Defining Luxury in First and Business Class
Luxury: it’s a word often bandied about, and one that comes loaded with preconceptions or cross-cultural weighting, with different perceptions from various types of passengers that mean designing it into the cabin can be complex. Let’s dive into the intricacies, in the context of hard product, soft product, and the product in between.
Breaking up the expanses of airline greige that match the walls, and ceiling can add a real upmarket feel, but while wood effect and laminates can have an impressive effect if used carefully, overused they can come across as outré, blingy or cheap.
One growing trend is to use fabrics, foams, leathers, artificial leathers and other non-thermoplastic elements in the seat. Moving them beyond the covers and behind-the-head shrouding area can bring both a sense of luxury and a real boost to cabin noise reduction.
Soft product — bedding, pillows, additional cushions, amenity kits, food and drink, and so on — brings different challenges when it comes to luxury. To start with, quite literally, its initial on-the-seat presentation is important and often overlooked. The veritable mountain of a half dozen pieces (a big pillow, a small cushion, a duvet, a separate blanket, a mattress pad, slippers, pajamas, an amenity kit...) is to be avoided, especially if several of the elements are industrially wrapped in plastic. This doesn’t feel luxurious, and presents the passenger with a problem: I already have a carry-on and a personal item, so what do I do with all this stuff during takeoff and landing, and then during the flight?
If specific elements can be stored elsewhere and presented during the flight, this is a good way to reduce the mountain and create the opportunity for a pleasant interaction with the crew. Duvets, say, can be stored in the overhead bins, while pajamas and amenity kits could be presented by the crew as they introduce themselves, and mattress pads kept in a pull-down overhead storage bin around the galley area to be given out when it’s time for bed — if, indeed, it’s an overnight flight.
Real care must be given to the look, feel and wear qualities of this soft product, especially around cushions, pillows and bedding. While plastic-based fibres can be tempting from a price and wear viewpoint, these rarely feel premium, with a few limited exceptions, and can look tatty over time, particularly in lighter shades. Crisp, clean cottons are ideal, but pricier at the time of purchase, and overall natural fibres in general are superior.
In between hard and soft product sit elements like the seat covering, which needs to be considered at length during the design process, since it can either bring a sense of depth, luxury and comfort to the cabin or feel samey and lack either distinctiveness or distinction. It’s important that this both look and feel the part: luxurious, comfortable and tempting. Performance is vital, since nobody wants to feel sweaty or sticky, but texture and tactility is also important, whether that’s for a hand brushed across the seat pan, a cheek snoozing against the headrest, or an elbow resting on an armrest covered in the same material.
All these elements need to be brought together as a design whole to give a continuity of experience. There are multiple ways to do this, from keeping to neutrals, collating everything within a specific set of brand colourways, accent elements like piping, or allowing signature elements such as a throw cushion, blanket or amenity kit to pop with bright or rich colours. Yet with these varying elements often coming under different organisational silos within an airline (product vs service, say) it’s more important than ever to join the dots to create an experience that adds real luxury in first and business.