Hi Paddywack and a warm welcome to FT!
Unfortunately there is a significant amount of MISinformation in this thread... so please bear with me while I talk you through it.
First of all, Premium Economy is now an established brand which is used my many airlines to indicate a level of service above economy, but short of business or club class.
On top tier airlines, Premium Economy (also known as World Traveller+ on British Airways) is in a separate cabin, has wider seats and more legroom. Generally speaking, there is one or two less seats across in Premium Economy than in Ecnonomy.
On every major airline's premium economy the armrests between the seats DO NOT go up. They are fixed. One of the perks of premium economy is the wider armrests so you don't have to fight with your neighbour.
As such, premium economy seats are only a little bit wider than normal economy, around 2inches at the most.
Now charter airlines and airlines which fly on tourist markets have various concepts of what they call premium economy.
Sometimes premium economy means nothing more than extra legroom. Some charter airlines cram more seats across than regular scheduled airlines, for example they will seat 10 across a 777 aircraft. The charter airline's premium economy may therefore be 9 seats across - which for them IS premium, but really only gives you the same width as a regular scheduled airliner.
As for the information on Virgin flights, Virgin offeres Premium Economy with wide seats, champagne and extra legroom. This should not be confused with the ability to pay for some economy seats which have extra legroom. In the latter, you are seated in the economy cabin and get economy service with economy seats, but have more legroom only.
I can't see a seating plan for the thompson flights to see how wide the seats are, but it looks like a good service from what I can see!
I suggest you ring the airline (yes Thomas Cook IS an airline!!), if you can, and ask them:
-what aircraft is operating your flight and
-how meany seats are there across the cabin in premium economy
If you report that back here I can give you some more information.
Regards
lme ff
Last edited by LHR/MEL/Europe FF; Jun 12, 2009 at 10:27 am