Lie-flat seats are all the rage in long-haul business class cabins these days. Pretty much every airline is moving in that direction, though with varying speeds depending on fleet size and other factors. But what happens when a carrier picks a seat that doesn’t work so well? Delta is finding out first-hand with their 767-400D airplanes.
There are a few key problems with the seats. The tray table is apparently difficult to operate. The gap between the cushion and the frame is too great, leading to lost items. And apparently the seat isn’t wide enough to handle some of Delta’s “larger” customers. In their defense the last of these has long been a complaint about their BusinessElite seats, but the other two are definitely new.
Delta’s solution to this problem – at least until they can get find a better seat model and get the new seats into the planes – is to actually have a dedicated technician on EVERY 764D flight. This person is tasked with assisting the customers and flight attendants with operating all the systems on their seats. They also get to troubleshoot the in-flight entertainment systems since those apparently are troublemakers, too. So every flight, every day on the 14 affected planes has to carry an employee around. That means extra salary and the loss of one seat to sell in the front cabin.
This has to be costing them a lot of cash. That’s hardly something any airline needs help in doing right now.
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