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?

Flew PE from LHR to Dubai - swore never again!

Well it’s not BC, but I’m happy to have my legs up. A foot rest isn’t enough

Agree the return night flight. Going out you will be excited and day flight will power through the cramped economy.

I disagree with the naysayers as I think PE is well worth it over economy. Sometimes the fare is double so a small uplift like that is well worth it.
once I booked PE return and got an upgrade to business, that was even nicer!
I am done with economy long haul now but I can do PE. Would always pick the night flight as there’s not loads to enjoy even though you get a pleasant welcome drink and slightly better food and seat. The big win is the smaller cabin too.

Why?!

Because the flight was 10:30pm at night, and we live 3 hours from LHR. Very tired when we got on the flight, by the time they serve the food and turn the lights off it’s gone midnight. 7 hours trying to sleep upright was so uncomfortable. I’d do BA PE for a day flight but never again overnight. Personal choice I guess.

we did BA premium economy to Caribbean a couple of months ago, it definitely made a difference. I’d do it on way back too, arrive home less frazzled. I’m too old to do economy any more.

Upgrade deffo we did BA recently lifts legs, much more space, service is slightly better, food was deffo different for us than economy menu. The leg rest helped so much. I had a little snooze.

I am not sure it makes much difference which flight you choose to be honest. Typically I would go for the night flight, but we went to Carribbean in March and the flight timings made sleep a challenge in both directions. We went to Jamaica so it's an hour more time difference than Barbados, but timings wise we had a day flight on the way out but whilst it's a night flight on the way home, it departed mid afternoon local time, flew for 8 hrs 15 mins (wind in our favour) and landed in the UK about 12:30am Jamaican time and so for most of the flight people were awake anyway. We drove home and went to bed for 3 hours.

Premium economy is not great - especially with BA but I’d choose the nighttime . Daytime is ok as you can watch tv ,read etc . Get the little bit bit more extra space for coming back . Also the flight times tend to be over stated and we flew back in 7hrs 40 so not so bad .

Return flight as a nice treat at the end of the holiday.

PE isn't worth it unless someone else is paying, but if I had to choose I'd say return flight as it'll help with the end of holiday blues. I found it didn't help with being able to sleep though (mind you last time I went BC and still barely slept so I think I just can't sleep on planes).

I used to happily sit in economy and save my money - but since I've hit my 50s - I need the extra space to stretch out ... it's not much extra space but it makes such a difference.

I think it's more worthwhile on the night time flight, particularly if you struggle to sleep on planes, you've got more chance of getting some shut eye. Although if you really can't sleep on planes, I'd pay the upgrade on the daytime flight and an extra legroom seat on the night flight in economy.
Check the aircraft type too, the advantage for me of doing overnight in PE was that it was a 2-3-2 seat configuration not the 3-4-3 in economy so by booking an aisle and a window seat with DP meant we didn't have a random stranger snoring beside us. In economy we both like an aisle seat so tend to sit across the aisle from each other but I'm less comfortable trying to sleep next to a random stranger!

I did this when I went to Barbados. I chose to upgrade on the way home. On the way out you are happy to be awake and the flight seems to go quite quickly if you watch a few films. On the way back it's just nice to have a bit more comfort. I dozed rather than slept but I was absolutely more comfortable than I had been on the way out.

I would do it on the night flight.

For me, it would depend on how many days I had to recover before going back to work. If I had to work the next day after flying back, I’d fly PE on the return leg. Otherwise, I’d choose PE for the flight out so I could hit the ground running on the first day of the holiday.