Crazy Price Varianhttps://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3012221-crazy-price-variance/?do=getNewCommentce?

[cleobella]

We have booked flights with Celebrity Air, for next Feb, Toronto to Hong Kong (Cathay P) direct then Singapore to Toronto, 1 stop (EVA) to return home.  We booked Premium Economy for an incredibly low price of under $5000 for 2 people. When I search the price out on Cathy P to fly Prem Econ with them only, the quote for 2 px is $12,000! Using a 3rd party search engine, the price is equally high. Does anyone know how Celebrity is giving us such a good price? Is it too good to be true or is there something off

about this? Also, I noted that the Celebrity price for Economy Class is actually higher then for Prem Econ. Any air experts know what’s up with all this?

[waterbug123]

Premium economy is tricky, because some airlines have a true premium economy cabin (wider seat, extra legroom, significant additional recline, footrest, better meal, etc.), and some have some kind of "economy plus" cabin that is really just regular economy with a few extra inches of legroom but little else.  Many have both, but 3rd party vendors including cruise lines tend to not be set up to distinguish the two, so both types get lumped into what they call premium economy.  So you might think you're getting actual premium economy, but in reality you are getting some kind of economy plus, economy comfort, comfort plus or whatever a particular airline calls their very, very slightly enhanced economy product.

[FlyerTalker]

You are mixing apples and oranges.  Celebrity has crafted you an open-jaw ticket, but you are looking at a TPAC one-way ticket.  Most intercontinental one-ways are significantly higher.

 

Of course, actual flight details would always help.  As is quoting prices per person.

 

 

[Zach1213]

2 hours ago, cleobella said:

Also, I noted that the Celebrity price for Economy Class is actually higher then for Prem Econ. Any air experts know what’s up with all this?

 

The other parts have been addressed already, but this one is simple - demand. There may be particularly high demand for "regular" economy but not premium on that flight, so that the various fare buckets in economy are getting booked up faster than premium. It's not very common, but it's also not super unusual. A few months ago I booked my business class DFW-DOH-HYD roundtrip for less than an economy ticket was being sold for. Sure enough, economy was packed on the flight and business was fairly quiet. 

[megr1125]

Often when flying TATL or TPAC and booking a one way ticket, you're penalized for only going one way, whereas domestic US carries generally don't charge higher one way fares.

 

Also you're looking at an open jaw using cruise air.  Celebrity's contracted prices probably range from around what you paid on up....

 

So no, while it may seem odd or too good to be true, it may be perfectly fine.  On occasion, I've seen domestic US first class priced cheaper than economy.  Does it happen often?  No, but it does and I snagged it for a person flight from PHL-SJU a couple years ago, and also wrote a blog post about checking these things for my employer, complete with screen shots.

 

(And I didn't initially see that you're in Canada but I still don't think it's all that odd.  However the super frequent flyer gurus here can give you more and better info than I can.  Just relaying that while things can be too good, sometimes, they're actually really good!)

 

 

[cleobella]

Thanks everyone for the info. We are flying Cathay Air to Hong Kong and Eva home from Singapore. I hope the “Premium Economy” really is a bit more spacious. The websites do seem to indicate that they are true Premium Economy seats and I’ve heard that the airlines from Asia tend to offer a good flight experience. I wish I could afford Business Class but unfortunately will need a lottery win for that to happen. I guess we just got a great price from Celebrity Air, win for us!

[Zach1213]

3 hours ago, cleobella said:

Thanks everyone for the info. We are flying Cathay Air to Hong Kong and Eva home from Singapore. I hope the “Premium Economy” really is a bit more spacious. The websites do seem to indicate that they are true Premium Economy seats and I’ve heard that the airlines from Asia tend to offer a good flight experience. I wish I could afford Business Class but unfortunately will need a lottery win for that to happen. I guess we just got a great price from Celebrity Air, win for us!

 

I know nothing about EVA Air, but I am a regular on Cathay and they do have a true premium economy on their longhaul fleet. It's eight seats across instead of nine, and some extra leg room. Not sure if there's a difference in things like food or TV size. 

[cleobella]

Thanks Zach. I’ve heard good things about Cathay so fingers crossed. I did notice that EVA has 2 levels of premium economy, regular and a Premium Economy “UP”. If anyone has any EVA info, please weight in

[dabear]

We flew on Cathay  a few years ago to Hong Kong & it was fine. Our friends flew Eva air & said it also was fine.

[Globaliser]

9 hours ago, cleobella said:

I did notice that EVA has 2 levels of premium economy, regular and a Premium Economy “UP”.

 

EVA only has one type of premium economy, which is described here: https://www.evaair.com/en-gb/fly-prepare/flying-with-eva/cabin-classes/premium-economy-class/

 

I believe that "up" refers to a category of fares in the premium economy cabin which has different fare rules from either "basic" or "standard" fare rules.

[cleobella]

That makes it a bit more clear, thanks Globaliser!

[Zach1213]

14 hours ago, cleobella said:

Thanks Zach. I’ve heard good things about Cathay so fingers crossed. 

 

Cathay is good, yes. They used to be better...but so did a lot of other airlines. I've been flying them fairly consistently since 2008 and have definitely noticed a decline over the years. Still a good airline. Not a good pilot academy, though 😉

Edited June 7 by Zach1213