A futuristic suite aimed at 'Gen Zers and Tesla owners' — is this what's next for business class?

22.06.2024 - 19:41 / thepointsguy.com

Lie-flat seats. Direct aisle access. Suites with privacy doors. Entire onboard "apartments." It's safe to say business and first class have gone through an evolution.

Sure, an entire cabin with seats that convert to lie-flat beds was revolutionary when British Airways debuted it in 2000. Now, that's often the bare minimum travelers expect when flying up front.

And airlines keep pushing the envelope, from sliding doors like you'll find in JetBlue's Mint cabin (and on a growing number of other airlines, too) to fully closed-off private rooms like the stunning new first-class seats on Japan Airlines' new Airbus A350-1000.

Allow us to look 15 or 20 years into the future, though. What trendy new seat will be the ultimate redemption for your frequent flyer miles?

A recent trip to Europe offered some clues.

Inside a huge expo hall late last month in Hamburg, Germany, I watched as two companies unveiled what they see as the business-class suite of the future.

Housed in a dimly lit room with the authentic hum of jet engine white noise in the background, this futuristic pod named "Maya" certainly had the basics you'd expect today from any top-notch accommodations: a privacy door, a state-of-the-art lie-flat seat and plenty of storage.

But this pod also offers a lot more.

There's a curved 45-inch screen the companies say makes for a better movie-watching experience than the theater. And the whole entertainment system syncs to your phone.

Sensors adjust the seat based on your body temperature and pressure — a la the features you hear about in a commercial for a high-end mattress.

Not unlike the setup on Japan Airlines' new Airbus A350s, headrest speakers will allow you to listen to a movie or music without headphones. (But Maya is also equipped with Bluetooth.)

You can multitask with the ultra-wide screen, watching a 5K movie while you simultaneously plug in information about how much you want to sleep, eat and drink so the system can tailor the timing of your meal courses to your specific liking.

Sound like a seat you'd want to score for that next big redemption? Don't start transferring your points just yet.

Right now, Maya is simply a prototype — a concept born of a collaboration between Panasonic and Collins Aerospace.

Importantly, though, it's where these prominent aviation companies think business class is headed over the coming years.

"This is really focused on the millennials, the Gen Zers — the people who are driving Teslas," said Christophe Blanc, vice president and general manager for Collins' seat business.

Will Maya find its way onto a commercial plane a few years from now? It's up to airlines, which could just as easily say, "No thanks" — or make tweaks to it.

But seeing the ingenuity that produced