I’d like to nominate Philippine Airlines for the award of “worst flat bed business class seat offered by a full service airline.” It really boggles the mind that anyone signed off on this product. I’d also like to introduce you to my seat mate’s feet (fortunately he’s wearing socks).
Philippine Airlines takes top & bottom seats to a new low
I’m currently flying Philippine Airlines home from Japan to the United States — my Osaka (KIX) to Manila (MNL) flight is operated by an Airbus A330-300, while I’m connecting to the carrier’s new flagship Airbus A350-1000.
Look, I don’t want to be too much of a diva, as my A330 flight was under four hours long. It’s not like I suffered, or anything. However, I judge airplane seats based on the competitive landscape, and that’s the lens through which I’m viewing this. Let me also emphasize that Philippine Airlines has two versions of the A330, and the other one is much better. But gosh, as far as flat bed business class seats go, this one really sucks.
In the past I’ve written about what I consider to be the world’s worst business class seats. Royal Air Maroc’s Boeing 787-8 business class seat made the list. It feels a little bit like sleeping on an ironing board, and each pair of seats are in a “top and bottom” configuration, where one passenger essentially towers over the other when reclined. Clearly Philippine Airlines was like “hmmm, that looks great, but how can we make that seat even worse?”
“How about we get rid of the seat back entertainment?” Check!
“How about we make the seats even tighter, given the A330’s narrower fuselage?” Check!
“Can we place the power port a little more inconveniently, so that you’re guaranteed to knock it with your arm any time you try to use it?” Check!
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’d rather just have a regional recliner seat without a flat bed over this product.
Nothing about this product makes any sense
Okay, so there’s literally nowhere to place anything in this configuration. Like, for the pre-departure drink service, everyone had to take their tray tables out, because there’s no other logical place to put a drink.
And even the tray table is awful. It basically rests on the far armrest with a margin of around one centimeter, so if you even slightly push it forward, it just plops down and falls, so that it’s at a pretty rough angle, and potentially knocks around anything on the tray.
They didn’t install seat back entertainment, but there is streaming entertainment (and in business class they give you a tablet). Great… but where are you supposed to actually place the device? There’s no personal device holder. Yes, you can put it on your tray table, but a) that keeps falling down and b) that means you can’t actually watch anything while eating.
There’s just nowhere to store or place anything, and everything is so tight that I kept seeing people knock things over. Two different people dropped their phones into the side of their seats, because there’s just nowhere to even place them.
As I hinted at above, there is a power port at the seat, but it’s at a 90-degree angle to the seat, and roughly at the height where your arm would be. For example, I was trying to charge my laptop with a “brick” charger, and I couldn’t help but keep knocking it over and over, given the angle and lack of seat width. That says nothing of the fact that the charger just falls out every two seconds because of how loose it is. And let’s not even talk about the cabin’s condition…
Anyway, thanks for indulging me. This is all embarrassing, and I hope my flight on the brand new A350-1000 is better. On the plus side, the crew was absolutely lovely, so no fault at all to them for this. If only the hard product matched their kindness and warmth…
Bottom line
Philippine Airlines managed to take my least favorite flat bed business class seat and somehow make it worse. Ultimately it’s not like this was the worst ride for a fairly short flight, but I just don’t understand how anyone could possibly sign off on this product.
Like, was the person in charge thinking “this is great, our customers will love it?” Or “meh, this sucks, but who cares?” Or…?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a poorly executed seat in terms of functionality. There’s nowhere to put anything, the whole thing feels insanely tight and bare bones, and it just makes me wish I were on one of those A321s with standard recliners.
Honestly, matters were probably made worse by the fact that I was on “bottom,” and the guy next to me was pretty gassy. Anyway, I’m sure the Manila ground experience will be lovely, and more than make up for this… right?
Am I the only one who hates these Philippine Airlines A330 business class seats?
Watch out for critiquing PAL, otherwise the TD of PAL aka Darryl will come out and attack you.