What is the best way to be able to afford Premium economy seats

[Sundayagain27]

Everytime I fly BA or Virgin etc I think I would like to go Premium Economy next time and everytime I go to book I find the premium economy price on 1 leg of the journey to be affordable and the other legs to be hundreds more like more than 2 or 3 times the economy fare. I think I must be missing a trick, I have an Amex card and recently switched to a BA Amex card to collecet Avios as people kept mentioning the companion voucher. Maybe I'm being a bit dim with it all can someone explain in simple terms the hacks!
I also have a virgin loyalty card with a few miles on but again they seem to expire after 1 year so no time to use them as rarely take more than 1 long haul to use those miles! Thanks

Outbound is more expensive in the UK due to taxes.

A couple of days I used my companion voucher for Singapore flights and booked economy bulkhead there and business back.

I've upgraded from PE to business at the airport a couple of times. Much cheaper that way but you do risk there bring no seats available.

It depends on your card. The voucher is issued when you get to £15K. Depending on which card you have it's valid for 1 or 2 years. I don't think you then start accumulating your next £15K towards the voucher until the anniversary.
So, for example if you are getting close to £15K but know it will be a while until you use the voucher, save the last bit of spending until you get close to the end of the year and use a different card.
Follow "Head for Points" for lots of information.

With BA anyway book economy and keep an eye on upgrade costs and upgrade to premium economy if the price comes down enough

@Sundayagain27 , I’m assuming you have the paid for American Express card (black) because the free one only allows you to use your points in economy. Also you need to go online or phone the American number at midnight as the flight are released which I think is 355 days before departure to have any chance of snagging seats. They sometimes become available randomly but not often.

You get the companion voucher as soon as you hit the spend.

We save our vouchers for Club World flights though.

In between though, we just pay for flights and upgrade only if the price is right, ideally for any overnight flights.

Thepointsguy website is good for tips.

I recently flew Virgin Premium Economy long haul return for 50k points! It was a steal and I was so pleased.

I found that booking last minute (and I mean 15-18 hours before take off) meant either the tickets were sky high or dirt cheap. I was travelling alone, super flexible with dates and times. And after some permutations & combinations I got a (taxes only) ticket. Chuffed to bits & gave my family a surprise visit.

I think they're issued just after you hit the target. We've used vouchers a few times (DH and I both have the Virgin credit cards) and are using them again this year to take the kids on holiday flying premium economy!

BA don’t upgrade food until you get to business. PE is 3 out of 4 classes so you don’t get that much - just more leg room really.

The companion voucher comes quite quickly after you reach the target BUT there’s no guarantee of flights when you want them. We’ve just booked business to India for Jan/Feb 2027. When flights are released they can go quickly and they are not available on all flights! You have to get lucky. Our vouchers last 2 years now. Less pressure to use them.

@OhDear111 thsts good to know
we will ideally use for India in Feb 2027 seems of we don’t get til August unlikely to be able to book for that year so maybe 2028 more likely

@Sundayagain27 There was decent availability for Delhi but we were flexible on dates. Going 2 days later than ideal to get later landing in Delhi. Hopefully hotel can accommodate us! Staying 2 nights longer but thats ok. Could not get back exactly when we wanted.

No. I just pay for the flights. People talk about tricks to get Avios Rewards flights but often includes being up at midnight when the flights are released. Usually though flights are cheapest at around 90-180 days out. I did recently upgrade from PE to Business for £175 each way on a 9 hour flight, chuffed with that.

Sign up for their emails as some have really good sales. BA sale every January is worth looking at.

@PurBal That can be a good time to pay for a flight but will cost a lot more then a reward flight and companion voucher! Especially business where the price difference can be huge. Then there’s the issue of the hotel you want. Can you get it? We often do specialist holidays on expedition ships or safari lodges and “last minute” would be beyond difficult for this type of holiday. If it’s fly and flop or a curt break, it’s ok. We never use our flights short haul and always use business. Some destinations are always difficult - busy routes. Others are easy enough if you plan snd it’s no faff at all.

We use points to fly business class. I’ve accumulated a huge number over the years by using a points based credit card for all spending (even a cup of coffee) and paying the card off each month in full so have never paid any interest charges. I travel extensively for work so personally benefit from those points. DH and I both get companion vouchers each year.

I did the whole midnight think a few days ago, for me staying up half an hour later than normal was worth saving 4k.

@ForAmusedHazelQuoter might be being a bit dim but are there specific times that flights are released that are booksbke with companion voucher ?
Will I be able to say get voucher in August and find something to book in Feb? Or is that unrealistic ?
im using my card for evrythjng and paying in full each month so massing points fast ! Should get them within 6 months of getting the card.

You may get lucky, do some practice booking for six months time to check availability.
Also you can google popular routes, my flights were to Singapore so they are popular. The year before I booked Doha the month before and Cincinnati a few months before.
Popular routes such as Cape Town and Singapore need to be booked at midnight 355 days before if you want to use a companion voucher. I think BA releases a minimum of four business flights, two premium economy and eight economy reward seats per flight.

We’re flying to the US this summer and found that if we changed somewhere (Tampa in our case) then the VA premium economy seats were half of what they would be for a direct flight. Ended up with returns from Heathrow for £2k which feels like a steal!

Absolutely. But if, like me, you have a family of 4 and need to travel during school holidays and you have a specific destination in mind I haven’t been able to find the flights I need. PE cabin only release 2 seats. And Club is 4. Our travel this summer is to Kenya, only 1 flight per day. I have 800,000 Avios that I can’t use on the flights I need. So buying the flights and trying to get an upgrade works better for us.

Also check out the prices of premium on other airlines, next February flights are released or almost released now. I’ve used some airlines you’d think may be of a lower standard and their premium has been much better than BA.

This was what I had to do for Seattle last year.

We have a virgin credit card and use it for big purchases purely to get points. Also you get one upgrade a year, so we use that plus the points to go in PE.

A fabulous and cheaper possibility is to book the pairs of seats in economy on some aircraft. They tend to be at the back and where the plane curves so you get more space. This requires meticulous planning and research to find out your aircraft type - flightradar24 is your friend here - before you book. Obviously the seat, service, food etc is still economy but all around you there is more space and you’re not hemmed in in a row of three. We’ve done this a few times with 2 teenagers, it’s great.