E+ on AC?
 

Haven't seen this posted:

Calin Rovinescu, chief executive at Air Canada, says the next transition will focus on a different customer — economy travelers who may be willing to pay something less than a business-class fare for extra legroom or a better meal.

“The marketplace is asking the question, ought there be something between business class and economy, such as premium economy?” Mr. Rovinescu said. A number of airlines are already offering it: Continental with economy plus, Delta and Icelandair with economy comfort and Virgin America with main cabin select.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/bu...usinessspecial

This would be awesome!

I have a feeling that he is referring to Comfort Plus and not a fleet wide E+. The latter would be great, the former makes me sad.

Why would you be sad at E+ fleet wide.....at least medium to long haul?

I agree..... if the price point was reasonable and in keeping with other airlines.

AC costs are still too high and the temptation will be to price high to counter high costs.

AC emulating UA? An interesting development indeed.

He said that fleetwide E+ would be great, and that more comfort plus as the top class of service would make him sad.

If AC had E+ I'd never have to fly UA again.

Why does everybody seem to assume AC would give elites free E+ ...

Maybe he can begin by blocking centre seats for elites and full fare customers when loads permit, and infill from the back of the plane to the front. Not to mention more clearly delimit the preferred seating area. I predicted AC would likely introduce a premium economy cabin to its 787s, along with an updated business class seat. E+ would be nice but can AC afford to give up a row of economy seats to add another couple of inches to its current pitch in the first few rows?

Of course those of us who are also UA elites don't fly E+ all that much because we get unlimited first class upgrades within NAmerica.

I like the idea of E+ - been using it a lot of late. Any idea what kind of E+ he wants?

Is it going to be genuine premium economy, like AF, VS, QF, NZ?

Or is it going to be the...err...rather awful UA version - ie Y seat with an extra inch or two of legroom?

And what does better meal mean? Will they simply add cheese and crackers to the current dinner tray? Or will he go the Virgin/QF way and offer genuinely better meals. I haven't used QF E+ but VS E+ catering was pretty good.

I expect that the pricepoint will be reasonable ex-US. God knows what it will look like ex-Canada. For instance, if I fly YUL-CDG-DEL on AF in Y+, the post-tax fare is $3100. If I burn Aeroplan or Avion miles for YUL-EWR and then do the same Y+ trip to EWR-DEL, the ticket costs $1900 post tax. Add $150 in taxes for the reward ticket and voila - a $1000 saving.

I do wonder though, if it would make sense for this to be made available on short and medium haul, since I can see it cannibalizing the J class crowd without really changing the standard Y class travellers travel patterns. With ticket prices as expensive as they already are, I would expect most Can pax flying shorthaul to keep their extra $100/$150 dollars in their pockets. I can also see some businesses downgrade their pax from J to Y+ on short/medium routes.

And I can't imagine the Es and SEs being too delighted. Right now they get bumped up from Y to J. Soon it'll be a shorter Y to Y+ upgrade - not quite the same, though not too bad if its a VS/QF/AF type seat.

I don't think UA E+ is nearly as awful as you say it is. The purpose isn't to create a new class or sub-class, it simply creates an entire block of "preferred seats" for access by elites where they don't have to worry about freezing to death in an exit row. And the cost is nowhere near $150 for a short-haul, many segments are only about $20. I switched my flying to UA this year almost exclusively for E+. I'd prefer E+ over a premium economy sub-class on AC.

Get your facts straight! E+ on UA offers 3-5" (most seating is 5" more) more seat pitch, not 1". For UA frequent flyers (3P and above), the seating is free. Personally, if I was choosing whether I would fly in E vs E+, I would choose the increased legroom regardless. UA has never marketed it as a Premium Economy, as airlines like Virgin Atlantic does, because its not, its more legroom! UA also make a good amount of money from selling the E+ seating.

Personally, on transcontinental - short TATL, Premium economy is perfectly fine. I may love to fly in Business, or First, but E+ is doable on UA, as is Prem Econ on VS/VX and EconExtra on SAS.

Given the E-upgrade structure, I can also see that if AC does implement a Prem Econ section, be it with greater seat pitch, better seats, or better food, it will prob be an intermediate number to what the Exec/ExecFirst seats would cost wrt e-upgrades.

Blah blah blah?

UA Y+ fleetwide = 34-36"
UA 767 Y+ = 34-35"
UA 747 Y+ = 34"
UA 777 Y+ = 34-36"

Only the airbus family is consistently 36" - and they fly short-med haul.

Compare that to some of the longhaul Y class legrooms already avialibale worldwide:

Air China - 34" (fleetwide)
Air France - 32 - 34"
Air Canada - 31 - 34"
Air India - 31 - 34"
Air New Zealand - 32-34"
Asiana - 34"
... and so on.

The best UA Y+ seat offers a staggering 2 inches more than the best Y class seat on some airlines. And that is IF you don't get one of the 34" pitch ones, which would put you on par with Air China or Asiana economy's fleetwide product, some of AF's 744s and AI 77Ls, even some of AC's 767s. UA can pass it off as decent because it's Y product is a crap 31", which makes 34" seem great.

AC can do the same thing by charging more for the 34" seats on its 767s - no need to even get a new cabin. That way, it would have a UA style E+.

I recently had the pleasure of flying BA World Traveller Plus DXB-LHR. I paid about $130 for the upgrade and it was WELL worth it. More leg room, comfortable seat, amenity kit & much better food (the flt was 8 hrs). It would be so amazing if AC introduced an option like this on long haul flts.