E class coming!
 

According to TPECX's news to travel agents, E class will be added as another Premium Economy class effective 30MAY, after R class.

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but is E a (discount) revenue or award class? It's not on the earning chart as of right now, and would also coincide with when they've said Y+ will become available for redemption, so I wondered.

According to my TA staff in BKK, effective for issuineg from 28May and for departure from 30May, PY class RBD will be changed as follows,

W class -> R class
R class -> E class

Prices and conditions are remain same.

discount revenue.

Looking around the various Asia Miles partner airlines, W is the established code for (full priced) Premium Economy, much like Y for Economy, J for Business and F for First right?

If the Economy is in a down turn, I wonder how many people will fly Y+, especially long-haul. Usually if you are rich or on company tab you fly J, if you are paying out of your pocket, unless there's a strong reason for a superior product in Y+ (which CX doesn't offer), then you fly Y. I am simply wondering if Y+ will be just another layer of op-up cabin for oversold Y. I still think it's a bad decision to go with 2-4-2 instead of 2-3-2, I think many people would gladly pay double Y fare for 2-3-2.

My company will fly me in Y+ long haul, but not J. I fly to Europe on BA because they have Y+ but I may now switch to CX instead for my Europe business-related travel.

I find it hard to believe that CX will change W -> R, and R -> E so soon after their introduction, and the fact that W R classes are kind of an industry standard.

BA and QF have W/R/T classes for premium economy. I suspect that CX is going to have W/R/E.

I just found this in the T&C of one of the double asia miles promotions, so it looks like E class will co-exist with W & R:

W will be full fare Y+.

W already is full fare Y+

Right now CX publishes both W published fare (full fare) and W nett fare. The latter will become R whereas the previous R will become E.

That's disappointing news. I was hoping that E would bring in cheaper Y+ fares as I thought that some of the routes were way overpriced.

I'm not giving up hope yet. I've suspected that the past couple months have been an early experiment for CX revenue management to figure out exactly how many full fare Y+ seats they can realistically expect to sell. They did marketing surveys before they rolled it out, but asking people whether they would pay x amount for something is different from seeing whether they really do.

If they're starting to get a clearer idea on that, maybe they'll start being willing to offer more discounted fares.

Here it comes!

The asiamiles earning table has been updated so that W/R/E all earn 110% of miles.

Premium economy awards, and upgrades from premium economy to business, now seem to be available

http://www.asiamiles.com/am/en/redeem/charts

No price for economy to premium economy though

Loking at upcoming bookings for myself, Y+ is only $200AUD HKD more than a K class Y ticket, so ill probably choose Y+ to try.

You can still upgrade from Y to J though the miles needed are the same for Y+ to J which doesnt make sense.

I think the indication that CX was giving was that if your flight has Y+, once upgrades to Y+ are available (which won't be until later this year), the number of miles will be the same for Y->Y+ as Y->J which is disappointing.

But if your flight has Y+ you can only upgrade one class at a time ie you can't upgrade Y->J if your flight has Y+

My understanding from the last time I communicated with an agent is that should a flight have Y+ available, you can only do a Y+ to J upgrade, and not a Y to J upgrade.

A question that might be off the topic...

Say if I get a PE ticket have my trip confirmed, CX changed the aircraft at the last minute and the new plane does not have PE seats... where am I going to sit?

Back to Economy I am afraid? Is that a reasonable complaint if CX does this to Y+ SLCs?

Thanks. Chances are on the routes I mainly fly that they will have Y+

Don't know what SLC means but chances are compensation scheme similar to those that suffer F to J involuntary downgrade will be provided?

Sorry ernestnywang, it's a black humour and I thought it's widely shared in FT but maybe only in other airlines' forum if you haven't seen this - I certainly didn't intend to confuse you.

SLC = Self Loading Cargo (a.k.a passengers) - I know it's very pessimistic but that sometimes describes the airline's attitude to pax especially when you complain.

Good point - I thought of F to J involuntary downgrade case but this is based on a fact that there is no upper class for F to upgrade to... when aircraft changes CX has to downgrade F SLCs to J cos that's the only best available product they could offer.

Y+ is different... it can be downgraded to Y, it also can be upgraded to J if CX decides to do so... that's where my question comes from... CX is different from QF - I haven't heard of QF sold a Y+ ticket but unable to deliver the product...only CX starts to sell Y+ tickets when only one or a few of their aircraft carry this product and can't guarantee its delivery. ;)

checked this on CX's website using some random dates in Sept 2012.

JFK -> HKG Tues Sept 4th

HKG -> JFK Tues Sept 18th

Premium Economy Standard (E): $1975.76 USD

Premium Economy Flex (W): $5759.76 USD

If I am not mistaken, the E class fare is simply the same as what used to be the R class fare. No further discounts compared to the "standard" PE fare before they introduced E class. Looks like this is simply a label change.

As a comparison, this is $367 higher than an H class (Economy Standard) fare.

Got you! Thanks!

Yes.

Slightly confused here. I am planning a trip from JFK to SYD. Will the new E code earn AAdvantage miles? On AA's website it says yes, on CX's it says no...

If you are putting miles to AA follow AA's rule. E should earn miles in any participating programmes anyway. CX's website has many glitches and E is a new thing that has probably not been fully updated.

Thanks!

W is so much higher to make AD75/ID75 close to useless.

Looks like E class is now being utilised...there is a companion fare special in Y+ to Australia that books into E class.

This special is pretty good - I'm guessing that there's a lot of Y+ capacity now across all airlines to oz (QF/VS/CX) that isn't being taken up.

Just want to clarify this as it's now been confirmed by CX...

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_...SYDNYC-18JUN12

I reckon it's ridiculous to pay AUD4k+ to get something that can't even guaranteed... why do I bother to take this risk while QF guarantees the seats and offers shorter turnover time.

With each week that passes, the gurantee will get higher, especially at SYD. By the end of 2012 most longhaul aircraft will have Y+.