oliver2002

Our roving reporter N1003U is currently onboard D-ABYQ in 28E about to take a two hour flight to nowhere and experience the E-CL in person

oliver2002

rcs85551 posted some photos before the doors closed:

N1003U

I have some work to catch up on after my day off flying -YQ, but I will post a report on Flight 9880 and the new LH Y+ here over the weekend. LH put on a fun event and displayed not only Y+, but opened the entire aircraft (including the flight deck) for visitors to explore during the flight.

Buzzing along the beach in Sylt at 2000ft and 230 knots in a 747 was a lot of fun, as was a sporty missed approach at BRE.

The new Y+ product is well thought out and definitely a step up from regular Y. It is not perfect, but I found a lot more positive than negative in the product, and I think the big question will be how much of a premium price LH can make stick. Like with their new C product, LH is late to market and has probably suffered as a result, but the product they have introduced is a solid one. I would certainly pay a premium for it--I am still considering how much though.

Nicer stool, more space, and modestly improved soft product. It seems a good idea. With good promotion and a reasonable pricing, it could do well. Stay tuned for a full report.

For anyone interested, -YQ is supposed to go into service middle of next week, with the first flight to IAD (I think I heard Wednesday, but I don't remember exactly) as LH418.

N1003U

A bit more on the new Y+ seats, based on my trial onboard D-ABYQ on Thursday:

The new Y+ seats (manufactured by the company ZIM Flugsitz, http://www.zim-flugsitz.de/zim-flugsitz/) are definitely as step up from the normal economy seats. They are about 3cm wider (which doesn’t sound like much, but it is quite noticeable after moving out of a regular Y and into a Y+ seat), and they have 18cm more pitch. You get your own (reasonably generous) armrest, a small space for setting a glass, and a generous table that folds into the armrest, and a slightly larger IFE screen in the seatback (30cm vs. 23cm in regular Y, except the front row, which has a fold-away 23cm IFE screen just like the exit row seats in Y). The front row also has an extendable leg rest which I am sure will be appreciated when trying to relax sleep on the longer international routes.



Y+ seats: 8 across instead of 10 across allows for individual arm rests and a wider seat. (Compare to regular Y seats directly behind—there is only a hard plastic screen that acts as an optical partition above the seats to divide the cabin—Y+ is not partitioned in a separate cabin)



Y+ seat as seen from first row of Y: between the seats is a holder for two 0.5l water bottles. The IFE screen is a bit bigger (30cm vs. 23cm). The foreground is a standard Y front-row screen. Note: there is also a lot of extra room in the first row of Y, and these seats will be subject to a 50/70/90EUR upcharge. I am not sure why, but a few of the last row of Y+ seats also had a Y+ IFE screen useable by the Y pax behind. If that was planned, it is a nice feature for 4 of the pax in the first row of Y.


Here is the Y+ seat fully reclined. If you can sleep in the C seat in the “cradle” position, I am guessing you can sleep in these seats with similar quality. However, you will never mistake the Y+ seat for a C seat when fully reclined, be it sloped or flat…

One thing that bugged me somewhat (which we discovered with rcs85551 playing the role of the obnoxious brat child or rude passenger grabbing and kicking the seatback) it that the seats have quite a bit of “play” when they are reclined, and when they are bumped from behind, your head will tend to get launched forward. This will be annoying when it happens while sleeping.

Another step up for the premium economy product is electrical power: AC and USB power sources in every seat(!), and the seat I had didn’t overload when I plugged in my 85W Apple power supply and connected it to a dead MacBookPro (!!). That alone is to me almost worth more than the old C seats (which tend to crap out at load of about 55-60 VA IME) to me on day (westbound) flights. By comparison, the latest version of the Y seat shares power with every 2 seats, which is nevertheless still a step up over no in-seat power. I only noticed USB power, however, I didn’t pay much attention to the regular Y seats, and the information in the press kit implies that there is also shared AC power in the new Y seats. (If someone could report whether there is AC power in regular Y on the 748, I would appreciate it. I did not notice/verify one way or the other)

Each Y+ seat was stocked with a 0.5l water bottle, and a space to keep it during the flight.

Premium Economy passengers are also provided with an amenity kit in a slot in the arm rest, which contains:
• Pair of socks
• Eye mask
• Earplugs
• “Erfrischungstuch” (a packaged wet “towelette” for hand/face washing)
• Toothbrush
• All packaged in a flat half nylon/half scrim bag suitable for carrying small flattish items.






The catering service was also on display in the front of the cabin. It looked to me like the normal Y food, but served in ceramic service:


Dinner service.

As I pointed out before, you get a nice fold-out table in your arm rest that leaves enough room to eat and/or work. One has to be a little careful in case the person in front reclines unexpectedly, but even with the seat in front fully reclined, there is enough room for dinner service or to work on a laptop.


Table taken from front row of Y+.

