of a price increase when the product gives you more options. There is a reason why down to Australia that United is cheaper than the others. Its product pales in comparison to QF, or NZ. where as United is just rungs behind this. Delta doesn’t push the fact of their services enough. Id fly delta to australia over united any day purely cause of that aisle access.

Seems to me to do that there will be less seats in the cabin which means they will be filled more by people who actually buy business seats and less seats to upgrade from coach. They are smart to do this to keep the coach paying folks in coach. Or are they making the businesfirst cabin larger and shrinking coach?

If the window coach passenger in a row of three seats can disturb two others to get in and out of a seat, a business passenger can disturb one other person.

Yes it is a huge deal – bigger than food, service quality or decent AVOD availability. I have switched almost entirely from UA to NH on my flights to Asia due to NH’s staggered seating that allows direct aisle access to every passenger. Despite 1-K status on UA and despite BA’s less than stellar service service, I try my best to use BA on flights to Europe if AC doesn’t work in the itinerary.

Definitely agree that it is a big deal. I rank it only behind the comfort of the lie flat seat (which I hope most will have by now, although I’ve been stuck on a few old UA planes recently…). Even though I am tall and can use my go-go-Gadget legs to climb over a sleeping neighbor, it is still very awkward (especially if he or she happens to wake up when I’m in mid stride….)

It’s certainly a huge deal to me. I’ve only flown J with a loved one and still felt bad when I needed to climb over them to get to the aisle. I can only imagine the horror having to do it to some random passenger that I don’t know. It’s probably less of a big deal on a transatlantic from the East Coast, but I’m sure it could be a huge selling point on much longer routes, especially to Asia.

I hate the old UA planes that are four middle seats in BusinessFirst..they are horrible to get in and out of and I avoid them…..I always try to book the old CO planes that have direct access in the middel section of the plane.

It is very important to me . I would not use a long haul business class with no direct access.

When I read about Business and see one airline doing this and another airline doing that, it makes me want to know:

For each carrier, the percentage of business seats, (1) paid for by the passenger, with no reimbursement, (2) paid by someone other than the passenger and the cost effectively of no interest to the passenger, (3) are the result of FF mile redemptions, and (4) are simply upgrades, by reason of the the passenger’s status, FF or otherwise?

Do these percentages really vary by airline? Do they vary by route? By distance flown?

That’s all fine, but Delta has some 757-200s where bulkhead seating in FIRST CLASS offers desperately substandard legroom (in some cases they’ve taken out the offending row, but not in all). First Class legroom is a must; Business Class aisle access is a frill.

It is an advantage if that is the only factor taken into consideration when choosing an airline.

However, if, for example I had the choice of Austrian Airlines with its food and connection to VIE, versus an airline that went into either LHR or FRA, I would not rate the aisle access very highly compared to the pain of going through LHR or FRA. The food on Austrian and the ease of navigating VIE would more than make up for the fact that Austrian Biz has a true middle seat. It would take more than aisle access to make up for the nonsense of a dysfunctional airport at the end. This is only an example of course, but there are many more considerations in Business class than aisle access. Economy class is another matter.

Given the choice, direct aisle access wins hands down every time!

Have only seen this configuration on transpacific flights, and only once on a transatlantic flight. All transatlantic flights (I’ve taken)are 330s or 767s still with 2x2x2 configuration. Direct aisle access for all business seats would be outstanding.

How important depends on the specifics of the seats. For example with UAs “old” seats (still on the 777 yesterday from LHR-SFO), if the seats are all reclined, it is VERY hard to get out of the window/middle seat. (With the new lie flat seats, it isn’t so bad because the seat in front doesn’t overhang the ‘jump’ space so one can dance out gracefully)

That being said, what were they thinking putting a block of 4 in the middle? With 3, there were decent odds that the middle would be occupied by a co-traveller of the other aisle sitter or be empty.

I’m curious about the seat density of this UA config (and the proposed ‘all aisle one for DL) compared to the config on Air Canada. That one has all seats angled and all aisle. This uses width for a single seat rather than parallel seats but I suspect they lose some total capacity with lost triangles etc.

Huge deal, especially for red eyes.