What do you expect as a passenger in Premium Economy?
 

Hi all!

It's been a long time since I've been on Flyer Talk.

I'm a f/a and just curious what service you expect as a passenger in our new Premium Economy?

If we expect nothing, we won't be disappointed.

Speaking as someone with no status at all who occasionally flies award J (but more commonly paid Y), I hope for a comparable experience to Virgin PE... Better seat, food, amenities. Friendly staff. Priority baggage handling. That's pretty much it.

Can you give me an idea what the Virgin PE is like? Is it more like international economy or domestic first class?

I have flown premium economy DFW to FRA on Lufthansa RT, DFW to ICN one way on AA, and MUN to DFW one way on AA in the last 4 months in PE. On AA, you can expect the food tray to remain long after the meal is served and there will be no drink service between meals unless you go to the galley. It was really disappointing compared to Lufthansa premium economy, where they were coming around with orange juice and water hourly with snacks available in the galley between meals. The PE cabins are nearly identical on both Lufthansa and AA, but AA service is pretty much the same as AA coach in PE except for the meal is presented a bit nicer and the alcohol is served with the meal.

Thank you Backspinnn,

That's exactly the kind of info I'm interested in. Do you happen to know if LH has a f/a that is dedicated to that class of service?

Lufthansa did seem to have an assigned FA to PE. On AA, the FAs worked coach and PE.

Yes. The f/a's that work economy are also expected to take care of PE. When I've worked it I got the feeling that our PE pax are disappointed with our service. That's why I began this post. I want to know what is expected since it seems to be not just a bit of extra leg room, but an entirely different class of service.

Did you write AA expressing your disappointment with our PE vs LH?

I appreciate your thoughts and concern to this, it appears that you are trying to provide service and being attentive to the passengers. Regarding the above, lets be honest, does AA really cares? All that we get is a canned response apologizing to the service received (if they actually address the issue at hand), at AA we strive to give our passengers the best service. Here is 5000 miles for your inconvenience.

I haven't complained to AA direct regarding the PE service and I am sure they are aware of the quality of service they provide across the board due to it's consistently bad performance. As a frequent flyer based out of DFW flying pretty regularly for the last 10 years, I can't say I would recommend AA to anyone. The only reason I fly AA is that I can go most places non-stop. This week was a prime example of my frustration with AA. It is near impossible to use the frequent flyer miles. I have only been able to book one domestic AA award ticket in ten years. I am flying to Italy next week on two empty BA AA codeshare flights and I wanted to take my wife on an award ticket. I called AA and I can't get her booked onto the empty flights with me. It is supremely frustrating. If I price check the flight for my wife while logged into my AA account, it comes up as $2700. If I check it not logged in to my AA account, it is $1800.

Here is what I don't expect...platinum status or not
 

I usually don't make negative posts, but this time American Airlines convinced me to make an exception. Wife and kids on award res and me on paid res. Checked in on-line fine, checked bags in-person with priority agent, then get to boarding and they tell me I can't sit in exit row if my family is anywhere on the plane. Ok, so there is some rule out there that says this isn't ok, but they only tell me at the last minute rather than any other time along the way over past few weeks. Fine, then what are we going to do about it (since I'm not a small guy and had premium exit aisle? Well, American gate agent called the manager who took until near end of boarding to get there, then manager told me about the policy again, then casually flipped her hand at me told the agent to give me "whatever" seat. So, I got a middle seat in the back of the bus of course, just what I was trying to avoid. Super careless and just displayed the value they place on customers, Platinum status included. No thought of seeing if someone with a good seat might swap or letting me see if I could make that happen myself. I think my loyalty to American needs to match...

It makes our job easier if our pax are happy.......or at least satisfied I know all you FF understand the hardships that the airlines in the US went through after 9/11. Part of the cut backs were huge cuts in staffing. I'm more than thankful that we are profitable now and are offering our pax a bit more, however with every addition of something the one thing that hasn't changed much is staffing. To be honest when I heard about PE I thought it was going to be something similar to MCE, but then I saw the first a/c that was reconfigured. I thought wow this is nice. Then I worked it and felt like our pax were disappointed. I'm just trying to understand what makes our PE lacking and to be honest I believe it might be a staffing issue.

I'm sorry that the responses you have received are stock responses. I will say most of us care and we try to give our pax the best service we can with what we have to work with.

I'm just a f/a. All of you are more knowledgeable than I when it comes to reservations and the use of AA miles. I'm sorry I don't have the answers.

Having flown BA, CX and QF in PEY (or whatever the airline calls it) I appreciate the extra 2" (or so) of width and the 6" of pitch/recline. I hate the dueling elbows of eating in the Y cabin. As well the increased credits to my frequent flyer account of the day is expected.

Expectations:
PEY gets served meals/snacks before Y and cleaned up before Y. And the choice of beverages is better than Y (and included in the price of the ticket). I have no opinion on extra services as I am happy to go to the galley if I really want something. There should be toilets which have better access to PEY passengers than Y.

Courtesy both from (and to) the FAs is always appreciated.

Just wandering
Fred

PS: Now if the airlines would quit messing with the FF programs.............................

I expect:
A slightly bigger seat with more legroom.
Competent service from the FAs.