11.5 hour flight, is premium economy worth the extra expense?

[goldangel]

We are flying London to Bangkok, family of 4, wondering if the extra ££££ to upgrade to premium economy worth it? Biggest person is dh who is 5'8. Its with Eva Air, thanks.

Probably not. We flew economy (after having the same debate about whether the extra cost was worth the money) from Asia last year. The tallest person was fine (6ft) but that was a different airline.

Is it possible to check space per seat between airlines? My guess is that it would be pretty similar (as the aircraft themselves don't differ that much)

Yes. IME.
Much more comfortable.
I love EVA premium economy.

Have a check on SeatGuru.com to compare the seats, but in general, I'd do anything to avoid economy seating with any airline on long haul.

If you can afford of course. We flew economy to Australia and NZ. Including baby and toddler on lap. It wasn’t pleasant but it’s only 24 hours.

How much more?

When we flew premium economy it was only an extra 100 pounds for a 9 hour flight and included extra baggage allowance which we were going to have to purchase otherwise. I personally don't think it's worth paying much more than that for.

Yes.

Check how much extra leg room you get. If you can afford it then I'd say a definite yes.

I wd do it coming home only so you gave that to look forward to

It's not always about leg room. If the seat has a foot rest that raises, it makes so much difference that it's worth it if you can afford it.

Thanks for the replies, very useful.

Its about 5-6" more legroom and about 1.5" wider, I think the difference is about £300 extra pp return. We can afford it but my thrifty side thinks it would cover a new dishwasher, weekend away etc so it's got to be really worth it!

We are flying out at night (9.35pm) and daytime back (12.50pm) so would want to upgrade both ways, there's a foot rest too.

Those extra few inches make a big difference. If you can afford it go for it.

I think if you're thrifty you'll feel you get better value out of spending the money elsewhere at £300 per person for 11.5 hours.

We flew Eva air last year and flew Royal laurel(business) outbound and premium economy on the return. Both upgrades were worth it.
The premium economy seats were much better than economy as when the person in front reclined it didn’t impact on my space

For £300 extra pp I would rather have a new dishwasher or a short haul holiday.

I'd say it's worth it - the seats feel much better and bigger. You board earlier too (that may depend on the airline) which I always appreciate.

Can you book extra leg room seats in E? £1200 is quite a hefty amount.

Yup.

Not IMO - never pay extra regardless of the distance and 11.5 hours isn't that long

I think everyone is different.
I think it is worth every penny because I dont spend the first 3 days of my holiday with backache and jet lag, having been able to sleep in a comfy seat.

I'd do it for the overnight flight only

I don't think I would, £1200 is a lot of money. I'd rather have a more luxurious hotel when we arrive, and a dishwasher to make every day more pleasant.

We just flew with Virgin from NYC and upgraded to premium economy, we only paid £12 extra per person but had it been more then it really wouldn't have been worth it.

Is it is just extra leg space and wider seat? We did it on a 10.5 hour flight to Mexico and I would definitely book Premium Economy again. We got extra leg room, wider seats (easier to curl up and have a sleep), free drinks (including alcohol), it included headsets and all films, priority boarding and disembarking, priority check in, priority cases ie came off the plane first and the food was better. It was much less hassle than our previous trip to Mexico when we had flown economy and we felt we arrived much more relaxed.

Not worth it in my opinion. We had a free upgrade to PE long haul to the far east and I have to say I wdn't have paid the extra £1000 it wd have cost for the 4 of us. Food wasn't that much better and seat widths, leg room etc barely noticable. This was BA though.

flap what airline is that? Alcohol is free on all the ones I have flown. We flew at least once a year long haul (12 hours plus). In flight entertainment is also standard. I use the given headset but DH has his own noise cancellation ones and DC have their own kids ones. We get priority boarding anyway because we have had a baby, toddler or young child for all the flights. (DC2 is slight in push chair). DH flew for work so we have priority check in with BA and I wouldn’t pay for that either as I don’t think it’s that much of a hassle to queue to save money.