Economy with Emirates v premium economy with other airlines

budgetflyer

I was looking at them for India next year too. Much cheaper than BA (again) and their new PE seat is apparently better

boots_babe

budgetflyer wrote: »

I was looking at them for India next year too. Much cheaper than BA (again) and their new PE seat is apparently better

When you say 'their', are you still talking about Emirates? I was told by my boss that Emirates don't do PE - and looking on seatguru that seemed to tally up.

One of the other main options is BA, but he was saying their planes are old and service very poor. Again how true I don't know.

You talking about 'new PE seat' is making me wonder if Emirates maybe previously didn't do PE but now do? If that is the case maybe they will be cheaper than BA and I will have to look into that. THe issue is partly getting the flights for under £1k per person all in.

Doshwaster

boots_babe wrote: »

You talking about 'new PE seat' is making me wonder if Emirates maybe previously didn't do PE but now do? If that is the case maybe they will be cheaper than BA and I will have to look into that. THe issue is partly getting the flights for under £1k per person all in.

That's right. Emirates don't have a PE, which is a shame as I'd fly it.

BA are introducing a new PE as it's existing cabins are getting dated now but it only avaiable on some routes. See
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/new-world-traveller-plus/public/en_gb

The new World Traveller Plus experience is available right now on the latest addition to our fleet, the state-of-the-art Boeing 777-300ER, operating on selected flights to and from Mumbai, Chicago, Delhi and Dubai.

According to the travel geeks at Flyertalk this is only on a handful of planes so there's no guarantee you'll get the updated cabin.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1230581-new-wt.html

JennyJenJen

Where in India are you going? 20 hours is a long time!

I used to go to Mumbai a lot with work and we were always allowed to fly business. If I had to go now, I wouldnt go unless I could fly business (have you tried pushing for that or not? Your work might be able to get some good rates if they use a booking company to book the flights on the basis that it will be a lot of people flying often, which is what we had)

I have flown with Emirates and I wouldnt fancy doing an economy flight with them to India, the flights always seemed to be totally full and I have never seen so many people with so much stuff on flights, the hand luggage rules just didnt seem to apply! Emirates are very good though, service is fab.

We used to fly Lufthansa via frankfurt quite a lot too and again, I wouldnt be keen on economy and im not sure they do premium economy?

After all that waffle if I were you I would try for business (at some sort of deal rate if your company can get it, they shouldnt just be getting on expedia or whatever) and if not then any sort of premium economy.

ETA - emirates business to mumbai used to be around the 1k mark, maybe 1200? so worth a go definitely! I always remember it being a bit weird that a business ticket from manchester to mumbai via dubai was cheaper than just going business to dubai!

Good luck!

JennyJenJen

Another edit - just had a quick look on the emirates website and for £1100 you could fly business on the long leg from man to dubai then economy on the short leg from dubai to mumbai. I would probably do that if you were allowed to go £100 over the 1k.

boots_babe

Business class is but a dream I am afraid, I will struggle massively to try and get the PE option.

Apparently a £1k limit per person too.

PE for just the main leg is a good idea, hadn't thought of that so thanks.

As people are asking, the destination is Coimbatore. So some route options have been:

Man -> Brussels -> Chennai -> Coimbatore
Man -> London -> Chennai -> Coimbatore

One of those is BA, one is Jet Airways, can't remember which is which. But each of them involves I think 18 hours one way, and about 24 in the other direction.

Or for Emirates:

Man -> Dubai -> Chennai -> Coimbatore.

I am so confused! Usually when I book travel I am used to scouring everywhere, doing loads of research then being able to choose best optino. I am not used to having it somewhat out of my control.

I never sleep on planes, I just can't no matter how tired as I can never get at all comfortable. Longest flight I've done before is about 14/15 hours with 25 hour door to door journey. As you can imagine this was very tiring but I STILL couldn't sleep on the plane.

That is why I am putting the emphasis on seat size, as I really think that a bit more space would give enough extra comfort so that I can hopefully drop off and be a little rested on arrival instead of awake for around 30 hours.

JennyJenJen

Try just looking as far as either chennai or mumbai. Then see if your Indian office can book you the internal flights, you can get those MUCH more cheaply that way. We used to travel about a bit while we were there (to Delhi and Goa, that sort of thing) and we used to get the flights a lot cheaper by getting the office to book them.

budgetflyer

boots_babe wrote: »

When you say 'their', are you still talking about Emirates? I was told by my boss that Emirates don't do PE - and looking on seatguru that seemed to tally up.

One of the other main options is BA, but he was saying their planes are old and service very poor. Again how true I don't know.

You talking about 'new PE seat' is making me wonder if Emirates maybe previously didn't do PE but now do? If that is the case maybe they will be cheaper than BA and I will have to look into that. THe issue is partly getting the flights for under £1k per person all in.

No, Air France Premium Economy . I was responding to

totallybored wrote: »

I recently did premium economy with Air France and found it fine, much better than standard economy and would probably do it again in future for a flight of that length (13 hours). Loads of space and the service was efficient. They were recently doing some good offers for premium economy but I'm not sure if they might have ended.

The £75 upgrade was Emirates Econ to Business though:j

One other option , maybe save a few £££s ,is book a low cost fare for the final sector ie Mumbai to Coimbatore from around £40 EW inc taxes.

You can search + book internal India fares with http://uk.yatra.com/uk/flights-within-india.html very helpful call centre too.

so you could do Man -LHR - Bom + low cost (BA)
Man- DXB -Bom + Low cost (Emirates)
Man- CDG- Bom + Low cost (Air France)
Man- Doha- Bom + Low cost (Qatar)

BTW Qatar although considered a 5 star airline and Emirates a 4star, in Economy, IMO Emirates are better

fifeken

JennyJenJen wrote: »

Another edit - just had a quick look on the emirates website and for £1100 you could fly business on the long leg from man to dubai then economy on the short leg from dubai to mumbai. I would probably do that if you were allowed to go £100 over the 1k.

Are you sure? Emirates website will usually "force" a mixed booking like this into Business class for both legs.

OP. I fly Emirates quite a bit in both Economy and Business. My vote for you would be PE on another airline. That extra space is what would do it for me.

dickydonkin

The suggestion at the moment is that we travel normal economy but with Emirates as they have a much better than usual economy cabin.

Those who have travelled on their B777 3X4X3 seat configuration may beg to differ.

If you are flying from MAN - have you not checked out Qatar?

My first experience with them 6 years ago was woeful, however, recently used them and what a transformation.

Their prices are competitive as well.