£200 off premium economy flights from London to New York and Bermuda

MSE_Martin

What’s deal?

Zoom airlines is giving £200 off premium economy flights from London to New York and Bermuda, if you book before 12 October.

How good an offer is this?

The cheapest premium return fares I could find under this offer were £284 all-in London to New York, and £277 from London to Bermuda.

The offer is billed as a free 'premium upgrade', as upgrades normally cost £100 each way. Yet, even after the £200 discount, the same flights were still £40 cheaper when flying Zoom economy. This is because the higher the original flight prices, the higher the taxes and charges.

However, if you do like your premium class creature comforts, this is a decent deal. It's worth checking the schedule though as the plane may make a stop along the way.

How to grab the flights

• Step 1: Enter promotional code NYUPGRADE1 on the homepage of Zoom's website, and book to travel before April 30, 2008.
• Step 2: Select your inbound and outbound return flights, making sure they are both “Premium Economy”. Flights must be returns.
• Step 3: Click through to “Intinerary” and the system should automatically deduct £200.

How to find the very cheapest flights

The FlightChecker speedily tells you when to go away to get the ultimate cheap budget airline prices. As Zoom is one of the budget airlines it searches, simply enter a range of travel dates (e.g. October to April) a destination (Bermuda or New York) and the maximum price you're willing to pay including taxes and charges (e.g. £150) and it'll find when you need to go to grab the cheapest flights.

The Flightchecker will only display the economy prices, so don't forget to take into account extra tax charges you’ll pay under the premium offer. Then go to the zoom website and follow the steps above.

What does an upgrade actually get you?

The main perks of premium economy are a larger seat pitches, a larger luggage allowance and free alcohol (see details below). I'd love feedback from anyone who has travelled Zoom Premium Economy on how you found it.

When it comes to seat pitches though, while Zoom's 36" premium economy beats British Airways normal economy (34" seat pitch) it's only equal to American Airlines (which has the biggest seat pitch of any normal economy flight at 36").
Yet even so, you may not find standard economy flights with those airlines for the same as the premium

So do compare the Zoom premium economy with the cheapest American Airline standard economy using the Cheap Flights article.

Zoom Economy

• 31" seat pitch
• 1 meal & 1 snack included
• Free soft drinks throughout flight
• 20 kg baggage allowance

Zoom Premium economy

• 36" seat pitch
• Selection of your seat number
• Complimentary alcoholic drinks
• Choice of meal and 1 snack
• Increased baggage allowance (30Kg)
• Priority baggage delivery
• Complimentary headsets
• Dedicated check in & reduced check in time (90 mins prior to departure)

For more on nabbing bargain flights read the Cheap Flights article. If you spot any cheaper flights, please post below.

Martin

Sam_Bee

It's worth noting that several of their flights go via Bermuda, Manchester or Cardiff, not what you'd expect from London to New York. Before you book take a long hard look at their timetable, otherwise it becomes a long drawn out flight.

Also don't book connecting flights at either end, chances are you'll miss them.

Their Premium Economy is smaller than any other scheduled airlines premium economy, so don't be comparing it to Virgin or British Airways / Midland. It's as little as 1 inch more than American Airlines economy.

Apart from that it's not bad.

richardw

I thought AA had got rid of MRTC and put back the seats and the pitch is now 32".

Yep, be careful choosing the indirect flights.

stratford_2

MSE_Martin wrote: »

The offer is billed as a free 'premium upgrade', as upgrades normally cost £99 each way. Yet, even after the £200 discount it's still £40 more expensive than flying Zoom economy. This is because the higher the original flight prices, the higher the taxes and charges you pay.

I don't think this is the case - air passenger duty (APD) is fixed at £40 return for economy class long haul. It is £80 for premium classes on the same flight - hence the £40 difference. I understand that Maxjet and other all business flights such as Silverjet and EOS get round being charged the higher rate of APD as they operate 'single class' flights.

optique

stratford wrote: »

I don't think this is the case - air passenger duty (APD) is fixed at £40 return for economy class long haul. It is £80 for premium classes on the same flight - hence the £40 difference. I understand that Maxjet and other all business flights such as Silverjet and EOS get round being charged the higher rate of APD as they operate 'single class' flights.

Correct, however today the Chancellor announced he is closing this 'anomaly' with effect in one year's time, and charging the full £80 whack to business-class-only flights.

paramonkey

this doesn't apply to flights to/from london which are operated by the UK arm of Zoom rather than the canadian arm. all flights london new york london bermuda are direct.

