FT Premium Plus article
 

....says PP is getting more affordable than ever to try out. Funny..I'm not seeing that at all. PP award redemptions on intl intineraries are stratospheric. Cash prices are way out in left field for what you get too. Maybe T24 offers are what they are talking about??

No, they’re almost certainly talking about cash prices. It depends upon the route and inventory, but I have purchased P+ on two upcoming segments (in order to use fewer upgrade points). The fare difference was $150 on each segment to upgrade from a discount economy fare to Premium Plus. At that price, I’d have to agree with the author.

My simple observation is that those stories you see on the main page are mostly garbage. Plucked from the forums and spun, twisted, and regurgitated. YMMV.

It's definitely cash prices. I booked MSP-CDG/FCO-SFO (ignoring transfers) for about $1,000 in R class last fall. That level of pricing has continued, including some three-digit fares to Asia, which overall continues to be a ludicrous bloodbath in all cabins. The PE cabin is small, so it is contingent on finding deep discount inventory, but the prices there are rock bottom.

I search for PE (Premium Plus to use the UA vernacular). Cash prices on UA are generally very reasonable, at least for R fares. I am a PE gal on many airlines and the introduction of Premium Plus on UA was very welcomed by me. E+ does not cut it for me and I had been booking away from UA for long haul flights to those with PE.

As others noted often Premium Plus is less than Economy or just slightly more. Then there are other times where Polaris on a P fare is less expensive than Premium Plus (generally an O fare).

I think Premium Plus is a sweet spot for travellers like me. Many people won't pay the small price differential as they are cost focused whereas I am a value buyer, and as I get older comfort becomes more important.

Currently agree with the FT article. I do suspect UA will start to increase Premium Plus pricing but for now works great for me.

They are reasonable compared to a regular economy fares, they are quite a bit more than the deeply discounted economy fares ($400-$500) sporadically available on some Transatlantic routes.

For my TPAC routes, PP are 2x the cost of Y..

In what fare class?
Also, many TPAC routes have ridiculously low fares at the moment

The key to this discussion is when R fares are available, they can be reasonable. A fares are more expensive and O fares are very high. P fares if available is a better alternative than O fares and maybe even some A fares. (A is probably cheaper but P gives better value IMO)

Having booked 4 R fare trips (2 taken, 2 in the future) -- all TATL. They can be tricky to find, but do exist and may come and go quickly -- sort like upgrades at booking a few years back. Have used a combination of Google Flights and EF to find. If looking close-in, very rare. Can work for those with some planning horizon, not travel next week.

I was looking at TPAC R comparing to K

It's also been my experience that Premium Economy is quite expensive. I've flown several TPAC 777s (SFO-HKG mostly) that are fitted with those. They really don't look sufficiently inviting to get me to spend another 400-600$ each way. I don't like the fixed armrests, and if the seat next to you is empty, you cannot take advantage of it. It's just me, but I'm much more interested in what I do at the destination than have (literally) a couple more inches during the flight. And in many parts of Asia, $500 buys a lot of hotel, or meals, or excursions. I'm a former 1K who found that upgrades to actual biz seating were increasily difficult to clear, so I'm content with a simple Economy Plus seat. And when I can buy a SFO-BKK roundtrip for $534, it certainly makes my travel dollar go a lot further.

TPAC K fares are a fantastic value, but they’re not always easy to find. And 2x a TPAC K fare is still a pretty good deal for R, IMO — that might still be under $1000 RT.

yes, some TPAC routes are struggling at the moment with K fares below cost and empty seats, so that's the fare spread is understandable

But an R fare at $20/hour upfare is still a good value in IMO. (especially after 2M+ miles of air travel)

"mostly garbage"? I'd say that's a generous characterization.

The absolute scale on which PE is ridiculously cheap is CSM - a $1,000 R fare on SFO-FCO is 8.3 cpm and the true fare was less than that because of taxes. 8 cpm is below breakeven for Economy, let alone a premium product.

Any other "value" metric is subjective. This thread already has several "I wouldn't pay more than a couple tens more for PE, it's not a good product!" to my perspective where PE offers a reasonable option and I wouldn't choose Y even if it were free (which complicates any value analysis based on PE being '2x more than' etc.)

Hi!

Popping in from editorial. We're always working on putting good content on the front page. If you see something that is incorrect in this article, please feel free to let me know.

IBMeg