Premium economy worth it for 10+ hour night flight?

dont_use_vistaprint

You can sleep OK in VA Premium, you can get in and out without disturbing the person next to you , seats are wide, spacious comfortable and recline well. They feed you well in the lounge and pile you with drink, I'm usually fast asleep before take off and miss dinner, not worth paying an extra 1000+ for Upper, premium is the way to go. You can also take 2 x 23 kg cases , 2 hand luggage, priority boarding , seat choice all at no cost so well worth it.

djdave

I'm really lucky that I seem to be able to sleep anywhere. Even economy on a cramped 737 or A320 doesn't seem to be a problem. I've even slept quite comfortably on Southeastern trains!

accorian

Different airlines, different aircraft, different passenger sizes and needs . . . people are only going to be able to advise on the basis of their own individual experience and the airline used.

My wife and I holiday in California. We live in the north of England, about 70 miles from Manchester International Airport. We prefer direct flights. We won't use BA as its flight prices ex Heathrow are bad enough without adding on the cost and time of MIA connecting flights. We don't use Virgin because its ex-Manchester USA destination choice is hopeless.

We therefore use Thomas Cook Airlines. Direct flights ex-Manchester are Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. We have never had any reason to complain about this particular operator (in comparison with the appalling American, whose 'premium' cabin is anything but and you'll only find if it actually exists anyway after check-in, at which time American may very well say sorry, we have had to change the type of aircraft and so the premium seats you paid for three months ago are actually in Economy.)

I am 6ft 1, 200lbs and have an old knee injury that flares up if I'm in a cramped Economy seat. We therefore book aisle seats or Extra Legroom if such seats are still available at time of booking. We always fly TCA's 'Premium' class for return to Manchester because overnight eastbound travel really does leave us tired out (westbound never does.)

TCA certainly charges considerably more in percentage terms for Premium compared to Economy but as Economy is so competitively priced (our base-line September Economy booking this year for the eastbound LAX-MIA is £265 each) the final cost is perfectly reasonable.

It's worth noting that not all 'premium' accommodation is premium. Some seats are better than others. We always check the a/c seating lay-out before booking with the SeatGuru website wherever we're flying anyway.