Qantas Premium Economy

[cvschmitt]

Does anyone know if Qantas ever has a sale on the Premium Economy fares?

 

They have a sale on now for Economy fares that will be in the timeframe of our cruise.

 

I really wanted the extra room in Premium Economy, but there is a big difference in price.:(

[MrsWaldo]

Sometimes but it depends on when you want to travel. Often they are only a few weeks before and have very limited availability.

[roaming_kiwi58]

We fly Premium Economy with Qantas between Sydney and London every year, and have done for many years. We have never been able to get premium economy seats on sale! According to our travel agent they are rarely put on sale because Qantas has no trouble selling them at full price. Every year we consider trying to save money on airfares and going economy, but every year we decide we just do not want to have to spend all those long haul flight hours in economy ever again!

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Does anyone know if Qantas ever has a sale on the Premium Economy fares?

 

They have a sale on now for Economy fares that will be in the timeframe of our cruise.

 

I really wanted the extra room in Premium Economy, but there is a big difference in price.:(

 

Don't hold your breath waiting for a sale:(

 

As stated above, they are limited in number so why put something on sale that they know they are going to sell.

Air NZ is the same.:mad:

 

 

[Very Frequent Flyer]

They recently had a sale to Hong Kong. $1700 from memory, a saving of about $400.

[Globaliser]

We fly Premium Economy with Qantas between Sydney and London every year, and have done for many years. We have never been able to get premium economy seats on sale!

This is my experience, too. Qantas rarely has PE sales between London and Australia.

 

Before the JSA with BA was disbanded, the most likely way to get QF PE was to buy a ticket from BA for a BA-coded flight on a QF aircraft, when BA was having a sale. But even that required some work and some luck.

Every year we consider trying to save money on airfares and going economy, but every year we decide we just do not want to have to spend all those long haul flight hours in economy ever again!

There's a number of airlines now with PE between Australia and the UK. For example, BA has put its newest aircraft onto the SYD flights, and it has the latest version of the World Traveller Plus seat. And Cathay Pacific now has PE on all flights between Sydney and Hong Kong, and all flights between Hong Kong and London.

[Dawn1004]

Do the Qantas PE flights to London stop in Dubai or Singapore?

 

Just wondering if the PE flights are around the $4,000 mark?

 

And is PE worth it on Qantas - hubby loves extra legroom, loves if when the person in front doesn't recline into him.

 

We flew Perth to Auckland (econ) and then Auckland to LAX last year on Air NZ in premium and loved the seating, as they are designed not to have someone recline into chair behind, we paid just over $4,000 each of us for these flights, and it was money well spent, and we appreciared the extra little perks.

 

We are contemplating a trip to Paris, London and then taking a Celebrity Eclipse cruise to Iceland, Norway in July 14, or perhaps an NCL cruise from Copenhagan to Iceland, Norway or perhaps returning to Alaska and Canada (we'll fly Air NZ again if we do that option.)

[Globaliser]

Do the Qantas PE flights to London stop in Dubai or Singapore?

 

Just wondering if the PE flights are around the $4,000 mark?

 

And is PE worth it on Qantas - hubby loves extra legroom, loves if when the person in front doesn't recline into him.

The stop is in Dubai now. There's one Sydney-Dubai-London flight and one Melbourne-Dubai-London flight each day.

 

Qantas puts its code (flight number) on Emirates flights too, but Emirates aircraft do not have premium economy. So if you start from Perth, you will not have PE on the long Perth-Dubai sector, but only on the short Dubai-London sector. You would have to backtrack to Sydney or Melbourne to get PE on both international sectors.

 

An alternative would be to do PE on Cathay Pacific, which has PE on both Perth-Hong Kong and Hong Kong-London.

 

I personally don't think I'd pay AUD 4,000 for PE for a round-trip between London and Australia. For that sort of price, you might be able to get (or get close to) a business class round-trip on some airlines, and if I were looking to spend that sort of money I'd be looking for a business class trip even if it was a few hundred dollars/pounds more.

 

And whether it's worth it definitely depends on how much it is and how much you're prepared to pay for the extra space. On the day that I got PE round-trip between London and Sydney for under £1,000, that was definitely worth it. But the price is now more or less double that (ie about AUD 3,000), and even that makes me do a double-take.

[cwtravel]

I have not checked yet but I have $4,000 (total, not per peron)in credit on Qantas since the wife and I were unable to take the cruise we had booked for this year. I am now booked on the 22 March 2014 Solistice cruise from Auckland. My plan is to spend 4 nights in Sydney before flying to Ayckland. Regular economy was roughly $2,000 per person. Howmuch more is PE?

[Globaliser]

Regular economy was roughly $2,000 per person. Howmuch more is PE?

Nobody else is going to know without checking it! So it's worth doing some research using the Qantas website and any other travel tools that you're used to using.

 

FWIW, a very quick and dirty search suggests that at the present time, economy round-trip to/from Sydney (ie ignoring Auckland) starts from about USD 1,650 and premium economy round-trip starts from about USD 3,600 for travel at the sort of time you're thinking of. Obviously you'd only get PE on the long-haul flight. And this could be different depending on your precise travel dates.

[Globaliser]

This is my experience, too. Qantas rarely has PE sales between London and Australia.

As if by magic, an email from QF has just dropped into my inbox. PE on sale from London to Sydney and Melbourne, depart London between 9 May 2013 and 20 June 2013, 14 days advance purchase, ticket by 30 April. (Also to Dubai, depart London between 2 May 2013 and 15 July 2013, 7 days advance purchase, ticket by 30 April.)

 

The fares are not spectacularly good, though - perhaps £300 off the usual price for Sydney/Melbourne, and simply more or less in line with normal BA fares.

