Is premium economy worth it on a 16 hour flight?
 

I gotta go down to Sydney in October for a buddy's wedding and considering the length of the flight I'm considering premium economy for Air Canada as I basically can't sleep on airplanes (at least in economy) and I figure a nicer seat will help.

Anyone flow PE on Air Canada? How is it? It doesn't seem as nice as other airlines' PE seats but I'll take what I can get on a 16 hour flight but it's still double the money ($4k vs $2k)

Edit: I'm 5'6" so it's not the legroom that matters that much, more the seat width and reclining.

I'd say its marginal difference. I rather use that extra 2k for a nicer hotel + restaurants for the first couple of nights to decompress and beat the jet lag.

It's crazy how expensive flight upgrades are, I wonder when it's ever worth it compared to upgrade hotel + restaurants.

Similar if someone offered me $2K to fly in economy vs prem, I'd probably take $2K and I'm long and wide lol

With the difference being $2k, is it viable to break the flight up into 2 or 3 shorter legs, with you staying at each place for a day or 2?

Personally, I certainly wouldn't mind spending a few days in Japan or Korea before heading off to Australia.

It used to be like 50% increase when I used it for flights to Taiwan and I thought it was worth it. For double the price though, no way

I flew premium economy to HK for a very short weekend trip. Flew Thursday midnight and arrived at 5am Friday. It was the best flight as I slept most of it. Don’t need to let anyone pass for washroom, food/drinks flowed quickly, no kids crying. I was able to function the full day upon arrival and no jetlag. Flew back on Sunday on economy and that was horrible.

The short answer is not worth it given that it's $4K. Depending on which plane it is you are flying on, for $2K, I would say it is worth it.

When I flew from San Francisco to Singapore on United's new 77W Dreamliner in Economy, the plane was so new, the seats felt like they were premium economy. This was a 16 hour flight. I had no problem sleeping for a majority of the flight and was refreshed when we landed in Singapore.

Going: YYZ to LAX 5.25HRS, 3HRS layover, LAX to MEL 15.25HRS.
Return: SYD to LAX HRS 14HRS, 5HRS layover, LAX to YYZ 5HRS.

United Airlines, Economy for the whole trip except SYD to LAX I was upgraded to Premium Economy and had an empty row entirely to myself.

I can easily fall asleep on the plane so I usually take the window seat and sleep/listen to music the entire time. Rarely do I get up to even use the washroom unless it's a really long flight. Window seat also gets a little extra room to lean and leg space so its not too bad.

TLDR: PE not worth the upgrade price, unless you can get it for free :hotbaby:

It's a possibility - I looked at stopping in Honolulu and it adds about $700 to the flight and the leg to Sydney would be 11 hours. I'd only do that if the whole family went (3 of us) as I don't think wifey would be down with me partying it up for a week by stopping at places like Hawaii or Fiji/Hong Kong while I'm on my own (she really wants to go but $$$ if it's all 3 of us).

I flew to HK on PE Air Canada 777 on points, it is more spacious but besides that the service and food was same as economy.

Drink service was barely existent, once pre meal and then coffee after, felt so stingy. Food was pretty much the same menu except on real cutlery.

The amenity kit was nice with the socks and slippers.

At 5' 8" in economy I can usually stretch my legs out under the seat, so i fly and sleep pretty well on Economy so I would not pay 2x the price for the upgrade.

As Dukes said, it really depends on the configuration and plane

As far as I know AC uses a dream liner on that route and occasionally subs in a 777.

Honestly these 10+ hour flights, it might not seem worth it prior but imo it’s totally worth it once you’re actually sitting there lol.

Our next trip will likely be Japan - Australia which isn’t the end of the world heading that way, beleive it’s like 8 and 8.

But heading home we are planning on budgeting to try and get business class because I can’t sit in a normal seat for 14 hours.

I donno if they still do it, but AC used to have a 'bid' process for Premium Economy.

It's a scam, because when you enter the amount you're willing to pay, it gives you a bar graph of the likelihood of getting the seat for your price, and you only get one chance.

