Onboard LEVEL: what airlines can learn from IAG’s semi-hidden, long-haul low-cost — and low-effort — business class

Beyond the herringbone-at-recliner-prices surprise, LEVEL comes out as a missed opportunity for innovation in underserved geographic and pricing market segments

By John Walton 16 min read
Overhead view of an outward-facing herringbone seat: black and white plastics, grey seat cover, teal headrest cover

Spanish airline LEVEL — the long-haul, low-cost carrier from IAG, which these days is essentially the only IAG longhaul game from Barcelona — is a strange beast.

It doesn’t sell business class, but two of its seven A330-200 aircraft do actually have outward-facing herringbone business class seats. These are the ex-Virgin Australia Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats, inherited with the aircraft that Virgin shed in its 2020 restructuring.

Overhead view of an outward-facing herringbone seat: black and white plastics, grey seat cover, teal headrest cover with "Premium" on it, blue rolled blanket with a paper wrapper.
Throughout the flight — and indeed this review — I kept reminding myself that I paid a reasonable premium economy fare for this experience. Image: John Walton

LEVEL largely keeps these Super Diamond-equipped aircraft to certain routes (Boston, Miami, sometimes LA and Buenos Aires) and sells them as premium economy, making no visible booking or pricing differentiation from the recliner seats that are its standard advertised offering as Premium.

“Standard” is a bit of a misnomer there, mind, since three of the airline’s seven aircraft have non-standard seats, given there’s also an ex-Air Europa A330 with 2-2-2 lie-flat seats.

So what’s it like to fly — both the semi-secret business seats and the overall LEVEL experience? Read on.

The Up Front ReviewLEVELIAGLow-cost carriersLong-haul low-cost carriersAirbusA330ceoCollins AerospaceCollins Aerospace Super DiamondPremium Economy ClassBusiness Class
John Walton

Editor in chief of The Up Front, with two decades of experience reporting across the global aviation industry, specialising in business and first class, seats, cabins and the passenger experience.