MSE Blog: How flying premium economy can be cheaper than economy

Former_MSE_Guy

Hi all, this is a thread to discuss the MSE blog:

How flying premium economy can be cheaper than economy

"Who’d have thought it would be cheaper to fly premium economy than economy? Well, I got that pleasant surprise this month when..."

ROBEST

Yes - this has happened to me a number of times. On airlines that don't have premium economy (which to be fair is most of them) business class is sometimes cheaper than a more flexible economy fare. Some airlines automatically show the cheapest fare in any class, others show you only what you have asked for (normally economy class). So as you say - it's worth checking. I also see it frequently on trains, whereby a firstclass ticket is cheaper than a standard class one - especially at the weekends

richardw

I suspect this is flying from LHR-Moscow, which BA has only recently decided to operate with three/four travel class long haul aircraft, instead of two class short haul aircraft.
Most may not know that Premium Economy is available on this route, which is why it may be unsold, once the regular travellers know about this change and premium economy gets initial bookings, this tip may not happen, so enjoy it whilst it lasts.
But as always shop around and check different travel classes if you see high economy prices.

stoneman

I would say that most of the time the next class up on a restricted fare is cheaper than a flexible ticket of the class before. With American Airlines quite often you will see a flexible economy ticket cost 3 times more than an "instant upgrade" to First

malkie76

I believe it's the same on all airlines, however holding flexible tickets can be useful if your travel plans change.

World Traveller Plus instead of World Traveller (whatever happened to economy, premium economy.........

Given that BA were one of the first airlines to offer a premium economy cabin your comment makes little sense. BA did it first, but obviously other carriers aren't going to call theirs "world traveller plus"

Crabman

I noticed this with BA last year, but didn't book with them as Emirates had a better Economy fare.

After flying with Emirates I wished I'd gone with BA. Emirates' cabin service was simply awful (explains why they don't have customer service contact details on their website) and gave new context to their slogan, "Why doesn't everyone fly this way?"

Somebody

Not cheaper, but we managed to get BA World Traveller Plus seats for only £10 extra from LAX to LHR. Well worth it.