Virgin Blue Unveils Red Leather ‘premium Economy’ A Seat With A Difference

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jazzamcc

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From Virgin Blue's website:

VIRGIN BLUE UNVEILS RED LEATHER ‘PREMIUM ECONOMY’ A SEAT WITH A DIFFERENCE

24 October 2007: Brisbane, Australia: Virgin Blue Airlines today announced at its Annual General Meeting in Brisbane, its latest product innovation under its New World Carrier strategy with the introduction of its red leather Premium Economy seat.
The first three rows of the airline’s Boeing aircraft will be fitted with red leather Recaro seats and both the Boeing and EMBRAER aircraft will offer the new Premium Economy product.
The introduction of a domestic premium product is a key component of the airline’s New World Carrier strategy which is aimed at catering to the needs of contemporary business travellers.
Virgin Blue Chief Executive, Brett Godfrey, made the announcement and unveiled demonstration models of the premium seats to shareholders attending the AGM.
He said, “Over the past two years, the airline has evolved into a highly desirable business travel option with the introduction of, our Loyalty program “Velocity”, The Lounge at major airports, flexible fares and other business friendly initiatives.”
“We expect our latest product enhancement to appeal to amongst others, the corporate and Government sectors as it will offer superior value for money and additional benefits for those who choose to book economy and prefer a premium product.
He continued, “From an operations point of view, it’s a smart solution, a convertible cabin which allows us to easily adapt seating to demand.”
Virgin Blue’s Premium Economy seats can be easily converted to offer a maximum of 12 premier seats or Virgin Blue’s standard 3 x 3 seat configuration.
Premium Economy will feature:
  • 2 x 2 seating versus current 3 x 3 seating on all Boeing aircraft
  • Comfortable leather seating with additional leg room through an increased seat pitch of at least 34 inches* as well as increased seat width, leading to significant gains in personal space and comfort. The middle seat on the Boeing effectively becomes a personal coughtail table for refreshments leaving the valuable window and aisle seats available for Premium Economy Guests (* A minor percentage of seats are at 33 inches and a much more significant proportion of seats are in excess of 34” seat pitch)
  • Full complimentary access to the 24 Foxtel Live2air In-Flight Entertainment Channels
  • Priority Check-in (or web-check in & Kiosk Check-in for those who prefer the efficient means of checking themselves in)
  • Increased checked baggage allowance of 32 kg
  • Complimentary access to The Lounge facilities in primary ports of Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney
  • Fully Flexible and fully refundable fares.
Brett Godfrey continued, “We have always been responsive to the requirements of our increasing number of corporate Guests whether it be the re-introduction of Canberra-Sydney flights, a new Lounge concept or our frequent flyer program Velocity.
“Launching a premium offering is another example of Virgin Blue’s evolution to suit their needs and we are confident the introduction of Premium Economy will meet the changing needs of Australian business travellers.”
Premium Economy will be competitively priced in the market in line with other airline’s fully flexible economy class tickets.
Installation of the seats will begin this year, with the entire fleet fitted out in time for the official launch of Premium Economy in 2008.
Virgin Blue’s existing Blue Zone seating featuring additional leg room in the over wing emergency exits will remain, however row one will become a convertible seat option so will no longer be available as Blue Zone.

I know there will be alot of happy people out there tonight!!:p
 
That should start to stir things up, good to see such a product being launched. This might be a good enough incentive to really get some business travellers across.

What sort of config will they be on the Embraer's? They make notes about the Boeing having extra width...
 
FINALLY.... something decent from Virgin! Another step closer to Star Alliance surely :p

Here's hoping it forces QF to drop it's business class prices - Yay!

Can't wait to see the new seat, hopefully its nice and comfy with loads of padding!
 
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oz_mark said:
What sort of config will they be on the Embraer's? They make notes about the Boeing having extra width...

They'll most likely remove a row and give the seats more pitch on the EMB's. They are already 2x2 so I doubt the seats will change.

I think this is a good plan by DJ that may assist with winning over some corporates.

Did anyone from AFF attend the DJ AGM?
 
Mal said:
I think this is a good plan by DJ that may assist with winning over some corporates.
I agree entirely, however think this is about 3-4 years later than desirable.
 
