knightkote

Greetings,
I am starting to plan a trip to Japan later this year and would prefer to have a Premium Economy seat on the Japan leg of the flights. I will be flying initially from Texas and a connection to either LAX, ORD, or SFO will be required. My question is how to go about getting a ticket like this. None of the online ticketing options seem to allow for economy domestically and premium economy internationally. ANA's own site only allows you to select premium economy if you search from a direct flight city, which is not the origin of my travels. I'm willing to pay the "premium" but need to figure out how to secure a ticket like this.

Looking for opinions and options. Will I need a travel agent be able to book such a flight? Thanks!

Scifience

I've managed to book these on the Japanese NH site before, but I've never tried doing it from the US. In any case, if you call NH, they should certainly be able to book this.

FYI, premium economy on NH is generally a bad deal, mainly aimed at business travelers who are forced to book in Y... over double the discount economy ticket and often very close to a discounted J fare.

knightkote

Thanks for the response. I actually found a way on the ANA site to book a ticket like this but with the full fare domestic coach it does push the price close to a Biz ticket, within $900. So that makes it more difficult to decide. From what I can tell the newer Prem Eco is pretty upgraded, at least from a seat perspective.

I'm easily uncomfortable on long domestic flights, so even though Prem Eco is not a good deal...it will certainly feel nicer than economy...but yeah the closeness to Biz class price adds a layer of complexity to the decision.

The other issue is bag fees. Would the United connecting flight booked in full fare coach with the premium eco on the ANA leg mean United would make me pay them a bag fee? Seems lame if so.

Scifience

To me, getting a fully-flat seat and much better food and drink for $900 more in J is a no-brainer. I haven't flown the new PE seats on NH ever, but while a bigger upgrade than E- to E+ on UA, my experience with the old PE product is that it is incredibly overpriced given that catering is identical to regular Y.

I'd recommend either springing for J, where you will be guaranteed a great experience (just don't do the LAX-HND flight, which has limited catering and still uses the old seats), or look into UA options in E+.

erik123

Agree - sounds like penny wise and pound foolish. ANA in business is easily worth more than $900. Otherwise stay in Y, pop a sleeping pill, and spend the savings in Japan.

knightkote

Thanks for the thoughts! I'm pretty set on flying a Japanese carrier for the "experience". So it's either ANA or JAL and ANA seems the better choice. Erik123 those do appear to be the two options, business or sedatives!

knightkote

Also thanks for the heads up about the HND flights. I was already not considering those because of the arrival times being so much later in the night. Needing to pick up a router, etc at the airport and everything would be closed. NRT seems the way to go.

Scifience

In Y, there's really no difference as the "experience" is pretty much universally miserable. Shop for Y tickets on schedule, alliance, or hard product, but not for soft product...