Redefining Business Class, Upwards and Downwards
A movement is gathering pace around the redefinition of business class in hard product — beyond the soft product and ancillary benefits changes around marketing and distribution, as we’ve seen in previous initiatives like business-light lead-in fares or “basic business” offerings.
At the upper end we see initiatives like the front-row business-plus product, which many airlines are trying to figure out how to market. Is it, as with previous better-than-most-seats options, an ancillary buy-up purely on space and comfort basis — think Swiss’ Thompson Vantage “throne” seats? Is it more the Qantas example where the front row and its slightly improved footwell space is held for high-tier precious-metal frequent flyer cardholders.
Or is it something else entirely, as seen in examples like the Virgin Atlantic A330-900neo Retreat Suite (the “first class for free” Vantage Suite part of the Thompson Vantage XL+ product first débuted by Shanghai Airlines in 2018) and the Lufthansa Allegris Business Suite (produced by Stelia Aerospace for its A350-900 launch platform)?
By and large, these new products come with very little additional soft product: Virgin offers an extra cushion (the pleasing John Horsfall-produced blue-and-red one from the A350 Loft lounge space), while Lufthansa has a tiny extra snack menu.
What they offer is space and privacy that really pushes the limit of business class towards first. Genuinely, from a hard product perspective, and from someone who’s flown them both, the Allegris Business Suite is superior to Lufthansa’s previous generation of first-class product, and while Virgin doesn’t offer a first class the Retreat Suite is superior to its main competitor British Airways’ previous-generation first class offering.
At the other end of the spectrum come products like Zipair Tokyo, the widebody low-cost carrier arm of Japan Airlines, which offers transpacific long-haul and intra-Asia short- and medium-haul flights. Branding itself as a “new basic airline”, Zipair offers a Jamco Venture outward facing herringbone seat onboard its 787-8 aircraft that is very similar in hard product terms to an earlier generation JAL product — except, crucially, without seatback inflight entertainment screens.
One of the interesting elements of both the upper end and lower end redefinition of business class is that they are very rarely differentiated via colour, materials and finish (CMF).
At the lower end, the wider JAL group isn’t directly cross-selling JL-coded flights and Zipair Tokyo’s product, and the Zipair barebones product is matched by the austere, corporate-feeling business class that’s certainly reminiscent of other Japanese travel and hospitality experiences, such as the Green Car business class equivalent on corporate-heavy rail routes, or a mid-range corporate hotel.
The upper end, however, is an easier direct comparison, and is thus more of an issue: the Virgin Retreat Suite and Lufthansa Business Suite feature the same look and feel as the rest of the cabin, which feels like a missed trick. The airlines are hoping to persuade passengers to part with several hundred dollars, euros or pounds, respectively, for the upgrade to these products.
While there’s always the part count and added complexity to consider when making additions, there are certainly elements that are unique to this seat — so adding some extra pizzazz or some additional premium look-and-feel to the experience with a signature hard product element would be a relatively low-cost, high-impact change.