Which Airlines Offer The Best Premium Economy Class?

One of the travel classes increasingly preferred by business and leisure travellers alike is premium economy. Premium economy class helps bridge the increasing gap between comfort levels in economy class and business class, and is being adopted by an increasing number of airlines.

The spectrum of a premium economy class product ranges from “economy class plus” to “business class minus”. While perhaps originally created with the intention of being the former, competition has driven airlines to bring up their premium economy class product offering. A vast majority of airlines will offer a recliner-style seat similar to what you’ll see in regional business class in Asia or domestic first class in the U.S., though airlines are separated by seat design, amenities, and catering. Typically I find premium economy to be a significant upgrade from economy both in terms of comfort and service structure, as you get much more space in a more intimate cabin (I’m not the best at sleeping in economy class, though have no issues sleeping in premium economy seats).

I’ve flown a number of premium economy class products now, and want to regroup and figure out whom I think offers some of the better premium economy products. For the purpose of this post, I’ll be focusing on airlines’ longhaul products wherever I can. I’m also committed to reviewing more premium economy products, and have a few booked for down the line.

Which airlines feature premium economy class?

Premium economy class is offered by a majority of airlines in their longhaul configurations. These will mostly be operated by airlines that focus on ultra-longhaul flights and point-to-point travel. For example, most European carriers and many Asian carriers have a premium economy class cabin, though Emirates is the only Middle Eastern airline to have one (since the Middle Eastern airlines focus much more on hub-and-spoke travel, where the flights are individually shorter and premium economy is perhaps less justifiable).

So far, the highest level of adoption of premium economy is probably in the U.S./Canada, Europe and Australia, followed by Asia. There are a couple airlines throughout Africa and South/Latin America that feature premium economy, though that’s less of a market for them.

Emirates is the only Middle Eastern airline to offer premium economy

There are also a number of low-cost carriers that will operate a premium economy cabin on their longhaul flights. This might sometimes even be in place of business class. As the product itself is similar, we’ll be including those products for the purpose of this comparison.

There’s little setting Norse Atlantic’s Premium Class apart from its full-service competitors

Which premium economy products have I flown?

I’ve flown premium economy products on Cathay Pacific (multiple times), EVA Air, Emirates, Qantas, KLM, Swiss, Lufthansa, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Norse Atlantic, Scoot, and Singapore Airlines. As a team we’ve also done Air France and Finnair’s premium economy (thanks Jason!).

There are quite a few premium economy products I’m aware I haven’t flown:

• While we focus on Europe-Asia travel the most, I’m hyper-aware I haven’t flown premium economy on any of the North American carriers (though have read firsthand reviews extensively)
• I’ve been scouring award space up and down on Japan Airlines/ANA – they take a very interesting approach to premium economy, by providing lounge access and a really good hard product, but basically the same soft product as economy
• I’ve got plans to fly Singapore Airlines in longhaul premium economy, though this hasn’t happened yet – the only premium economy flights I’ve flown on Singapore Airlines are between Hong Kong and Singapore
• I’d also be keen to check out the mainland Chinese carriers (I definitely have plans to)
• There are a few more European carriers to fly in premium economy, such as LOT, Iberia, SAS, ITA, Austrian, etc.. Based on what I’ve seen so far, ITA has the most compelling premium economy product out of this lot
• Air New Zealand wins quite a few awards for having a great premium economy product, which I haven’t flown

I’ve flown a few premium economy products, and am on the quest to fly more

Who has the best premium economy product I’ve flown so far?

The best premium economy product I’ve flown so far belongs to Qantas. I flew Qantas from Singapore to London last year, and found the product to be mostly “business class minus” rather than “economy class plus”.

Qantas offers the best premium economy product I’ve flown so far

Why Qantas?

• While Qantas doesn’t offer lounge access for premium economy passengers, you do get priority check-in and boarding, including a dedicated area if you’re in a “holding pen”
• The seat itself is ergonomically designed, including a net for feet, a very sturdy seat pocket, good recline, and lots of in-seat storage
• The amenities such as pillow, blanket, and headphones are well thought out (the amenity kit is a bit flimsier, though)
• Dining is super thoughtful, with delicious meals and plant-based options
• There’s a small mid-flight dining menu on longer flights, with plated hot options (much more than sandwiches, cup noodles, or even egg tarts offered by the competition) – many airlines don’t offer food between meals at all
• The service flow is generally really smooth, with constant topping up of drinks
• The drinks selection is huge, consisting of hand-picked Australian wines, a small selection of apéritifs including Qantas’ own signature Sky Spritz, and french press coffee – there could be one or two more non-alcoholic options there, though ultimately this is really strong

Here’s my review of the flight.

