Thanks for all the help to my other questions so far.. I am considering an upgrade to Premium economy and am keen to hear of other peoples experiance of this service. We are flying with Virgin at the end of April and it is a lot (£1850 for all 4 of us both ways) I want to see if it will be money well spent. I am also of a mind to not pre book it and see if we can get the upgrade when we check in I wonder if anyone has done this before and if so is it cheaper? Thanks again for any replies....
I think only you can say whether it's worth the money. Some people think that it's worth every penny and Virgin don't seem to have any problem selling the seats while others think it's a lot of money for what it offers.
I set the extra cost against what I could do with that amount of money on the ground.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by hillgj1
Thanks for all the help to my other questions so far.. I am considering an upgrade to Premium economy and am keen to hear of other peoples experiance of this service. We are flying with Virgin at the end of April and it is a lot (£1850 for all 4 of us both ways) I want to see if it will be money well spent. I am also of a mind to not pre book it and see if we can get the upgrade when we check in I wonder if anyone has done this before and if so is it cheaper? Thanks again for any replies....
[/quote]
The answer to your first question is always going to be subjective. To me, it is worth it, for others not. The main benefits are quick check in, priority boarding, better seats, priority exit (at the front of the immigration queues) etc
In terms of same day upgrades, I was in the UK in Feb and had to get back to China urgently the day after I arrived (long story), but when I went to book a ticket back at the desk in T3, a single UC ticket was about £5.5k. The lady at the ticket desk then sold me a return economy for about £500 and a same day upgrade for an extra £1,200. As she did this she had a sheet in front of her with the prices for same day upgrades and it said economy to premium was £300 and economy to UC was £1,200. It didn't look like a new sheet so I assume it was a fixed price approach.
Not sure if it is the same price every day, but if it is then you would be paying more doing it as a same day upgrade (total £2,400), assuming of course that there are seats available.
This was Heathrow not Gatwick or Manchester so the price may be different.
I always think it is best to book what you want at the time the price is right for you. If you do do it, make sure you get a seat upstairs as it is far better than the PE seats downstairs.
Having only ever flown Economy with Virgin, we went Premium on our last but one trip as I had some miles to cash in and so bought some Miles + Money tickets.
We were about first off the plane and through immigration. Our bags were waiting for us and we were in the queue to check in at our hotel within 45 minutes of the plane touching the ground. On the return leg - Downtown Disney check-in is free. You get a larger baggage allowance and for the first time ever I got about 5 hours sleep on the flight.
Last trip we switched back to Economy. Outgoing trip wasn't too bad (excitement of holiday etc.), but the return leg was awful. Didn't manage to get any sleep at all.
We have vowed that we will ALWAYS come back Premium at least if we can't afford to travel Premium both ways.
Only worthit if you can get the upstairs seats - downstairs its a complete waste of money
Christine
Had 3/4 seats to myself on the last 3 Virgin flights from Gatwick and again on return to UK. Have been lucky. Didn't need PE. Have done it twice but only using airmiles. Would not pay any extra to fly PE - it's nothing like Business Class which is worth extra payment.
Enjoy your trip to Orlando whichever class you travel in.
Sandra
Definitely a subject which is down to personal preference.
Personally i see it as it's 10 hours and a means to an end. If you had a 10 hour car journey in the back of a car, would you decline and go hire a car so you could be more comfortable just for the journey. If you would then your answer is probably YES, PE is worth it.
If like me, the flight is just there to get you to where you are going then Economy is just fine.
On saying that, if i had the money for it not to affect me then i would be flying PE and even First whenever i could but that would only be if i didn't need to know how much it cost.
Garry Pullan
Premium Economy looks good when you first enter the cabin but once in the air and the person in front reclines their seat then it's no different to Economy. You still have to limbo out of your seat to get out and I'm getting too old to do that.
We don't have children so can pick when we want to fly, we used to pay around £900 for a return PE trip, when we looked at First Class it was £400 more. We're now spoilt and could never go back to flying any other way, the prices have risen but for us it's still worth it.
The way I look at it is that you are paying about £120 an hour (for the four people) for those advantages; it is only the person themselves that can judge if that represents value.
My take - absolutely no way is it worth the money.
An elite frequent flyer with AA can upgrade the cheapest economy coach ticket with miles and a US$350(one way) to business class(which on a two class 763 from Manchester is effectively First Class). This gives seats that convert to lie flat beds, great meals and drinks, use of First Class lounge etc etc.
So great value? well I sometimes don't bother on daytime flights out to the US as the extra £220(£440 with wife) and having to use miles does not IMO represent good value.(I can choose exit row in coach which has more legroom). I always upgrade on the overnight flight back to UK to get some sleep.
Bill Gates is on record as saying that First Class airline travel represents the worst possible value for money.
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:For years, even as his wealth ballooned to its current level near $40 billion, Mr. Gates was known for flying coach. His preference on long trips was to throw a blanket over his head and sleep.
Microsoft employees are still restricted from flying first class and can upgrade to business class only on international flights.[/quote]
Mind you he has now bought a $21million private jet[msnwink]
We enjoyed going PE a few Years ago to Miami on the new airbus plane. Not so good on the older 747 out of Manchester. On our last flight this seemed to have the newer seats, but not the same really snazzy ones on the Airbus (these went right back).
I see the money is better spent on yourself when you land. Plus it is a lot of money if it is for a family. We have a 3 Year old and he likes to get up and about, so I would spend very little time actually sat in the seat. Meals are no different than Economy.
Dominic & Melanie Graham
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