Premium Economy Airfare Search

Premium Economy Airfare Search

by Liv | Published on January 27th, 2008, 2:13 pm | Travel

: Virgin-Atlantic-Premium-E.jpg (19.59 KiB) Viewed 2319 times

My morning has gone like this.

Got up, took shower, ate bowl of Frosted Mini-wheats, did taxes.... This took about 1 hour of my morning... The remainder of time from 9AM till 2PM has involved researching every known way of searching for "Premium Economy" airfare on the Internet. I'm a gluten for punishment, but I really felt if I could find a reasonable fare from Greensboro to London, I'd be willing to pay a small premium to shore my rear in an extra large seat with even enough leg-room for me. Unfortunately, I'm finding fares in the neighborhood of 200% of standard coach fares.

I mean is it too much to ask to enjoy my vacation without getting a leg clot because the snobbish individual in front of me has their seat back in "extra" recline mode, so much so, I could see the lice in her hair? I had that happen on our flight back from Los Angeles last year, and personally don't feel like repeating it.

All though I must admit, I took the advice of someone on this board, when I shot an air-vent at her head. Unfortunately she was impervious to cold air with her anti-noise earphones, and acorn neck pillow.

So here's the deal on Premium Economy. I like it. It's not quite business class, but definitely not coach. It's high points are the extra leg-room, and wider seats. It's perfect. But it's difficult to find airfares. I found this handy page on Orbitz, but the best fares I'm finding from GSO, RDU, CLT... or even out of NYC directly is around $1200-$1400 dollars. Which is three times the best coach fare I've found at $150.00 a seat plus tax, which puts it at about $400ish.

My thinking is $750ish is about a fair fare for Premium Economy. According to Virgin and their special little deal on their site, I should be able to get around $900, but can't find a flight out of RDU.

Anyone got any suggestions for searching and finding Premium Economy tickets cheaply?

maybe you should save your money instead of blowing it on vacation and not rely on mom and dad to bail you out when an appliance breaks.

Maybe....

It's quite possible.

I would have never thought of that.

Damn... your right.

I have no doubt you know what the right choice is.

I have no doubt you'll follow your impulses and choose the opposite and then look for someone to blame when the wrong choice hurts your family.

I might be dead next week from McDonalds according to you....

And since you can't take it with ya....

Speaking personally, I have appreciated the (sometimes expensive) gifts my parents have given me over the years - which have enabled me to to take my family on vacations we couldn't otherwise have afforded - their gifts have actually included vacations. I consider it one of the benefits of being successful that I can do the same for my children.

To get back to your original topic. If you want 'Premium Economy' seats, you'll have to pay a premium. I'd recommend just making sure that you're not getting 'excursion seating' (sub 30" legroom) and get a good price.

From what I can tell, Air France's coach seats might be a suitable replacement. They seem to have excellent stats, although I'm still very fond of Virgin Atlantic's premium economy. If it wasn't for all the fuel surcharges and taxes, it wouldn't be half as bad.

On a side not Matt... believe it or not, this trip will help me save paying taxes on about $10,000 next year, and since it's the first "actual" vacation in about 10 years.... I consider myself worthy.

I guess those posts about Philly and other places were just "get aways".

No. Philadelphia, while I didn't mention it on the Internet.... was for surgery for myself. I took my family for support, and we drove to Philadelphia.....

I played it off online, because, er... frankly... no one needed to know.

Los Angeles, as I've mentioned previously was to get Shannon and the kids back to see "her" family, as part of the continued living agreement whereby I'm allowed to sleep in the same house, I'm required to occasionally allow her to visit her family.

We've never been away from the kids for more than 1 night in the last five years, and we were going to use this opportunity to have a chance to put together some formal ceremony for our relationship, and the vacation, something akin to a honeymoon, since we've never actually had one, & since we've never had the financial support of our parents to do so.

Can I go now daddy?

Liv wrote:
Can I go now daddy?

You don't need my blessing to make poor decisions. You post this sh1t online.

You take pot shots at anything positive about the U.S., you insult the freedoms you have and those who provide it, so you're gonna take grief when you choose to dump $3000+ plus on a vacation and the bitch you don't have money to fix the car, go to the doctor, etc etc.

"You evil government, I wasted my money on a vacation and wrote it off on my taxes. Now I don't have money for my family and it's all your fault".

