kokonutz

Yes, and contra to my typical MO, I am all in favor of taking our time and getting it right.

Yeah. And that DNA of the premium fares thread cum forum is pretty compelling. And it's also the future of elite programs: PQDs.

Just like they do with mistake fares, bloggers will rub fare deal aberrations like CMB and MLE in airlines' faces in exchange for credit card apps whether we create this forum or not. Again, this forum meant mostly for legitimately offered fares. Things the airlines WANT to be talked about.


tcook052, I get your point and it's a good one. But do premium economy fare threads really count as mileage run deals? Don't they tend to blow up the CPM ratio?

Worthy of some deep thought.

tcook052

Well, maybe not every thread if Y fares are allowed simply because you can buy preferred seats such as DL's Economy Comfort. Isn't that all DL economy fares?

IMHO including true premium economy seats such as BA WT+ in a proposed premium fares forum makes some sense but not any economy fare where the passenger has the choice to buy roomier seats within the economy cabin.

kokonutz

I think you are right in terms of where to draw a simple and bright line: if the FARE is different because of the seat it's a premium fare. If you get in the better seat with a FEE then it's a mileage run deal.

Does that work?

SkiAdcock

Maybe I'm missing something, but on UA one doesn't have a separate fare for Economy Plus.

It's something a non-elite can add on for some extra $$, but it doesn't show up as something separate (Economy, Business/Business First, First/Global First) when booking, so to me I don't see why it or any airline where it's just an add-on would be included in the Premium Fare forum.

BA it shows as a separate booking (Economy, Premium Economy, Business/Club, First) so it would make more sense to include Premium Economy fares in the forum.

Cheers.

kokonutz

Agree.

MSPeconomist

This is the point. UA Y+ and DL/KLM EC are NOT separate fares, separate cabin classes, separate cabins, etc. UA's Economy Plus, aka Y+ on FT, is NOT a Premium Economy offering. UA does NOT offer a Premium Economy product. The same is true for DL and KLM: Economy Comfort, aka EC on FT, is NOT a separate cabin, does NOT require different fares, etc. They are only special seats with additional pitch (and some added perks on DL such as free Studio, free hard alcohol on international) but EC and Y+ are NOT a separate cabin class.

AF Premium Economy, BA WT+ (World Traveler Plus, where BA calls its longhaul coach World Traveler), whatever NZ calls their Premium Economy offering with the wonderful seats all do require payment of a (different) premium economy fare (such as the W or A fares on AF, where I think there's a third premium economy fare class, perhaps T). You can't buy a coach ticket and sit in premium economy (unless you've used instruments for an upgrade or you get an OPUP).

SkiAdcock

Uh, you do realize we're in agreement don't you?

Cheers.

jason8612

A interesting idea, and I would support it, but how would it be handled?
Each good premium fare to have a separate thread?
As long as the mods don't mind the (slightly) extra housekeeping, I'm all for it!

MSPeconomist

Presumably each good premium fare would have its own thread in general, but there could be groupings, for instance of Thanksgiving sale fares in business class to Europe. If other carriers match a fare, this could also go into the same thread, although in this case the thread title would need to be amended.

The idea is that someone would be able to skim the thread titles to find offers of interest, much like people do in the MRDeals forum when searching for a MR or mistake fare. The current megathread for premium fare deals in the MR forum doesn't permit an easy check. It's also confusing because the discussion of various current fares (and sometimes expired fares) tend to be intertwined.

Craig6z

I just see this as being very messy, as many of these "good" premium fares have very short half-lives.

Probably makes sense to get Mileage Run forum moderators to offer input on housekeeping logistics before this is put to a vote. The premise behind this proposal I'm very supportive of, but ultimately let's follow the "KISS Principle".

MSPeconomist

When these premium cabin fares expire, those threads will just be inactive and fall to the bottom of the list of topics in thee sub forum. People will only need to skim thread titles for threads with more recent posts to check for something of interest.

However, my sense of the facts is that while premium cabin mistake fares are corrected quickly (just as they are for coach mistake fares), there are ones that last longer. One example was the fare war on LAX-EZE discounted business class fares between AA, DL, and UA this year. Those fares moved up and down, but the sales lasted for at least several months. Thanksgiving sales similarly have sometimes started in early summer and persisted on some routes (primarily the business TATL and TPAC routes) until almost Turkey Day. In other cases, there might be a two day or two week sale advertised by a carrier, but if the good prices will be of limited duration, it's even more important for someone to be able to watch for such good deals easily and often.

kokonutz

So do mileage run deals.

Treat them the same. @:-)

kokonutz

So where are we?

A subforum of Mileage Run where premium code fares get their own thread, and are moved to Mileage Run discussion once they expire?

kokonutz

I'm just about ready to make the following motion:

The TalkBoard recommends that a subforum of Mileage Run Deals be created called 'Premium Fare Mileage Runs' for the posting of threads about specific premium fare code 'good deals,' and that once that fare expires the fare thread be moved to the Mileage Run Discussion subforum. This practice mirrors how economy mileage run deals are currently handled in the Mileage Run Deals forum.

Any last-minute thoughts before I do?

Dieuwer

I am in favor IF it makes searching for historical data more easy.
For instance, now I have to dig through multiple threads if I wanna know when the Thanksgiving sales started for previous years. Having a separate forum with ONE Thanksgiving thread would make life easier.