A saviour up in the skies has answered our calls.
Travelling can be a major bugbear for those who need their beauty sleep on a cramped long-haul flight. Whether it’s poor legroom, loud passengers or too much light, even the deepest sleepers can have their naps thwarted from time-to-time. [Featured Image: @airnz, Instagram].
But, courtesy of Air New Zealand, your nighttime prayers might just have been answered…kind of. The major airline is starting to roll out bunk beds in the economy section.
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At last. Gone are the days of having to fork out a mortgage to get a comfy spot for a good night’s sleep. Maybe that cramp you get from the inability to switch positions after a few hours is a thing of the past. They’re all complete with pillows, blankets, earplugs and privacy curtains. Essentially, the Skynest is a levitating cramped hostel.
However, at this early stage, there are a few catches. The “Economy Skynest” installed on each flight will contain a mere six beds. No doubt there’ll be plenty of demand for these fancy bunks, and rather than giving all 200 passengers a four-minute nap each, a spell in the Skynest will come at a price.
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Speaking to The Guardian Australia, a spokeswoman for Air New Zealand also said the price would, however, be separate from the economy ticket. No set price for passengers has been confirmed.
“The concept is designed as a pod you go to during the flight,” she said. “You will still have your economy seat separately for the other portion of the flight.”
It was added that customers would be able to book sessions, as opposed to the entire flight, with cabin crew available to freshen up the sleeping areas for changeovers.
Air New Zealand is also still awaiting the go-ahead from regulators, so don’t expect to climb into the sack on your flight just yet. They hope to trial the initiative on some of their longest journeys. These include the almost-18-hour trek from Auckland to New York.
Bookings for the Skynest are currently unavailable, but the airline hopes a decision will be concluded by next year. The test flights holding the Skynest to and from New York are scheduled for October 2020.
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This comes after Air New Zealand’s Skycouch in Economy allowed families to purchase extra space with reclining features to lie flat. It costs $20 (£18) for family members.
So with much of the information still up in the air, we’ll have to wait a while for these bunk beds to take off. Perhaps, if it’s successful, the next step will be more bunk beds included within the ticket price! Baby steps for now, but it’s a start for us sleepyheads!