Where did you go on your honeymoon?

Liv wrote:Where did you go on your honeymoon?

Noneyer.

Want to go with us? January 27th, 2008, 7:57 pm Reply with quote

Want to go with us?

Liv wrote:Want to go with us?

I wouldn't even want to share an elevator ride at this point.

Oh come on... You could scare all the funny talking europeans.... It would be fun!!!

Done the U.K.. Done Paris. Interesting trips but they didn't do it enough for me to go back.

You never know Matt, I may come back hating the place, and thanking my butt I'm an American.

Matt wrote:Done the U.K.. Done Paris. Interesting trips but they didn't do it enough for me to go back.

Its a bit different when you aren't walking around with the protective bubble of a drunken college summer trip or being in the protective wall of a military outing. I have to believe you're simply being ridiculous and troll like with statements like that.

Where did you go in France oh traveled one?? Be honest.

If you went with that attitude then I'll bet the British and French were glad to see you leave.

If you make an effort and try not to be patronising then you might enjoy other countries. You'll certainly find the locals friendlier.

Look... the low foreheads think their opinions matter.

I spent in month in the U.K... I was in the military at the time but for reason I you wouldn't comprehend, I didn't spend time on any base. Nice people. Brit young men are cautious but once you remain respectful and show you're just a guy like them, the buy you pints. I found the old buildings and churches quite fascinating. I'm glad I took the trip. But it wasn't enough for me to want to go back. There was an encounter with a lovely Brit gal in a techno club that the records shall remain sealed.

Spent 7 days in Paris as a student in '03. 1/2 days in directed studies visiting various French business schools and international affairs locations. The other halves exploring the city. Catacombs were down right creepy but I was in awe of the magnitude. Eiffel tower was cool but didn't seam to provide the same feelings as the Sears tower on a clear day. Did the Louvre. Mona Lisa was kind of a disappointment when you have this image in your head for so long. It's actually kinda small. The tapestries were HUGE but after seeing about 20 of them, I kinda lost interest. I enjoyed the smaller Van Gogh museum. Saw the Diana memorial. I guess I don't fully comprehend what she meant to the French people judging by the magnitude of the monument they had in place. I got 4 semester hours for that trip. Wanna see my transcripts?

As for my "attitude", I didn't go looking for trouble, and trouble seemed to avoid me. Only has one incident on the metro where a French guy, early 20s, possibly a student but I had no way of telling, tried to get his buddies riled up and confronted a couple of the ladies on our group about the war or something. English was pretty broken but it was obvious they were not happy to discover Americans on the train. I stepped in front of them (I was on the other side of the car) looked them dead in the eye, they went away. I turned to the older French lady next to me, winked, she laughed, and that was the extent of confrontation I had.

See when I'm a guest in someones home or country, I conform to their norms. Please and thank yous. I don't expect them to conform to my culture or language. When I needed help or directions, I was very polite and made attempts to communicate in French. Didn't do so good but they appreciated my efforts.

So just because I don't want to see my tax dollars pissed away on someone who doesn't belong here, doesn't mean I not a worldly person. You're a jerkwad for suggesting otherwise.

A Person wrote:If you went with that attitude then I'll bet the British and French were glad to see you leave.

If you make an effort and try not to be patronising then you might enjoy other countries. You'll certainly find the locals friendlier.

Agree. Totally.

Don't forget Charlotte has an airport!

There's an article here ........ http://web.archive.org/web/200711111612 ... groom.html (go to the bottom) which suggests buying a spare seat and holding it to ransom, for a business class upgrade

Matt wrote:Done the U.K.. Done Paris. Interesting trips but they didn't do it enough for me to go back.

I read your later post of all the places you went etc... that's all you hit in 7 days in Paris and you're not interested in going back? There's a lot more to see and do in and around Paris.

Yeah, went to Boston once. Looked round the museum, had a few beers, screwed a local slag, not enough to make me want to go back to the US.

I'm glad you got laid, must have been difficult with her bad breath and rotten teeth, but at least the trip wasn't a total write off.

dom wrote:Don't forget Charlotte has an airport!

There's an article here ........ http://web.archive.org/web/200711111612 ... groom.html (go to the bottom) which suggests buying a spare seat and holding it to ransom, for a business class upgrade

I've seen that page... I'm considering that option, honestly.