I indicated $1600 for YYZ-HKG during non-peak and $1800 for peak period. Add in taxes and others, it would come out to about $1800 and $2100 respectively.

As a product advertised as 'Premium" it would want to be, as opposed to an ersatz economy seat (little better than an emergency exit one), if the pictures are anything to go by. I would rather use points and skip Y+ to J

But you won't be able to use points to skip Y+, that's the point. If you want to use points to get into J then you'll have to buy Y+.

I suspect this may actually be the primary motivation - too many miles upgrades in J currently so this is a good way of cutting them back.

Last week I saw on NBC a show about Americal Airlines. They were covering all aspects of the airline and also touched base on mileage. They said that the airlines were actually earning on the miles, as they partner with so many other comapnies (hotel, banks, retailers etc). They actually sell the miles to them in order for them to make promotions. I guess this will be same for other airlines as well. So I think it won't be the motivation of having to many miles.

I am curious actually what you will get for getting a Y+ seat. Lounge access? Champagne? Amenity Kit? How many miles?

Not necessarily true. JL has Y+ but in order to upgrade to J using miles, you don't have to buy a Y+ ticket. In fact, upgrade from Y to J and Y+ to J costs the same amount of miles on JL.

As for the op-ups, if there's not enough elites in Y+ cabin, CX might just pick elites from the Y cabin to upgrade them to J.

All these depends on whether CX is treating Y+ as a completely different cabin or just a Y cabin with more room.

A reasonably priced Y+ option would bring me back into the CX fold. BR prices theirs only a couple of hundred dollars above discounted Y which makes the cabin very appealing.

What is the logic of why "the chance for op-up to Y+ would be much more than current op-up to business"?

If the Y+ seats are replacing Business Class seats, wouldn't the chance for an op-up from Y to Y+ be the same (*or less) than it currently is? There are the same number of Y seats, so once all these seats are full, that is when op-ups start.

*With Y+, some people who normally pay for Y will pay for Y+ (but would never pay for Business), therefore selling less tickets in Y, so your chance of an op-up may actually be less.

The key here is "reasonably priced". My first experience of Y+ was on BR over 10 years ago, and it was simply an economy seat with ~30% more space (seat footprint) that cost ~30% more. Nowadays the seat footprint is still the same, but it is priced much more than 30% more. And the seats don't actually feel much bigger than economy because of the in-arm equipment (at least on BA).

I don't mind paying a little more than 30% for 30% more space and an economy level service if the cabin is quieter. But I wouldn't pay double for 30% more seat space even if there is better food, service and bigger IFE screens etc.

Well, the choices range from Y+ hardware with Y software i.e. economy level service throughout to Y+ hardware with J software. I'd be surprised if they do the latter as that's expensive to deliver. Same goes for a specific Y+ service level between Y and J as that raises the complexity of service delivery (= costly) e.g. 4 different categories of meals instead of 3, crew needs to deliver 4 different levels of service, 4 types of amenity kits. So the probability is Y+ hardware with perks that are cheap to deliver such as Business class check-in and luggage allowance.

BA delivers the former i.e. Y+ hardware with Y software, but gives 1.1x mileage on Y+ so I'd guess CX will have to offer the same mileage rate to stay competitive.

True, and also same with other airlines, such as KLM, SAS.

Here's good link to SeatGuru's comparison chart when it comes to Seat Pitch/Width; http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php#key


Quote taken from SeatGuru; "When is Premium Economy a good value?"

* When the extra cost is 10-15% more than standard Economy, we believe this represents a good value for the comfort conscious flier.

Premium Economy is generally 35% more expensive than your standard Economy fare.


Cheers

On BA and QF, don't they give you the option of using many more points to upgrade from Y to J and skip Y+?

Remember this is a long term strategy - it's not something that's going to happen very fast. Yes there may be lots of mileage upgrades right now due to the economy, but if the economy takes off again in 2-3 years time which is the fastest they would roll out a new product, then if the primary motivator is to stop people using miles to upgrade, it would be a short sighted view.

Therefore, I'm curious as to how CX FF see Y+ as a reasonable purchase if they already get such benefits, even in Y.

I'd be curious to see how Y+ is priced in comparison to K class tickets currently on offer

Personally I don't want CX to introduce Y+. As christep says, it's the first step to eliminating F and I don't want to see that happen. There's simply no space on the 77A's to have 4 classes.

I'm happy with their current offerings and unless Y+ is something like Y plus 15-20% fare only, I probably wouldn't pay for it. From what others are saying based on the survey, it seems that Y+ would be significantly more expensive than Y. Would I pay 60-80% more for Y+ instead of Y? No way. Not unless the Y+ offering is WAY better than what other airlines have in Y+ and really a mid-point between Y and J. If Y+ is just a few inches more pitch and one seat removed from each row, then it's not a big deal.

Also, I get a lot of op-ups from Y to J right now and I'd hate to see that change and be op-up to Y+ instead. That would definitely be bad news for me.

This year I'm going to qualify for GO, so I do fly a fair amount, though all ticketed in Y (usually anywhere between H and V fare on average). Having said that, I'm definitely not looking forward to introduction of Y+.

Why would that be the first step towards elimination of F? Other airlines like JL and NH has 4 class config 777-300ER, which works just fine. CX can just remove the first 5-10 rows of Y for Y+.