OG60

Newbie here (warning!)

Am taking wife to Italy in Sept '18. Flying out of Austin Tx.
Want to upgrade (miles using CapitalOne 50K+ pts or $) to Premium Economy.
What airline has best Premium Economy seats (I am 6' 3" 220lbs)?
Guidance for using CapitalOne points? Which airline(s) to look at?
Appreciate any/all help and guidance.
Thx
OG

Yoshi212

Your options are going to depend on where you're going in Italy & how many connections you're willing to make. For a 1 stop to Rome you're limited to AA via DFW, A DL-AZ combo of flights via JFK or ATL & BA via LHR. Depending on the ticket for any domestic legs in the US or intra-EU you may be seated in regular economy, an economy plus (generally more legroom) or a business product. Domestic US Economy Plus (or equivalent) tends to be better with legroom when compared to Intra-EU business class but intra-EU business class does have an empty seat next to you.

Take a look at who flies your route, when, with what layovers & through where and then take a look at the options that fit your needs & wants. Each product is a little different. Make sure you know the intricacies of each product. Delta only provides a true Premium Economy product on their A350 but some tickets will sell a comfort+ seat as premium economy which isn't quite the same thing.

Can't advise about the Capital One part.

OG60

First of all, Thank You for taking the time to reply.
We are thinking of going into Venice and out of Rome. Would like to keep the connections down to at most 2 (each way).

I understand that the domestic legs will be economy. It's the 9+hours that I am worried about

Can you advise which Premium Economy offers the most legroom and / or degree of the seat that it goes back. I know it won't be flat.

OG

Mwenenzi

What airlines frequent flyer programs are you a member of now? FF miles & status?

Upgrades are never guaranteed. A lot of people want upgrades, but few get them. Some lower priced fares are not eligible for upgrades.

If you want to fly PE buy it with money. Look from any gateway city DFW/AUS/IAH to anywhere in Italy or adjacent country, with local transport (train) as needed.

OG60

I understand that. I am prepared to use my miles. IF I could buy it (w/money obviously) then I would. BTW, if you cruise the board looking to vent when someone asks a question, remember that they are doing it to find out what to do, not to be lectured.

84fiero

Is the issue that the Cap1 booking site doesn't show premium economy options to book directly? (I'm not familiar with their site) I know that's sometimes the case with bank rewards type booking tools. If so, is your question about how to separately purchase an upgrade to premium economy seat after you buy the economy ticket, working around the Cap1 limitation?

sdsearch

Whose miles do you have? Cap One "miles" are not real miles. They're essentially cashback that's limited to redemption for travel categories only. And you can only Cap One "miles" to reimburse you for purchases you've already made! So you can only use Cap One miles for flights you've already bought, so if you're not going buy the flight, you can't use Cap One miles for it.

But 50k Cap One miles is worth only $500, since each Cap One "mile" is worth 1 cent. You're not going find a Premium Economy fare to Italy for just $500 round trip. So if using Cap One, you have to pay for the flight, whatever it costs, and theh Cap One will reimburse you for the first $500 or so of the cost. That's it!

American is not yet set up to allow you to use their miles for Premium Economy. American miles can only be used for Economy or Business class, even if the plane has Premum Economy.

I don't think United is set up allow you to use their miles for Premium Economy (on, say, Lufthansa) either. Again, you can use UA miles only for Economy or Business class.

Delta has Comfort Plus as a separate cabin, but even if Delta allows you to reserve Comfort Plus with miles, Delta usually charges astronomical amounts of miles for anything, so unless you're lucky, Delta miles redemption is very tricky especially during prime travel season (which September still is).

So I'm not sure what options you have for booking Premium Economy with miles. It might have to miles with foreign carrier such as BA or Lufthansa.

But again, all that only applies to real airline miles (issue by an airlines). It does not apply to Cap One "miles", since those require you to buy a paid ticket and then reimburse you later.

But do you really mean "true" Premium Economy (in a separate cabin), or just extra legroom seats? (Those are two different things.)

If you pay for the trip in economy, and don't buy Basic Economy, and buy directly from the airline, then you can buy up to extra legroom seats on American and United. if they're available for sale on the particular flight. If you absolutely want those, you have to check carefully which flight still has extra legroom seats for sale. On American they're called Main Cabin Extra (MCE), and on United they're called Economy Plus (E+).

