Whether premium economy is worth it seems to be a perennial debate - even between Cat and I. It generally costs between 2 and 3 times the price of economy, though it’s still significantly cheaper than business class.
Whether it’s worth it really depends on what you value (hard product vs soft product) and that’s why even Cat and I disagree on whether it’s worth the money. But when the opportunity to fly premium economy from London to Dubai with British Airways presented itself, and when I say presented itself, I mean we collected enough points, we thought we’d try it and see if it was worth splurging all of our points in one go.
So here’s our review of BA’s premium economy: what to expect, how to get the most out of it and whether it’s worth the money/points.
Our route and ticket price
We flew on BA’s Boeing 777-300 between London Heathrow and Dubai, departing Heathrow at 12.50pm.
If you’re using points you’ll find that this time slot ‘sells out’ first as it’s much nicer to take a day flight than a night flight on this route.
Given the seat isn’t great for sleeping (more on that later) and the flight is also short in the context of getting anything close to a decent sleep, then we’d highly recommend getting the day flight if you can.
We used our cabin upgrade voucher (a reward for a Barclays credit card), and then used 25,000 points per person.
We also had to pay £152.50 in taxes per person (which is about £100 more per person than if you booked an economy flight).
What’s included (and not included) in the ticket
Seat Selection
Unfortunately, if you book a premium economy, premium economy semi-flex or you use Avios points you don’t get to choose your seat for free. It’s also likely that you won’t be able to choose your seat in advance if you book through a third party site such as Booking.com or anyone other than directly with British Airways.
If you book one of these fares, they will allow you to pick a seat 24 hours before boarding, but by this time most seats have gone and it’s unlikely you have much left to choose from. It’s likely that you’ll be allocated seats and shown that all other seats have been booked.
To be able to choose your seat, you need to book a premium economy flex or premium economy full flex, which are at least £100 more.
Alas this trend is becoming common even in business class with many airlines now. You can see the variations in fare types below.
Unfortunately when checking in, we found that we were allocated the middle middle seats. Yes, that’s meant to say middle middle as we were the middle 2 seats in a row of 4. It didn’t allow us to select anything other than those two seats as it claimed all others were unavailable.
They were the worst seats in the premium economy cabin, the back row, middle middle. You can see below: 34E and 34F….
Luggage and other inclusions
The ticket includes two pieces of checked baggage that weigh up to 23kg each (so 46kg) combined and two cabin bags of up to 7kg each. All luggage is designated as priority, so it’s first on the belt in Dubai.
You’d probably struggle to really utilise all of this allowance, but it also means you don’t have to think about the weight of your bags which is nice.
You do not have lounge access when flying premium economy. However, you do get priority boarding and a dedicated check-in desk if you fly from Heathrow (this could be the case at other airports, but we can’t vouch for that).
Our experience flying premium economy on the Boeing 777-300 with British Airways
An overview
So what do you get from premium economy with British Airways? In short: a wider seat than in economy, with more legroom and an increased recline, better food, priority boarding and a decent step up in baggage allowance (double what you get in economy).
What it doesn’t have is lounge access or a fully lie flat seat with a lot of space like business class. WIFI is not complimentary when flying premium (but the WIFI has never worked on any BA flight we’ve taken anyway).
So what you value when flying will help you decide whether premium economy is worth it for you. The seat is closer to economy class than it is business, whereas the service and extras are closer to business class than they are economy.
It’s worth noting that all of this varies depending on the airline, but this review focuses on BA’s offering.
At the airport
At Heathrow, premium economy class has its own check-in area, which means you don’t have much of a queue. When flying from Terminal 5, we’ve never found queuing to be much of a problem, but being premium means you’re almost guaranteed to get through quicker.
However, don’t expect any preferential treatment. As we mentioned earlier, we got the middle middle seats at the very back - the worst seats in the cabin - and were hoping to see if we could change them. As the cabin’s a 2-4-2 layout, any seat but the middle of the 4 section would be better, and the very back row topped it off.
So when checking in, we approached the staff and asked if there was a chance we could see if we could move seats. It was shut down instantly and pretty dismissively. It was almost as if by even bringing it up we were being unreasonable (we weren’t making a fuss, we simply wanted to ask) and we got the feeling the staff at BA were pretty stressed out.
Despite this abrupt and frank response, check-in was quick and we made it through to airside pretty quickly. Premium doesn’t come with a lounge pass, but you do get priority boarding.
The cabin layout
We’re going to state upfront that when it comes to BA’s premium economy offering, which seat you get will make a difference to your experience. The British Airways flight from London to Dubai on a Boeing 777-300 has 5 rows with a 2-4-2 layout - 40 seats in total.
It means that the majority of people will get those beloved aisle or window seats, but there’s still 10 of those “middle-middle” seats - the middle two seats in the block of 4.
We were particularly unlucky as we had no choice but to accept the middle middle on the very back row, but that’s likely because we used points.
Paying the extra for your seat selection can have a big impact, as we saw a couple split up: one had paid for a seat, the other didn’t, and the one who didn’t got put next to us at the back (presumably the naughty seats for those who don’t purchase their seat). It was resolved in the end but only because another passenger was willing to swap to allow them to sit together.
The premium economy cabin isn’t particularly big, but it’s not cramped either. On our flight, the toilets were behind the cabin and were shared with economy class… so that’s one area where you don’t get an upgrade!
