pferrandi

So for all those that wonder what the new AF Premium Economy (called Premium Voyager) is worth, here is a short review or Pros and Cons:

The Pros:
1) A lot more space than coach offering enough seat pitch space for a 5'10er like me to cross legs as well as wider seats and arm rest. They say 20% wider and 20% more pitch than coach which sounds correct. On the B777 Business is 2-3-2 abreast, PE is 2-4-2 and coach is 3-4-3 so we are closer to Business than coach for seat width.
2) Private section of 3 rows in the B777 isolated from coach with very little traffic limited to service and bathroom trips to coach (no bathroom in PE so it stays really quite).
3) Amenity kit and bottled water like in Business.
4) Largest screen on the A/C with the newest on-demand entertainment system and noise cancelling headsets (though I preferred mine).
5) Power supply.
6) Huge tray table that unfold in 2 sections.
7) Hard shell seats which means no recline from the seat in front of you.
8) Leg rest (for short people only though) and foot rest.
9) Cover and pillow are up to Business standards (though pillow is slightly smaller).

The Cons:
1) Limited recline through slip forward mechanism inside the seat shell … not bad for day flights but does not provide comfortable sleeping position for night and very long flights.
2) Leg rest is kind of useless for somebody my size (5'10) as it does not raise my legs off the floor. It helps a little if you play the contortionist to take a sideways position for a better sleeping position when your back and ... start to hurt.
3) Heavy and bulky seat belt because of the required airbag! Your face would slam in the hard shell seat in front of you in case of an sudden stop so an airbag is required. It is on the seat belt itself (looks like a long rigid pouch) and bothersome at night when trying to sleep.
4) Food and drinks is the same service than coach. It is served first though so all choices are available.
5) Even though brand new, the touch screens are not very responsive and we end up using the remote more often.
6) Unless you have a status with the airline or Skyteam, there is no lounge access.

For a NY to Paris round trip we paid 40% more than regular coach (approximately $1,3xx instead of $9xx) which is not too bad considering the enhanced comfort. Stepping up to Business would require a lot more $$$ ($3,5xx for that same flight) unless you travel during deep discount periods of summer and Christmas (usually around $2,1xx).
Enjoy & fly safe!

I would post some pictures if I could but I do not think I can on FT.

pferrandi

Trying to post pics, i hope it will work!

Here is what it looks like for a 5'2 person:


Here is the 5'10 leg crossing experience:

sirikit

thanks for the review - by chance did you try requesting an upgrade to J or F (just to try and get lucky) if you have ST elite status or?

pferrandi

We did not, even though both my wife and I have Diamond status with DL. We stopped asking because it never worked in the past unless AF was overbooked. We are flying back tomorrow from CDG to JFK, we will see if we can get one.

nomad1974

Thanks for the TR - very useful indeed!

Re the upgrade, no chance, unless the flight is overbooked in Y and/or Y+. And rightly so, IMHO.

nomad1974

That is not how things work, I'm afraid.

nldogbert

Great review.

Sounds like this seat is very exact to my experience on PE with JAL from seat point of view. I am really not a fan of these shell type seats, I think the advantage of no one reclining into your face is not enough to compared to have the seat really reclining.

Only extra perk seems to be the small little perks of getting Biz class amenity kits compared to JAL afaik.

Cheers!

Gnopps

Thanks for the info! Looks like sleeping isn't very easy unfortunately.. Did you manage?

pferrandi

I am a very good contortionist and I managed to steel my wife's pillow as well to end-up half folded over the armrest ... so yes, I did have 3 to 4 hours of sleep but I had the usual long coach travel physical cramps that I would not get in Business.

pferrandi

I am curently waiting in AF lounge for the return trip and for those who wonder, no upgrade so far. The airport is empty so I guess that the flight must be far from overbooked!

If anybody wants me to check anything that I did not comment on, it is time to ask as we board in 1 hour

pferrandi

Update with additional comments:
Our experience on the way back fom Paris was fairly similar. Only 8 Pax in the section made it extremely quite. Premium Voyager offers a very descent day flight experience. We were surprised though to see a lot more out-of-service items than expected for a fairly new cabin:
- In-seat reading lamps for both 24A and 24B were out.
- Seat pockets for both 24B and 24C were broken.

I was checking on fares for later this year and it is not as reasonable than what we paid this winter. In that case we are looking at using miles or going to Openskies (http://www.flyopenskies.com/) as they have $1,6xx to $1,7xx fares in Business when AF Premium is in the high $1,8xx. According to my wife who flies both, Openskies is more comfortable for night flights.

Additional Pros:
10) Comfortable laptop work space thanks to the very large tray table
11) You can see your PTV while working on a laptop (Lenovo Z61t)
12) In-seat flexible LED reading lamp (when it works)
13) AF coach food which is better that any other US carrier coach food!
14) Complementary alcoolic beverages

Additional Cons:
7) In seat headset cable is too short
8) In seat headset captures a lot of statics
9) Most personal headsets require an impedence otherwise volume is too high
10) The seat mechanical adjustment can be brutal

pferrandi

Sorry for the quality but they are Blackberry shots

Legroom for a 5'10 person:


Premium Voyager as seen from the 3rd and last rown of the cabin (24B):


The Premium Voyager section is separated from Coach (and Business as seen on previous picture) by a wall and curtains:

Goldorak

Thanks for this nice review. I will try PV to BOS next summer

typhoon

I wandered down to have a look at the Premium Economy cabin on my flight from PEK last week. As there were only three people in the cabin I tried out the seats, and I was very impressed with the comfort and quality, which were wider and with more leg room than what I originally expected. As I only sat in the seat for 10 mins or so, I have no way to tell if the seat remains comfortable.

The noise cancelling headsets and AVOD were of excellent quality and I agree that the manual seat mechanism is a bit loose.

It is very much an 'Economy plus' rather than a 'business minus', but for a day flight or a short trans-atlantic night flight it could be an excellent compromise in my opinion.

nomad1974

Thanks for this!

And yes, it is Y+, after all, it's called "Premium Voyageur", "Voyageur" being Economy. Maybe AF got it right for once?!