SYD-LHR in Y+: BA or CX?

SYD-LHR in Y+: BA or CX?

Will have to make the trek to London from Sydney and back in premium economy and would like to see opinions on which airline's product is more comfortable, British Airways or Cathay Pacific. Thanks

CX by a long way

CX unless you are OWE. If OWE then definitely BA because much higher chance of getting upgraded to J.

spinoza,

Was this your experience? Sounds marvelous!

Which legs were you upgraded? SYD/SIN or SIN/LHR?

I flown PE only once and it was with BA. On my trip back BA upgraded be to biz from BKK to SYD. I had mere Bronze with QF. If plane overbooked and you middle age person traveling alone your chances pretty high. From another hand I reckon that PE does not worth money unless there is heavy sale. JetStar "Star" class is better value IMHO, though food can be pretty crappy. Understandable that you cannot fly JetStar to LHR.

So I've not been platinum for very long but when I am not flying for work I always fly PE. I've done maybe 10 trips on Qantas, 4 on CX, 2 on BA. My percentage of being upgraded to J is probably 10% on QF, 25% on CX, 100% on BA.

BA was SYD to SIN return. Granted this is a very small sample size :)

I have flown Y+ on QF, CX & BA to London over the past three years - Qantas is the easy winner in this cabin but it is almost always significantly more expensive. Next best is CX and finally BA. If you choose to book through BA be careful with your flight/aircraft selection… you might end up in an old cabin on a 744 between SIN and London if you are not careful and the old Y + cabins are literally falling apart. 

I’d go CX especially if you have a high one world status – they are generous with their upgrades.  

No status, unfortunately, and QF is indeed pricing out to be significantly higher. Would you say QF's Y+ product is significantly better as to warrant the additional AUD1,600 (from CX's fare)?

Absolutely CX

Add my vote to the CX ballot, Eminere, at least when you're comparing it to BA for Sydney-London. Get a seat in the front of the cabin for maximum comfort as these have fold-out padded legrests instead of flip-down metal footrests. Chuck in Cathay's great HK lounges if you have appropriate CX or QF/Oneworld status – or even swing by the Qantas Hong Kong Lounge if you have an evening departure from Hong Kong - plus, consider breaking your trip at Hong Kong for a stop-over in that great city.

As to Qantas vs Cathay Pacific premium economy, I would rate Qantas as being in front – mainly for extra comfort, eg all seats have a flip-up padded legrest and the lumbar support is a bit better if I recall – but if the difference is $1,600, well that's a big difference, and the opportunity to break your journey in Dubai is probably less appealing than doing so in Hong Kong.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question David. Having read AusBT's review of CX's Y+ seat I must say it does look pretty good.

I just booked BA in Y+ from Singapore to Frankfurt...under $2000AUD. CX want arounf $6000 for the same trip!!!! Im OWE so fingers crossed for a BA upgrade. Im on the 777 service.

Having tried CX Premium Economy, the padding itself makes the seat a great value over Economy, and I have had generally good service in CX Y+/W Class. Having not tried BA Premium Economy though, it looks appealing - on the 777, of course, the 747 seats are literally crap - and am I right in saying that each seat has a legrest on BA? CX (compared to BA of course) has really good padding (Premium Economy cushioning and Business cushioning is identical), so it's good in both situations. Should I be stuck in this situation though, I would go for BA for that legrest (again, I stand to be corrected).

I would agree that CX is the best option. Just had a Qantas flight to HK connecting with CX, both on Y+. These are long flights and I immediately noticed that the CX padding was much better. Recline of the seat was also much further than QF. I was in the first row of both CX and QF Premium Economy, so had plenty of legspace and the legrest on both (CX only has legrests in the 1st row, so make sure you request these at check in).

BA product did not come close to either CX or QF. Although my last flight in BA's Y+ was in Sep last year, the cabin was pretty much falling apart in their 777s and entertainment was mediocre. Again it is CX that has the best entertainment system out of the 3.

Update/data point: Managed to find J fares on MH for ~AUD200 less than Y+ on CX, so have snapped them up.  Thank you everyone for your kind input.