The seat
So this is the big reason we chose to upgrade: the seat. As we do a fair amount of long haul flights, having more room to move makes a big difference. However, just as important is how much less claustrophobic the seat feels.
In modern times, economy class has begun to resemble being packed in like sardines with your knees knocking on the seat of the person in front.
This is manageable on short flights, but upwards of 6 hours becomes pretty uncomfortable and even claustrophobic.
So how does BA’s premium fare? Well, the seat is undoubtedly more comfortable and more spacious than economy.
There were 3-4 fists of room between my knees and the chair in front, a good few inches either side of my hips and you didn’t have to contort your elbows on the arm rests to avoid rubbing up against your neighbour.
The 2-4-2 configuration also means you have 2 people less per row and with that extra legroom it really does reduce the claustrophobic feeling. So the seat is pretty good, especially for a 6 hour daytime flight.
Where this would change is on an overnight flight, primarily because though there is good legroom, there is no leg rest, only a foot rest on the seat in front like you get in economy. The arm rests are fixed, so you can’t lift them up and take advantage of an empty seat beside you if you are lucky enough to have one.
Premium economy seats are arguably worse than economy if you manage to snag a spare seat next to you (or even better a spare row).
The seats recline more than economy, but not massively so. However, this extra recline becomes a problem when the person in front decides to fully recline.
Even in premium, it can feel like their seat is almost in your lap, which brings back that hemmed in feeling again.
The best hack is to get a front row seat in premium, where you don’t run the risk of someone reclining into your lap.
So to us, the seat is a good step up that pays off the most on a daytime flight. However, not so much on a night flight. Having said that, you do get a much better pillow and a full size comfortable blanket which makes a difference on a freezing overly air conditioned plane!
Entertainment
The screens in premium are bigger and brighter, however, the headphones in BA premium aren’t great, so the sound didn’t seem all that much better than economy.
They weren’t the noise cancelling headphones you get in business class and I still couldn’t make out the dialogue on most of what I tried to watch.
If you can, bring your own non-bluetooth headphones and you’ll avoid this problem, otherwise it’s really not great. Personally, I chose to stop watching my screen and used my own device instead.
It was still great in terms of choice and the screen quality was a step up, but those headphones were pretty woeful.
Food & Service
The food and drinks offering in premium are a significant upgrade from economy class.
That starts with a glass of sparkling wine or juice on take off and continues through to the food and drink quality of the main meal.
It is all served on the one tray just like in economy, but it’s certainly tastier.
The meal and dessert were good, with the only low light being the snack served later in the flight which was a fairly underwhelming savoury pastry.
However, remember earlier when I said that where you sit will make a big difference? Nowhere is this more apparent than when it comes to food and service.
Being at the front of the cabin can be the difference between getting that delicious beef roast dinner or having to accept the dishes everyone ahead of you looked past.
Yep, that was literally what happened to me (Joe). The cabin crew mentioned that it is a common occurrence that by the time they reach the final rows, the food choices diminish.
This also goes for drinks as well. If there’s an appealing red wine on the menu, chances are that there won’t be any left by the time it gets to the final row (I still wonder what that Syrah would have tasted like…).
It’s not just the alcohol that can be problematic - when I asked for a decaf coffee, I was told “that will require me going to the back of the plane and will take a long time”.
By the time they’d got to me, they were rushed, stressed and running out of time.
Technically it wasn’t a no, but the tone was very much that I was being a pain in the ass for requesting it.
The cabin crew did eventually get me the coffee, but it was begrudgingly, which isn’t really what you expect in premium.
What made it stranger was that Cat was on the other side of our middle middle seats, so got served by the crew on the other aisle.
Her experience was completely different - no matter what she asked she got with a smile. It helped that she’s a veggie, so didn’t have the issue with the meat dish, but anything else wasn’t an issue either, including the same decaf coffee that would also have to be obtained from the back of the plane…
So seat location can make a big difference to your food and service and you should opt for as close to the front row as you can.
The amenity kit
While it might not seem too flashy, the amenity kit we received was more practical than the one we got flying business class on Singapore Airlines.
It contains an eye mask, socks (the two things missing when flying Singapore business), a pen (a new one for me in an amenity kit), toothbrush and toothpaste and a lip balm by Scaramouche and Fandango.
So no face mist or hand cream like you usually get in business class, but a decent and practical offering.
Overall
So is it worth it? We both agreed that if it’s only 2 times the price of economy then it’s probably worth the upgrade.
If it’s more than this I do not think it’s worth it. For me, the variable service and the slightly better seat doesn’t justify such a hefty price increase.
I viewed the seat as somewhat similar to what economy used to be like before airlines started cramming people in. My food was ok, but not great, and my experience with getting the leftover menu choices for food and wine was greatly disappointing.
However, Cat felt BA premium was well worth it. That extra space and better seat was the difference between a claustrophobic and cramped flight and having both body and head space. Add in that her food experience was good, and you can see why she felt it was worth it.
So that’s why what you value will make all the difference. If having a bit more space makes all the difference, then you should go for it, especially for the right price. Get to the front and pray you have one of the better cabin crew.
But don’t expect business class or the middle ground between business and economy. It’s still economy, it’s just PREMIUM economy.
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