Premium Economy on Air India?

Did I hear right? A little birdie tells me that Air India plans to introduce a new class of travel - premium economy - which hasn't been tried in Indian aviation before. At least not marketed as such.

The picture above is from Cathay's Premium Economy cabin. Wish AI's was like that!

Apparently, the first couple of rows of the economy section of all of Air India's all-economy flights will be converted into a "premium economy" section. I don't think this means any different seating than already is in economy. However, I believe the middle seat will be blocked off entirely (as happens overseas, quite regularly). Passengers with premium economy tickets will also be entitled to business class lounge access and priority boarding. Personally, I've never had experience with Air India doing priority boarding, ever.

Naturally, this won't be on all routes. It will only be on AI's all-economy A320 aircraft. It is expected to go live on 15 February 2014.

SpiceJet introduced Flexifly, option-based flying, last August. I'd written about that here, and one of the options with Flexifly is sort of like AI's proposed premium economy (only in terms of seating, though).

Experience the benefit of privacy while flying SpiceJet. After booking your ticket on SpiceJet.com, just opt for FlexiFly- Empty Seat Option to book empty seats adjacent to you, at a nominal price. You will receive a confirmation of your extra seats up to 24 hours before departure.

How different will AI's premium economy be? Let me know if you do fly one of these.


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