Business class seat guide Americas

In the third part of our series, we have compiled a summary of business class seats on airlines flying long haul out of the Americas

- TOM OTLEY

Welcome to our round-up of long-haul business class seats available on US airlines (plus LATAM - South America's largest carrier). In the last couple of issues we have looked at European airlines (November) and Middle East carriers (December-January). Asian carriers will be next month. As a reminder, here we are focusing on the seats available rather than service elements, such as food and drink, inflight entertainment, amenity products and whether there is wifi available onboard. In part this is because these elements change frequently, and often depend on the length of the flight sector, and also for reasons of brevity. If you visit businesstraveller.com you will find numerous reviews of most of the airlines here, and those aspects are discussed and assessed.

The good news for travellers is that the majority of airlines offering long-haul flights now have seats that recline fully flat in business class. Most airlines choose from one of several designs, and then, to a greater or lesser extent, add bespoke elements to those seats. This may mean just choosing a distinctive colour scheme to fit in with their brand, or it might mean adding a door to a seat and calling it a suite. The balance for the airline is how to stay price competitive while at the same time differentiating itself from competitors by offering a distinctive experience.

Air Canada

Air Canada's business class - which it calls Signature Class - has three types of seat, and with three different names, so it can get confusing. The first is found on some B777-300 aircraft, the B787 and A330s. This is a herringbone configuration of either 1-2-1 or 1-1-1 depending on the width of the aircraft.

Then there are the Studio Pods, which are the Collins Aerospace Vantage seat, and this Air Canada calls 'Classic Pod. It is a 1-2-1 or 1-2-2 configuration, with the seats staggered.