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Mal said:
They'll most likely remove a row and give the seats more pitch on the EMB's. They are already 2x2 so I doubt the seats will change.

I think this is a good plan by DJ that may assist with winning over some corporates.

Anything like this that can put some pressure on QF can only be good if it helps to keep their J fares under control. Some J fare prices are a bit outrageous these days, but refelective of what the market will bear. Maybe this can change things a bit.
 
Am I going completely crazy myself or has a similar thread to this started by crazydave98 completely disappeared.:confused:

I'm sure there was a discussion about the type of customer that this would lure from QF.

Oh well, I think I need to go to bed. I've been working too hard!
 
oz_mark said:
Anything like this that can put some pressure on QF can only be good if it helps to keep their J fares under control. Some J fare prices are a bit outrageous these days, but refelective of what the market will bear. Maybe this can change things a bit.
We can only live in hope.
 
Hawkeye said:
Am I going completely crazy myself or has a similar thread to this started by crazydave98 completely disappeared.:confused:

I'm sure there was a discussion about the type of customer that this would lure from QF.

Oh well, I think I need to go to bed. I've been working too hard!
No:- you are not crazy. DJ employee crazydave98 did start a thread today on red seats. I read it a few hours ago. Perhaps admin considered it a commercial post. I have just done a search, but it's gone.
 
Hawkeye said:
Am I going completely crazy myself or has a similar thread to this started by crazydave98 completely disappeared.:confused:

I'm sure there was a discussion about the type of customer that this would lure from QF.

Oh well, I think I need to go to bed. I've been working too hard!
If you're going crazy, so am I.
There was a thread and it's completely disappeared :confused::?::confused:
 
Mwenenzi said:
No:- you are not crazy. DJ employee crazydave98 did start a thread today on red seats. I read it a few hours ago. Perhaps admin considered it a commercial post. I have just done a search, but it's gone.

Ahh ... sounds a bit like the worm!:p
 
Hmmm, I went looking for Crazydave98's thread on this then got distracted. Coming back I see others have noticed.

What happened? :confused:

I certainly did not see anything commercial; even found the link to the seat pictures interesting and NM's bad joke about them amusing.
 
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Sorry...I didn't realise there was an earlier thread on this topic.:oops: I logged on, and noticed that there was no Thread about this topic. Thought it seemed strange that no-one picked up on it earlier.
 
serfty said:
Hmmm, I went looking for Crazydave98's thread on this then got distracted. Coming back I see others have noticed.

What happened? :confused:

I certainly did not see anything commercial; even found the link to the seat pictures interesting and NM's bad joke about them amusing.

Must have offended someone....In any case, lets hope that the introduction of the seat is a worthy addition to the product, and puts pressure on QF to keep its business class prices under control.
 
oz_mark said:
Must have offended someone....In any case, lets hope that the introduction of the seat is a worthy addition to the product, and puts pressure on QF to keep its business class prices under control.
Still, it would be nice to know what happened. :evil:
 
straitman said:
Still, it would be nice to know what happened. :evil:


Don't worry, Team Virgin (crazy dave & yada yada) will be here soon and will post the pics again on this non offensive thread I'm sure :p

Hope they are big and comfy new seats:)
 
straitman said:
Still, it would be nice to know what happened. :evil:
I think it is probably better not knowing what happened.

With the introduction of premium economy from DJ will this sway some companies to change travel policies from domestic business to premium economy? QF is introducing premium economy on some international routes but would be interested to see if they do lose some business to DJ premium economy how they will respond....
 
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Mal said:
Did anyone from AFF attend the DJ AGM?
yes. But the thread I started on the premium economy seat got pulled because admin viewed it as advertising.
cheers
CrazyDave98

PS happy to paste pictures from multiple angles and I have one of the internal workings too as long as that doesn't count as commercial;)
 
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Does anyone else find it amusing that an innocuous thread informing us of a new product that I'm sure we're all interested in is pulled for being "commercial' while sitting here looking at ads for compression socks, luggage tags, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ bank, Earth credit card, etc, etc, etc :rolleyes::confused:

Yeah, yeah, I know the ads help to support this site but IMO admin has been a tad overzealous and I for one, appreciate crazydave's 'inside info'.
 
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