mikeriegel1

FT'ers

I've flown on the AA PE product now several times from London to various East coast airports - and one of the things I've noticed is that the PE cabin is almost always at full occupanyc, and it is usually 75% occupied by British flyers - many of whom are BA FFs based on my discussions with many of them.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Just curoius if there is different rate beign shown to BA web site booking clients, or even just AA web bookings from the UK. Or are they also able to upgrade/pre-select a PE seat for a smaller amount of cash or Avios? Other thoughts?

Just curious if anyone has looked into this? I do a lot of travel from USA to LHR - and am wondering if I need to devise some different strategies via my BA account or where I book tickets from to get a better rate in PE?

Thanks for any insights?

VFR

BA has had premium economy for almost 20 years now. It's likely that British companies' travel policies permit premium economy on flights over a certain number of hours, and that British travelers understand the value proposition better.

Incidentally, I seem to remember when Delta was introducing their premium economy product, that they found that most US customers did not understand the difference between extra legroom economy, i.e Comfort+, and international premium economy. It seems this is one of the reasons why Delta chose name their product 'Premium Select' instead of Premium Economy. It still seems that US airlines are struggling a bit teaching their customers the product differences -- especially on the international planes where both extra-legroom and Premium Economy products exist.

CrazyJ82

The pricing is generally the same when I book from LON either on the BA or AA website as you'd expect given the JBA. Although BA's vacations site does usually offer some excellent prices for fly+hotel or fly+car and premium economy is a sweet spot for that whichever carrier you choose.

In addition to the point that UK consumers already are well aware of what premium economy is because BA and Virgin have offered it for a long time, there's the fact that AA premium economy is better than the BA option in some respects. There's more food and the IFE is reliably up to date compared to some BA options.

rfrost

The AA pillows are better, too!

Dad to Rei

I have done this once coming back (heading West) and found it to be very good. Daytime flights these are just as good as domestic F, if not better.

I need the bed for the overnight, but for the Western-Europe to US east coast; PE is perfectly serviceable.

pauleeepaul

The best thing about AA's PE is upgrading to J for 15k miles and no copay (ok not the lowest fare codes but can do routinely for under $2,500.)

ElmhurstNick

3 RT in PE in one year gets you 90% of the way to BA Silver, and all the way there if you have a short coach connection in each direction.

PE is often substantially cheaper ex-EU than ex-US, especially if purchased far in advance.