Emirates unveils a Premium Economy cabin and refreshes First & Business class

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• Michael C says:

  30 Dec30 December 05:34

  You had me at “three toilets”!
  Champagne colour VERY nice.

• Baji Nahid says:

  30 Dec30 December 05:48

  It indeed does look stunning with a toned down colour scheme.

  Though i do wonder whether the seating fabric of those seats will last long.

• Anon says:

  30 Dec30 December 06:20

  It sucks that we cant use points to upgrade our seats

  • blenz101 says:

    30 Dec30 December 06:32

    Would not surprise me at all being part of (and spending) Skywards miles were part of the mix in recognising EK’s most valuable customers in due course.

    Would seem almost a no brainer for EK to offer this once they have certainty of the aircraft either via the app at the airport or even onboard (an option currently available to move up to J).

  • KBuffett says:

    30 Dec30 December 13:28

    Apparently you can. I can’t remember how, perhaps Rob can cover it?

• John says:

  30 Dec30 December 06:24

  Let’s see what the fares will be. Every time I’ve flown PE I found it a waste of money, so I now only book it if the additional miles or TPs make sense, or on BA if I want to UuA

  I would only pay 1.25x the economy price for these EK seats

  • Rob says:

    30 Dec30 December 07:08

    There is a lot which comes into play. For example, a couple gets extra value from PE because they get a guaranteed row to themselves. Tall or wide people get real value from the extra space.

    There is also a HUGE difference in miles earned in most cases. 25% of miles flown for basic economy vs 125% in most cases with PE. These are worth at least 25% of the fare on its own. You also get a decent chunk of tier points.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    30 Dec30 December 08:09

    There’s a fairly fine line between cramped and spacious; unpleasant vs comfortable and it is of course highly individual and subjective. For me, I am a height that economy is horrid but most P/E takes me over that comfort threshold so that, for example on daytime flights east I can read, work or talk to Mrs Squirrel quite happily and there is little further value in Biz. The price difference between the cabins is of course a huge factor as well on your own dime (Orlando being the most distorted example where, with the back full of package deal flyers, and a tiny biz cabin on Virgin’s old 747s, £700 econ vs £800 p/e but Biz at 4K+ could sometimes be found) In some ways p/e is better for social couples. Night flights or very long flights obviously completely different scenario.

    • Chris says:

      30 Dec30 December 09:53

      I completely agree with you. As someone who is 6’2 (with long legs) I find PE perfectly acceptable on longer routes.

      Yes, I’d prefer to be sitting in business but unless someone else is paying, I’m using miles, or it was a steal in a sale – it is usually more than I’m willing to pay. As you say, somewhere in that c. £800 price bracket and I’m perfectly happy with the £ for value.

      Hoping that we get this on the GLA-DXB route eventually. That would be a game changer for me.

      Now, if they’d copy BA with the modest PE to Biz upgrade using miles, I’d be moving meaningful amounts of my personal travel to EK!

  • Richard says:

    30 Dec30 December 08:33

    PE fares are a worse proposition, in general, on fares bought from the UK as you pay substantially more taxes than Economy departing these fair shores, which most (all?) other countries do not add anywhere near as much of a tax increase…

    • tony says:

      30 Dec30 December 09:35

      I think this is a fair assessment. However sometimes you can get very good deals that work for a number of reasons. I recall getting a Y+ fare on Cathay LGW to HK for something like £750. Business was coming in at almost three times that with a stopover, too. Conversely, we’ve gone to Florida in club for £1500 when Y+ has been maybe £1250.

      In my mind, anyone who claims Y+ is either 1) always worth it or 2) never worth it might benefit from a review of the situation.

  • James Vickers says:

    30 Dec30 December 11:51

    I flew from Hong Kong to London premium economy with virgin and it does remain one of the most comfortable flights have ever had. I do agree a lot does depend on price and quality of the premium economy

• Phillip says:

  30 Dec30 December 07:19

  Can’t help but feel that this is another gimmick from the gimmick airline! Put/refresh a product in a handful of aircraft so you can make glitzy adverts and never mind what passengers actually fly!

• 1nfrequent says:

  30 Dec30 December 08:01

  That champagne colour looks amazing new but I would put money on it looking grubby and stained within a year. Lovely but impractical from a maintenance POV.

  1F

  • Dick Steele says:

    30 Dec30 December 09:42

    Agreed. I can’t see how they’ll keep it clean.

    • Chris says:

      30 Dec30 December 09:57

      Hopefully by regular cleaning! Imagine the horrors that are hiding under the dark shades of the BA seats!

      I’m hoping this may be one good thing coming out of the pandemic. Seen some disgusting seats in J & F on BA in the past. Crumbs, spillages and god knows what else. I think if you took a UV light to them, you’d be horrified

• ChrisW says:

  30 Dec30 December 10:07

  Unless you are just travelling to Dubai, it seems like a bit of a waste of time to have premium economy if its only on a handful of aircraft. Even if they devote it to the Heathrow route, anyone connecting onto the likes of East Asia and Australia will be stuck in economy for the second (likely longer) leg. Unless there is only a marginal price premium over economy, its a lot of faff just for a bit more legroom.

  I’ve flown premium economy on a number of airlines and been consistently disappointed. It is barely distinguishable from economy on most airlines, and often twice the price (or more). A tiny bit more legroom (but not enough that the person next to you can easily get out), the exact same food and drinks (whether the main course is slopped into a ceramic white rectangular dish or a plastic white rectangular dish makes no difference to the taste), same IFE (okay, maybe marginally larger screen). If you can’t sleep sitting up the legroom and recline really don’t make any difference. You can’t raise the armrests if the seat next to you is empty either.

  If you rate normal economy say a 1(/10) and business a 10(/10) you might expect premium economy to be around a 5. Every premium economy I’ve flown would be around 2 or at best a 3. For a small price premium I would occasionally treat myself (as I would paying for an exit row) but if you’re paying twice the price, expect to be disappointed.

  • Tarmohamed says:

    30 Dec30 December 11:38

    Unless we have sufficient points to upgrade from Y to J, – we’d usually fly/pay for Economy. Having been upgraded from Economy to Premium Economy on United EWR-LHR, my and the wife both would actually pay to fly in premium economy on Emirates / most airlines.

  • John says:

    30 Dec30 December 13:27

    You’ve basically said the same thing as I did earlier, but more verbosely :p

    Even your rating of 2.5/10 is equivalent to my willingness to pay 1.25x

• Tarmohamed says:

  30 Dec30 December 10:40

  Anyone know if this aircraft is on EK8 on 11 Jan?

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