Up close: Qantas' Boeing 787 economy seat

Great looking seat, looks like QF has hit the money even though it is 9-abrest.

That is an excellent design for an economy seat. Some real thought has been put into how people like to organise themselves on a long flight. Be great to see this turn up on domestic aircraft, though I'm guessing the extra legroom for the 787 makes all these clever design enhancements possible in the first place.

Love that little/tray thingy - brilliant idea, excellent thinking.

big shame its 9-abreast like jetstar but at least still looks pretty good, the netting is a big + 

The features look great and are definitely a big step up, but wheres the padding? Looks like minimal backside cushioning an almost nothing for the back. After 17+ hours, I can imagine lots of very sore passengers.

Do the headrest sides fold out? And what is the red padding between the headphones and magazines? A padded divider or a QF goodies bag?

'Seat Elite' - who exactly is the target audience for this article? Business Travellers or Qantas PR trying to get a handle on the negative publicity around the LCC seat configuration on the 787?

The seat width is disappointing but the added amenity is welcome. Still, I don't see why they couldn't have just slimmed the aisles a little and made the seats 17.4" rather than 17.2"...

I think the extra 1" of pitch has come from less padding on the seat rather than physically putting the seats further apart.

Hmmmm. Interesting that QANTAS has decided to use the classic Holden bench seat configuration. I suppose it work for busses and trains.

How can I put this delicately......It's going to be interesting to press thighs/rub butts for 9+ hours with a complete stranger...must admit I do prefer a prefer a more defined seat cushion...

Wow, they have seats that will recline? Who'd have thought. Be some punch ups on these planes then, won't there be!

The seat itself looks an excellent design and the extra 1" of pitch is great. However the measurement of seat width is misleading as it's taken between the inside of the armrests and this means that by reducing the thickness of the armrest you make the measured width of the sest bigger. It is in no way a figure for comparison.

@John Phelan  LCC Scoot's 787-8s have a 3-3-3 config in Y with a seat pitch of 31" but widths between 18.9 & 19.7"

While 9 across economy may have become an industry "standard", it is putting an extra seat per row in an aircraft designed for 8 across.
That is the problem people have with the 9 across.

Qantas' 32" bring it into line with the long-haul standard - its nothing to be commended on. Its width (17.2" on 9-abreast means the armrests will be very narrow) being compared against the A380 is also a red herring - the industry standard A380 Economy class seat is precisely 18.5" - Qantas employs a full inch below that, and is clearly downsizing again on the B787. Are you incapable of critically analysing Qantas objectively?

I long ago accepted the 9-abreast 787 cabin, but why does it have to be 3-3-3? Why not 2-5-2? The benefits to the latter are obvious - there are only 18 "true" middle seats, whereas in the 3-3-3 there are 54 (using 18 full rows for 162 seats, the four outliers to reach QF's stated 166 Y seats have their own pros and cons). I know...makes the aisles easier to navigate when walking/pushing trolleys between classes, but really, I find the 3-3-3 to be salt on the wound.

Any chance you could translate inches into cm for those of us who do not live in America?

boy I  hope those seats are memory foam as would not like to have a 14hr flight sitting on them.... they look so thin and the arm rests look totally uncomfortable and I am sure there will be a fight over who gets their arm on the internal ones!!lol

SJ: in case you don't have google: 1 inch = 2.54cm

Looking at the photo

Thanks for the review. I think the seat in front should be fully reclined as well to give a true idea of space(or lack of it).It has been proven that cramped conditions like this are unhealthy; Qantas should care for its customers more than its shareholders and management. There was more room on our recent China Southern flight (economy) Sydney to Guangzhou.

PS A foot rest should have been included

MT: There is a footnet, (a la A380 style) but not mentioned in this article. Also not mentioned is an additional (mood/reading) light for pax use located in the seatback under the avod screen pointing down on to your lap area, so minimal light disturbance for neighbouring pax during the night. (as the ceiling reading lights light up everyone/everything around you). Reference Qantas 787 mini site.

For those wondering: we expect to be on the delivery flight of the first Qantas Boeing 787 from Seattle at the end of next year (and no, there's no date set as yet) and we plan to spend some of that long flight sitting in economy as well as premium economy, so as to give both seats a bit of a real-world trial. Of course, nothing's going to replace doing a full 12-14 hr flight in a seat, but first things first..!

I hope they put this seat on the A380's when they finally announce it. I believe it will give Qantas a much better reputation.

The 3-3-3 layout on Etihad's 787 ex BNE gets very bad reviews with many pax saying it's unsuitable for long haul flights.  Hope Qantas hasn't made the same mistake as the so called 'industry std' or not, passengers will vote with their feet.

Thank you FLX for your detailed analysis of my post.  I wonder if you've had a look at the reviews published by skytrax?   I did and thus chose EK for my recent BNE-DXB-MAN flight.     

Sorry to be in the minority, but this is still awful. I wouldn't attempt to fly this on any flight over 8 hours, and that would still be torture.  The seats are too thin, which I guess is where the extra inch has come from.  Do you really want to fly 17 hours on that seat.  I think not.