How bad is flying economy these days?

[Griffith4ever]

Teddy Lop said:

Griffith4ever said:

made me lol :-) But on the whole, you are wrong. Sure, PE usually has a couple collecting every slipper, toothbrush and eye blind available to take as souvenirs (they collect up the noise cancelling headphones at the end of the flight in PE which should tell you something..) but on the whole it's a great compromise between basic and luxury that meets a lot of people's budget. Very dependent on airlines though, and routes/planes. Prob the best bits are it mostly filters out parents with toddlers, you can recline properly, proper leg room, and you dont end up with your adjacent's arm on your arm. The food is normally economy with the lid removed for you and real cutlery :-)

I've thought about PE as the personal space of just a pair of seats appeals when flying long haul, the asking is difficult to square though - you pay double+ the price for what, 20% more real estate? Still hauling the weight. I know there's a law of diminishing returns as you ascend but that just feels they're tactically pricing it high as they're afraid it'd gouge biz class.

I hear you, but if it was 100% more space for 100% more money every bugger would upgrade, so they'd put the price up again...... It has to be a "bad deal" to keep it fairly exclusive, using exclusive as for what it actually means, excluding people .

The 20% extra room feels like a 100% improvement btw. Just not being squashed against the next person is worth its weight in gold. It is a serious uograde on all the airlines I've used it on so far...

BA to Mauritius - enough recline that I managed to sleep all the way there and back. Good service, rubbish food (and thats BC food!)
Vietnam Air to BKK - Dated plane but good space. Mrs seat foot rest faulty so hard for her to sleep. Would they move her to BC for a working seat? Would they hell. They just gave her more pillows. Bit piss poor when paying for a seat that is broken. Crew switched of lights after initial meal, disappeared, and disabled the call buttons!! Never saw them again till breakfast. Zero help from cust service after.
Virgin LA to LHR - superb. Loads of room, great recline, great service and food. Felt like BC without lie-flat.

That's ones I can remember. All felt worth the uograde easily, well, LA to LHR eco on virgins not bad either.

BC is then a big step up again. Finnair was utterly superb in their new "pod/lounging seats".

[ecs]

ro250 said:

Teddy Lop said:

I've thought about PE as the personal space of just a pair of seats appeals when flying long haul, the asking is difficult to square though - you pay double+ the price for what, 20% more real estate? Still hauling the weight. I know there's a law of diminishing returns as you ascend but that just feels they're tactically pricing it high as they're afraid it'd gouge biz class.

PE cost seems to vary wildly. We have it booked from Boston to home this year and it was only about £100 pp extra. On the way out it was much more and couldn't justify it.

It's in the same tax bracket as biz/first, we pay the highest airport taxes in the world so premium economy out of the UK is expensive.

[Zoon]

timbo72909 said:

Now I've found an absolute bargain trip

Not the butler or concierge?

[ro250]

ecs said:

ro250 said:

Teddy Lop said:

I've thought about PE as the personal space of just a pair of seats appeals when flying long haul, the asking is difficult to square though - you pay double+ the price for what, 20% more real estate? Still hauling the weight. I know there's a law of diminishing returns as you ascend but that just feels they're tactically pricing it high as they're afraid it'd gouge biz class.

PE cost seems to vary wildly. We have it booked from Boston to home this year and it was only about £100 pp extra. On the way out it was much more and couldn't justify it.

It's in the same tax bracket as biz/first, we pay the highest airport taxes in the world so premium economy out of the UK is expensive.

Interesting. We flew it last year and, as someone else has said, it's night and day compared to Economy simply for the legroom (as a tall person). I don't really care about the other minor perks, I just loved not having the person in front recline their chair into my nose for 7 hours.

[Cold]

I only fly for leisure these days which means a trip on a big old aeroplane is the start and end of a holiday. So I consider it to be part of the holiday and factor in the price of a business class seat onto the whole cost of the trip.
The holiday is a treat so I figure the journey there and back should be too.
Having said that, I'm a solo traveller these days and I can totally understand why the thought of having to pay the cost for a family of four would be unpalatable.

