Premium Economy v Business?
Discussion
Puggit said:
trickywoo said:
Does anyone else think airlines make economy deliberately s
t to encourage more people to upgrade?
I know the space will always be limited, packing them in is how money in made / saved. However, the seats and general environment could be made a lot nicer / more comfortable with very minimal effect on ticket price.
They do this to cut costs. Number 1 criteria for choosing flights is price.t to encourage more people to upgrade?I know the space will always be limited, packing them in is how money in made / saved. However, the seats and general environment could be made a lot nicer / more comfortable with very minimal effect on ticket price.
Puggit said:
trickywoo said:
Does anyone else think airlines make economy deliberately st to encourage more people to upgrade?
I know the space will always be limited, packing them in is how money in made / saved. However, the seats and general environment could be made a lot nicer / more comfortable with very minimal effect on ticket price.
They do this to cut costs. Number 1 criteria for choosing flights is price.t to encourage more people to upgrade?I know the space will always be limited, packing them in is how money in made / saved. However, the seats and general environment could be made a lot nicer / more comfortable with very minimal effect on ticket price.
85Carrera said:
Premium economy is for mugs. If you can’t afford business, just go economy (or, preferably, don’t go).
This is nonsense. If going long haul especially overnight I travel business, if it’s a day time flight and not that far, Dubai for example I’ll save myself the £1k+ and go in PE. I cannot bear economy, I’m 6ft so no airline really provides adequate leg room, economy seats are too narrow and I hate that the moment someone reclines I have a television resting on the end of my nose. PE removes those problems, often at little more than an economy ticket.OP going as far as Asia business all the way.
I’ve travelled a lot long haul recently for work (yeah, big deal - loads of people do this).
Usually my philosophy is ‘no bed, no deal’ - not prepared to go in anything less than business.
This time is different though as we’re trying to secure a follow on piece of work and need to be clever around costs.
Flying to New York next week in PE. Out in the daytime, so no bed needed. The return is a night flight so won’t be ideal but having got used to flights to Asia of 13 to 14 hours, New York feels like a short hop really. Once up in the air, the flight time is usually 6 hours something.
So, I suppose the answer is ‘it depends’.
Usually my philosophy is ‘no bed, no deal’ - not prepared to go in anything less than business.
This time is different though as we’re trying to secure a follow on piece of work and need to be clever around costs.
Flying to New York next week in PE. Out in the daytime, so no bed needed. The return is a night flight so won’t be ideal but having got used to flights to Asia of 13 to 14 hours, New York feels like a short hop really. Once up in the air, the flight time is usually 6 hours something.
So, I suppose the answer is ‘it depends’.
trickywoo said:
Does anyone else think airlines make economy deliberately st to encourage more people to upgrade?
Interesting little clip on the financial side of the various classes.t to encourage more people to upgrade?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzB5xtGGsTc
Business is definitely preferable to premium economy, if work tried to send me somewhere "long haul" not in business, I can't say I'd be overly impressed. If it's my money, I'm unlikely to want to pay out full whack for business or first, but I tend to plan ahead and book things such that I'm making a decent saving.
Who are you flying with, where to, and what's your situation with airmiles etc? You may be able to book/upgrade with them, and there are partner options as well (for example, I've used Virgin Atlantic miles to book an ANA flight).
Under the circumstances, and if your employer is reasonable on things like you fitting yourself in some holiday time out there before returning, I'd not cut off my nose to spite my face by flat out refusing anything less than business. If it's 12hrs out on Monday to give a bow, business card and handshake to Mr Nakatomi and then be back at your desk Wednesday morning, forget it.
Who are you flying with, where to, and what's your situation with airmiles etc? You may be able to book/upgrade with them, and there are partner options as well (for example, I've used Virgin Atlantic miles to book an ANA flight).
Under the circumstances, and if your employer is reasonable on things like you fitting yourself in some holiday time out there before returning, I'd not cut off my nose to spite my face by flat out refusing anything less than business. If it's 12hrs out on Monday to give a bow, business card and handshake to Mr Nakatomi and then be back at your desk Wednesday morning, forget it.
