Over 20 years ago, the New York Times chronicled an all-too-frequent phenomenon while flying: passengers experiencing back pain as a result of the contortions required to make one’s way around the cabin. Since then, not much has changed; aches, pains and cramps can be a frustrating side effect of air travel. It’s one of the reasons countless airport shops feature products designed to relieve stress while in flight — and why electronic massage chairs abound near gates.
All of which makes recent news from Delta sound that much more appealing. As Zach Griff reports at The Points Guy, Delta plans to offer lumbar pillows and mattress pads to its business class travelers on some of its flights. To be more specific, they plan to offer a combination lumbar pillow/mattress — when folded up, it’s a lumbar pillow, and when fully extended, it’s a mattress pad.
As Griff reports, Delta is already adding this feature to Delta One seats — albeit only on ultra long-haul flights. As per Delta’s announcement, that translates to flights traveling over 6,000 miles — which includes a number of routes between various U.S. cities and the likes of Seoul, Tokyo, Cape Town and Auckland.
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From Turkish Airlines to Norwegian AirAccording to Griff’s analysis, Delta routes that involve traveling 6,000 miles or more include Atlanta to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Seoul, Tel Aviv and Tokyo; Detroit to Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo; Los Angeles to Auckland, Shanghai and Sydney; and Minneapolis/St. Paul to Seoul and Tokyo.
For anyone who’s struggled with back pain or trying to get a good night’s sleep on a flight, this news should be encouraging — even if the roll-out of this new feature is relatively limited for now.
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