As business class maxi-suites with their high walls continue to be rolled out by airlines, an unforeseen complication is becoming evident: the doors are so high and create such privacy that they block natural interactions between crew and passengers. This interrupts the flow of service, creates quite literal barriers between crew and travellers and, at times, means that crew suddenly appear, which can be startling to some passengers.
This is certainly a very business class problem. But without business class customers, dramatically fewer widebody routes would be profitable, so some attention does need to be paid.
The base element of the problem is that, with the walls and doors as high as they are, it’s difficult for flight attendants to look over them in order to elegantly and seamlessly deliver the increasingly complicated service pattern that airlines have designed. This is complex enough when serving — is the passenger ready? Has their table been set? — but even more so when clearing, where passengers will likely be finishing each course at different speeds.
In some new suites, even taller passengers like your author don’t spot flight attendants until they suddenly appear at the door. Image: John Walton
Whereas crew might previously have delivered two starters or main courses, now they need a spare hand in order to open the suite doors. In today’s growing premium cabins, that means delays, especially as airlines are specifying fewer tray-based services and more individually set tables, course by course.
There’s a physical element to it as well, because there are certainly cabin crew who can only just see over the lip of the door when right next to it.
After discussions with a flight attendant on this Farnborough Airshow stand, your author took this photo with the camera at eye height (6’3_190cm). How would the angle change for a shorter flight attendant or with seats reclined? Image: John Walton
As a passenger, it can also be somewhat startling when engrossed in a book or movie to suddenly have a head, however cheery and welcome, appear over the side of the maxi-suite. This didn’t happen to the same extent in previous seats or in mini-suites, because the viewing angles from older products was wider, meaning passengers could see crew coming from further away.
The problem is less evident with earlier mini-suites, which have lower doors. Image: John Walton
A further complication comes when seeking to catch a crewmember’s eye, perhaps for a refill. Previously, this was relatively simple: a passenger would spot them coming a few rows away, and perhaps raise a hand to catch their attention. Now, the crew have already past before the passenger notices.
And there’s a certain absence of the kind of hospitality many of the industry’s best crew offer, where a flight attendant passes by, notices a passenger is waking, and then offers a cup of coffee, or offers a blanket to a customer they spot is snoozing in a reclined position. Sure, passengers can press the call button, but this situation is rife with intercultural norms and mores — whether airlines prefer passengers to press it if they have a need or prefer to anticipate those needs instead.
Mini-suites don’t pose quite the same sightline issue as maxi-suites do. Image: John Walton
The need for service redesign after a hard product step change isn’t necessarily a new problem: it’s one that airlines operating first class suites with doors that stretch as high or higher than maxi-suites have been trying to solve since the arrival of that product category with the Airbus A380 nearly twenty years ago.
In the first class example, options have ranged from cameras to slatted blinds to faintly disturbing serving hatches where another glass of Champagne is deposited without even making eye contact with the cabin crew.
In business class, though, solutions need to work at scale. Part of the answer in business may be based in soft product and service. Airlines might redesign their serving trays or chinaware to allow for more servings to be safely carried single-handed, for example, or they might suggest that crew recommend keeping doors open while they are serving a meal. Crews might be encouraged to put their tallest member on walk-through duty, and training might include recommendations on how not to startle passengers.
Part of the answer might be hard-product related, too. While adding closed circuit cameras to every suite might feel invasive, could the shape and height of walls be redesigned with cutouts or lowered areas to keep privacy?
How about a foot pedal for crew to open the door without using a hand, or perhaps a small pulsing light panel on the door that serves as a kind of doorbell for passengers not to be startled?
As options somewhere in the middle, might small convex mirrors behind each seat make sense to enable crew to unobtrusively check whether a passenger has finished their main course? Could opaque door or wall materials be replaced by the translucent panels that thermoplastics manufacturers are offering?
Singapore’s first-generation suites included pull-down semi-translucent fabric partitions inside the door frames. Image: John Walton
It will be fascinating to observe the steps various airlines end up taking in order to try to navigate the issues maxi-suites — and their walls — raise.
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Featured image credited to John Walton
