Air New Zealand launches "bunk beds" called Skynest

You've got four hours to go. The teeny-tiny plane on the inflight map stopped somewhere near Hawaii. Sleep has been scarce. In fact, you only napped long enough to ensure you missed the ending of Tar. If only there was a better way. Thankfully, there will be.

Air New Zealand has just announced its next Dreamliners, due to land in 2024, will have a slew of new onboard products to make the 16 hours and 15 minutes it takes to fly from Auckland to New York City (or 15 hours to Chicago) a lot more comfortable. There are new Business Premier Luxe suites, with fully closing doors, and a Sky Pantry in economy and premium economy, so passengers can grab water or a snack whenever they need. But the big innovation is a pod of six bunks called Skynest. Economy passengers can book a bunk for a mid-flight four-hour kip.

"We wanted to offer our economy customers a lie-flat option and that's how Skynest was born," says Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran. "It's going to be a real game changer for the economy travel experience."

Each New Zealand-designed pod has a reading light, USB outlet, ventilation and a flat bed, with sheets changed between passengers. It's anticipated a pod session will cost between NZ$400 ($372) and NZ$600.

"It looks exciting," says I Fly Flat's Steve Hui. "It gives you the ability to fly economy and pay a little bit more to have a sleep on board. It's super attractive because that's why people choose to fly business class."

Hui also thinks having the option of flying to the US east coast without an LAX transit will attract many Australian travellers.

Brandon Loo of Point Hacks agrees, adding Skynest is one of the most innovative cabin products he's seen in a decade.

"Many airlines will be keeping a close eye on how it's received by passengers," he predicts. "It's such a major paradigm shift that I don't see the uptake [among other airlines] to be huge initially - as a whole, airlines are quite risk-averse when it comes to reducing the number of seats on a plane."

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But because these very long flights are often weight restricted, the stacked bunks make sense as a space filler. "We could eventually see an economy sleep pod product such as Skynest rocket in popularity," says Brandon.

For him, though, it's Air New Zealand's Economy Skycouch, where a row of economy seats can be turned into a lie-flat bed, that has changed the game: "I'd even go as far to say I'd prefer it to the Skynest in theory, because the Skycouch is yours for the whole flight. Air New Zealand has licensed the Skycouch to several other non-competing carriers, such as Azul Brazilian Airlines - we could see the same with Skynest."