The best Business Class seats for privacy

When travelling alone, often the most pressing issue when booking your ticket is the privacy your seat offers.

Whether it’s to sleep, work or relax, having your own private bubble can make the flight that much more comfortable and distraction-free.

Not all Business Class seats are made equal, however. Here we take a look at which offer the most privacy.

Reverse Herringbone seating is probably the most popular configuration for privacy. Seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, with the window seats facing toward to window and the middle seats facing inwards. As the name suggests, the arrangement of the seats looks very similar to the skeleton of a fish.

Reverse Herringbone seating on American Airlines' B787 Business Class

This configuration is a common Business Class configuration, featuring on airlines such as Qatar Airways, Air Canada, Air France, American, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Turkish Airlines, and many more.

Reverse Herringbone seating is very private, as everyone is facing away from one another.

Cathay Pacific's Business Class seat

The Apex suite, while usually consisting of 6/7 seats in a row (compared to the usual 4 with the Herringbone configuration), offers one of the most private window seats of any airline. This seat is available on Korean Air, Japan Airlines, and Oman Air, among others.

Oman Air’s Business Class cabin is arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration, with window seats facing each other, although separated by a partition. Window seats have their own private walkway to the aisle, meaning you don’t have to clamber over your neighbour.

Oman Air's Business Class offers the Apex suite Qantas' Business Class on its A380 is also arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration, meaning passengers will always have a neighbour.

Qantas' A380 Business Class window seats British Airways’ Business Class has as many as 8 eight seats across on certain aircraft, arranged in either a 2-3-2 or 2-4-2 configuration. This means some seats face each other, although a partition can be raised to separate the seats.

Business Class on British Airways' A380

Solstys Style staggered seating is available on China Southern, Emirates, Thai Airways and Etihad. This arrangement sees seats configured in a staggered 1-2-1 layout. 'True' window seats, therefore, offer the most privacy.

Etihad’s Pearl Business seat on the Airbus A330

Etihad offers a staggered 1-2-1 layout, with middle seats separated by a large armrest, granting privacy to both seats.

Emirates' recently-

upgraded A380 Business Class cabin

is also laid out in a staggered 1-2-1 configuration, with the middle seats either right next to each other or separated by a wide armrest.

Emirates' Business Class on its A380 SAS’ Business Class is arranged in staggered in a 1-2-1 configuration. Again, a “true” window seats offer significantly more privacy.

SAS Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration On board its Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A380s, Singapore Airlines’ Business Class seats are neither herringbone nor staggered. Instead, Singapore Airlines offers a forward facing 1-2-1 configuration.

Singapore Airlines Business Class is in a 1-2-1 configuration