Hows Everyone Enjoying the Premium Economy "Setback" Screens
 

While on hold with AA today I noticed the hold music / recording features a talk track that aims to sell you on premium economy focusing on larger "setback" screens among other things. Seriously she pronounces it "setback" LOL. But in all seriousness, for those that fly premium economy, does it seem like the initial quirks have been figured out relating to elevated service or lacktherof? Whats the good, the bad, the ugly as of now?

What a helpful answer to OP's question...

From my point of view, and this is from the premise of only having flown AA PE a handful of times, I like the cabin and the service. The only real niggle is with the wine and the fact it's served in plastic tumblers. That is the only thing I find distinctly non-premium about the PE experience. As for the lack of a dedicated FA, I don't think that's a major issue. If you were to have a dedicated FA then you'd probably have complaints about how they can only serve one side of the cabin at a time, which is the same issue BA has with WT+ in its Mid-J 747 aircraft.

I like the seats but would always take the A/C or J/L pairs over the middle block of four. The IFE has a very good choice of movies etc. and the blanket and pillow are a nice touch. I sometimes find the choice of entrees to be somewhat weird but I think the overall food quality is decent.

With AA now offering a true PE experience I'm far more likely to consider them as a carrier. In the past it was usually always BA when heading east or CX when heading west as, contrary to what some have alluded to, I wouldn't want to do 10+ hours in MCE and "pretend" it's the same as PE. My next flight back to the UK is with BA as I am using Avios, but the trip after that will be with AA in PE out of DFW and I am quite looking forward to it.

I haven't flown this on an international segment but did try PE on a recent trip from HNL.

Good - seats were comfortable, plenty of leg room, IFE was good as well
Bad/Ugly
- probably the worst, most apathetic, disinterested FA's I've seen in a long time...truly bad
- food: either vegetarian or a sandwich wrap that was not great (taste, texture, just kinda gross), pre-arrival snack was marginal especially since the FAs insisted on handing it out as they did their initial service (how exactly I'm supposed to keep it cold so we don't have an food safety problems was beyond me)
- foot rest would only come down a couple of inches (I was in row 14). The FA said that was all it would go down however my daughter said hers came down a lot further on the outbound DFW-HNL segment

I always thought the fruit and cheese box was meant to bolster the wrap and make more of a full meal out of the coach snack box... I've never seen them serve it prior to arrival in PE... Is that how it's supposed to be done?

Great question. I thought it was a pre-arrival "breakfast" sort of a thing which is how the FAs we had made it sound.

Recently tried it out for the first time on LAX-SYD. The seat isn't bad for premium economy, and it's great to have another viable premium economy to the south Pacific.

The bad for me was the randomness of the service really stood out. It was not at all polished, compared to QF, NZ, BA (and no one would accuse those carriers of being polished). Meal delivery was all over the place in the cabin. They also did this weird full lights-on mid-flight snack, which I've never experienced TPAC before. They did the snack in Y with lights off on the return, and I've got to think that is how it's supposed to occur.

Premium Economy is totally worth it if you value seat comfort. I've flown it DFW-NRT and DFW-ICN. I slept well on both trips. Food is edible which is a step up from economy and booze is free but don't expect a lot of top offs. Flying in economy long haul gives me anxiety. Premium cabins are my emotional support animal ha ha. In all seriousness. I have broad shoulders and I feel like a folded piece of origami in an economy seat.

AA PE is much better than BA on transatlantic routes, and I'd give it that in terms of seat, food, and service. But I had some exceptionally nice FAs on the BA flights but they were 'absent' much of the time. AA were much more efficient in service and even got a 'Thank you Mr. Plon for your business" on one of the JFK-LHR flights which happens once ever 50 AA flights usually.

Thanks, thats really helpful and I don't think Ill shell out the extra 1K for premium Econ on my DFW-HKG flight.

I am noticing huge price increases on AA premium economy tickets for LAX - SYD in March, April of 2020. Looks about $5800 round trip. That is far higher than I have ever paid previously. Is this the new PE going rates these days?