Premium Economy. Why?

[Robmn]

Depends on how long your legs are.

I think is was because I could still stretch out and not get tangled up with the next person.

r

 

[smckay]

I'm a self funded traveller who makes nil business trips per year and has no status. For me, I prefer Y+ on long haul (+12hrs) as I cannot stand sitting akin to being in a sardine can for that long.
I've travelled both QF and VS Y+ and there is a marked difference. QF would be the benchmark for service and amenities. However, their pricing kills it (Red Roo....) and I would not pay more than a 50% premium over Y.
VS Y+ is a typical economy with bigger seats deal. No noise cancelling headphones, meals are barely better than cattle class and it it not that much to rave about. Seats are rotten and the A340 is a noisy sucker.

My next flight I would like to be Y+ but unless we can get to Europe for ~$3,000 each then we'll go Y and just deal with it. 4 Big Ones buys a lot of King sized beds and I'll get more good nights sleep in them than 1 night on a plane.

I don't care too much about the priority thing, or pre flight drinks; my main need on a plane is a comfy seat, beer(s) and the ability to sleep. TV annoys me and I'd much rather read a book, especially when the screen is smaller thqan my laptop and I'd just stick a DVD in that.
So the challenge as I see to all airlines is to offer a slightly upmarket product at a more competitive price. I would take the option of choosing my upgrades, and would place a big chair/bed as #1 over anything else. Some tastier eats would be next and then a grog choice.

SO to answer the OP question of Why? If it were priced right and the seat was good I'd take it all day but otherwise we'd be up the back

 

[ckck]

I have flown Qantas PE to/from LAX and now I don't want to go back to Y for long haul. I am self funded and these tickets I bought for a holiday and felt a little self indulgent when I did so. Being short (about 160cm) and petite the extra room was perfect for me. I don't eat much on planes as going hungry helps reset my body clock (only have a meal for dinner and then breakfast in am or other local time appropriate meals - no snacks and no alcohol.) The window seat on the A380 is great with your own personal inflight storage "locker".

I bought my tickets on special, can't remember how much for the LAX return leg was but all up I paid just over $3000 for return flight to LAX in PE and one way to JFK in Y and connecting flight from SEA-LAX on Alaskan in Y. I was happy with what I paid for what I received in return. Service was great on Qantas. Leaving the plane from the top deck of the A380 took minutes, once the door was opened the queue just moves there was no standing around.

I would most definitely travel in PE again albeit I wouldn't pay full price but very happy to pay the $ if I find a good deal.






I don't do jetlag.

 

[Davidjseidel]

Easily determined by things such as the menu... which would have been very large and said 'business class'

Well, duh, yeah, but i don't think it did say BC pretty sure it was PE. Didn't take much notice as had planned to sleep anyway while I could. The seat went pretty much flat and i am well over 6 ft had plenty room and was surprised it was better than i expected for PE. So concensus is i got J seat? What will typical 380 or other such flights syd lhr have as seating for PE?
Haven't done many bus class on Q but plenty on UA etc this was better than that

 

[wilco]

Well, duh, yeah, but i don't think it did say BC pretty sure it was PE. Didn't take much notice as had planned to sleep anyway while I could. The seat went pretty much flat and i am well over 6 ft had plenty room and was surprised it was better than I expected for PE. So concensus is i got J seat? What will typical 380 or other such flights syd lhr have as seating for PE?
Haven't done many bus class on Q but plenty on UA etc this was better than that

Flights operated by a 4 class aircraft and sold as 3 will have a cosmetic reconfiguration. First class (rows 1-4) will be sold as Business class with seats allocated to WP's and SG's. The forward Business cabin (row 23-26) and the upper deck Business cabin (row 11-18) are also sold as Business and allocated to anyone. The rear Business cabin (Row 29-30) is sold as Premium economy and allocated to WP's and SG's. Premium economy (row 34-35) are sold as Premium economy. The rear Premium economy cabin (row 36-39) are sold as Economy and allocated to WP's and SG's and the remaining Economy cabin (rows 51 to 75) are sold as Economy.

This applies to all of the 747-400ER's and the 14F/66J/40W/187Y configuration non ER's. Im not certain, but I dont think they send any other configurations on flights with no sold F, unless its a last minute substitution.

as for what you can expect in PE: Flying with Qantas | International Premium Economy | A new standard of international travel (just a hint, this is easily found with a little bit of effort)

 

[fjc]

That's where even a short term subscription to E/F or KVS comes in handy.

I plan my long haul routings based on issues such as available seating.

Thanks Serfty. I signed up this afternoon with free subscription. How accurate are the seat maps? For example, if I can see a particular seat on say SYD-LHR, then go straight into QF to book what are my chances that that seat is still available?

 

[serfty]

If you have entered your SG QFF number correctly into the profile than there is a good chance; for international flights I have found it quite reliable.

E/F will show the actual allocated seats; those showing as available generally are & those blocked may or may not be accessible.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well, duh, yeah, but i don't think it did say BC pretty sure it was PE. Didn't take much notice as had planned to sleep anyway while I could. The seat went pretty much flat and i am well over 6 ft had plenty room and was surprised it was better than i expected for PE. So concensus is i got J seat? What will typical 380 or other such flights syd lhr have as seating for PE?
Haven't done many bus class on Q but plenty on UA etc this was better than that

Yup - you either scored an operational upgrade, or if you are sure the menu said PE then as Wilco suggests, you were lucky to score a business class seat which had been rezoned as premium economy.

If you take a look at airliners.net you can see some pictures of PE seating (search for either Qantas 747 or A380 + cabin interiors).