Beltway2A

Capital One miles aren't transferrable points currency the way Amex, Chase or Citi points are. If you can't "buy" a premium economy ticket (and then use your Cap1 miles to offset some of the cost) then you're the one venting here, not Mwenenzi. Upfaring to PE on an economy ticket may not be permitted, or is sometimes permitted with a large change fee, depending on your original economy fare and the airline issuing the ticket. It's certainly not something to rely on, and will probably be more expensive than buying a premium economy ticket outright.

Efrem

On a recent (December 2017) trip to Italy (BOS-FCO), Alitalia business ("Magnifica") class was fairly inexpensive - definitely competitive with real PE on airlines that had it, and not a whole lot more than the economy fares that were still available at the time. You'd have to get to one of their north American gateways, but that might not cost too much. If you travel DL to the gateway, you can probably do it all on one ticket.

As for Capital One points - use them to defray the next ticket you buy with real money. They're just a cash-back scheme with restrictions. Better than a credit cad with no bonus features, but not to be confused with airline miles.

bhomburg

Do you need/want 'real' Premium Economy - small, separate cabin featuring wider seats with more pitch and recline, bigger entertainment system screens, better food and wider beverage selection, amenity kit, and airport benefits like expanded baggage allowance and priority check-in that's found on AA, Alitalia, Air France, BA, Lufthansa - or is one of the extra legroom products the US airlines offer (Main Cabin Extra at AA, Comfort + at Delta, Economy plus at United good enough? The extra legroom cabin on the US carriers will give you an extra ~five inches of legroom and maybe some more recline but that's it, notable exception is AAs 777-300 and a few 777-200s where MCE also features wider seats in a 9-abreast configuration instead of the 10-abreast tightness in regular Economy.
The price difference between Economy and Premium Economy starts at about 40%, the three US carriers charge about $250- $300 per return seat for their extra legroom seating.
If you buy Premium Economy on one of the airlines offering such a cabin, keep in mind that this cabin is only offered on longhaul aircraft and you will sit in regular Economy for all connecting flights in Europe and the US. Those sectors can be pretty long if you aren't careful with your itinerary - I`d avoid connecting in NYC, for example. Especially within Europe, airlines have been squeezing customers and 30" of pitch is the norm nowadays, but flights are generally pretty short.

As others have mentioned, you cannot use Cap One rewards points for upgrades. You can use them to buy tickets (through the Cap One travel portal) with them, though and drive down the price of your tickets by partially or wholly paying with points. TPG has a good overview about redeeming them: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/how-t...venture-miles/
The easiest airline to upgrade from ecnoomy to Premium Economy for a discounted price is BA, either in advance online through 'manage my booking' or at the airport for cash. The only way to use points for this is using BAs own points system, though - if you don't have Avios, you need to pay cash.

jdug101

For true Premium Economy and ability to upgrade, I think BA is likely your best bet for what you are trying to accomplish. Only catch is you may have to switch airports in London, from Heathrow to Gatwick.

If you simply want a bit of extra legroom, you can get 1 stop options on AA via PHL, ORD and CLT. Row 25 on their A330's has quite a bit of legroom but are a bit narrower from the traytable being in the armrest.

bhomburg

By this summer, AA will have 'true' Premium Economy throughout all of the fleet used for its European routes. Also, the ex-US Airways A330-200s used for PHL-FCO now all have been retrofitted with MCE seats. Pricing for PE looks promising, and the product is very good. Unfortunately, upgrading is not an option at this time as AA currently does not offer an upgrade path to PE from Economy with either cash or frequent flyer program instruments. This may well change until September, though.
if the OP is happy with Rome as a destination, flying AUS-DFW-FCO on AA in PE would be the most convenient option by far, with only a very short feeder flight in a narrowbody economy seat.

1flyer

Every time I look at the thread title, I throw up a little bit in my mouth. Sickening abuse of the equal sign.

Wimsta

First post here, been lurking for a long time.

I'm a little taller and a little heavier, and I'm flying to Italy (MXP) in May, going from ATL though.
But I going from ATL to LAX so that I can accompany my 71 Y/O mother, and I have the benefit of flying with a Platinum Status this trip (though I'm not sure how much difference that will make on KLM steel).

Anyway, I do multiple international flight each year, and I'm bigger than you so I'm curious about "need" PE?

But, if I remember to make my way back, I'll post about upgrade experiences, should they be helpful in your endeavor to fly comfortably.

griftsno1capper

I have flown BA, AA, LH, AC, JAL, ANA, SIN and many other PE products.

Going to Europe, your best seats are on Lufthansa and Air Canada in my opinion. A lot of people like Delta, but I haven't flown with their product.

I would avoid AA and BA, their seats are the least comfortable.