Premium economy is increasingly in demand, but does it make sense to spend on this "middle ground"?
Is it affordable to fly premium economy? what do you get with this ticket and is the price worth the difference in service?
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Premium economy is nothing new, indeed. It was introduced long before business class offered seats/bed, before the difference between business and tourist class was as marked as it is today. Never before, however, has the Y+ become the airlines' cash cow., never before in the last 24 months have we seen so many new seats pop up, and never before have passengers seemed so willing to invest the required difference between the classic Economy seat and these new seats.
Little space, many euros
On board an aircraft, the cm and grams are what make the difference. The more space a seat takes up, the fewer passengers a plane will be able to carry. The more a seat weighs, the more it will consume the plane and the less space there will be for passengers and cargo. Ergo the companies sell the premium economy ticket at a high price, and never before have passengers been willing to pay the extra charge. At the end of the day, however, we are talking about a few extra inches for legs and a few extra inches for seats and arms, partly because the service is often not very premium and very economy.
And in fact if you look at what it was called by Virigin Atlantic when they invented it in the mid-1990s it was just that the "Mid Class" while EVA called it "Economy Deluxe." Yesterday as well as today it was a marketing invention in response to companies who could not have employees travel in business, when I remember it business was not what we mean today.
Suffice it to say that it was BA who "invented" the armchairs/bed and its current "hideous" Club World Was the ultimate that could be found at the beginning of the millennium.
Very economy, little premium
I admit that I have not yet traveled in the premium economy on Emirates' A380 and so I miss the one that is regarded as "the best" of the new class, But this year I flew with different companies and although the situation has improved compared to the pre-pandemic world I am still of the opinion that it is not worth the investment required, or rather that the delta between Economy, Premium economy and Business needs to be carefully evaluated.
Just as with companies it is all about cm, for passengers everything must be a matter of euros. Because the ground product is economy, except for check-in at the business class counters that some carriers put as a benefit and priority boarding (after business), things, however, that if you hold status you would still have. In fact if you travel in PE there is no lounge access, which there is if you have status and travel in economy.
On board PE offers a more comfortable and spacious seat, a larger screen, but there is not a huge jump in terms of services and products offered. Many airlines today also have a section of the economy cabin called "comfort" where you only have a few extra inches for your legs, but everything else is the same as the rest of the passengers. This, on the other hand, is in my opinion a great choice to better hold up a 10-hour flight.
At the loyalty program level there may be bonuses in the accumulation of points in programs such as ITA Airways' Volare, BA, and Air France do not give more miles but allow more qualifying points for status, and this also affects the final decision.
Who relaunched premium economy
Of Emirates I have written, but for the Dubai carrier it was a first since A380 and 777 never had premium economy, other carriers on the other hand have installed or have announced installation of an upgrade to the offering. KLM, like EK, did not have it and now the premium comfort cabin is on all new planes and also aboard the 777s where it was placed. The new chairs are. arrived on board Swiss and shortly an evolution of the same Will arrive aboard Lufthansa.
ITA Airways was also added to the list this summer, ITA's premium economy has arrived along with the new A330/900neo and (perhaps) will also come aboard A350s delivered during summer 2022. The list is very long from Air France to JAL, Cathay to Qantas. Lots of new chairs will bloom in the coming months.
How much does it cost to fly in premium economy
So let's get to the point. How much does it make sense to "invest" for this seat? the differences in service are as I wrote, on land there is no or almost no difference in treatment. On board you should have a better food proposal and some kind of upgrade in treatment (glass and not plastic, small beauty and little more).
Obviously this article is not meant to be a statistical study, the price can vary depending on so many factors such as fill rate, seasonality, any offers, and much more. So I decided to give it a try today to book a ticket in June 2024 on some carriers offering PE from Italy with and without stopovers.
This is an example for flying under Christmas from Milan to New York with ITA Airways, remembering that ITA currently has PE on two models the old A330/200 and the new A330/900neo I say on the former I would never fly, on the latter I would make the decision based on price, obviously it has an impact even if you have status. Personally at this price I would choose between economy or business, I would not choose to fly premium.
On the contrary in this case with Air France from Milan to Tokyo I would choose to fly PE, because the difference is very little and the cost definitely affordable compared to the standard economy price.
In this example we can see even more diversity between flights on the same day and different carriers, for the same route. While the price of business class fluctuates really little, PE goes from €579 up to €1133.
In conclusion
At the right price it makes sense, but not beyond a certain level of spending and especially not when the cost is more than double the economy, obvious in my evaluation there is always also the duration of the flight, the type of aircraft and the need to accumulate more points. Do you like PE? leave me your opinion in the comments.
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