Item — HN Reader

I get the hate, but I find this semi-interesting. I flew business recently and the airline had a '3d' walkthrough of their cabin (i.e. 360deg photos at multiple points), a bit like property market listings where you have to press a bunch of arrows to move around. It may seem daft, and you may not be able to imagine someone using this in its current iteration, but I reckon as VR-wear becomes less clunky, stuff like this will be really useful. There are many air (and airmile) hobbyists and frequent flyers who like this stuff. So, hm, I guess people should just be a bit more generous with their good-faith tech curiosity instead of pouring hate?

EDIT: to expand a bit on why I like these walkthroughs in general: if I'm gonna spend a significant amount of money it's really useful to see what I'm getting for it. Unlike real-estate, you can't see an airline cabin unless you've already purchased the ticket and are fully committed. It's really that simple. Also if it's a rare joy, it's nice to build up a bit of excitement with these walkthroughs. Maybe that's dumb.

4 comments

> but I reckon as VR-wear becomes less clunky, stuff like this will be really useful.

The thing is, I can already get a really good overview of the interior of the plane I'm gonna fly on, based on the actual textures and natural lighting, by doing a quick search on youtube.

It doesn't matter how less clunky the interface gets, when I can already get the same result with no added interface at all.

And as a frequent flyer with a preferred airline you probably know with a fair bit of granularity what seating options are like.

I'm all for potential novelty on a long plane flight and I'm sure I would fiddle with it for 30 minutes at least but it doesn't really draw me either.

I don't think the intention is that potential passengers would ever experience this. It's for "partners" and training.

And then reality hits: they will change the plane and all you've seen before buying becomes invalid. Swiss (a Lufthansa group member) makes you pay for your reserved seat, then constantly changes it at will - I fly with them often and I can't remember one single time where I kept the reserved place. So yes, it's a pointless PR exercise.

Agree. It’s a little embarrassing, but when booking flights, I do spend some time finding out which seat may be the best for my taste and seatguru.com isn’t always enough. So this could be helpful.

Also, we need experiments with new tech to find out if and how to use it. Why not have an airline give it a go?