Sam_Bee wrote: »

It's worth noting that several of their flights go via Bermuda, Manchester or Cardiff, not what you'd expect from London to New York. Before you book take a long hard look at their timetable, otherwise it becomes a long drawn out flight.

Also don't book connecting flights at either end, chances are you'll miss them.

Their Premium Economy is smaller than any other scheduled airlines premium economy, so don't be comparing it to Virgin or British Airways / Midland. It's as little as 1 inch more than American Airlines economy.

Apart from that it's not bad.

Missoula_2

I've travelled Premium Economy with Zoom and it was excellent. Comfortable, relatively spacious and quiet because it's a small cabin. Good food, free alcohol, unlike economy.
Fast check in was especially brilliant - it was two days after the Bomb scares last August 2006 and the queues at Glasgow airport were hours long. We just sailed in and checked in immediately. We DID get some filthy looks from the other passengers, which was understandable.
Also after the flight our luggage was off-loaded first, so no waiting at the carousel.
We only paid around £70 extra each way.

Sam_Bee

paramonkey wrote: »

this doesn't apply to flights to/from london which are operated by the UK arm of Zoom rather than the canadian arm. all flights london new york london bermuda are direct.

Currently two flights a week to New York go via Bermuda, in both directions. If you see the other threads, you'll see they are having issues with slots, and other issues that too quick over expansion can cause. That's why (on their online schedule) some flights (although not a weekly basis) have gone via Manchester & Cardiff. I'd suggest it's a bit of a lottery really.

lokiman

One issue you should take into account when booking to fly on Zoom, is that they have had some serious teething problems on the London-Bermuda route, with repeated delays, etc. I recently emigrated from Bermuda to the UK, and chose to go with BA's long-standing service because, frankly, Zoom was too much of a crap-shoot. Zoom's biggest initial problem was that it lacked the authorization to fly directly across the Atlantic, which is the usual route. Instead, it had to fly from Bermuda, up past Newfoundland - Greenland - Scotland and, finally, down to London. This added approximately 3hrs to the flight each way, though Zoom were quite naughty and didn't tell people about this until they'd checked in! That issue has been resolved now, however, and the flight goes via the normal route. That wasn't Zoom's only problem, though, as matters were compounded by flights frequently taking off very late from Bermuda, sometimes five hours late. A number of my fellow Bermudians have found themselves in the position of missing their connecting flights in the UK, only to find themselves without compensation from Zoom. In one case, a personal friend was due to fly from Bermuda to London on Zoom, and then from London to Dublin on BA. He arrived at the airport in Bermuda to be told that the flight was actually three hours longer than he had been previously advised, as a result of which he would miss his connecting flight. He then had to pay for a fresh ticket for his connecting flight. After checking and going to the departure lounge, it then transpired that, not only would the flight take three hours longer, but it would not be taking off until two hours after its scheduled departure time. He would now miss his rescheduled connecting flight, so he had to book a third connecting flight. He arrived in Dublin eventually, but was some six hours late and out of pocket for two additional flights. I wish Zoom luck on this route (which has been historically dominated by BA), but I hope they clean up their act.

Kerr_Avon_2

I flew with Zoom to and from New York back in July (just a few weeks after the route started operating) and the only real issue was the poor timekeeping.

The flights cost me £280, when the cheapest quote I could find for the July dates I needed from the bigger airlines were all in the £500-550 range. So price was good for the high season. (Though I also had to get a £55 Easyjet return from Glasgow to Gatwick).

On the way out, the flight was direct from Gatwick to JFK. It took off about three hours late from Gatwick, which was a relatively minor annoyance in the scheme of things - it meant I didn't get into Manhatten to meet up with the friends I was staying with till about 8.30pm (Thursday) instead of 5.30ish. If the delays had been much longer and it had been much later, I think I'd have been a little more uncomfortable on the long (75-minute) or so subway ride to lower Manhatten from the Airport, especially with all my luggage and since it was my first time in NYC.

I had booked ordinary economy seats, and you get what you pay for. The seats were basically OK although the reclining mechanism on mine was temperamental, which meant it kept slipping back, which was a pain when the seat had to be upright and did cause a little discomfort in my back. Aside from that, the food was fairly typical economy airline fare and free drinks (non-alcoholic) were readily available.

In-flight entertainment has all but been sacrificed to cut costs. No screens on the seats in front of you, just some (very small) LCD screens attached to the roof throughout the aisles in the cabin. No choice but to watch what they show, therefore, which on the outward journey meant I Think I Love My Wife, a romantic "comedy" I'd never heard of starring Chris Rock which admittedly was released in the US in 2007 (and was, therefore, quite recent) but was so bad it never made it to cinemas over here. The second film was The Fantastic Four. Not thid year's Rise of the Silver Surfer sequel - it was the first one from two years ago!