 

Too late for me, though - I have already bought my next ticket from BA, and got a mileage upgrade for London-Sydney. ;)

 

Sales are market-specific - so this does not necessarily mean that PE will be on sale in any other market at the present time.

[cwtravel]

Thanks. I was able to price PE round trip from LA to Sydney but could not price from the Washington, DC area, where I live. Looks like it is about $1,000 more or PE, which I think I will take.

Next question - go on a 747 flight or A380?

 

Cheers!!

[Globaliser]

Next question - go on a 747 flight or A380?

There's nothing special about the PE cabin on a 747, so I would say 380 if you can get it.

 

I would check the figures, though, because I couldn't immediately see how you could get PE for only $1,000 more than economy.

[kuldalai]

Qantas rarely discount Business or Premium Economy fares. BUT anything is worth it to avoid Qantas 'cattle class" which has one of the most miserable Economy seat spacings in the airline industry . If you can fly Economy with Cathay Pacific (CX) or Singapore Airlines (SQ) you will get more leg room in Economy than Qantas .

[Globaliser]

If you can fly Economy with Cathay Pacific (CX) or Singapore Airlines (SQ) you will get more leg room in Economy than Qantas .

One inch.

 

And if you fly CX, you still have substantial chances of getting the hard-shell seat where the seat back does not itself recline but the seat pan moves forward to "recline" the seat. That reduces your knee room (usually the most critical part of seat ergonomics) - so reducing your effective legroom. The seat is so widely and deeply hated by CX passengers that CX is ditching it only a few years after introducing it.

[room010]

It will be interesting to see if Qantas raises its game with the new Emirates collaboration. At the moment they are poles apart on price, comfort and service.

[Globaliser]

It will be interesting to see if Qantas raises its game with the new Emirates collaboration. At the moment they are poles apart on price, comfort and service.

Don't count on it.

 

How can Qantas spend more money on passenger services and comfort when it's still paying much more for its staff (particularly pilots, cabin crew and maintenance engineers) than Emirates and so many of its other competitors?

 

The Emirates alliance is no silver bullet for these issues, except by Qantas handing over all of its flying to Emirates (which, by the alliance, it has basically continued to move towards). And that is a snapshot of one of the big reasons why Qantas is in such desperate trouble.

 

In any event, as far as the main topic of this thread is concerned, Emirates does not have premium economy. And that is that.

[Jade13]

We fly Premium Economy with Qantas between Sydney and London every year, and have done for many years. We have never been able to get premium economy seats on sale! According to our travel agent they are rarely put on sale because Qantas has no trouble selling them at full price. Every year we consider trying to save money on airfares and going economy, but every year we decide we just do not want to have to spend all those long haul flight hours in economy ever again!

 

How much better is premium economy (on an Airbus 380) over regular economy paying for exit row seats? Also is the food the same and the only differance is the seat? This week from the US for next year the premium economy is/was selling for about $2,600.00 USD pp or $1,000.00 more person than economy and still 3 seats in a row, not 2 seats.

[Globaliser]

How much better is premium economy (on an Airbus 380) over regular economy paying for exit row seats? Also is the food the same and the only differance is the seat?

No, the food and wines are different too. I think that it was originally pitched roughly at the level of Qantas domestic business class, although it may have been scaled back a bit since then. I haven't personally flown in this cabin for a few years now so others may have more recent experience.

 

How much better it is must be a matter of personal evaluation. I think I'd think before paying $500 extra per sector for it, although I might still do it.

... and still 3 seats in a row, not 2 seats.

On an A380, premium economy is 2-3-2 on the upper deck, compared to 2-4-2 in economy.

[Jade13]

No, the food and wines are different too. I think that it was originally pitched roughly at the level of Qantas domestic business class, although it may have been scaled back a bit since then. I haven't personally flown in this cabin for a few years now so others may have more recent experience.

 

How much better it is must be a matter of personal evaluation. I think I'd think before paying $500 extra per sector for it, although I might still do it.On an A380, premium economy is 2-3-2 on the upper deck, compared to 2-4-2 in economy.

 

 

I made a mistake in my original post. The economy seats for our flights were approx. $1,650.00 pp to Australia/from New Zealand and the price for premium economy (which on the Qantas website I believe had them listed as a Sale price) are approx. $3,650.00 pp, or a $2,000 per person difference, as you noted. We won't pay an additional 4K for the seats but did upgrade to exit row seat in economy for $180.00 per long haul segment.

 

I wonder how much better a premium economy seat is on Qantas verses reg economy in an exit row seat? We did get 2 seats together (row 35 I believe), so hopefully the aircraft will not change.

[Jade13]

How much better it is must be a matter of personal evaluation. I think I'd think before paying $500 extra per sector for it, although I might still do it.On an A380, premium economy is 2-3-2 on the upper deck, compared to 2-4-2 in economy.

 

I made a mistake and the premium economy was $1,000 more person each way based on pricing last week.

[Jade13]

Qantas rarely discount Business or Premium Economy fares. BUT anything is worth it to avoid Qantas 'cattle class" which has one of the most miserable Economy seat spacings in the airline industry . If you can fly Economy with Cathay Pacific (CX) or Singapore Airlines (SQ) you will get more leg room in Economy than Qantas .

 

I am interested in the difference in economy on Emirates verses Qantas, both on an Airbus 380 since we will be on both in the next year. On Qantas we could pay for exit row seats, which does not look like an option on Emirates.

[Desert Cruizers]

We are making our first trip to Sydney for our March 19th NZ cruise and have flights on the Qantus airbus 380, however we couldn't afford anything nicer then economy so will tough it out. We went with RCL's choice air and got prices far below the Web prices for 1 way. Our additional cruises following the NZ are the 18 day Transpacific then 12 day Hawaii back to Vancouver so our flight to Calif will be from Vancouver.