American Airlines ups its pillow game by tossing in a mattress pad, duvet -- but only for first class

Way to taunt the rest of us.
 By 
Sasha Lekach
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

American Airlines is making in-flight sleep better for the folks who already have the best chance at a comfortable nap.

As if the rest of us flying back in coach didn't have it bad enough walking by all that leg room toward seat purgatory, now we'll have to uncomfortably squirm as we try to get some shut-eye knowing first and business class customers get a mattress pad, duvet, pillow, blanket, lumbar pillow, pajamas, and slippers.

The airline is partnering with mattress company Casper to offer the exhaustively engineered sleep accessories starting in December. Way to taunt the rest of us flying back in coach!

It remains to be seen if the fancy products can really improve in-flight sleeping, but Casper claims it went above and beyond to design and test these accessories. Its engineers studied the travel environment to create the blanket and duvet, and the pillow has hundreds of thousands of small fibers to get "the perfect balance of support and breathability." The prototype "dream" sleep products were also tested on the longest American flight: Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand.

The mattress pad does look like an improvement to the usual deflated airplane seat, especially since it smoothes over seat grooves, which are the worst.

But maybe those first class customers will still get a crick in their necks and have their ears pop mid-flight. At least there are still some annoyances both the haves and have-nots must suffer through.

Some things won't change, no matter the number of pillow fibers.

Topics Health

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Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.

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