Qantas is the airline in premium economy that offers the most extensive on-demand dining between meals

There are two major limiting factors to Qantas’ product – there’s no WiFi (that is changing soon, though isn’t even featured on their long London-Perth flights), and power ports are shared between seats. However, I still think that they offer the best all-round experience.

Other contenders with outstanding premium economy products

I’ve gotta give Cathay Pacific credit for consistently having an impressive premium economy hard product, whether it’s on their A350s or new 777s. There’s also inflight WiFi, and egg tarts and hot pastries available between meals for flights out of Hong Kong.

However, premium economy passengers are relatively de-prioritised in the boarding process, I don’t find their dining to be as good as Qantas’, and there’s a surprising lack of drinks for premium economy passengers on the menu. Additionally, the service flow definitely seems more “economy plus” than “business minus” on Cathay Pacific premium economy flights, with paper cups and long tray table clearing times.

Cathay Pacific might have the best premium economy hard product, though the soft product doesn’t match

Emirates also has a decent premium economy hard product. The airline nails the basics, with a dedicated check-in desk and boarding, good catering, and some fun elements such as pre-departure lemon mint juice. I also find that there’s a premium touch to execution on Emirates – for example, we were invited to taste the wines before they were poured at our seat.

However, I find there’s not as much to the soft product as on Qantas – the wine selection is smaller, there are fewer meal options, and there’s nothing between meals. In my case, the meal service also took almost outrageously long, showing that there’s a bit of tightening up to do for serving a simple meal on one of Emirates’ many short redeye flights.

Emirates’ premium economy is a cut above in some ways, though some elements are economy-esque

Meanwhile here in Europe, the best premium economy product I’ve flown so far is KLM. There’s not much of an X-factor to the product, though it gets all the basics right – good seat with storage and power ports, delicious catering, really good amenities, and WiFi. Due to the upgraded service structure compared to economy, we’ve currently found it to be better than Air France (Jason has flown both and that was his conclusion, which I was personally surprised by at first).

KLM might have my favourite European premium economy product

Here in the UK, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic both offer surprisingly good premium economy products (perhaps the former is a bit more surprising, given the carrier’s spotty reputation otherwise). The seat is comfortable and catering is good, and amenities, service and catering are good as well. On Virgin Atlantic, premium economy passengers will typically not be stopped from sitting in the lounge area for Upper Class passengers in my experience (I don’t know if this is intentional or not, though it covers both my own experiences as well as those I’ve read online).

British Airways’ premium economy product is surprisingly good

Who do I think has the best premium economy product I’ve yet to fly?

I know that there are a lot of premium economy cabins I haven’t flown yet, and I’m on a quest to find out which airline has the best premium economy product out there.

Maybe it’s Japan Airlines. They have the world’s only electronically controlled premium economy seat, and their footrests go up all the way. There are also huge privacy partitions between seats, and industry-leading 42″ pitch. They fly their A350s between London/Paris and Tokyo, so perhaps I could snag an award seat on one of these planes.

Japan’s new A350 premium economy cabin looks stunning

Or perhaps it’s the serial award winner Air New Zealand, who features the most legroom out of any premium economy seat (from further research, though, it doesn’t seem like the product otherwise stands out that much).

Air New Zealand’s premium economy product wins awards on a fairly regular basis

Closer to where I’m based right now, perhaps it’s ITA Airways, the new European player with a huge focus on catering. They advertise espresso and limoncello onboard their premium economy cabins, which seems awesome.

ITA Airways seems to have a very compelling premium economy product

Conclusion

There aren’t many travel sites out there that specialise in reviewing premium economy class, and we’d like to be an industry leader in that. There are a few other products that we’ll need to be able to try out in order for that to be the case. However, for now, Qantas has the best premium economy class product I’ve flown, Japan Airlines has the premium economy product that looks the best out of those I haven’t flown, and there are also multiple other airlines with strong premium economy products that I wouldn’t hesitate to fly again.

What’s your favourite premium economy product out there?