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Alaska Airlines Trials Virtual Reality On Some Flights (pcmag.com)
Alaska Airlines is trailing virtual reality onboard 10 flights between Boston and Seattle and Boston and San Diego. The headsets are provided by French in-flight entertainment company SkyLights and will only be offered to first-class passengers. PCMag.com reports: The trial kicked off on Sunday, Sept. 23 and runs through Thursday, Sept. 27. Forget trying to pay attention to that small seatback monitor as jet engines and crying babies blare in the background. "Wearing the headset is comparable to having a personal movie screen in front of you," the airline said. "When paired with noise-cancelling headphones, it's easy to feel like you're at the movie theater instead of flying." Passengers participating in the trial can choose from a selection of 2D and 3D movies. [...] There's also several "360-degree immersive experiences that let guests explore different worlds by just slowly moving their head around," Alaska Airlines said.
I'm seriously considering traveling as freight next time. I'd have way more room and pay less.
Some of those cans they use for cargo are actually roomier and more comfortable than you would think. If you go as bulk freight just make sure you are put in the pressurized bin and those are prime napping spots. The floor panel right by the door in the front bin of a 737 is even heated, very nice to have once you reach altitude. You learn some good tricks when you work on a ramp.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
A couple of weeks ago I read an article about an airline that was considering replacing some of the cargo space on passenger flights with actual bunk beds. The idea was that there would be a spiral staircase down from the seating deck to a bay with a small number of full-sized beds for people who wanted to use them. The frame containing these "bedrooms" would itself be modular, such that the airline could remove them and replace them with regular freight containers when they needed to do so.
The article I saw didn't go in to details of the way that pressurisation would be handled - I may be wrong but I always thought that cargo spaces, even on commercial airlines, were not pressurised.
But there are definitely plans out there to be able to send you as air freight!!!
A couple of weeks ago I read an article about an airline that was considering replacing some of the cargo space on passenger flights with actual bunk beds. The idea was that there would be a spiral staircase down from the seating deck to a bay with a small number of full-sized beds for people who wanted to use them. The frame containing these "bedrooms" would itself be modular, such that the airline could remove them and replace them with regular freight containers when they needed to do so. The article I saw didn't go in to details of the way that pressurisation would be handled - I may be wrong but I always thought that cargo spaces, even on commercial airlines, were not pressurised. But there are definitely plans out there to be able to send you as air freight!!!
Some cargo bins are pressurized, some aren't. Also, while most widebody aircraft have crew rest areas above the cabin, some have been retrofitted to have crew rest modules below the cabin in the cargo area. I could see some airlines putting bunks down there for passengers, but the ability to access those bunks would definitely be a significant additional charge as airlines get some good revenue from freight and it would cut into that.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Why would the cabins be shrinking? Aircraft don't shrink and they last a long time. New models tend ti be longer.
Intergenerationally,
Cabin width of a 777 - 587 cm
Cabin width of a 787 - 549 cm
That's almost an 8% drop in cabin space... but airlines are still shoving in seats 9 abreast (Boeing has even advertised a 10 abrest version of the Squeezeliner). Something has to be smaller, and give the aisles have to be so many CM wide by law, it's the seats.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Some A346s have lavatories in the cargo level with a staircase running down to it. Wouldn't be a huge extra effort to put some sleeping pods there the same way.