[Anonymous]

[Swissdiver]

Contrarily to medium and long haul flights, I don’t really mind economy for short haul flights. So on my way tonight to London on an exit row aisle seat (that I had booked). Upon on-line check-in, I was proposed an upgrade for GBP 67. So I considered it. On that flight, no exit row in Business so the only better seats would have been first row, probably already taken. So what would have had for GBP 67? A salad and a free seat next to me, but less leg room (I am 6″4). Lounge access and fast lane I have anyway. Didn’t take the offer. Would you have?

[flier74]

Depending on your route within Europe you would have had a salad or a hot meal, extra Tier Points which come in handy if you are near renewing your status and an extra bag allowance, which is hardly necessary on european flights, but sometimes any or all of these can make a huge difference, depending on the citcumstances you are in. Whilst it may not make sense to you on this flight it may make sense to others and the additional benefits come in at a lower rate than usual. Also the front area of the aircraft on the Airbus fleet (albeit not the ex bmi metal) have a larger seat pitch upto the maximum CE config depending on aircraft type. Sometimes I do take advantage of this good offer, if I need the tier points or just fancy a few extra treats, i.e. complimentary Champagne and the other benefits I already mentioned. Hope this helps.

[SwissExPat]

I’ve asked myself ths question also.

Note also that the wine served in CE is the same as in Y which is unacceptable.

Also if you do upgrade, make sure to check that you do indeed get the higher status points. On a recent paid for upgrade from J to F, my statement showed only the J level points so I needed to call the help line to rectify.

[flier74]

SwissExPat the wine is normally not the same, in CE you get a choice of Champagne, two whites and two reds plus additional spirits and the wines in ET are generally different to the ones in Club. Only exception can be is if Club is not busy and a Crew member takes a Club bar into Euro Traveller, if that cabin is busy and need an extra Crew member to help. On a normal EuroTraveller Bar there is a different white or red wine and no choice available. Due to the fluctuation of loads on different sectors and subsequently efficient Crew utilisation on the odd occasion a Crew member may have a Club Bar in Traveller which is out of the norm.

[FormerlyDoS]

No, I wouldn’t.

For the reasons you describe, it was not worth the price.

I bought a CE ticket to Lyon, for last Sunday, as the economy price was only about £50 less and I needed 40 tier points to re-qualify, but frankly it was underwhelming.

[SwissExPat]

Agree about the champagne being available only in CE.

I’ll check the wine situation on my next CE flights later this week but always thought them to be the same.

[Swissdiver]

It was a 75 minutes flight, so could survive with a narrow seat :-). And I didn’t need the extra 30 points as next month I’ll requalify (thanks notably to several CE flights in conjunction with a couple of long haul’s), nor I wanted a glass of Champagne (diet coke today!). Finally, to my surprise, we even got a roll! All together happy of my decision.

[FormerlyDoS]

There is very little differentiation between eco and business in Europe these days.

IMHO, as airlines like Germanwings, easyJet and Air Berlin offer more product (e.g. the ability to transfer onto an earlier return flight), the full service carriers are going to struggle to sell a poor business product at inflated prices.

[Henkel.Trocken]

I agree with DoS.

The full service carriers will have to have an urgent re-think of their offering as the low-costs up their game.

Germanwings already make it possible to book a seat at the front with an empty one next to you for a very reasonable fare. I can’t help but think those fares are going to rise when they start operating more business orientated routes like LHR-DUS and so on and seats are perhaps a bit limited.

That said, I suspect they will still be substantially below BA as at the moment.

The actions of LH are interesting, I wonder if AF & BA have any thoughts of following the same route.

The alternative is that they up their game and start to offer proper C seating, better food and so on to differentiate the product and make it worth the cost. QF have always managed to sell C at a very high price on short routes e.g. SYD-MEL and it is a very different product to Y.

As ever, we live in interesting times.

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