kauppias

I am sure I am in the minority here but I welcome Premium Economy. The people who fly paid J usually dont change to PE, then again many leisure flyers such as myself will PAY for PE also some companies that have. AY only policy also allow PE while they dont allow J.

At the the point they introduce this I may actually buy some AY cash tickets especially if these earn a decent amount of points.

AA still allows upgrades by points/vouchers directly to J while baEC does not, but hopefully AY will be fair to all you status flyers I have a feeling that LUMOs will retain thta while plats/golds will be restricted to one class upgrades tvis is of course purely guesswork based on the changes AY has made so far.

ffay005

There is a simple solution to this: instead of the current "voucher" system, introduce upgrade credits. Plat gets 12 credits, Gold gets 4 credits. Shorthaul Y>J upgrade costs 1 credit, longhaul Y>PE or PE>J is two credits and Y>J four credits.

kauppias

Sure solutions are SIMPLE and available but how much "love" has AY shown Platinums after the introduction of LUMO Status?

Again this is pure speculation from a award flyer of AY, I have made zero effort to get status on AY since we butted heads last year 😂😂 now I just redeem, as an outsider

riku2

I think the AA approach to premium economy and upgrades going direct from Y -> J is because the premium economy cabin is so new. You can't even redeem points for premium economy on AA yet and from economy you upgrade to business class with points and premium economy doesn't really exist from that point of view. AA should eventually change that to put the people who upgrade with points into premium economy instead (although if it was the same points as currently Y->J then there would be an outrage).

one minus side of AA compared to BA is that if you are ticketed in premium economy on BA you're often upgraded to J to make room for those upgrading from Y -> premium economy with points. On AA this doesn't happen. The upgraders go direct from Y->J and there is less chance of being upgraded with a premium economy ticket.

Seyan

I don't get it. Doesn't AY already offer Y+ by the name "Economy comfort"?

ffay005

Y+ is just what the abbreviation implies: an Economy seat, an Economy meal. You get a little extra legroom (and a mini-amenity kit), and that's it. Premium Economy, however, is a real class of it's own in its own cabin, with seats that often resemble US Domestic F seats, improved food and drinks etc. It's a distinctly different product.

Seyan

Hmmm, okay, my bad. I only know Premium Economy (I thought Y+ = PE) from JAL and ANA and it's nearly like Economy comfort from AY.

petteriusa

If these really include an upgraded seat I'm looking forward to this. I don't really need and certainly don't want to pay for full J class service. I wider seat with better recline is enough for me. Overnight flights PE, and daytime Economy comfort works perfectly for me. I'd like to see the upgrade path follow Y->PE->J. This gives a more fair path for those who purchased the PE product.

florens

Wow. Not many times I've read this on here.

kauppias

It will be intresting to see if AY manages to impress or screw it up? 😀

A good premium economy could mean alot more business for AY without necessarily losing much. If they just slap some makeup on a old pig and call it sally that wont impress me 😂😂

riku2

Amazingly a colleague of mine said the same thing when i said how good CX premium economy was: "I've tried finnair premium economy and it's really good".
I had to explain to him that Finnair do not have premium economy and what premium economy really is. And he travels a lot for work also but was totally unaware of the cabin.

intuition

I am having multiple thoughts about this.

First, did comfort fail financially and they felt they need to replace it? Or is PE aimed at a totally different group of travellers?

Where does PRO ticket fit into this future? They can't possibly sell PE at a price above PRO. Will the entire ticket-type system go away? 3 classes each with flex and saver tickets?

In these matters, AY often carefully looks at SK. SK has a better J product than AY and they have had PE for quite a while with wider recliner seats, personal IFE, meal service et.c.
I think AY is aiming for a similar cabin and price-point.

Is it a reasonable assumption that the J-minicabin will go and be replaces with PE? That would mean minimal structural change to the inside. But where does the "flex-cabin" (seasonal re-config of aircraft to fit more Y seats for leisure destinations - an option they talked about when investing in A350)

The eternal question how not to cannibalize is bigger for AY than many others. Within 24h multiple people here said "will never buy J ticket again". I maintain my position to never fly below J on longhaul, but AY will clearly see a diminished demand for J, especially from domestic and nordic market. This leads me to think price will be closer to J than to Y.

Also, is PE enough "economy" to fit inside corporate travel policy of "Y-only"? Ie will they capture more money from corporate flyers who are bound to Y? Or is it going to be leisure oriented?

kauppias

I would imagine they would have a PE basic and PE PRO that would be flexible

cheung.chunyuenc

ff_flyer

I have very mixed feelings about this.
We do not really know the implementation details, pricing options, seating configurations and many other details and I doubt that not even AY will know yet.
There is only one obvious reason why do they do it: commercial reasons and nothing else. Introducing a totally new concept of 3 classes on LH flights is a hefty investment with apparently reduced number of saleable seats and they must charge substantially more than the current economy comfort product as ancillary concept. The whole cabin modification and other processes will take 3-4 years, cost X millions and there is a high risk that the product will not fulfill the marketing garbage expectations.
A change for a great product but also a great opportunity to sc*ew it up totally. The sceptical side of me sees this something between BA/CX/LH premium economy with a very high price tag for customers.
Loyalty customers may get their feet wet and really too early to say anything about it yet, but I am not feeling very comfortable right now.