Finally I did not manage to catch a Business upgrade and had to do 14 hours in a Premium Economy seat between HKG and HEL. I'm broad shouldered, muscular guy 184 cm, in general I struggle in Economy seats if the person next to me also is a man. Usually its then shoulder to shoulder for the whole flight, which sucks. So I really like the PE product and been on many Cathay and SAS flights in PE. Anyway, I was so disappointing with the new Finnair PE seat, the hardware did not at all give the same good feel as Cathays PE. My major concern was that the seat itself was too short, giving very poor support to the legs. I needed to sit supper straight, pushing my butt as far back in the seat as I could to get decent support, if I slouched a bit which is how I usually sit, often with a pillow to support the lower back, that was impossible in this seat. Second the seat had some type of hollowing so it was lower in the middle with a quite sharp edge dropping. This made the seat feel more narrow than it actually was, there was with my quite wide butt not much room to move left or right in the seat, more like a sport car seat there was one position for the butt and I guess that was fine but not great. The leg support and all that got better with the lower leg support thing was hauled up, so the only bearable position for a long flight was to put the chair max back and then lower leg rest max up, then you had a decent position. Overall that the product was so underwhelming felt terrible when I usually do my flights with Finnair and had planned continue to do so.

I just sat in the PE seat on a LHR-HEL flight. This was my second time testing the seat, and first time with someone in the seat next to mine. I have to say that the hard product (there is no PE soft product on this flight, of course) did not differ much from Y and was a lot worse than TK J on Euro flights.

In the first row, there is ample legroom. The seat reclines to a comfortable position and the legrest helps, but you're definitely still sitting and you have a neighbour one centimetre away from you. There is no storage apart from a seatback (or in this case bulkhead) pocket. And there is no small foldable table for drinks. Better seats of this type come with a storage compartment under the armrest (suitable for books, reading glasses, passports, mobile phones etc). The fixed minitable on the centre armrest can barely fit two water cups.

Compared to a regular longhaul Y seat with extra legroom, I don't see a big benefit. I flew HEL-DXB in the first Y row in November, with a neighbour, and I can't really say that experience was much different.

I would take it on longhaul if the alternative was a single Y seat, but even two Y seats (esp. Y comfort) are preferable for me as a tall person.. the hard shell and inability to stretch to the side can be hard

I remember my first PY experience on Finnair and it was a very positive one. The only thing I thought was lacking was a decent recline, which felt noticeably less than that on old BA seats.

In January I tried PY on SQ and that was by far the worst of them all, which was surprising because normally SQ excels at everything else.

So I'd definitely still do AY again, though of course there is no comparing PY to C seats. The new Finnair C is absolutely great.

What was so bad about SQ PE? Seat? Food?

I have understood that AY serves PE a Euro J meal as the first service (and those are rather modest these days) and the second service, which is either missing completely these days or something like a bread roll or a small cardboard box of scrambled eggs) is the same as in Y. Must be the most underwhelming PE catering out there.

While I'm not as hot as you on AY's PE, I do agree that it's among the better ones out there. I liked KLM's new seat on an overnight flight, but it's only slightly better than AY and has pretty much the same problems.

The SQ PE hard product was really nothing special, as if the designers were told not to make it stand out from regular economy. Food was regular Y fare, drinks service was awful. It's hard to even say that you get a glass of wine because they have these tiny glasses that are good for just one sip.

On BA everything was done properly when it comes to food & drinks in PE. Before they even went around with a full drinks service I remember being served food with two bottles of wine instantly placed next to my food (that's half a regular bottle right there). You know it's going to be a good flight when things get off to such a pleasant start.

SQ is still my favourite airline and is probably the best globally when it comes to Y, C or F... but quite the opposite holds true for its "premium" economy.

I would easily choose AY over SQ when it comes to PE if the flight times and prices were similar. I haven't tried KLM yet and my experience on BA was on the old - make that very old - PE seat so I have no idea what their hard products is like nowadays. I have heard very good things about Qantas' PE - apparently it's one of the better ones out there.

I just flew HEL-HND in AY PE and was really happy. The 4SH vouchers to 2 for 1 points deal before awardflight rework was suber value.

Picked 20JK seats. Great space to sit with my wife. We are both short. Felt like we had our own great corner there and plenty of space to get feet straight.

Food was decent enough and free drinks nice. Service though was non existent. They never came to ask if we want something. I pushed the call button and soon a very annoyed Finnish man came to quickly serve and then leave.

SQ recently announced upgrades to its PE soft product including proper china to differentiate it from Y. I actually find SQ PE seats to be quite comfy.

My limited PE experience:

I flew ARN-DME-SIN in SQ PE and was underwhelmed (this in 2018, so YMMV)

In 2014 CPH-ERW in SK PE, and I really liked it

MEX-CDG in AF PE was also OK, but 14 hrs were just too much

What were the main differences between SQ and SK, if you can remember?

I was once to fly PE on BA over the atlantic, but was op-upgraded to J. This year, I have booked Air Calin and Brussels Airlines in PE. Those should be my first real PE experiences, although Air Calin is, for months already, doing maintenance on one of their two widebodies and the replacement from Wamos Air has no PE, so I have no idea what will happen. Hopefully I will be on the only Air Calin widebody still flying...

IIRC the hard product was the main difference - on SK it was as olde skool European biz class seats, while on SQ the seat was just a slightly better Y seat only.

NB these flights were in 2014 and 2018 respectively, so they might be very different products these days.

Think so too! Got the 2for1 PE and think its great for the price paid. Unfortunately, there is no bulkhead seats left on both flights, so we had to pick the row behind that. Not sure if I should pick last row, but probably the decline is reduced? Someone checked that?

I don�t think recline in the last row of PE differs from other rows. A year ago, on my LHR-HEL test flight, I sat in the last row and it reclined quite a bit.

Yes, the recline is the same.