I have recently flown back to Iloilo from Manila with Cebupacific Airlines and I was pleased with how the newly fitted seats looked like (I do not know if these were new plane orders or if they were retrofitted with the new seats). Aside from looking less bulky and more streamlined, the best feature I think is the addition of USB charging ports on the seats. There are 4 USB charging ports (2 ports each located at the bottom of the movable armrest between the aisle and middle seat, and another one between the middle seat and the window seat) in front of the passenger's seat shared between 3 users per side. The ports emit a green glow happily announcing their presence and are easily noticeable.
 |
| The USB charging ports clearly visible in front of the seat |
It is interesting to note though that the location of these USB charging ports doesn't seem to be consistent on all of their planes. On the flight back, I encountered a slight variation (but has a big impact on the usability of the feature by passengers), in which the USB ports were now located at the bottom of the movable shared armrest in your own seat. I initially thought that the particular plane didn't have the charging ports installed yet but I heard the crew proudly announce the new addition via the public address system after the safety demonstration.
 |
| These USB ports are hidden away at the bottom of your own row of seats |
This makes using them awkward since you will have to search for them by feel. They also seem not to be as aesthetically pleasing with the white plastic housing not present. It seems to me that it is an odd design choice not to fit them all on the front like the one on my previous flight.
 |
| The new seats are fixed on a comfortable angle and cannot be reclined further. |
Another improvement, in my opinion, is that these new seats cannot be reclined (and is instead pre-reclined in a comfortable angle - or at least we were told that by the flight crew when they were announcing the benefits of the new seats). Of course, I can imagine that this makes the job of the flight crew much easier during takeoff and landing since they do not need to constantly remind people to return their seats on the upright position. For the passengers, this is also good so you avoid situations wherein the person in front of you suddenly recline their seats while you are in the middle of a meal (some of the aircraft tray table design doesn't actually move with the seat but it can be disconcerting when the person in front does sudden adjustments).
No comments