Dave Brand said:
blueg33 said:
Use inprivate browsing when getting budgets, otherwise the website knows you have been there before and prices are adjusted upwards
Not true!Beggarall said:
Which part not true? That airlines don't monitor your IP address or that Private Browsing doesn't hide you? Does a VPN help?
The part about prices being increased if you repeat a search. Yes, the prices do vary, but that's all part & parcel of the vagaries of airline prices. No doubt somebody will offer anecdotal evidence to show that prices are raised if you search repeatedly; I'll offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Over the last few years we've flown transatlantic with half-a-dozen airlines. In every case the final price we've paid has been the same as the price shown by our first search, sometimes with a month or more in between.
Dave Brand said:
Beggarall said:
Which part not true? That airlines don't monitor your IP address or that Private Browsing doesn't hide you? Does a VPN help?
The part about prices being increased if you repeat a search. Yes, the prices do vary, but that's all part & parcel of the vagaries of airline prices. No doubt somebody will offer anecdotal evidence to show that prices are raised if you search repeatedly; I'll offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Over the last few years we've flown transatlantic with half-a-dozen airlines. In every case the final price we've paid has been the same as the price shown by our first search, sometimes with a month or more in between.
B17NNS said:
Interesting little clip on the financial side of the various classes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzB5xtGGsTc
Thanks for this, or more accurately, the channel link. I've been watching a few of their videos and it's pretty interesting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzB5xtGGsTc
Dave Brand said:
Beggarall said:
Which part not true? That airlines don't monitor your IP address or that Private Browsing doesn't hide you? Does a VPN help?
The part about prices being increased if you repeat a search. Yes, the prices do vary, but that's all part & parcel of the vagaries of airline prices. No doubt somebody will offer anecdotal evidence to show that prices are raised if you search repeatedly; I'll offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Over the last few years we've flown transatlantic with half-a-dozen airlines. In every case the final price we've paid has been the same as the price shown by our first search, sometimes with a month or more in between.
- On Friday I was searching the dates I wanted from work and a flight came up at a certain price, bingo I thought but our travel person had left for the day.
- Over the weekend I searched the same dates (same URL) from a home computer and the exact same flight was consistently £1k more on both Saturday and Sunday
- I got into work this morning and searched using the same URL and the ticket is back at the Friday price (actually £200 less).
- Over the weekend if I followed the link through to the airline website it was showing "1 left"
I've flown fairly recently all 3 classes and the only one that I didn't really give a st how much time was left of the flight was business, and this was BA so pretty st as business class goes vs Etihad or similar. If I could afford to always do it, I would never fly premium/economy ever again. It is such a horrid exp vs having a flat bed, half decent food, endless decent booze, space to move etc. Add to that the lack of faff when checking in etc as you generally get priority.
t how much time was left of the flight was business, and this was BA so pretty st as business class goes vs Etihad or similar. If I could afford to always do it, I would never fly premium/economy ever again. It is such a horrid exp vs having a flat bed, half decent food, endless decent booze, space to move etc. Add to that the lack of faff when checking in etc as you generally get priority.bhstewie said:
hstewie said:Dave Brand said:
Beggarall said:
Which part not true? That airlines don't monitor your IP address or that Private Browsing doesn't hide you? Does a VPN help?
The part about prices being increased if you repeat a search. Yes, the prices do vary, but that's all part & parcel of the vagaries of airline prices. No doubt somebody will offer anecdotal evidence to show that prices are raised if you search repeatedly; I'll offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Over the last few years we've flown transatlantic with half-a-dozen airlines. In every case the final price we've paid has been the same as the price shown by our first search, sometimes with a month or more in between.
- On Friday I was searching the dates I wanted from work and a flight came up at a certain price, bingo I thought but our travel person had left for the day.