Overall, it appears to me the new Y+ is a decent addition to the on-board service, but it will be a quite personal issue to decide how much of a premium it is worth. For those who are condemned to fly economy, it is worth checking out the service at least once and deciding one’s self how much some extra space and a slightly upgraded soft product is worth to you.

N1003U

One more photo to get a feel for the seat pitch in the new LH Y+:


This is a random jorno taking pictures of the new seat. As you can see there is quite a bit of leg room, and also space for the seat in front of you to recline without impacting your ability to work, eat, or watch the IFE.

N1003U

Yes, it is a nice product, and attractive to me especially for day flights.

Legrest only in the front row, just like on CX. LH's excuse was as usual customer preference in focus group testing, but I am not so sure. Footrests fold totally out of the way when not in use.

Bigger problem to me was the footwell of regular Y seats. Between the life vest directly in the middle under the seat and the IFE boxes, nothing bigger than a large handbag will fit under the regular Y seats. I had to cram my nearly empty computer bag under the seat for take-off, and it really didn't fit properly. The good news it I think the overheads are a little bit bigger than on the 744s.


I must have had a bad pair of seats that I tested (it has been a couple of years). I never got continuous service above about 60VA when I had a meter on me. Does the Magsafe have such a crappy power factor, or does it really put out more than 60W in real power?

The Y+ product is well thought out. I can only wonder what took so long. Amenity kit, as nearly as I can tell, is a standard C kit in a smaller bag with no moisturizers.

dj_jay_smith

A review of premium economy is now on Business Traveller:

http://www.businesstraveller.com/tri...remium-economy

NewbieRunner

Interesting to note Condé Nast Traveler changed the title of the article from 'Lufthansa's Premium Economy Seats Are Here (And The Legroom Is Ridiculous)' to 'Lufthansa's Premium Economy Seats Are Here (With 50 Percent More "Living Space")'. The web address gives it away and you can still see the original title on Twitter.

N1003U

Just for clarity, my seat was only partially reclined (though I see no reason why I couldn't work with it fully reclined). However, the seat in front of me was, in fact, fully reclined.

For "picture proof" I can't offer a personal photo (that will have to wait until the next time I fly in Y+, which may be a while ), but I did find this shot from some random blog... Working with the seat in front fully reclined is definitely tight (and the computer pictured here is more of a 11'' or 12" screen), and with a bigger screen one has to close the screen a bit, but to say one cannot use a laptop with the seat in front fully reclined is to me an overstatement. Cramped, yes. Crappy compared to a C seat? Absolutely. Unusable? not IMHO. I guess is depends on how flexible one is with suboptimal ergonomics. I accept contrary views, but for me the ability to use a computer with the seat in front reclined is suboptimal, but functional. It is to me no worse than some and better than most Y seats from which I have used a computer, and it has the added advantage of an AC power outlet--and one that can handle an 85W power supply without overloading.




BTW, which Y+ ad promises you can use a laptop with the seat in front reclined (honest question, I have seen several ads for LH Y+, but I am sure I have not seem them all, and I don't remember this claim)?

More important to me is that it is a Y seat in which I can actually sleep (though the quality of the sleep is also a highly personal thing). I have never actually flown in a CX Y+ seat, but I have seen them, and the LH seat from dimension and function seems very similar.

RAV1

Hi,

I couldn't find any reviews on FT on LH's PE product, hence this thread. What's the word from those that have experienced it ? How did mileage accruals happen on different (G/E/N) classes when you're an elite with another *A airline ? (Given the confusion on some *A partner websites on this subject)

Also, i assume that operational upgrades from standard economy would be only to PE and to get/buy an upgrade to J you would need to be flying PE ?

sventrax

PE on 30/12/2014 FRA HKG. Big improvement over standard economy at almost double the price. Dinner and breakfast in real china and apparently bettwr quality. Leg and body space certainly superior. Good service. Not a business class but I will certainly consider it on a long flight

BTW the return flight I was upgraded!

N1003U

If you go to this thread, starting at post #298 there are photos and a couple of fairly detailed reviews of the LH Y+ product. If you have time to kill, the whole thread has some decent discussion.

As one of the reviewers, I find the new LH Premium Economy product to be a nice step up over regular economy, and reasonably priced (typically 25%-50% more than similar Y fares) for what is being offered.

N1003U

Double the price (or even nearly so) sounds like either Y+ was well-booked, or there were some good deals on regular Y. Do you know/remember what the actual fare buckets and prices were?

sventrax

All but one seat in PE were occupied. My class was E and cost 1726€ cmpared to around 950€ in S

Forgot to add that contents of amenity kit are identical to business but the bag is not as nice/recycleable

RAV1

Thanks ! Sounds like it's definitely worth a try. I've got a couple of operational upgrades to J and bought an upgrade once and it was so worth it ! I now need to consult with our company travel policy dragon about booking PE; Considering that I fly mostly long haul and i'm 6'2" it's worth the extra price even if i pay the difference myself.