Brazilian carrier Azul has teased a new premium economy class product that is not just like but is exactly what business class was for many years on many carriers. The new Azul “Economy Prime” product takes premium economy to a whole new level.
Azul “Economy Prime” May Be The Best Premium Economy Seat Ever
Azul introduced a new class of service for its longhaul international flights called Economy Prime. Representing a middle ground between Economy Xtra and Azul Business, this product will be available on select flights in the months ahead.
“Azul informs that Economy Prime is a new intermediate category of Azul, which will be available on selected international flights. This product aims to offer a new Customer experience option, with seats with greater space between the rows, greater inclination and exclusive service with meal, as well as entertainment options. The Economy Prime category can be purchased as a seat marking, in the same way as the Blue Space and Economy Xtra, in Reais or with points. It is important to emphasize that the prices are dynamic.”
By that description (translated from Portuguese) is sounds like this seat will feature not only more legroom and space, but a more premium service as well with “exclusive” meals.
It’s too early to say whether this will be a great deal or not, but already Azul, which flies from Viracopos (VCP) outside of São Paulo and other Brazilian cities to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO) utilizing an A330-200 or A330-900neo aircraft (which I reviewed here). I quite enjoyed the Azul product and that was even during the pandemic…
Best Premium Economy Seat Ever?
As business and first class seating has improved, I’ve been waiting for a carrier to finally introduce an angled lie-flat seat in premium economy class and it appears that Azul will do it first.
Sleep is important on a flight and sleeping in an upright position in economy class or a traditional premium economy seat is impossible for many travelers. This seat does not replace a bed, but it certainly raises the bar on premium economy class and offers an elevated product that is sure to be popular if priced right.
CONCLUSION
Azul has unveiled a potentially game-changing new premium economy class product. Details are light on start date and seat configuration, but this looks like the seat we still see today across some older Emirates or Qatar Airways jets in business class.
I’ll be following this new for more details, but it’s about time a carrier put in an innovative premium economy product. Here, you will not get the full lie-flat experience, but even if Azul squeezes seven seats across in a 2-3-2 configuration, think how much more comfortable the premium economy experience would be.
Azul was created by the founder of JetBlue who has ties to Brazil. It is a fantastic airline from what I hear from family and friends that live down there. Flying out of VCP to Florida is a huge advantage for millions of passengers that don’t live and don’t need to drive to Sao Paulo. Now, I worry that airlines are now creating several tiers of seats between Economy and Business and which means that for example if you are upgrading with miles or certificates you will keep paying a lot of money for a still economy seat to be able to upgrade to business. It happened to me twice where buying a Delta One international was cheaper than buying Premium Economy on the same flight. Don’t ask me why but I took advantage of those two situations.
I hear you on the upgrades from economy to business (bypassing any in-between product). We will see how this plays out.
How do you explain Delta charging Premium Economy at a higher price than Delta One on international flights? It happened to me twice. Crazy! As a Diamond medallion with Delta I get global certificates to upgrade to one class up but since they started with Premium Economy the value of that verification is close to zero because you have to pay for Premium Economy to upgrade to Delta One and the price difference is not worth it.
I see that on United too sometimes. It’s nonsensical, but also based upon the available fare classes within that cabin of service.
I think you fly enough to know that there are different cabin fare classes in a certain flight, the same way that Main Cabin Y is not only is more outrageously expensive than a Premium G fare, but can also approach Delta One Z pricing. Also other airlines do this. Why they do it I don’t have a full explanantion, but it’s not an uncommon scenario
Sorry last response wasn’t meant for you @Matthew Klint
There’s become a market segmentation where employers will pay for “premium economy” products but not biz/first. I know I buy premium economy when I can and then try to use certs/points for the one-cabin upgrade to biz. Buying in regular economy means you only get bumped one to premium economy and risks getting stuck in steerage.
@Jan: I understand what you explained but I would imagine that airlines would have smarter algorithms to not allow that to happen. Who would buy Premium Economy at a higher price than Delta One? I have purchased Delta One tickets for over $1k LESS than Premium Economy.
Not going to disagree that it’s silly, I’d say just continue to take advantage of such situations
Remember that there’s differential pricing for different markets, and there are joint ventures too, so it may be that they are trying to e.g. push premium economy ex Scandinavia and are dissuading bookings from AMS by using married segments.
Also the absence of a first class cabin means that overselling business isn’t clever, whereas they can always sell a bunch of expensive Y tickets and bump some people up to premium economy.
I remember the angled flat business seats on AF years ago. I think they were 170 degrees. I thought they were okay for sleeping, and since by then a number of other airlines had come out with 180 lie-flat business seats, they were cheaper than the competition, too, which is why I flew them so much.
Those seats were absolutely fine indeed, I only flew them a couple of times but still remember thinking to myself ‘what on earth are people complaining about? I slept as well as in any fully flat seat’. On the other hand, the 2-2-2 configuration wasn’t perfect when travelling solo, but still not quite the end of the world.
“It is important to emphasize that the prices are dynamic.”
Reading that as “these will be priced as a J seat most of the time.”
Can’t wait for carriers to come up with an angle-flat economy comfort seats! (Priced at J prices as well, because of course)
Yes I think this is stupid
So the new economy plus/comfort/etc with angled flat seats is the old business class and the new business class lay flat suite with doors is essentially the old first class. It is all coming full circle but just changing the names of things…
The only other premium economy seat that may be in the same league is the brand-new JAL version on their A350-1000: https://www.jal.co.jp/jp/en/inter/service/premium/seat/A350-1000.html
And the jal screws the pooch by giving eceonmy calss service in their O cabin.
Big middle seat, nothing more. Just like delta
So a PE seat that is finally at the halfway point between business class and economy.
Looks good to me, though OMAAT is reporting that, at least for now, this will be the best seat available on certain new A330neo deliveries.
Oh I wasn’t complaining, just stating that it is nice to see a seat that lives up to what PE sells itself to be, a middle ground between business class and economy.
“this will be the best seat available on certain new A330neo deliveries.”
So it will only be offered on planes that have these seats and economy? That seems cheating a bit, in some ways.
Azul also flies to LIS and ORY (as well as other destinations in South and Central America).
These are 2 ex-Air Asia X A330neos. They are high-density (377 seats, as opposed to Azul’s 298 standard). They have no individual screens. For Y passengers, they are much worse (3x3x3, instead of 2x4x2).
They will be used in the VCP-MCO route for a couple of months, then they will be retrofitted to Azul standard.
Upgrade to “Economy Prime” is said to cost ~USD500.
Too bad these likely won’t become new premium economy seats…
I have my doubts we’ll see this but you’d think airlines would like it if everyone reclined and went to sleep. No need for any service, sleeping passengers should cause less issues, etc.
My biggest issue with coach is just the lack of personal space. Food, drinks, etc. don’t matter to me, just give me some space. It is a huge difference in coach when there is an open seat next to you. It makes your flight so much better than having someone on top of you.