- Over the weekend I searched the same dates (same URL) from a home computer and the exact same flight was consistently £1k more on both Saturday and Sunday
- I got into work this morning and searched using the same URL and the ticket is back at the Friday price (actually £200 less).
- Over the weekend if I followed the link through to the airline website it was showing "1 left"
GT03ROB said:
bhstewie said:
hstewie said:Dave Brand said:
Beggarall said:
Which part not true? That airlines don't monitor your IP address or that Private Browsing doesn't hide you? Does a VPN help?
The part about prices being increased if you repeat a search. Yes, the prices do vary, but that's all part & parcel of the vagaries of airline prices. No doubt somebody will offer anecdotal evidence to show that prices are raised if you search repeatedly; I'll offer anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Over the last few years we've flown transatlantic with half-a-dozen airlines. In every case the final price we've paid has been the same as the price shown by our first search, sometimes with a month or more in between.
- On Friday I was searching the dates I wanted from work and a flight came up at a certain price, bingo I thought but our travel person had left for the day.
- Over the weekend I searched the same dates (same URL) from a home computer and the exact same flight was consistently £1k more on both Saturday and Sunday
- I got into work this morning and searched using the same URL and the ticket is back at the Friday price (actually £200 less).
- Over the weekend if I followed the link through to the airline website it was showing "1 left"
bhstewie said:
hstewie said: I have a business trip to the Far East in a few weeks time.
Whilst work are paying and I'm "entitled" to go business class due to the distance, it seems it makes a massive difference to the price to the point where I'm considering Premium Economy or maybe even "plain" Economy.
I haven't been on a flight beyond Europe for a good number of years now. The last international flight I took was Economy and I lived.
I've got a couple of days before the work stuff starts so it's not as if I'm stumbling off the plane and into a meeting, ditto coming back.
Is there that big of a difference between the classes these days?
I presume the airline and type of plane may make a difference too?
Yes there's a big difference, however the price can vary massively too. Even though my company will pay, I still feel guilty as it's a ridiculous amount of money.Whilst work are paying and I'm "entitled" to go business class due to the distance, it seems it makes a massive difference to the price to the point where I'm considering Premium Economy or maybe even "plain" Economy.
I haven't been on a flight beyond Europe for a good number of years now. The last international flight I took was Economy and I lived.
I've got a couple of days before the work stuff starts so it's not as if I'm stumbling off the plane and into a meeting, ditto coming back.
Is there that big of a difference between the classes these days?
I presume the airline and type of plane may make a difference too?
I usually end up going stopover business which can be very close to a direct premium price. I fly to the far east most months asn I'm usually £2-3k for a business return on somthing like emirates/qatar/etihad/finnair/malaysian and it's usually ~£2k premium direct on BA or Virgin.
In fact next week I'm traveling direct business for the first time ever! Sometimes the 'numberwang pricing' airline tickets follow meant it was close to the stopover business price (3.5k in this instance).
Prices can be affected by many things - the main events to watch for are both the Eid holidays as this fills up middle east airlines and some of the far east ones. I have these highlighted in my calendar each year so I can plan travel avoiding them due to cost.
For stopover business flights I use Kayak to plan as it has a slider for stopover duration (skyscanner doesnt, or at least didnt when i last used it). That way you can avoid silly options with 12 hour stopovers. I usually look for <4 hours and >1.5 if i have hold luggage. Occaisonally I'll look for 10 hour stop overs where it's a country you can go out the airport and fart about whatever city it is, good way to see some random places.
bhstewie said:
hstewie said: I presume the airline and type of plane may make a difference too?
Oh and the airline makes a big difference, the plane less so - most airlines have a very similar fit out in all their planes. You will also find that they put their best and more recent fit outs on key routes such as London and Singapore, and their worst on other routes such as India.A bigger factor is the people and attidudes of fellow passengers. This is where regular international travel will make you feel like a huge racist. Without opening myself up to online abuse, lets just say a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Singapore is usally very nice as Singaporeans and Finns are both generally very well behaved and pleseant people.
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