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Which Airlines Have Lie-Flat Business Class

98 of 110 scored business cabins go fully flat · 234 routes checked

Almost every long-haul business class sold today is advertised as lie-flat, and 89% of the 110 business cabins we have measured genuinely are. The useful question is the other one: where does an airline still fly a seat that doesn't go flat, and can it turn up on your booking?

What this page is not: a complete audit of any airline. We measure cabins on the 234 routes we track, and even there 55 aircraft types we have seen flying are not scored yet. So every line below is a statement about what we have measured, not about everything an airline flies. Where a cabin is missing a recline figure we say so rather than guess.

Cabins measured110
Measured flat98
Measured not flat11
Airlines affected6
Types unscored55

Airlines Flying a Business Cabin That Doesn't Go Flat6 airlines

The one thing on this page we can state without qualification: we have measured at least one business cabin from each of these airlines that does not recline to a flat bed. That is a positive finding, so it holds however much of the rest of their fleet we have scored.

Flat on Everything We've Measured4 airlines

Every business cabin we have measured for these airlines goes fully flat, and we have scored every aircraft type we observe them flying on our tracked routes. That is the strongest statement our data supports — it still says nothing about routes we don't track or aircraft we've never seen them operate.

Flat So Far, But We Haven't Seen Everything16 airlines

Every business cabin we have measured for these airlines is flat — but we have not scored every aircraft type we see them fly, so this is not a guarantee. The count next to each airline is exactly how far our coverage goes.

China Airlines3 cabins measured, all flat · 2 of 5 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 3 still unscored9.7Singapore Airlines6 cabins measured, all flat · 4 of 6 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 2 still unscored9.7Delta Air Lines7 cabins measured, all flat · 7 of 8 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 1 still unscored9.3Japan Airlines5 cabins measured, all flat · 5 of 6 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 1 still unscored9.3Lufthansa5 cabins measured, all flat · 3 of 8 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 5 still unscored9.3British Airways8 cabins measured, all flat · 5 of 7 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 2 still unscored9.2Korean Air7 cabins measured, all flat · 4 of 10 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 6 still unscored9.2Qatar Airways3 cabins measured, all flat · 2 of 6 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 4 still unscored9.2STARLUX Airlines2 cabins measured, all flat · 2 of 4 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 2 still unscored9.2KLM Royal Dutch Airlines3 cabins measured, all flat · 3 of 6 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 3 still unscored9.1United Airlines10 cabins measured, all flat · 8 of 12 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 4 still unscored9.1Air Canada2 cabins measured, all flat · 2 of 4 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 2 still unscored9.0Emirates4 cabins measured, all flat · 3 of 4 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 1 still unscored9.0EVA Air3 cabins measured, all flat · 3 of 5 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 2 still unscored8.8ITA Airways1 cabin measured, all flat · 1 of 2 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 1 still unscored8.7Thai Airways1 cabin measured, all flat · 1 of 8 aircraft types on tracked routes measured · 7 still unscored8.6

The Cabins That Don't Go Flat11

Every business cabin we have measured as not reclining to a flat bed, worst first. If your flight is operated by one of these, the “lie-flat business class” on the booking page is not what you booked. Cabins we haven't measured are listed separately below rather than assumed either way.

Routes Where You Might Not Get a Flat Bed20 routes

Tracked routes where flight data shows a business cabin that doesn't go flat actually operating. The percentage is the highest observed share for a non-flat cabin on that route — how often the risk is real, not theoretical.

HKG ICNHong KongSeoulAsiana Airlines Business Class · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)ICN TYOSeoulTokyoAll Nippon Airways ANA Business Cradle · Asiana Airlines Business Class · Asiana Airlines Business Class · Asiana Airlines Business ClassTPE TYOTaipei (Taoyuan)TokyoAll Nippon Airways ANA Business Cradle · Cathay Pacific Cathay BusinessKUL TYOKuala LumpurTokyoAll Nippon Airways ANA Business CradleNYC SFONew York CitySan FranciscoAlaska Airlines First Class · Alaska Airlines First ClassBKK KULBangkokKuala LumpurMalaysia Airlines Malaysia Airlines Business ClassICN TPESeoulTaipei (Taoyuan)Asiana Airlines Business ClassCGK HKGJakartaHong KongCathay Pacific Cathay Business · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)HKG MNLHong KongManilaCathay Pacific Cathay Business · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)HKG TYOHong KongTokyoAll Nippon Airways ANA Business Cradle · All Nippon Airways ANA Business Cradle · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)BKK TYOBangkokTokyoAll Nippon Airways ANA Business CradleICN KIXSeoulOsakaAsiana Airlines Business Class · Asiana Airlines Business Class · Asiana Airlines Business ClassHKG KULHong KongKuala LumpurMalaysia Airlines Malaysia Airlines Business Class · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)NYC SEANew York CitySeattleAlaska Airlines First Class · Alaska Airlines First ClassHKG SINHong KongSingaporeCathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)LAX NYCLos AngelesNew York CityAmerican Airlines First · Alaska Airlines First ClassHKG TPEHong KongTaipei (Taoyuan)Cathay Pacific Cathay Business · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)HKG KIXHong KongOsakaCathay Pacific Cathay Business · Cathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)BKK HKGBangkokHong KongCathay Pacific Cathay Business (Regional)SIN TYOSingaporeTokyoAll Nippon Airways ANA Business Cradle

Cabins We Haven't Measured1

These business cabins are in our catalogue but carry no recline or bed-length figure, so we can't say whether they go flat. They are excluded from every list above — an unmeasured cabin is not evidence that it isn't flat.

How We Decide What Counts

A cabin counts as lie-flat when its seat reclines to a fully horizontal bed. Angled-flat seats — the ones that recline a long way but leave you sliding downhill — do not count, and neither do cradle recliners, however generous the pitch. That is the same distinction the seat-dimension score uses: flat cabins are scored on bed length, everything else on recline angle. A cabin with neither figure on record is unclassified, never assumed.

The route percentages come from Flightradar24 flight history resolved to individual aircraft registrations, so they describe what has actually been flying rather than what is scheduled — on the 234 routes we track, which is not every route these airlines fly. Looking up a specific flight number gives the sharpest answer for a booking you are about to make.

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