At the moment one of the main routes for to get business seats sold as PE is on the SYD-DFW flight. But worth noting that on those flights, the rear PE cabin is sold as economy. So if you can forego the upgraded meal that you get in PE, you can get all the other benefits for a much lower fare. (When I did the flight I noticed the rear PE cabin still had noise cancelling headphones and the PE blankets and pillows).

 

[Stargazer]

Hi,

could I get some clarity around a recent post by Wilco.

What I currently do is buy 2 Y seats, which only costs you roughly 1.5 times as much, because you dont pay the taxes on the second seat, and select the A and C seats. Sometimes QF is nice enough to block the B seat meaning on flights to LHR, $3k gets me a decent rest, that you could only dream of getting in PE at $4K. And you earn double points and SC's to boot.

1. Why aren't taxes applicable on the second seat???

2. If you select seats A and C because you want more space -- what if the airline puts someone into seat B. Haven't you then lost the advantage of two seats. (I do understand that you might be fortunate and the airline blocks seat B. But what if this doesn't happen?)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi,

could I get some clarity around a recent post by Wilco.



1. Why aren't taxes applicable on the second seat???

2. If you select seats A and C because you want more space -- what if the airline puts someone into seat B. Haven't you then lost the advantage of two seats. (I do understand that you might be fortunate and the airline blocks seat B. But what if this doesn't happen?)

booking an A and C seat has problems on QF who will often manage the booking to put you close together. this can even happen for two passers on the same PNR. my sister and her friend travelled to London, used on line check in and reserved A and C. when they got to the airport they were given boarding passed for B and C. on asking why they were told by check in that their booking had been reviewed, they had seen what they were trying to do (keep middle free) and qf felt that was an unfair use of seating... and so they freed up the window to give to someone else!! (the flight was not packed, but was reasonably full... but there were spare seats dotted around the cabin).

my sister has no status, nor did her friend, so it might be different if two platinums, or golds were to try that trick, but certainly for bronze it failed miserably

 

[MarkD]

Don't get double points or sc either

 

[markis10]

Taxes etc are levied per person, not per seat, so they are not applicable for a second seat purchase.

 

[Robmn]

booking an A and C seat has problems on QF who will often manage the booking to put you close together. this can even happen for two passers on the same PNR. my sister and her friend travelled to London, used on line check in and reserved A and C. when they got to the airport they were given boarding passed for B and C. on asking why they were told by check in that their booking had been reviewed, they had seen what they were trying to do (keep middle free) and qf felt that was an unfair use of seating... and so they freed up the window to give to someone else!! (the flight was not packed, but was reasonably full... but there were spare seats dotted around the cabin).

my sister has no status, nor did her friend, so it might be different if two platinums, or golds were to try that trick, but certainly for bronze it failed miserably

When I had A and C that was done manually at check in at JFK. the seats were I think about the last 3 seater down the back of a 744 - There were very few pax JFK -LAX and each pax had at least 3 or 4 seats each hence a good sleep. At Lax they still didn't load or change our seating.

Not sure how you would be able to achieve this online.

r

 

[Stargazer]

Taxes etc are levied per person, not per seat, so they are not applicable for a second seat purchase.

Does this work for both classic and any seat awards.


Is there a particular procedure which needs to be followed or do you simply book the two seats (under the one name) and the system will automatically allocate taxes to one seat only?

 

[VintageDom]

I recently flew PE SYD-BKK on QF and returned PE on BA. The fare was on sale.
Having experienced the QF service, food, amenities on the way over, the return sector on BA was a dismal disappointment - to be polite.
BA left so much to be desired in terms of service and food that I felt genuinely ripped off even though the price for the return journey was good value.
BA PE consisted of a slightly larger seat and nothing more, so regardless of price, definitely not worth it on that airline.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Does this work for both classic and any seat awards.


Is there a particular procedure which needs to be followed or do you simply book the two seats (under the one name) and the system will automatically allocate taxes to one seat only?

see post #74

 

[Stargazer]

You need to call QF and possibly a TA can also do it but QF need to know, they have a dedupe process that checks bookings for duplicates and cancels them when found, I had an instance where I was holding two SIN-SYD booking on the same day on different flights and I was told one needed to be changed or it would be cancelled, which was quite annoying!

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Do you have to do the booking through Qantas or can you do the booking online and then ring Qantas and advise that you have booked two seats?

I understand that you can earn frequent flyer points for BOTH seats but only status credits for the one seat. Is that correct?

 

[Happy Trails]

I recently flew PE SYD-BKK on QF and returned PE on BA. The fare was on sale.
Having experienced the QF service, food, amenities on the way over, the return sector on BA was a dismal disappointment - to be polite.
BA left so much to be desired in terms of service and food that I felt genuinely ripped off even though the price for the return journey was good value.
BA PE consisted of a slightly larger seat and nothing more, so regardless of price, definitely not worth it on that airline.

I’m not a particular fan of BA WT+ either, but how recent was your flight? They’ve reportedly just upgraded the F&B to something approximating CW fare. It’s received some positive reviews on FT.
I was looking forward to trying it on BA10 two weeks ago but, as it happened, was op-upped to CW.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

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Do you have to do the booking through Qantas or can you do the booking online and then ring Qantas and advise that you have booked two seats?

I understand that you can earn frequent flyer points for BOTH seats but only status credits for the one seat. Is that correct?

you need to call qantas

 

[Fifa]

At the moment one of the main routes for to get business seats sold as PE is on the SYD-DFW flight. But worth noting that on those flights, the rear PE cabin is sold as economy. So if you can forego the upgraded meal that you get in PE, you can get all the other benefits for a much lower fare. (When I did the flight I noticed the rear PE cabin still had noise cancelling headphones and the PE blankets and pillows).

We flew DFW-SYD last month and selected the PE seats (paid for Y).
Unfortunately we didn't get noise cancelling headphones but did get the PE blanket and pillow. Wish it was the other way around