Airlines Are Now Letting You Preview Your Seat
Iberia shows a 360° preview for every seat during booking. Qatar's QVerse goes further with animated cabin tours. Here's a look at both and why it matters.
Anyone who's spent time trying to figure out whether a specific row has a little extra room, or whether a particular bulkhead actually takes away your under-seat storage, knows the drill. Seat maps get you most of the way there but aren't really showing you exactly what you're getting.
A few airlines are starting to fix that.
Iberia: Per-Seat 360° Previews Built Into Booking
I came across this while booking a business class award from Madrid to Boston. During seat selection, there's an option to preview the cabin in 360°. What makes it actually useful rather than just a gimmick is that the view is specific to the seat you're looking at. Click a bulkhead row and you see the bulkhead. Click row 6 and you see row 6. You get the cabin sightlines, what's in front of you, window spacing and a really valuable look at how the space lays out.
Airlines have always used cabin renders for marketing, but those always show the best seat at the best angle in the best light. A per-seat 360° preview shows you what you're actually selecting.
On a premium booking where you're spending real miles or money, that's worth a few minutes of your time. Even more so with many airlines like Lufthansa taking approaches where business class seats are very different across the same cabin.
I spotted this during business class seat selection and can't confirm whether it shows up across all cabins on all routes, but look for it next time you're booking Iberia. It appears during the seat selection step.
Qatar QVerse: The More Ambitious Version
Qatar has been running their QVerse experience for a while and it goes further than a 360° photo. It's a fully animated virtual tour of the Qsuite business class product and the premium check-in area at Hamad International. It's complete with effects like night mode, meal service, and lighting changes.
Here's the premium check in area where you start:
And for fun, a comparison with the real thing:
Here's an example of the (virtual) onboard product:
And the real thing:
The two tools solve slightly different problems. Iberia's is built into the booking flow and gives you row-by-row specificity. Qatar's is a standalone experience that gives you a feel for their overall product without being tied to a specific seat number. If you're researching a Qatar booking and haven't flown Qsuites before, a few minutes in "QVerse" gives you a decent sense of the product.
Why This Is Worth Paying Attention To
Exact seat specifics have always existed in scattered form - FlyerTalk posts, trip reports, seat-specific photos and so on. But that requires knowing where to look, and hoping someone flew your exact aircraft and shared content that answers your questions.
A solution like Iberia's built into the booking flow is a really nice user experience addition and is one I hope more airlines adopt. Other than Qatar, I'm not aware of other airlines offering a similar product. I hope that changes.