Does Premium Y really work?...

[L1011fan]

There is no fare category for it, which I think there should be. We say, " Oh you can charge more", but it really doesn't work in any cases I've used tried to use it. It would seem like, with way the fare structures are right now you're just paying more for a regular Y seat.  We need some kind of indicator that it's premium.

[Infinity]

Premium seats make sense in only very few occasions never in economy. Even business and first work best in standard most of the time.

[knobbygb]

I only ever use it to reduce the capacity of an aircraft that's too large (or to give a higher range).  An alternative to blocking seats.

I don't think it's a case of "you can charge more" as you would for a proper Y+ class - more like, if you have competition, you'll be more likely to get a larger share of the market with better Y seats.

I did seem to have some success once using premium seating on ultra long haul routes.  It SEEMED to give higher load factors, especially in F and C class, but it wasn't really clear or consistent enough for me to come to any conclusions so I don't bother any more.

[Andre]

In my experience, there should be more difference in the way pax chooses seats available. I've tried running Premium Economy on several routes, and it's just useless. With the new City based demand system coming, I hope there will be more difference to it.

[L1011fan]

Thanks everyone! That really helped me. Truly!

[Mr.HP]

In my experience, there should be more difference in the way pax chooses seats available. I've tried running Premium Economy on several routes, and it's just useless. With the new City based demand system coming, I hope there will be more difference to it.

Yep, this will distinguish Premium Airlines from Low Budget one

I hope we can have more options than just Standard, Premier and Luxury seating

[swiftus27]

Yep, this will distinguish Premium Airlines from Low Budget one

I hope we can have more options than just Standard, Premier and Luxury seating

imho people shop price 100x more than they shop seat pitch.

[Monica]

imho people shop price 100x more than they shop seat pitch.

That really depends on the demographics... and routes.

[swiftus27]

People will stand during a grand Atlantic flight if its cheap enough

[GjedDa]

It should be possible to have 2 diffrent Y seats on a plane.
So instead of business class you have Y and Y+ and charge 15 dollar more for the Y+

[BD]

People will stand during a grand Atlantic flight if its cheap enough

Wasn't that proposed by RyanAir some years ago for European flights?

Related question to the original posters:  While Premium Y may not be a major price / demand enhancer, does adding / replacing Standard Y with High Density Y reduce the price / demand (even on routes that are not competitive)?

It is very difficult to prove conclusively, but my casual observation when switching routes between aircraft with different configurations, it seems to be that demand drops, therefore price needs to lower to keep the same LF.  Not sure if that is just my imagination or if it is real.

[exchlbg]

Seating quality is involved in PAX decision, but not as decisive as other factors. So you might see a drop of bookings if you switch to a HD seating for the same fare, especially the longer the flight is (more than 2 hrs).Better seating gets a small bonus if all other factors are equal with competition. It makes no difference on uncompeted routes.

[EYguy]

I have recently talked to some people of the most known European airlines, all within my work for my master thesis. Travelling while standing will NEVER EVER be allowed, if nothing else for safety reason (you can break your legs in case of a very hard landing).

Apart from that, there is a big difference between Economy Plus and Premium Economy. Economy Plus is something more like a normal economy seat with more legroom, whereas Premium Economy is something separated from the other economy seats (more or less what BA does, like Qantas, etc...), therefore it looks more like a 4th service class. Lufthansa will go more in the directio of Premium Economy, just to give you an example.

However I think that a 4th class of service in the game would be great for flights over 6 hrs...