tlecam wrote:

Interestingly, 19" seat width compared to Virgin Atlantic, which has 21" wide seats on their A333's.

If that's an attempt to keep the economy configuration in terms of the number of seats across the width of the plane, I think that the offering will be underwhelming.

It is one less than economy. There will be 8 across on the 359 and 777

the press release also mentioned pre departure beverages for Premium Economy, that is huge. Does AA offer the same for their premium plus cabin?

mikegigs wrote:

Speaking of that, will these aircraft still have Comfort+ seats in economy?

This is a very good question. My guess is yes, since there will still be 200+ seats in economy and the alternative would be to offer complimentary upgrades to elites the same as they currently do for Comfort Plus. It will be interesting to see how they handle annual upgrade allotment to this cabin for Platinum/Diamond. I would expect a dozen or so for Diamonds. This might then just replace Delta One upgrades altogether.

Virgin, Alitalia, Air France all have a true premium economy. KLM next?

This looks really impressive. Now.....when are UA coming to the party?

LawAndOrder wrote:

tlecam wrote:

Interestingly, 19" seat width compared to Virgin Atlantic, which has 21" wide seats on their A333's.

If that's an attempt to keep the economy configuration in terms of the number of seats across the width of the plane, I think that the offering will be underwhelming.

It is one less than economy. There will be 8 across on the 359 and 777

Thanks for that - that makes me feel better. I am curious as to why they went with a narrower seat. Until I sit in it, I'm nots ure whether I'll really notice the difference or not.

I use PE quite a bit on other carriers for shorter international leisure trips - I'm flying PE on Virgin Atlantic from JFK to LHR in early December for a long weekend. I've had a good experience with it on those 5-6 hour flights - it's the difference between sleeping and not (for me, in economy), and the price is usually a few thousand dollars less than business class.

Looking forward to trying DL's products!

Travelmanager wrote:

mikegigs wrote:

Speaking of that, will these aircraft still have Comfort+ seats in economy?

This is a very good question. My guess is yes, since there will still be 200+ seats in economy and the alternative would be to offer complimentary upgrades to elites the same as they currently do for Comfort Plus. It will be interesting to see how they handle annual upgrade allotment to this cabin for Platinum/Diamond. I would expect a dozen or so for Diamonds. This might then just replace Delta One upgrades altogether.

Virgin, Alitalia, Air France all have a true premium economy. KLM next?

They said that you have to use the existing global upgrade certificate for delta premium so unless they increase the quantity that you get at platinum and diamond, this is definitely a major downgrade. I hope that doesn't mean that they just kill delta one upgrades entirely but I suspect that will be the result.

jumbojet wrote:

the press release also mentioned pre departure beverages for Premium Economy, that is huge. Does AA offer the same for their premium plus cabin?

Don't see it mentioned here: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/exp ... conomy.jsp

The A330 fleet is the one we need to see the Layout for. A330 are narrower then the A350 so its probably 7 seats per row.

tlecam wrote:

LawAndOrder wrote:

tlecam wrote:

Interestingly, 19" seat width compared to Virgin Atlantic, which has 21" wide seats on their A333's.

If that's an attempt to keep the economy configuration in terms of the number of seats across the width of the plane, I think that the offering will be underwhelming.

It is one less than economy. There will be 8 across on the 359 and 777

Thanks for that - that makes me feel better. I am curious as to why they went with a narrower seat. Until I sit in it, I'm nots ure whether I'll really notice the difference or not.

Everyone but CI has been going 2-4-2 in W with 19" wide seats on the A359. More or less standard, I guess.

LawAndOrder wrote:

N717TW wrote:

A350, right?

How much does anyone want to guess that it also comes to the 777 by keeping 4-5 rows of 3-3-3 seating and then introducing 3-4-3 to the rest of the Y cabin?

It's not happening! As much as people want it to. The 777 will remain 9 abreast at DL!

I have no interest in the 777 going 10 abreast.

I just know that in the past six years (really ever since the NW integration was over) DL has been working hard to add seats in coach, particularly in the narrow body fleet. When I first became a medallion member 12-13 years ago, the 738s had 149 seats in them...now they are 160; the MD-80s and MD-90s lost their back galley and gained a whole lot of seats, the 757s lost a few rows of FC and are now 199. When they upgraded the 767 fleet to add new video equipment, they also added slimline seats and figured out how to add a few more coach seats too. So on the whole, every interior medication DL has done since 2010 has involved "densifying" the coach section. Trust me, I'm not a fan at all. AF's 777s are terrible compared to DLs.

I'm very curious about this myself, but the real question is just the price. Lots of airlines offer premium economy on long-haul flights, but many of them are not really much more reasonable than biz class. (For example, last time I priced PE on JAL from JFK-NRT, it was about $5,000 for business class and $3,500 for PE.)

Knowing Delta, though, I wouldn't put it past them that this is really just a cabin for upgrades, so they can put SkyMiles members with status in a cheaper cabin than business. Meanwhile, they still get themselves some good PR. That's similar to how ANA used their PE cabin originally, although I think now they do sell it.

The key question for me as a passenger who pays for his own flights is: will DL keep Economy+, or will it be substituted by the new PE? Because PE products tend to be priced significantly higher than Y-, instead of as an upgrade like Y+. IMO the AA setup with Y-, Y+, PE, J, ... should be the way to go.

They have already started selling the existing Y+ as a separate class between economy and business/first, so my guess would be that on the international flights, the Y+ goes away and is replaced by this new PE offering. On domestic flights, the existing Y+ is the Premium Economy class, with more or less the same setup as today (coach seats with more legroom plus some additional services.)

What ever happened to F and Y offerings. FC/ J / Premium Econ / Economy + / Econ - ... how many different products can you offer for the same TRIP?

xdlx wrote:

What ever happened to F and Y offerings. FC/ J / Premium Econ / Economy + / Econ - ... how many different products can you offer for the same TRIP?

Most airlines, including DL, don't offer F anymore (or offer F on an extremely limited basis). J is the new F, and Premium Econ is taking the place of old J.

It looks nice, and btw the A350 will have 32 Delta One Suites (most likely the entire first cabin, aka between doors L/R1 and L/R2) and the 48 Delta Premium seats. They are really improving travel experience here. Well done Delta!

MIQ is CXs premium economy seat as well isn't it? Disappointing it's 8 across when even CI has 7.

xdlx wrote:

What ever happened to F and Y offerings. FC/ J / Premium Econ / Economy + / Econ - ... how many different products can you offer for the same TRIP?

The problem was that the industry got to a point where the J offering began to compete with F and the Y offering was getting worse and worse. So that left a whole market of upper-middle-class passengers who were willing to pay more for extra service, but not the 3-5x premium that J class demands. With the advent of premium economy, airlines offering this service were able to capture this market share (and I believe VS was the pioneer). Recently with improvement in the global economic picture and more passengers willing to pay this premium, airlines have been able to customize their offerings. So now DL has an "Economy Basic" product, an "Economy" product, an "Economy Comfort" product, but that will be replaced by a more expensive, but also much nicer "Premium Economy" offering.

Of the US3, I think only UA now does not offer such a product and for my own long-haul needs, I will be avoiding them until they do.

Remember when Business Class was the cat's meows on 747's at 2-4-2 seating with 38" pitch, leg/foot rests and enhanced catering with pre-departure drinks? Everything old is new again.