That was the first time I booked Economy Premium. I fly business class occasionally when it is company-paid, or when I get an upgrade, but the latter one mostly happen when I travel within Europe. This time I knew I would have to work immediately upon arrival, so I needed some decent sleeping conditions, but I was not ready to purchase business class on my own.
Economy Premium is indeed right between Economy and Business class. In Economy, you sleep almost vertical, in Business, you sleep horizontally, and in Economy Premium, you sleep diagonally. My initial feeling was that it’s still not comfortable enough, but I ended up working for the whole day with no problem, so I guess it was not that bad. The seats are definitely more comfortable, however, the foot rest prevents from placing your backpack under the seat in front of you, so I had to put everything into the overhead.
The food is still bad. Since last year’s sharp decline in the quality of the in-flight food, the only decent meals are in business class. When I fly economy and it’s BA or AA, I try to eat in the lonuge and then sleep through the in-flight dinner. If I fly Finnair, it’s not an option, because the Finnair lounge in ORD is really bad and has virtually no amenities. This time, it was BA, but since the departure was at 5 PM, I had to leave the lounge by 4 PM, sort of too early for dinner. Besides, I was hoping that the food in Economy Premium will be better.
It was not, and also, they asked everyone to lift up their seat during the dinner service, so I won’t be able to sleep anyway. The only thing which was better than in the Economy was that there was a choice of meals, but by the time they got to my row they were out of chicken, and I didn’t like much the other two choices. We’ll see how things will turn out on my flight back!
One shocking thing on this flight was that there was a young woman on the left of me who spoke on the phone all the the time since she sat down, and through al of the safety instructions, and takeoff, until she lost connection and some point. Over an hour total!
While I was typing this post, I got a notification that our flight to Brussels was rebooked for a day earlier. I guess that’s the Universe’s response to my over-scheduled life!
Hettie's Reflections 