So bring your own in-flight entertainment, either a digital media player or portable DVD player.

Because of the day I was flying home (a Tuesday, chosen a. because it was £60 cheaper than the Monday and b. to give me an extra day in NYC) it was one of the flights via Bermuda. It was supposed to get in to Gatwick at 6am. Unfortunately (or so I thought at the time of booking), the earliest suitable EasyJet flight to Glasgow was at 1.30pm, leaving me with 7 and a half hours to kill between flights...

While I was in NYC, I received an email from Zoom informing me my homeward flight was now due in to London an hour later than scheduled (although it was still leaving New York at the same time). No problem, since I had so much time to kill anyway.

More importantly, they had upgraded me to Premium Economy for free! Result! Don't know why I was lucky with that - I can only assume that either it was because it was my first time with Zoom and they were trying to keep me sweet or, who knows, the flight attendant who asked about my seat on the way out noted the problem (I didn't make any big deal about it) and this was to make up for it. I suspect the former.

Anyway, I reached the airport in plenty of time and used the Premium Economy speedy check-in desk. And then the flight was delayed by two hours (or possibly three, can't quite remember) which, again, was not a huge problem for me since I still thought I had plenty of time to kill in London.

Besides, it gave me a chance to sit in the bar at JFK drinking a final few frozen Margaritas!

The flight eventually took off OK. The premium economy seats were slightly more comfortable than the standard economy seats, as you would expect, and the few extra inches of legroom made a small but welcome difference. But I wouldn't pay an extra £100 each way for them (plus the free alcohol you also get). Food was much the same as in ecomomy.

The other main benefit of the upgrade was the increase in baggage allowance, from 20KG to 30kg, which proved to be a godsend, as I had bought so much cheap clothes and trainers during my stay, my luggage weighed in at 26KG! I'm not sure what the excess charge would have been had I still been in economy. I DO know that the gits at the EasyJet desk in London mugged me for £42 to fly those extra 6kg from London to Glasgow. Grrrrr.

Anyway, the flight was fine and there didn't seem to be any delay when we stopped off at Bermuda. However, perhaps due to the strange flight path a previous poster mentioned, combined with the delayed take-off from JFK, the flight didn't get in to Gatwick till about 10.30am, alost four hours later than the revised scheduled time. We then sat on the plance for about another half an hour at the gate because there some problem getting the gantry thing attached to the side of the plane! The pilot was not happy!!

So, by the time we got off the plane, I got my luggage, made my way to the Easyjet check-in, was ordered away from the Easyjet desk to their rip-off desk to have £42 extracted from my wallet by a man wearing a stripy shirt and a black mask and carrying a bag marked "swag", then returned to the first Easyjet desk where the same woman who told me I could have my boarding pass immediately when I got back made me stand again for 10 minutes, then made my way through security... by then instead of being 7.5 hours early, I only ended up having about an hour and a half to spare before my flight to Glasgow!

For me it wasn't really a problem since I just avoided six hours of sitting in an airport but both of the women I was sitting next to missed their onward connections (not flights, bus and train) they had booked and their planned rendezvous with friends.

I have been keeping an eye on Zoom's departures and arrivals on their website on and off since I got home (not a very close eye though) and they DO seem to have ironed out the teething problems with departure times at least.

Overall, the problems didn't really have a bad affect on me and so I'd recommend Zoom if the big airlines are a lot more expensive than they are for the dates you want to fly.

However, if you have to get a connecting flight from London on your way home, I'd err on the side of caution and either leave 6hours+ between them or stay in London the night you return and fly home the next day (although, as I say, the delays SEEM to be more under control now).

Can't really recommend the Premium economy at full price (£100) unless you are very tall or planning to bring back lots of clothes and need the extra baggage allowance on the way back. At around £30 it would be better value.

Hope this helps.

PS: Oh yeah, the films on the way back were The Astronaut Farmer, a Billy Bob Thornton film from 2006 which, again, was never released in UK cinemas, about a man who builds a rocket in his garden and Ice Age. Not even Ice Age 2, which is itself a year old - but the first one which was released 5 years ago!!!!

Waxy_Bean

Avoid Zoom at all costs - with less than 3 weeks till I go away they have cancelled my return flight from NYC as they cannot get the airspace and will not take any responsibility for additional costs this incurs.

I've learnt my lesson to go with a more reputable and reliable airline....