Tag Archives for premium economy.
American Airlines will start selling Premium Economy on New York JFK – Los Angeles on Monday for some flights beginning October 5th. This represents pulling the Airbus A321T that currently operates the route – with first class, business class, and economy – and replacing those with Boeing 777-200s.
If a seating arrangement is so untenable that a customer downgrades inflight, it does seem reasonable that the difference in fare should be refunded. The discomfort was because of the dog and their owner, but it’s an arrangement that’s still the responsibility of the airline, and the passengers who moved certainly didn’t get the product or experience that they paid for.
Transatlantic airfares have been exceptionally high in all classes of service. I haven’t seen much like premium economy (think: domestic first class plus a foot rest) at reasonable pricing until now.
Delta and its partners are offering roundtrips starting at $860 for premium economy between October and May, a wide period of time that includes peak travel periods. And it’s available from numerous U.S. cities to several cities in Europe and back.
American Airlines announced this morning that they’ll be moving to new business class suites with doors, putting more premium seats into planes, and eliminating their Flagship First Class product starting in 2024.
Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro and Concierge Key members have received premium economy upgrades free when they are available (and when they aren’t being upgraded to business class).
For Alaska and Hawaii routes, these complimentary premium economy upgrades at the gate are now available to all elites. Gold and Platinum members are now eligible for complimentary premium economy upgrades when listed for an upgrade to business and not clearing.
We’re not just looking at a new seat, but also more premium seats. I wrote last fall that American Airlines is planning to put more business class seats on planes. That’s true both for their widebodies and also their Airbus A319s.
We’re getting some sense now just what this means from two separate recent reports that I’ve confirmed.
An interesting story American Airlines upgrade story – compounded by terrible customer service – tells me it’s worth reminding that American Airlines does not offer any way to upgrade to premium economy before the day of travel and that no American Airlines upgrade instrument will cover the cost of a premium economy upgrade.
This is actually a good thing because it means that all advance upgrades, and upgrades paid for with a certificate, still skip over the premium economy cabin.
American’s new domestic first class seat is literally the same seat that they use in premium economy, except that it lacks a foot bar or foot rest. The seat is, therefore, premium economy-lite. It’s disingenuous in the extreme to call it ‘business class’.
However on some routes, up until now, that’s what they’ve done when flying Boeing 737s to Latin America. For their Iceland flight though they’re changing this practice.
For many of you French Polynesia is about the destination and not how you get there. But a whole new way of getting there has been opened up to AAdvantage members. Up until now there’s been no competition for premium economy award space – it was available only to Club Tiare members. We’ll see how long availability remains this good now that so many more people can book it.
American Airlines was first among U.S. airlines to offer premium economy and expand it across their fleet. They introduced premium economy awards on their own flights back in January.
Now British Airways premium economy awards can be booked using AAdvantage miles. We can expect American to expand premium economy award redemptions further on other partner airlines as well, though they haven’t given a timeline for when to expect this.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
