Singapore Airlines Premium Economy - opinion

[flyer001]

With a little bit of work you can find business class seats for the same price, flew business Sydney to London return for $4890.00 on Finnair which consisted of part qantas, part Finnair, part BA but all on one ticket.

 

[oztraveller]

Can you let us into how you did this ? Through a travel agent? If you had a connecting flight (eg: QF to AY) did they automatically transfer your checked baggage?

 

[ozjuice]

Although that's approx $1500 more expensive that PE.

 

[oztraveller]

... and worth every dollar i would suggest

 

[flyer001]

Can you let us into how you did this ? Through a travel agent? If you had a connecting flight (eg: QF to AY) did they automatically transfer your checked baggage?

Through Expedia USA on the internet.yes all luggage was transferred and we flew through Helsinki both ways instead of Dubai.Out was via Singapore,return via HongKong with no enroute stopovers.Qantas sectors were Sydney-singapore and HK-Sydney.

 

[oztraveller]

Then I need to do more work to get your type of fare ... with stopovers in asia to and from London, the cheapest fare i was offered on Expedia was $14,000 and that included Aeroflot from BKK to LHR. Even with the stopovers required, I can get a much much better fare thru other sites. I'll keep looking but for me it's not Expedia.

 

[ozjuice]

... and worth every dollar i would suggest

Depends on budget really and when you need a short notice flight with limited funds you often make a compromise. However, I still feel for the money that PE should be a better experience than it currently is. Book the cook and service is great, but that's a hugely inflated cost. J would be nice and good luck finding a deal.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Depends on budget really and when you need a short notice flight with limited funds you often make a compromise. However, I still feel for the money that PE should be a better experience than it currently is. Book the cook and service is great, but that's a hugely inflated cost. J would be nice and good luck finding a deal.

there is little doubt that PE is highly inflated... at $3500 to Europe (and that's on 'sale') that should buy you the footprint of at least two, and up to four economy seats (with current economy seats starting at $900). That footprint of even two seats is plenty of room for airlines to get creative and offer full flat options (yes, for PE).

instead you get a domestic business class seat for 24+ hours.

 

[ellen10]

We are flying QF PE on a multi booking via London to Milan and out of Paris next June/July. Got return fares for $3450 each.
I consider it a good option for us as J was too expensive at this peak time. Yes I did look at Finnair in J but it still worked out over $10000 for the two of us.
We have flown QF PE before and consider it a good option for what we paid and are paying.

 

[ChrisDPom]

I do the LHR run at least 3 or 4 times a year.

Have never forked out for PE on LHR flights, but have flown it twice on offered free upgrade with QF to help them out with seating shuffles.

I usually pay for economy extra room seats (also 194cm and need the legroom).

Not impressed with the difference on the seats and have more legroom in the extra room seats in cattle class.

Food wise? agree better.

Toilets? not bothered.

Less kids screaming? agreed but that is what noise suppression headphones are for

Is the better food, etc worth an extra $2,000 odd?? Big no from me.

If I upgrade, I do it to business and skip PE completely - though the AFF email today about the increased cost of upgrades will make me think twice about even doing that now (maybe just a straight points purchase of business class instead??)


Also, so agree on the pp regarding getting business class from Asia to Europe.

Worth flying to your Asian jump off point for a holiday stop & then flying on with same on the way back - still works out cheaper than an Oz-Europe run.

 

[tofidog]

Through Expedia USA on the internet.yes all luggage was transferred and we flew through Helsinki both ways instead of Dubai.Out was via Singapore,return via Hong Kong with no enroute stopovers.Qantas sectors were Sydney-singapore and HK-Sydney.

I got a return Business class fare just over $5000.00 from Brisbane, direct through the Finnair site. Brisbane to Singapore with QANTAS then on to Helsinki with Finnair then London on Finnair.Pretty good value!

 

[Scout]

Last year we flew Premium Economy on Cathay Pacific, Melbourne to London. We had no complaints and found the leg room and width great. Interestingly, I thought the seats were exaxtly the same design as those I flew on Jetstar International Business Class MEL to Bangkok

 

[flyer001]

we booked about 6 months ahead, just checked again, expedia currently has business return on Air France for $3935 presumably US$ from Sydney-London - Sydney in February Why would you book PE?

 

[ozjuice]

we booked about 6 months ahead, just checked again, expedia currently has business return on Air France for $3935 presumably US$ from Sydney-London - Sydney in February Why would you book PE?

Some people have budgets and $5000 stretches it. This was a very short notice flight booking at a reasonably busy period. February in the UK is awful!

 

[ozjuice]

Probably a little OT as well......

 

[flyer001]

Who cares about Feb in UK when you are skiing on the continent via the excellent, fast and cheap railway system.

 

[browski]

Flew SQ A350 PE from SIN-JNB a few weeks back.
First flight on the A350 for me.

Premium Economy seat and cabin was good. The front row of PE has a foot extender so helps with sleep.
Compares well to QF and CX. Although I still prefer CX.

The soft product was where SQ was lacking and this was surprising since mostly SQ get this part of the flight right. No pre-flight drink, no water on offer, no priority boarding. Maybe just a one-off bad flight, maybe the cabin crew are also learning how to deal with PE on that route. No biggy, it happens.

However..............the main downside to SQ PE is that the SQ economy passengers have no idea what is PE. As such, after takeoff, any spare PE seat is occupied by enthusiastic pax from the economy cabin. I don't think (all) these passengers thought they were stealing a PE seat, I think they thought they were just Economy seats with no-one next to them.
The SQ cabin crew do their best to return these PAX to their seats, but throughout the night, there are more and more PE occupants.

In retrospect, the PE cabin might have been be placed in front of Business.

Love the A350.
SQ Business on the A350 ...........best in the world (which it should be, since it is the most recent product out there).

 

[PeteMac007]

So my suggestion was in relation to a mixed class booking, two separate tickets. Your choice of carrier in economy class BNE to SIN, followed by a separate business class ticket on a choice of a few carriers from SIN to Europe. Qatar, Vietnam Airlines, Sri Lankan, Finnair - all of them quite regularly discount business class from Asia and you'd be looking in the $2200-$2800 range (return). So that combined with your BNE-SIN you'd be comfortably in the $3500 range. But - it is separate tickets, so you need to allow plenty of time to connect in SIN in case the flights are delayed (you can't rely on a 60 or 120 minute connection).

All of those carriers have full flat beds on the long haul flights. Plus lounge access and whatever else. Most of Europe is covered.

Always keep an eye on Etihad out of Mamila. They often have some sharp business class pricing there. Manila to Europe and then Rome/Milan/Dublin/Istanbul to Sydney will often get you under $4k which leaves just a tidy flight from AU to MNL. I had a 30% discount code recently and saw Manila to Manchester // Dublin to Sydney for USD2200... tempted, but I already have my $1500 peak season EY ticket in Y to Europe..

 

[Cult of one]

Flew BNE LA last Boxing Day with VAand yes it was nicer than cattle, great catering, better seats, great wine and worth extra money. I am just not sure how much extra money. I am average height 176 cm and weigh 67 kg I also sleep very well on planes.

Price is what you pay, value is what you get. It is in the eye of the beholder. I must say though "the business" on VA is is a great product on the east coast to Perth run.

i find for the best deals on flights skyscanner app is super handy especially long haul.