Is premium economy better for a day flight or night flight? Pick one

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We are going on a holiday to celebrate DH’s big birthday (30th). We are going to Barbados for one week in January.

The flight out is about 9 hours and the flight back is about 8 hours. I can’t really sleep on planes.

Outbound is a day flight and return is night flight. We can only afford to upgrade one way to premium economy.

I was thinking of upgrading the day flight to premium as it’s £200 and we will be awake/eyes open so aware of the surroundings more. Do you agree that’s better than upgrading a night flight to PE?

I’d fly at night so as to gain another day of my holiday.

PE is not worth the money in my opinion. Can you afford extra legroom both ways instead?

night flight if you get a footrest

We often make this choice and if we can upgrade to Premium or even Business, chose to do it on the night flight home.

I absolutely hate flying home West to East overnight, it ruins me, so the comfier my seat, the more likely I am to get some rest. There’s not so many perks in PE that you’ll want to be awake so as to not miss out. I happily will watch a film, eat the meal and then try and get some rest but being able to stretch your legs out (some airlines you can even put your feet up) is an absolute gamechanger for me- I cannot sleep in economy all squashed up! Even just getting a few hours rests makes it so so much easier to get through the next day.

In general flying out, you spend the day on the plane and then by the time you’ve gone through immigration, transfer and had dinner, it’s time for bed anyway, so I’m way less bothered about flying economy!

Service better in PE, sleeping definitely more comfortable so it depends what you want to take advantage of.

What airline? Is it important to sit together? When we booked Premium Economy because the cabin was so small we couldn't get seats next to each other (not a problem for us, we were doing it mainly for extra luggage allowance).

Premium economy is normally much more expensive on overnight flights so I imagine that's most people's preference. Is it the same price both ways?

Is it the same price both ways? That seems a good price and I’d be tempted to do it for both.

Depends how easy you find it to sleep on a plane in economy. I do think it’s easier/more comfortable to sleep in PE but personally I find economy a bit claustrophobic for a long daytime flight which might outweigh it for me unless you can get an exit row.

I've done both, but if I had to choose it would be the night flight. Much more room to stretch out, & I actually slept for the first time on a night flight !

Both are great but if I had to pick I’d chose the night flight to get some sleep

Night flight. Very small cabin so dinner served and cleared sooner. I hate sleeping on planes and even I manage a few hours if sat in PE. Legroom is noticeable but in my case, it’s the extra recline and headrests that make the biggest difference.

night flight every time. We often do economy out and business back, but would go PE both ways if both ways night flights.

I would opt for pe on the return leg.

Definitely the day flight. We’ve done both legs in PE to Barbados and the return flight was no better than economy. We loved all the little extras on the outbound flight; it just felt more special and enjoyable.

£200 is an absolute bargain!

Is it BA? I've recently done that journey (in economy) and I'd go for the night flight too. I'm sure it was longer on the return (night) flight for us though?

I do PE for night flights to give myself a better chance of sleeping.

Check price back - we paid £70pp coming back from NY.

that was a no brainer

Night flight for me, I upgraded to PE last time I flew home long haul, worth every penny. Had a lovely meal then actually slept properly and only woke up when they were bringing the breakfast around. I was so shocked I had slept most of the flight!
On the way there you’re going to be excited about your holiday so it won’t seem as bad

Id do PE for the night flight so you get a better sleep.

I’d rather pay for PE than be at the front of the row with people walking across in front of your seat all the time and loitering for the toilets.

If I only had one way it would be the night flight.
However if BA, PE is not much better than economy.

I’d do PE on the way back too. I think it’s nicer to know that you’re going to have a slightly better flight home than the flight there rather than the reverse.

Extra leg room aren’t just on the front row.

BA PE Barbados route isn’t super comfy, yes some extra leg room, but food the same as economy, service identical, you also need to pay extra for seat selection as some seats in the back of PE are beside the toilets.

The leg support in the seat, and the seat pitch make it much better than economy.