[Condi]

Economy is fine with a window seat and a pair of good headphones. Luckily I can sleep fairly easily on an aircraft, often even before takeoff. The one thing I wouldn't do again is fly AirAsiaX. It's really not worthwhile, although they did at least hold a connecting flight one time. Some economy in the better airlines is quite good, not easyjet or Ryanair, but Cathay, Swiss etc.

[Griffith4ever]

u-boat said:

Getting cheap/free travel is a perk though and it’s often obvious who you are when the crew keep coming up to chat or constantly giving you stuff etc so you’re expected to look smart.

Premium Economy to Mautius , BA. Two employees/friends of crew boarded - they split one in BC, one in PE (wasn't space for 2 in BC, they were not quiet about chatting the details). Waved their goodbyes and settled down.

5 mins later, stewardess appears through BC curtains with BC champagne pre-departure tray and one glass, takes it over to friend/employee in middle of PE cabin. Lots of fairly pissed off looking PE passengers, including us. Way to go to show all of PE their place. One couple behind immediatly demainded their glassed, and got them. Then the champers "ran out". Bloody poor behaviour tbf.

Sat next to the Captain's girlfriend. She was very pollite/no fuss and kept it as lowkey as possible, until he came out mid flight to give her a kiss :-)

[deja.vu]

okgo said:

I’ve done a few long flights, mostly in business for the really long ones, you forget you’re travelling and it is fairly pleasant dare I say. A year ago I had to do a 13 hour flight in economy. It was actually horrible, it wiped me out coming back as I didn’t sleep barely at all - I had exit row too - I think my personal cut off for business would be about 10-11 hours.

I’ve got to go to Colorado in a couple of weeks, company policy is business over 10 hours, it’s 9hr50 from London so I’ll have to get premium eco - it’ll be horrible I imagine. Sleeping pills could help.

Aaah princess, your poor thing
Get drunk in the first class lounge, pour yourself into your chair, few more gins and pass out.
Should have seen the state of us when we got to Miami last week .
PE is fine.

[GT03ROB]

Griffith4ever said:

stewardess appears through BC curtains with BC champagne pre-departure tray and one glass, takes it over to friend/employee in middle of PE cabin. Lots of fairly pissed off looking PE passengers, including us. Way to go to show all of PE their place. One couple behind immediatly demainded their glassed, and got them. Then the champers "ran out". Bloody poor behaviour tbf.

Personal delivery of champagne outside of business is not restricted to crew.....

On one trip I had to slum it in PE from Orlando, I had the bulkhead aisle seat in the centre. Wife & her son had the 2 window & aisle seat in same row. There was family of 4 in the next seat so spread across the aisle. They were muttering away & not looking happy. I could overhear something about logging in & not being able to get all 4 seats in the middle. Then then started muttering to a member of crew. Said member of crew came round to me & wondered if I would swap seats so they could have all 4 middle seats. I politely declined as I was sat with my wife. No problem from crew, cue more muttering from family. Almost immediately a crew member appeared through the curtain with a tray & a glass of champagne. "welcome back Mr GT03, would you like a glass of champagne?" "Thank you, could you get one for my wife as well?" "certainly I'll be right back". ..... very pissed off familiy!!

I've flown business before, while wife is in economy (don't ask), but asked them to take some champagne back for her, which was done.

Slumming it again in economy back from Kuwait got the "welcome back, let me know if I can get you anything chat", suggested some champagne would help, she said no problem. As soon as airborne she walked almost the full length of economy with a tray & some champane, adding she top it up during the flight which she promptly did,

All of the above with the dreaded BA. Don;t ask don;t get!!

[Calza]

I found PE with BA to be a significant upgrade from economy. I had enough space to stretch out and be fairly comfortable. It was also a lot quieter in the cabin which was nice. It was "only" a 9 or 10 hour flight but it really wasn't a chore at all.

