shonamac

Now that several carriers have added Premium Economy to their inventory, I wonder whether there are any threads here on FT (or elsewhere on the web) that compare the P/E offerings of various carriers, in terms of seat comfort, catering standards etc.

The carriers that I am most interested in comparing would be BR (one of the first to offer P/E), LH, SQ, NH, SK & NZ.

Personal anecdotes from people who have flown P/E on these carriers would be especially welcome.

djjaguar64

What about TK?

shonamac

Unfortunately, TK has stopped offering Comfort Class on the routes that interest me most - e.g. NRT, KIX, HKG, LAX etc.

FT Guest xyzpdq

Can only comment on SK:
Priority check-in and lounge access. 2*23kg bagage

With recent upgrade of SK longhaul cabins the Plus cabin (SK lingo for economy Extra) is well worth the money. Seating is 2-3-2 in all birds. Seats are very comfy. A comfortable 38¨ pitch and 18.3¨width. Leg rest and slightly more recline than economy. IFE is AVOD - but with a relatively limitted selection (50+ movie titles or so). VERY nice cabin on day time flights. Due to the lack of a generous recline it is OK for night flights - but horizontal is of course better here.

Good selection of (free) drinks. The big minus on SK is the food. Same as in Economy with one additional choice - only rarely of decent quality. Eat prior to boarding.

quaxpilot

Can only comment on LH, flown once on A346.

Food&Service:
100% Eco, just served on porcelain instead of aluminum dish. Oh, one small bottle of water in addition...

Seat&Cabin:
Seat pitch and width is ok, seat basically was comfortable. Depending on the row, there is a footrest under the seat in front of you. For me (1.86m) it didn't work that well.
On that A346 P/E seats had been in front of Eco, but not really separated from the Eco cabin. On my night flight it was ok, on a day flight where you want to work the noise level might be quite disturbing.
If LH operates an A380 on your route, then P/E has a separate cabin with own toilets in the front of the main deck, that should be fine.

Lounge access against fee, unless you are FTL or higher.

sol95

Only about the SQ PE product:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...-thoughts.html


Seat: OK, not great.
Footrest: Terrible!
Food: Same food as Y, but on nicer crockery.
IFE: Bigger screen and more responsive controls than in Y.
FA Service: Much more cordial than Y, but obviously not the same standard as J (they don't remember your name, for example).

In summary, may be worth the extra on a daytime flight, but personally, I think paying extra for J is actually better value.

malmostoso

Well the price differential between Y and PE might be affordable (~50%), while paying for J is out of the budget for many (> 200%).

To me the main advantage of PE on SQ is to have only two seats next to each other, which is great since I always travel with my SO. If you are on your own I guess that advantage vanishes, and you might be right that the price differential with Y is probably not worth it.

sol95

While this is true, that's precisely why I prefaced my comment about J being better value with the word "personally".

televisor

Would it be possible to also add the status of footrests/legrests?

I've only ever flown CX PE, where they had legrests in the front row, and footrests in the rest. I was in a footrest row, and frankly found it useless (I'm 1.87m / 6'1 or so, short torso and long legs) - I'd be interested in knowing which airlines offer full legrests.

I know that NZ offer legrests in (almost?) all their PE seats (I believe they also have more legroom than standard?). AC have no legrests, but do have footrests if you're not in the bulkhead? (I'm flying AC PE soon, so can hopefully comment in more detail then.)

rankourabu

You forgot AC PE.

They've made regular economy so miserable, that their PE product looks appealing, just so that one doesnt have to suffer the back.

Its a pretty budget PY compared to the likes of NZ - but its AC, so expectations should be set low to begin with.

mad_atta

NZ's premium economy is a great product, I reckon: plenty of space (41"-42" pitch), good to great IFE, and business-class-lite levels of food and service. Once upon a time you used to get the same wines as business class too; I know that on short-haul PE that's no longer the case though it may still be on longhaul, but even NZ's economy class wines are a cut above what the likes of UA serve in business class (champagne aside).

The biggest variation is in the seat: a fairly conventional PE seat (but with more legroom than most competitors) in the 789 and 772, and the polarising spaceseat design in the 773. The 789/772 seat is excellent: really comfortable, decent width, pretty good recline, and every seat has a leg rest (the footrest is of limited use for tall people but the under-thigh/calf support is still welcome). The spaceseat makes an excellent first impression and gives lots of privacy and seat width, but has a little less effective legroom, no legrest (instead you get a little beanbag footrest!), and somewhat limited recline. Most people either love it or hate it, I'm in the small minority who is indifferent to it, though on balance I think I prefer the more conventional seat.

The most comparable product (though non-*A) is QF's premium economy - and I strongly suspect QF studied the NZ product quite carefully before launching their own variation. Also with oneworld, JL's new product looks like a fantastic seat, and JL's service is great, though they don't claim to offer much in the way of premium catering for Y+.

From your *A list, I've tried TK's Comfort Class, which was also an excellent product but felt less spacious than the impressive 46" pitch would indicate, and it had surprisingly limited recline. I didn't find it noticeably more spacious or comfortable for sleeping than NZ's product, which is not what I expected. I also found the catering fairly indifferent, which was equally surprising given TK's excellent business class catering, and the very high quality Do&Co lunch box that had been served in economy on our 90 minute Y class connecting flight. Still, an excellent product.

I'd be surprised if any of the other *A PE products come close to those two, to be honest. I think BR and NH are on the next rung down, then SQ and perhaps SK and AC, then LH's very basic offering. I was surprised and disappointed by what a mediocre effort SQ's new offering appears to be, too. Of the non-*A offerings, CX, VA, VS and BA all offer fairly middle of the road products.

username

Back in the days when EVA's PE was only about US$150-$250 more for R/T TPAC, it was a no brainer to do PE. Y did not even have video.

Now the difference is a lot more ($600+), Y also has AVOD and I have * Gold (eat at lounge, board first, more baggage allowance), it does not seem to be as a good deal for me personally. The PE on the 77Ws is also not nearly as cool as the PE on the 744s.