Top new fully flat business class seat on Qantas partner Iberia
By John Walton, February 14 2013
Spanish airline — and Qantas oneworld alliance partner — Iberia is offering a new business class on board, a fully flat model with direct aisle access that's popular with frequent flyers.
The new Business Plus seat is installed on the airline's newest Airbus A330 aircraft, and will be retrofitted to the Airbus A340-600 fleet. Eight of the new jets will join the airline between now and March 2014.
For business travellers, a better seat will move Iberia — which previously had a fairly mediocre business class with a seat that only just went flat — from the "avoid" to the "seek out" column when connecting between Europe and Africa or Latin America.
Australians will be familiar with Iberia's staggered layout Sogerma Solstys seat from Etihad's flights to Abu Dhabi — and we've reviewed it on the long haul back to Sydney.
The seat is also the newest version of Alitalia's Magnifica Class business offering.
A customised similar model is found on board Emirates' A380, and is popular thanks to the lack of the "midnight clamber", where window or middle seat passengers have to bound like a gazelle (or hippo) over their slumbering aisle neighbours.
Iberia is also offering a 15.4 inch touch screen for entertainment, plus a library of modern on-demand movies, TV shows, music and games.
Our pick: always go for the window seats when travelling solo. There's more privacy and you're tucked away from light and the possibility of being bumped by people (or carts) in the aisle.
For all the latest news in business travel, follow @AusBT on Twitter.
Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
Good to see IB stepping up their game. Interesting choice of business clas seat, which makes me wonder if BA will also go for the same type (although if they do it is not really the "evolution" they promised some months ago).
03 Jan 2011
Total posts 665
I'm baffled at the lack of harmonisation between Iberia and British Airways in business class. I'd never have picked the former to be the better choice for seat comfort!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
Same here John! I am straight away thinking, where is their operational efficiency? Surely their cost savings could be more if they would manage certain aspects across IAG (and the BA hard product offering in C would be dramatically better ) if they would harmonise this part. IB having a better onboard hard product compared to BA, who would have thought......
Mind you, also AF and KLM have not really standardised their inflight product but rather gain efficiency in terms of maintenance. They on purpose want to keep a differentiation between the two airlines, which I can understand as well.
07 Aug 2012
Total posts 192
Good point about AF/KL. IAG may differentiate the product between IB/BA on purpose to target different markets. Though AMS/CDG are very close so they need to do something to avoid cannibalisation. LHR/MAD serve different markets.
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
Fantastic news! Especially since IB does not operate Premium Economy - Any AA upgrades on flights operated by IB will be straight forward "economy to business"!
None of this "economy to premium economy" rubbish that you get with BA - what a waste of upgrades!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Oct 2012
Total posts 133
Looks impressive! Does the airline come to Australia? If so , what the price point in J class to other similar airline products?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
Iberia has limited destinations, mainly Europe, a fair bit in Africa and South America and also some US destinations. No Asia or Australia. Their pricing in J is quite competitive however and the service not bad at all.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 Oct 2012
Total posts 133
Thanks KG! Its a shame they dont fly to Australia as the product looks far superior to many that come here. I have noticed the Euro airlines have lifted their game in product , especially in J class.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
As mentioned in the article, Etihad also sports the product and the EK biz seats on the A380 are similar as well, if you are looking for these type of seats.
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