Don't know if I'd pay for it myself though, but it is a step up IMO.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Cold said:

The holiday is a treat so I figure the journey there and back should be too.
.

This is also the case for me and my wife. We're going to Colorado in September which is her first long haul flight, I recently did Honduras and back in economy and vowed never again, so we're flying PE. The holiday starts when we get on the plane and we want to arrive comfy, relaxed and having enjoyed it. It did add a significant sum to the bill that, yes, could be spent on better hire car but I don't want to be miserable on the flights so the cost is justified.

If we could afford BC we would, but I'm not on the board of directors yet.

[okgo]

deja.vu said:

Aaah princess, your poor thing
Get drunk in the first class lounge, pour yourself into your chair, few more gins and pass out.
Should have seen the state of us when we got to Miami last week .
PE is fine.

I have never passed out sat upright is the issue, I had to take zopiclone to even sleep in biz. Being able to sleep anywhere is something I wish I could do, so useful!

[toasty]

okgo said:

deja.vu said:

Aaah princess, your poor thing
Get drunk in the first class lounge, pour yourself into your chair, few more gins and pass out.
Should have seen the state of us when we got to Miami last week .
PE is fine.

I have never passed out sat upright is the issue, I had to take zopiclone to even sleep in biz. Being able to sleep anywhere is something I wish I could do, so useful!

Zoppies and gin are a godsend on a sleepover flight. Thankfully I have a sympathetic doctor.

[Matt p]

Flew business class once in circa 2017. This was Etihad from Sydney to Abu Dhabi. Only to shut the ex partner up from the incessant whinging about the flight out to Wellington. Tbh the business class leg on the way back wasn’t really worth the hype. The chair/bed thing was so bloody uncomfortable it put my back out for three weeks after. Food was average at best. However going on the upper deck of A380 was something to tick off the bucket list.

These days it’s economy all the way. Various flights to São Paulo and now Georgetown via Nassau. I’d begrudge paying business class prices. I’d rather use the money to enjoy myself while at the destination.

[number2]

Which airlines still operate chauffeur service to and from the airport?

Emirates do but I think most others don't - it's a great touch, one less thing to think about and a nice way to start a holiday. (Obviously priced in but not a price differentiator.)

[Shnozz]

number2 said:

Which airlines still operate chauffeur service to and from the airport?

Emirates do but I think most others don't - it's a great touch, one less thing to think about and a nice way to start a holiday. (Obviously priced in but not a price differentiator.)

Also a perk you don’t get if you take the upgrade option as a bolt on from economy. I don’t mind doing Dubai cattle as it’s not long haul but quite often then get a business upgrade option if it’s got capacity nearer the time for v reasonable fees but there’s no chauffeur with that upgrade.

[Petrus1983]

I saw this yesterday and it’s almost appropriate for this thread -



Nice touch.

[75Black]

This talk of upgrades made me check how much it would be to go from economy to PE both ways for my trip to Tampa in September...£600 for both legs, more than I paid for the flight itself. Ah well, maybe next time.

[Petrus1983]

75Black said:

This talk of upgrades made me check how much it would be to go from economy to PE both ways for my trip to Tampa in September...£600 for both legs, more than I paid for the flight itself. Ah well, maybe next time.

This thread has made me regret not doing it. I land in Houston at 6pm local time (midnight UK time) and then have to be back at the airport for midday the next day to get back to London.

[okgo]

Petrus1983 said:

This thread has made me regret not doing it. I land in Houston at 6pm local time (midnight UK time) and then have to be back at the airport for midday the next day to get back to London.

Why does this sort of st still exist in business? What possible need is there for any human to be the other side of the world for one day unless they’re incredibly important (and if they were they’d be first class or on a company jet). The mind boggles when I see this stuff. I’m going to Colorado for 4 days and it’s on the cusp of me making an excuse not to as it seems pointless.