Is Premium Economy Worth It?

Premium economy is a cabin class that’s seeing increasing demand from business and leisure travellers alike, and we cover it quite extensively here at The Alviator. While I’ve written about the best premium economy products, in this post I wanted to talk about whether premium economy as a cabin class is worth the upgrade over economy. There’s quite a bit of conflict on the internet about whether the upgraded experience is worth it, and after flying quite a few longhaul premium economy flights over the past few years, I’ve got a few thoughts on that as well.

What does premium economy offer over economy?

In premium economy class, you typically get the following over economy:

• A recliner seat, with the following features:
  • 38-40″ of seat pitch instead of the standard 31-32″)
  • A 2-3-2 or 2-4-2 configuration as opposed to a 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 configuration, meaning that the seats are 19-20″ wide instead of 17-18″ wide
  • Seats will usually also have much more recline than in economy
• Upgraded ground services such as priority boarding
• Upgraded amenities
• Upgraded onboard catering

Cathay Pacific 777 Premium Economy Class

Cathay Pacific 777 Economy Class

While the ergonomics and seat design varies between airlines, a vast majority of airlines will have a similar configuration in premium economy in terms of seat width, legroom, and recline. Do note that this can be different if you’re flying an airline in mainland China – a couple of airlines, such as Air China’s 787s and Shenzhen Airlines, offer “premium economy” that is just economy with extra legroom.

The soft product can vary between airlines, and different airlines take different approaches to position their product between “economy plus” and “business class minus”. For example, I find Lufthansa‘s premium economy soft product to be not too far off from economy, whereas Qantas and KLM take a more “business class lite” approach.

The extra recline matters, especially on longhaul flights

How much does premium economy typically cost?

I would say that while airline pricing is volatile, longhaul premium economy tends to cost approximately twice as much as economy. You can drive the price of premium economy down by connecting on a shorthaul flight in economy, especially between Europe and Asia.

For example, if I were to book a ticket between London and Hong Kong in late November, the cheapest economy class flights I can find hover around £520-530.

Meanwhile, the cheapest premium economy itinerary hovers around £950-1000.

To compare, business class is just over twice as expensive as premium economy, going for £2,500 (the below screenshot shows Finnair’s “lite” fare, so a typical fare with standard baggage and lounge access would cost slightly more).

I typically book one-ways (in order to maximise reviews), and generally manage to get the price down to £500-700 one-way, which I’d consider to be quite standard for premium economy. A “standard” price for roundtrip Europe-Asia premium economy will probably sit around £1,500, whereas it’d sit closer to £800-900 for economy. Meanwhile, I’d generally expect cheaper business class tickets to cost £2,500-£3,000 roundtrip, though obviously this can be significantly inflated for some routes.

Trends are similar when redeeming miles, though obviously this varies between airlines. I’d say that premium economy still sits just below double what you’d see in economy. For example, a Cathay Pacific one-way flight from London to Hong Kong costs 27,000 miles in economy, and 50,000 miles in premium economy. Business class costs 88,000 miles.

Do note that if you’re originating from the UK, you need to pay a higher APD in premium economy as opposed to in economy.

Is premium economy worth it?

I think that whether premium economy is worth it depends highly on whether you find yourself able to work and sleep effectively in either cabin. The extra few inches of recline makes an enormous difference to me personally, and I sleep very well in premium economy, though not as much in economy.

For me personally, a bit of recline goes a long way

That’s my personal experience – some people manage to sleep well in both cabins, and some people need a flat bed to sleep at all. I think that you should take that into consideration when trying to decide whether premium economy is worth it for you. While I appreciate the soft product upgrades, they’re usually too minimal for me to take into account when I’m deciding whether a premium economy flight is worth it.

When deciding whether I want to pay extra for a flight (in general, not just in premium economy), I figure out whether I want to pay for both the following:

• whether I’ll be able to work, rest, and/or enjoy the flight
• the increased productivity during the day of being able to sleep on the flight

I personally highly value comfort on flights, and find myself to be most productive after my travels. As someone who finds it significantly easier to work and sleep comfortably in premium economy compared to economy, I’d say I’d value the incremental cost of being in premium economy at around £40/hour (HK$417/hour) on a longhaul flight. This means I’d be happy to pay up to £480 extra one-way on a 12-hour flight. I value different airline frequent flyer programme miles very differently, though I’d say a rough equivalent is around 2,500 miles/hour.

The valuation factors in how much more I feel like I’ll be able to get done either on the flight or on the next day (from getting better rest), as well as how much I’ll enjoy the incremental upgrades in the hard product and amenities.

I think premium economy is worth approximately £40/hour more than economy

Generally between Europe and Asia, given premium economy and economy pricing, this means the ceiling of how much I’d pay for premium economy is just about £750 (HK$7,832) one-way, or around 55,000 miles. I’m a little flexible on that if there’s a specific product I want to review, though that’s just me as someone who writes this blog.

Should everyone value premium economy the same way?

I think that your valuation should be lower if:

• business class is cheap during the off season (the cheapest business class roundtrip between London and Hong Kong I’ve seen is on China Southern, and it cost £1,200/HK$12,500! There’s no way I’d fly premium economy over that)
• you can’t sleep in premium economy anyway, and might as well just rough it out in economy
• you can sleep and work well in economy, and don’t care for the extra soft product upgrades
• Business class may be 2-3x more than premium economy in cash but only 1.5-2x more in miles, so all things equal I favour redeeming for business class if there’s award space

Don’t forget to check for business class deals before booking premium economy, whether that’s with cash or award space

Conclusion

Different people will see the value of premium economy very differently. As someone who sleeps well in premium economy but not economy, and someone who is most productive onboard longhaul flights, I value premium economy at approximately £40/hour, or 2,500 miles per hour over economy. I’m aware that some don’t find premium economy to be much of an upgrade over economy at all, and some may have a different valuation.

Is premium economy worth it to you?