That said, when we were coming back from Korea, I bid $450 per seat (my wife and I), when the asking price was $1500. It said I had a low chance, but I said fuckit, and we ended up getting it.

For $450, yes absolutely worth it. Given how shitty AC is compared to other asian airlines, it was worth it. Keep in mind AC PE seats don't let you raise the middle arm rest in the 2/2/2 configs, so if you think you can sprawl, you can't.

Regular price, for AC, I would not.

You need to spin it as you flying to Japan/Korea to buy her some authentic Japanese/Korean limited edition cosmetics stuff, or kawaii JDM trinkets. Or a Hawaii special edition LV that she won't be able to get anywhere. (Oh wait... that's for Badhobz...)
:badpokerface:

Yeah, do the bid process - doubling the price for PE isn't worth it.

It's one of those questions no one can really answer for you.

If you're balling and the money isn't an issue, go for it. If cost is salient, then hell no.

A few years ago, I did back to back 15 hour trips to HK... like twice in the same month... Cathay Pacific for 1 trip, Air Canada for the next...

Both of them were done in economy... for the Cathay flight, I felt fuckin great! No complaints, no soreness... for the AC flight I felt like complete ass the entire time.

It's all in the seats, if I had to do it again I'd pay the extra couple hundred to fly CP instead of AC... but PE for $2k fuck off haha

So much of that depends on the plane

The Dreamliner has a lot of tech and filtration/circulation and I believe even cabin pressure to some degree which can drastically improve the comfort of a flight

Compare that to some old 330 etc and it can be a very different flight

Yes, I've flown JAL, AC and ANA to Japan over the years... ANA with the Dreamliner was amazing, felt fresh as a daisy on the other side with the fresh air system, etc.

It's a little disturbing to be in a plane with carbon fibre wings and see them flapping/looping around while you taxi down the runway and imagining all the sticks NHL guys shatter... but great plane for passenger comfort.

After all the BS about the Dreamliner and the “insider” info about corners cut and bad batteries etc. it’s actually turning out to be one of the greatest wide bodies ever built in terms of reliability and safety. Zero fatalities and zero hull loss

I'm no engineer and I'm sure there's an answer, but I know they do scans on metal body planes to identify weak points or possible fractures/stress areas... I do not believe such tech exists for carbon though... so I'm wondering what they're going to do with them as flight hours mount up to identify issues.

It's similar non-destructive testing methods - I believe it's ultrasonic based for carbon fiber. You would run scans on peak stress areas to make sure there's no fatigue cracks or any damage. Heck, people already do it on bike frames.

https://www.zetec.com/blog/understan...-carbon-fiber/

Love flying on the Dreamliner. So disappointed when AC changed my HK flight to the 777 back in November.

Most beautiful wing on a commercial airliner too. Love seeing it that raked wingtip, just gorgeous.

I just wish airlines didn't cheap out and they kept the 2-4-2 seating with the wider 18.5" seats - I think JAL is the only airline that uses 2-4-2 on the Dreamliner, everyone else crams you into a 17" wide seat.

I always look airfare as space occupied.

1 business seat takes roughly 3 econ seat space. PE, probably around 1.5 Econ seats.

Thus, the math is if bus price<(3*econ price) or PE<(1.5*econ price), it might be worthwhile depending whether I'm traveling long or short haul.

But generally speaking, I don't find PE worth the price. The PE is marginally better than E for long haul as in I could stretch my legs without worrying hitting the seat in front of me. You don't really get any other perk by traveling in PE. And my physical condition after the long flight, it's really not all that different. In business, otoh, I arrive decently rested for whatever I need to do according to the local time I arrive. So, I will either try to find a cheap business class by taking another connection of whatever or just fly direct in cattle class and get over it.

What I always do in determining whether an upgrade is worth it is try to find flight reviews on YouTube of the same flight and equipment you will be flying

They may not be sitting exactly where/in what section you’re looking at, but you’ll get an idea of what those seats are.

Imo like if you have to get PE to get a bulkhead seat, imo that’s worth it alone