In this month's ConD'Naste Traveler mag there is a nice article on premium economy seating. It compares the airlines that offer such a product. EVA Air comes out highly rated as the price differential is not that much for what they deliver. I have flown them on a number of occasions and the price differential has been less that that stated in the article. Also I have been very pleased with that service. Its truly a great value for those long trips over the ocean.

I've used EVa (premium econ) many times but may not use them anymore because they arrive in newark to late. and as far as the NYC- BKK rout goes ithey seem to take the LONG way around.

bill T

which other airlines where mentioned. what other asian airlines offer premium eon.

The top vote getter was Thai airlines. Also mentioned was Singapore and Asianna as I recall. Others were Virgin Atlantic and United and SAS. Singapore though had quite a price difference, which, though its great airline, makes using their premium economy very very expensive.

We go EVA AIr when we can as the value is there for us. Evergreen Deluxe Class is priced right and we get Continental miles for the entire trip. We place high value on price and getting ff miles and less so on the route taken.

Bill, thanks for the info. I can see where EVA works well for you. Thai would work well for those that are from or can connect to New York or LA. I can't believe United was even in the running as their "premium" economy is only about 7" added leg room - the seats are economy seats w/ economy width and economy recline.

Bill, the two times I have flown EVA from IAH to BKK, Continental would not give me mileage for the Taipai to BKK flight. They said it did not qualify. They did not give me mileage IAH to LAX because they said that I did not make the reservations thru Continental. I talked to a very nice agent after I got back and she did sneak the mileage on. I love flying EVA (except for the typical awful food) and will be going again in August. Anything you do special to get the full mileage??? I am alrealy silver elite.

Every single report on Flyertalk.com's CO forum indicate that you get full miles + EQM for US-TPE, and then full miles but no EQM TPE-onwards.

If you don't get miles, you need to fill in the request form and send it, along with original boarding passes and copy of receipt to Houston. It'll take a while, but they will credit you.

When you fly EVA Air make sure you join their ff club before your flight. Then when you check in for your flights make sure you give the EVA Air person your Continental FF #- then you should get the miles without any problems. For the continental portion of your journey it matters not how you made the reservation- just make sure they have your ff number when you check in for your flight- this is standard operating procedure for any flight one takes- always ask if your ff number is loaded and have it ready to give them if it is not. Note it sometimnes takes a while before the miles show up- a few weeks at most.

Also book your flight thru the EVA Air web site instead of going through Continental or an agent- unless of course the price you are getting is much better than the EVA Air site provides.

Thai Air PE was great.

Virgin PE from LAX to LHR was terrible. It certainly doesn't come close to comparing favorably with Business Class. The flight crew and the food were fine. The ground staff and the filth of the plane were not fine. I've had friends who flew it to South Africa and had the same of worse experiences.

Just why would anybody compare PE to business class? A business class fare is still 2-3 times that of PE.

I read that same article and I beg to differ on the Singapore fare. I did a EWR-SIN-BKK-SIN-KUL-SIN-EWR for about $1700.00 plus tax after tax after tax came out to just over $1900 US in Executive Economy. I would not use the Conde Nast fare as a true gage because my guess is they used full fare unrestricted fares. Most people would not pay that fare. However, I understand why they used full fare so the mag could compare apples to apples.

Oh, by the way. I loved every moment of every flight on SQ. Clearly puts american carriers to shame. Example, when was the last time you flew a US domestic flight of 2.5 hours and received a full hot meal service instead of peanuts/pretzels and maybe a can of soda.;-)

Continental still serves meals at meal time and does not charge. Its still airline food but at least you still get them. I do agree that Singapore Air is far superior to any US airline and a lot of international ones as well. When you fly Sing. Air the attendants are all over helping people, friendly, they just do service so much better. US flight attendants- well.... if you can find them maybe you can get some help from them!

The comparison of PE to Business Class is made typically by many people because Virgin's PE is supposedly intened to be their medium priced spread. They only have their own designations of classes: Economy, Premium Economy and Upper. There's almost no difference between PE and Economy; there is a vast difference between PE and Upper. I would sumit that there's no good reason to pay for PE. As I stated before, in addition to the fact that it was uncomfortable, the plane was filthy. Since I've been challenged on my comparison, I'll mention one example of why I described it as filthy and let you decide for yourselves: there was actually a hair in my "amenity kit." 'Nuf said or do you still think I'm being picky?

I have always been well happy with Singapore Airlines in Coach/Economy, service and food fine, great PTV system, reliable and on time.
These days we wouldn't be able to afford business unless it was usinmg awards, but in the past Eva deluxe has been great and I thiunk there are many happy with Coach/Economy meals and service but that extra width and the extra legroom for a reasonable amount extra. Eva also I think has gained huge publicity from the product that seems to satisfy passengers. I am surprised Si9ngapore Airlines, Malaysia, Cathay etc haven't introduced such a product ( Yes, I know on the A-345 ultra long hauls they have it on Thai and Singapore ) but on the other long flights.

I'd give a stab at why many airlines aren't doing PE.

1. Adding complexity to the operations. Many airlines that are introducing PE do not have FC, or are removing FC. EVA won't have FC on its new 773ER. Virgin, Air New Zealand, SAS, etc don't have FC. Thai's 345 have PE, but not FC. Etc...

Apparently, 3-class is okay in terms of operation, while 4-class is getting a bit much. I don't think SQ, CX or QF are willing to give up on their FC cabin yet, at least on some of the more lucrative routes.

2. PE is revenue neutral at best, unlike business class. A 8-across seating on a 747 with 36" pitch means you're removing about 1/3 of the seats, and you need to make that up by charging 50% more. So, I don't see a huge benefit to the airline.

[In fact, some airlines are starting to cramp in their PEs, like Air Newland on their 772ERs. Same 9-abreast as regular coach, though with more pitch and more recline.]

As for UA, I wonder when the penny counters will start asking why if they're filling up 80% of the planes, they're "giving away" all the extra pitch in their E+ cabin, just like what AA found out with MRTC.