The improved seating is really the only thing that counts, to be able to sleep and otherwise relax on medium and longhauls.

You get priority check-in and boarding even at MPC green level, those are not necessary perks for non-status holders, IMHO. Most of the passengers who would use Y+ are CX/OW "elites" anyway and get those through their status.

Also, I don't see a need for any premium drinks, snacks however could be more substantial. Y+ is a frequent flyer oriented product as I see it and not really a substitute for biz class. And what frequent flyers need is to get to their destination fit to work in most cases.

Unfortunately many companies these days do not agree with that and will enforce a Y+ policy.:(

OT: there's a radio show in HK today that one of the DJs friend tried out the NZ dummy cabin and share her blog ...

http://translate.google.com.hk/trans...w-zealand.html

if you dont care about the food and the bubbles and just want a good sleep and space, it almost seem better than biz class

Sorry, with QFF being my primary scheme, I forgot green level in MPC have dedicated counters and that MPC Silver get access to CX J lounges when flying CX :).

Given the points you raised, A better seat might be more than sufficient. From my personal perspective, I would not mind if CX employed a similar strategy to BA and made the Y+ as follows;

- Same service as in Y Class, but priority service in meals
- A slightly better amentity kit, so you can arrive more refreshed
- A more spacious seat, similar to Qantas Domestic J Class or the KA Regional Product
- A dedicated bathroom, to avoid the queues in economy

Unless there's a barrier between Y+ and Y there will be no stopping the Y pax in the back to come up front to use the "Y+ bathroom"

http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...remium-economy

The article does not refer to a timescale for Y+ announcement.

It refers to the timescale for Y+ installation. When other carriers have announced this product, most recently AF, it's been at least a year before the new seating has been available right across the fleet and ground handling sorted out.

Between Y+ and the NZ airline economy bed product, I would opt for the latter. Perhaps CX should consider the latter product than Y+.

Re: New ANZ Y + and Y product

One fact that has been missed out in all the PR spin is the fact that ANZ is acting like AF. In other words, on its new B777-300ERs, ANZ will downgrade normal Y class from the current 3-3-3 layout (on its B777-200s) to a denser 3-4-3 configuration.

This is what AF is doing right now on its fleet of B777s. It is busy installing Y + seats but, at the same time, it is reconfiguring Y class from 9 to 10-across.

In the case of ANZ, it means that the economy class seat pitch on the B777-300ERs is being cut from 34 to 33 ins and the seat cushion will be narrower at 17 ins rather than 17.8. It also means the aisle will be narrower too which will make it more difficult for passengers and staff to move around the Y cabin.

Presumably the idea is to better differentiate the two products and encourage travellers to pay more for the extra comfort.

I can see other airlines following the example of AF and ANZ when they launch improved Y+ products.

I would hope this practise of downgrading Y class is something which CX will not adopt should it decide to launch Y+ at some stage in the future.

This is a very good warning. Why would people pay 2 times Y when the difference may only be less than an inch per seat? I'm hoping CX would do 2-3-2 for Y+ and retain the 3-3-3 for Y, but this post is a good warning of what airlines would do to push Y+.

However, I think so many people are used to CX Y that they would not change it, at least not initially.

On the 777, BA does 2-4-2 instead of 3-3-3. Can't imagine how a "premium" product should have 2 middle seats when the normal Y only has one!

JAL and ANA both have 2-4-2 in Y+ and 3-3-3 in Y. The difference is the number of people you have to go through to get to the aisle. In Y, if you sit in the window seats, you have to go through 2 ppl but in the "premium" Y+, you only need to go through one....:p

Which is why I always find the 2-5-2 configuration found in, say, Air China, a clever way to arrange the seats than 3-3-3.

CX used to have 2-5-2 on the 777-200s, but they changed it after a few years, presumably in response to customer feedback (or the difficulty of the cabin crew in serving the middle seat).