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Edit: The flights listed below are no longer available for those prices on those dates, but there are other dates available for a similar or lower price.
God Save the Points reported that British Airways and American Airlines have put premium economy tickets on sale between East Coast cities and Spain, Italy, and France. That caused me to play around with Google Flights (See: How to find great business class fares with Google Flights for tips), using the map feature to find other cheap pairs. I’ve found that Delta/Skyteam has also dropped fares on many routes to beat AA/BA in many markets — with round trip premium economy available as low as $601 round trip between New York and Zurich. Many other cities are also on sale. These are very good prices for premium economy fares — some of which could be upgraded to business class with miles / upgrade instruments based on availability.
Note that I found some of these did not have bookable links from Google Flights, yet I still found them through online travel agencies like Expedia, Priceline, and CheapOAir — so check one of those sites if you find dates and can’t book through a link at Google. These low prices can mostly be found for travel in April and May and then again beginning in September for fall travel — though as you’ll see below, some cities have good prices into early June. Examples to follow – click the city pairs or images to check for more dates / options:
New York to Zurich from $601 RT:
New York to Barcelona from $742 RT
Boston to Copenhagen from $692
Note that the Boston to Copenhagen itinerary is an example of one that did not show up as bookable via Google Flights:
Yet I had no trouble finding those same flights on the same dates via Expedia.com:
Boston to Paris from $727
Miami to Madrid from $795:
New York to Rome from $788 RT:
New York to Paris from $827 RT:
New York to Faro (Portugal) from $825:
Bottom line
Some of these — like $601 round trip to Zurich in Premium Economy — are terrific fares for a seat with a little more space. Some fares are upgradeable with miles or upgrade instruments, but you’ll want to check with the loyalty program of the airline with whom you’re booking for rules and availability. While economy tickets to Europe often pop up in the $350-$500 round trip range, many will find it worth the small premium to have more space, potentially earn more miles, and maybe even use miles/points to upgrade. Remember that if you book through most online travel agencies, you should have 24 hours to cancel without penalty (but always check the terms).
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It’s hard to find an award seat usually where I want to go . I stay away from Delta poor customer service spent 4 hours total on the phone for a 10 hr flt ..Always changing or canceling flts u can’t trust the dates .Then the flt they canceled kept showing up and at the airport they questioned me for their cancel.
Their Mucked up.
CHEERs
[…] God Save the Points reported that British Airways and American Airlines have put premium economy tickets on sale between East Coast cities and Spain, Italy, and France. That caused me to play around with Google Flights (See: How to find great business class fares with Google Flights for tips), using the map feature to find other cheap pairs. I’ve found that Delta/Skyteam has also dropped fares on many routes to beat AA/BA in many markets — with round trip premium economy available as low as $601 round trip between New York and Zurich. Many other cities are also on sale. These are very good prices for premium economy fares — some of which could be upgraded to business class with miles / upgrade instruments based on availability. LEARN MORE! […]
[…] to this post in God Save The Points and this post in Frequent Miler, American Airlines and British Airways are in a fare war with Delta (and maybe […]
I don’t believe DL has many of their planes on the TATL sectors equipped with the PE seats you posted, and instead is selling Comfort+ as PE, which is nowhere near as nice. I’d check the equipment before booking any of the DL flights.
This is the correct answer – the majority of the Delta fares you are seeing are Comfort+ (aka Economy Plus) rather than Premium Select (aka Premium Economy).
Yeah, as a travel blogger you should know Delta misleads their premium economy. It is only “Economy Plus” not true economy. Nick, do your homework.
Hatorade. Possibly justified. But it stands.