Virgin Australia rolls out Samsung Galaxy Tablets on board, Dreamliner and A380 jets for Canton Route, we also look at Premium Economy seats.
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Hi there, Jake Hower from Pan Australian Travel with this week’s news update.
- Virgin Australia rolls out Samsung Galaxy Tablet across their entire fleet.
First off, we touch on Virgin Australia, they previously trialed their Galaxy Tablets on board domestic flights that was back in April, they’re now starting to roll them out across their entire fleet, that’s happening this month and you can expect to see them on board both the A30 aircraft and the 737 aircraft shortly.
- Cathay Pacific expands their Premium Economy class seat routes.
Last week we spoke about Cathay and their new business class product. This week we will touch on their premium economy product, which is really good. It’s almost as good as the Qantas product. They’re increasing it or expanding it across their fleet usually, you can get it on the Melbourne through Europe routes, so check it out. They have had a few specials lately picking up fares for around about 3,500 through to Europe so they’re a pretty good value as well.
- China Southern – announces plans to bring the Dreamliner and A380 to the Canton Route.
I have spoken previously about trying the China Southern and the Canton route, and it continues to come up. It is a bit of a hot topic at the moment. They’re investing heavily into it with the latest announcements being that they plan on bringing the Dream line out onto the Sydney/London route, and also considering the A380, so these aircraft are the newest in their fleet and have the best product on it so they are really investing into the Australian market. So check them out, maybe not this year, but next year, there may be a viable option across to London.
- Premium Economy Class seats and cabin layouts explained.
Right, over the last two weeks we have touched off on business class and economy class. It’s time now for a quick look at premium economy class. Now we are not going into as much depth as we did previously, because, simply there are not as many airlines flying premium economy. There are a few facts that I think are important regarding premium economy there is a large range of definitions of premium economy between the carries that we see in this market, and also the carries in mainly the U.S. Some of the biggest differences generally, where we’re seeing premium economy out of Australia it is a dedicated premium economy cabin. That means wider seats, a larger pitch; we are talking about 38 inches as opposed to 32 in a standard economy class cabin. And width wise we are talking anywhere between 18 ½ and say 20, 21 inches wide as opposed to roughly 17 or 18 in economy class. They offer a greater level of comfort and it is certainly closer to economy class than what it is to business class.
Now on the other side of the coin we have a lot of the U.S. carriers claiming to have a premium economy cabin. Realistically all they are doing is adding a bit of extra legroom in front of their economy class cabin, so it’s exactly the same seat as you go to get at the back of the aircraft, or towards the back, but it is adding a bit of extra legroom.
Generally, these seats are not as expensive as the dedicated premium economy, but certainly don’t expect too much more outside of being able to stretch your legs out a little bit.
That’s premium economy, now who flies out of Australia with this. You’ve got Qantas, British Airways, Virgin Australia on some of their international product Air New Zealand, we are seeing Café coming into the market, Air China also have a sort of a premium economy cabin, and there is a few other carriers as well.
The mantel of best premium economy cabin in my opinion is the Qantas, it is really nice, the seats are excellent, the service on board is really good as well. But certainly, Virgin Australia and it will be interesting what the Cathay product is like once we start getting a few travelers in it.
Premium economy generally ranges from about 150 percent to 250 percent of an economy ticket. In my opinion if you can pay less than twice the price of economy class then it’s often worth it once you get past that double the price of an economy ticket, the value really isn’t there and you are probably best looking at some of the business class options that you potentially have. It really is an extension of economy class, rather than an in between class of economy and business.
Okay that’s it for another week. Thanks very much for tuning in. I would love to hear any feedback you have on the episode, otherwise we will speak to you soon.
