transatlantic flights-think I am getting too old

[LHT28]

KLM doesn't have a premium economy, at least I can't see one on their website. I don't believe Lufthansa has either. Cathay Pacific does, and Air Canada is moving in that direction, I believe.

KLM has Economy Comfort we usually get it 90 days out for around 80-90 Euro to AMS

http://www.klm.com/travel/ca_en/prepare_for_travel/on_board/your_seat_on_board/index.htm

 

Last yr DH upgraded at the gate to 1st class for under $400 ea ...worth the $$

[Hawaiidan]

you have to be physically there I recall unless they issue you 2 boarding passes for the flight, which will set off all sorts of security issues. How are you going to check in? and once checked in how are you going to check in again when you are already checked in...:o

 

The airline will treat your second seat as a no-show and cancel your reservation with no refund If the flight is full and there are standbys your seat will be up for grabs when the crew does their seat check to lock up..

 

You may run the risk of getting your reservation confused and both get cancelled as a duplicate booking error.:eek:

 

KLM as I remember did away with first and has only business.

 

Its easy to confuse seat types, go to Seat guru to get the scoop. There is no airline that offers a lie flat in economy plus or premimum economy... you have to be in Business. Beware of the lie flat seats that are not lie flat...they are tilted some 15 degrees.. American and Tahiti Nui and Lufthansa have these.... they are tough to sleep in as yur always sliding down.

[bocatraveler09]

Air France has premium economy which, on some of their planes, has a separate cabin. Quiet and private. We flew this May to Paris for approx. $1600.

[wripro]

Virgin Atlantic, British Air, Air New Zealand to London all have premium econony as well.

[SuiteTraveler]

I travel with this:

http://www.skymall.com/skyrest-travel-pillow/99010.html?start=23&catid=10980#start=1

I put the pillow the airline gives us on top of it. If you are taller than me (I'm 5'3") then you might put something under the travel pillow (such as a purse or your laptop or whatever you have with you to bring it up to the right height for you. This pillow plus 1 sleeping pill = a near full nights sleep for me and I wake up feeling good.

 

I also use this footrest:

http://www.magellans.com/business-class-foot-rest

 

I also use this one which is beneficial in that you can roll it back and forth to get a little circulation going while flying:

http://www.skymall.com/legup-bolster-pillow/99030DCE.html

[Acrusa]

If you buy 3 seats in coach for 2 people, it's still a lot cheaper than business class, and you get to stretch out a little.

 

We did just that 3 yrs ago on our cruise from Bejing to Hong Kong. You must book this through a travel agent only.We flew on Air China Jfk to Bejing got our 3 boarding passes great flight.Our flight from Hong Kong to Bejing also got our 3boarding passes. When we arrived into Bejing for the flight to Jfk we had had a problem getting the third boarding pass.Had to get 3 supervisors before we got our third seat.Almost missed the flight.

[Mura]

Air France has premium economy which, on some of their planes, has a separate cabin. Quiet and private. We flew this May to Paris for approx. $1600.

 

 

We used AF premium economy a couple of years from NY to CDG but weren't delighted with it. It was definitely better than their coach seating! (Our main complaints as I recall were with the seats themselves, not the service.)

 

Our next flight on AF was in business and it was better. The seating wasn't all that different, but somehow it was better.

 

The big advantage of AF's premium economy was that when checking in we were shepherded into the business line. That became very important on our flight home when our flight arrived late at CDG, there was NO ONE checking in U.S. passengers at customs and we had very little time to get to our flight.

 

Luckily we made it.

 

As a P.S., we were surprised that we had much better food on Lufthansas business class than we did on Air France's ... Not saying AF's food was bad, far from it. But it was not as good as we had expected.

 

Despite my negatives here, any time we've taken a premium economy seat is far superior to regular coach, and for a long flight that's a big consideration. It does depend on which airline you are on. The best premium economy seats we ever had were on Air New Zealand going from LAX to Auckland in 2008. The others have been far inferior to Air NZ.

 

Mura

[wripro]

And the Air New Zealand premium economy seats have gotten better since.

[travelglobetrotter]

It is very realistic for a normal couple to sign up for several of the airline of choice ( you can do it every 3 mos) and amass almost 200,000 miles. in less than 6 months Move your savings to some brokerage accounts and get more miles. Too you can buy miles for about 3cents @ for up to 50,000 limit.

 

What do you mean when you say you can do it every 3 mos? And how do you do it when you have existing FF accounts? Clearly I'm a novice, but I'd like to learn how to be a pro playing the miles game. Thanks, Marlene