Add Air France to the small list of airlines that offer a class between regular economy and business. "Premium Voyageur" service started last week on one daily round-trip between New York and Paris, with a second to be added in early December. The upside is that you'll be able to buy a relatively comfortable seat for a lot less than you'd pay for opulent but exorbitant business class. The downside is that Air France is apparently downgrading its regular economy, at least on its flagship 777s.

Air France says it will add premium economy "progressively" to all of its long-haul 777s, A330s, and A340s, except for those serving the Caribbean and Indian Ocean destinations. Beyond the initial New York flights, however, Air France set no dates for introduction on other routes beyond February and has not yet identified which other U.S. routes will get the service or when.

Although neither the press announcement nor the current seat diagram postings on the Air France Website provide the information, seating is apparently eight-across in 777s and likely will be seven-across in A330/340s. That means each seat is about four inches wider than a typical economy seat. Legroom will be par for the course, at 38-inch pitch (the front-to-rear spacing of seat rows), 6-7 inches better than conventional economy. Also, seat backs are rigid; for recline, the seat cushion and bottom of the seat slide forward. The rigid seatback design, which seems to be gaining popularity among several lines, is great for daytime flights: Nobody in a row ahead can lean a seatback back into your face. Overnight, however, I suspect that the rigid back seats don't give you as much rooms as conventional seats. For now, this is speculation: I haven't tested them yet.

Air France seems to be splitting its decision on two other premium economy fronts:

-- Airport check-in will provide separate lines that bypass ordinary economy.

-- But meal service will be the same as in regular economy, which generally enjoys an above average rating among major lines.

An initial promotional round-trip New York-Paris fare is $1,182 plus $120 in taxes and fees; it requires a 21-day advance purchase and is nonrefundable. That's about double current promotional round-trip fares in conventional economy -- more than double for connecting flights, a bit less than double on nonstops. But it's just a bit more than one-third of the lines' lowest business class seat.

Those prices seem to indicate Air France's focus for the new class: business travelers flying for companies that are downgrading from usual business class travel. It's a tough sell to leisure travelers looking for a break from cattle-car crowding. Air France says you get 40 percent more room, but it charges you 100 percent more for the seat.

One other intriguing note: Air France has nothing to say about adding "Premium Voyageur" to its new A380s, scheduled for the New York-Paris run starting in a few months. Advance reservation procedures indicate that you can't book premium economy on those flights. Maybe later.

The hidden downside in all this is that Air France appears to be downgrading its regular economy cabins, at least on its 777s. As far as I can tell, as planes already in the fleet are reconfigured for premium -- and as new planes arrive from Boeing -- seats in regular economy will become a very tight 10-across rather than the previous industry-standard nine-across. I've seen nothing yet about downgrading the A330/340s from the standard eight-across to nine-across, but that, too, is possible. And I've been in one of those -- they're really awful.

Some industry mavens are predicting that other lines will follow the Air France pattern by adding a small premium economy cabin and downgrading regular economy. If so, that's really bad news for ordinary leisure travelers: Premium economy prices are generally close to double regular economy, for much less than double the room and service. You may have thought that the cattle car cabins couldn't get any worse, but the airlines might well have a nasty surprise in store -- they can, and at least on Air France, they will.

 

Recent Vacation Ideas & Travel Destinations

 

 

Visit our Travel Section (Click Here)

 

(c) 2009 Ed Perkins On Travel