As Continental and United work on completing what at times, seems like a never ending merger, one of the biggest questions has been, “What will happen with the Economy Plus product?”
While in many ways it seems like a no-brainer, the seats with extra legroom have been a major selling point for United in luring frequent travelers, and have provided the airline with a lot additional revenue.
On the other hand, American Airlines once was known, and if not beloved, at least liked by frequent travelers for their planes with “More room throughout coach.” But the airline decided they could make more money but squeezing in more seats, and so abandoned the program.
While everyone debates the “will they or won’t they” question with United-Continental, Delta Airlines has been quietly working on an “Economy Plus” program of its own.
Now, nothing had been announced officially. But rumors have been flying around for months.
The new Premium Economy class on Delta, known as “Economy Comfort,” will begin as a international-only product with an extra fee. While no doubt the product and prices are a work in progress, some high Elite Medallion level fliers will be exempt. Lower Elites will pay a reduced fee. But again, no doubt this is likely to change based on passenger feedback and revenue.
Delta is installing these premium seats in the first few rows of economy class starting with some of its Boeing 757 aircraft, and they say it will be added to most of their other international fleet by summer.
The additional charge, starting at $80-160 each way as of now, will only be payable at kiosks and with Delta by phone. Travel agents will not, at least at first, be able to collect the fees and book the seats.
This won’t be a World Traveller Plus type product — the physically different seats operated in a separate cabin by British Airways. The seats themselves apparently won’t be different from the current product, but there will be four inches more legroom, presumably more recline and, unlike United’s Economy Plus, will come with free alcoholic beverages.
The change brings up a lot of unanswered questions.
What about people who already have preassigned seats towards the front of the plane. Presumably they will be reaccommodated in regular economy. But some flights no doubt will not have similar seating available by the time Delta institutes the change.
In addition, many international flights stop in the United States and the same plane continues on a domestic route. Since Delta says they are not going to offer “Economy Comfort” domestically, then what happens to those seats when winging along a domestic route?
(On American Airlines planes that are configured for three classes, when they fly on domestic routes without business class the seats are available to preassign for AAdvantage Gold and above level mileage level members only.)
No doubt Delta will figure these and other issues out as they implement the new seating. (And the carrier has a history of modifying some changes in particular based on their Medallion-fliers feedback.)
But overall, while no doubt there will be glitches, it’s a promising development for travelers who can’t afford business class, but want something better than the cattle car conditions in the “back of the bus.”
It will also be interesting to see if this finally brings an announcement from United-Continental about their merged product and, of course, what if anything, American Airlines will do about it.
Do you think Continental and American will add an economy plus section to their aircraft?
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
