Returning to London in Premium Economy

This is a bit of an interesting review for me today.  This is my last transatlantic flight while still living in London.  In July, I’m moving back to the US, but it’s now time to end this chapter of my life and start the next one back in the US.  This is the return part of my trip to Austin.  Within the US, I only flew on one flight, from Austin to DC, which was in coach and supremely uninteresting. 

When I had originally booked this trip to the US, I’d intended to return to the UK on Saturday night.  In the intervening time, I got invited to a wedding and resigned from my job.  And the flight I’d originally booked was BA’s A380 nighttime flight from DC to London.  Since my flight was cancelled, I was allowed to rebook a ‘similar’ BA flight.  On the website, it only let me book flights from either of the DC airports, so instead I decided to call and take my chances with a phone agent.  She let me switch to a flight from Richmond to Philadelphia to London, which arguably is only marginally different from a DC to Philadelphia to London flight. 

I arrived at Richmond Airport about 80 minutes before the flight, which was more than necessary, just in case I got SSSS’d again, haha.  I did not.  Richmond Airport does not have any lounge facilities or really much in the way of restaurants after security.  I simply headed for my flight, which boarded and departed on time.  American has stopped using 50 seat aircrafts for flights from New York, but they still use them for flights from Philadelphia.  This flight was operated by an ERJ-145 (N682AE), which is probably my least favorite jet plane I’ve been on.  Only one time did I score an EMB-175 on this route, and that was back in December 2019.

I had checked online how long the flight times had been for the last few months because I know from experience that the flight from Richmond to Philadelphia can be very variable in its duration, and it completely depends on what’s happening in New York’s crowded airspace.  The flight times ranged from 33 min to 65 minutes.  I had a pretty short 34-minute flight, which gave me ample time to sample the various lounge options in Philadelphia.  I arrived into Terminal F, which is where the regional flights depart from.  My flight to London left from Terminal A, and since I had lots of time, I decided to walk it.  Before the flight, I made a list of the lounges I wanted to check out and the order: British Airways Galleries Lounge (BA Gold status), Amex Centurion Lounge (Amex Platinum), and Minute Suites (Priority Pass).  American Airlines has several Admirals Clubs in Philadelphia, and I’ve been to them all at this point because Philadelphia used to be my main point of entry into the US, when I lived in Liverpool and flew from Manchester.  I skipped them.

First up is the British Airways Galleries Lounge, which looked dated from the outside and was even more dated on the inside.  They had to manually take down my information on a clip board, haha.

These colors feel very 1980s.

The drink/snack selection was minimal, but at least they had spirits, unlike the Admirals Club.  But unlike the Admirals Club, you couldn’t even manage an appetizer worth of food.

I had a glass of prosecco and a handful of nibbles. British Airways operates First Class flights from Philadelphia; can you imagine if this was all you got?  Now, when I got there, the BA flight had nearly left, and I was told the Gold side of the lounge was closed, so it’s possible if I’d been there earlier, the Gold side might have been a bit better.  Based on the Gold vs Business lounges at Heathrow, I wouldn’t image the difference would be sufficiently night and day for the Gold lounge to have been good.  I left after maybe 15 minutes to go check out the Amex Centurion lounge, whose entrance was next door.

Instantly upon exiting the elevator, it was clear the Centurion lounge was going to be a big step up. 

To gain entry to the lounge, I presented my boarding pass, my Amex Platinum card, and my drivers license.  Upon walking in, it was clear that Amex cared about this lounge, unlike British Airways and their Galleries lounge.

The main area of the lounge was set up as a café/restaurant hybrid with light colors that made the entire area feel very open and welcoming.  I’ve heard that a lot of Centurion lounges are having problems with being too crowded recently, but this one didn’t have that issue, at least not this late at night. I put my stuff at the polished wooden high table and went to the buffet.

I had read online that the food in this lounge had been in collaboration with Michael Solomonov, who is an expert on Israeli cuisine.  US Airways used to have a flight from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, but American Airlines dropped it post-merger in 2015. 

The buffet consisted of chicken, along with green beans, couscous, and rice for the main course.  These were served along with a small salad bar and dessert selection of cookie and passion fruit mousse.

I selected a bit of each and returned to my table for dinner.  All of it was well-seasoned and well-cooked; the individual flavors stood out nice and complemented each other and were almost certainly better than the meal I would’ve gotten on the flight (which I skipped).  That being said, it’s much easier to make a good meal on the ground.

The difference in the food selection between this lounge and the other lounges I’ve been to in Philadelphia was stark.  The Admirals Club and BA Galleries Lounge are clearly intended to be places that you stop by to hang out briefly before your flight, whereas this lounge is clearly aiming to give people some dinner before their flight, which is exactly what I wanted.

After dinner, I moved to the business lounge area.  This area was a bit more crowded than the dining area, but I was still easily able to find a table to myself, so I pulled out my laptop and began working.

The Centurion Lounge closed at 9 pm, but it was still over an hour to boarding, so I had one more destination in mind: the Minute Suites, which are located back toward terminal B, near the Admirals Club.  According to the Priority Pass website, the Minute Suites weren’t open, but while walking from Terminal F to Terminal A, I passed by them, and they definitely were open.  I made my way back and sure enough, they had just reopened four days prior.  I swiped my Priority Pass (complements of ((The Ritz-Carlton Card))) and was given a suite for an hour. 

At this time of day, and when you only have the suite for an hour, the only thing there was for me to do was to take a nap, so I did for about 30 minutes.  The day bed was very comfortable, despite it being leather.  However, I don’t think it’s worth the price they charge normally ($48 for the first hour). After just under an hour in the suite, I headed for the aircraft, which had begun boarding by that point.  When I had checked the seat map previously, the Premium Economy cabin was relatively empty, but by the time I boarded, it was completely full, which was unexpected.  I assume there were a few upgrades because the main cabin was oversold. 

I tried to get a picture of the 787-9 (N839AA) before boarding, but the lighting and the angle of the windows didn’t really do me any favors.  By this point in the evening, I was just ready to leave.

However, as this was a late night flight from the East Coast, loyal readers will know that I have terrible luck with them. In January, my United flight in Polaris was delayed by 3 hours. In March, my BA A380 flight was delayed by just over 2 hours. Everything went smoothly with boarding, but after we pushed back, we stopped and had to return to the gate because one of the flaps wasn’t working properly. We were advised that it would either be a quick fix or… very much not. It was a quick fix, and so we were only delayed by about half an hour. Slowly, my luck with these flights is improving, I think.

In terms of the cabin itself, I think American’s Premium Economy is great on daytime flights.  In fact, the first time I flew Premium Economy was on American from Manchester to Philadelphia in 2018.  That being said, I’m definitely of the opinion Premium Economy is only worth it on an overnight flight if you get a seat in the first row.  These first-row seats have leg rests, which are very useful for sleeping I’ve found because it gives the feeling of being in a proper recliner chair.  However, the other rows only have pop down footrests that are on par with those that you get on long distance buses and are pretty useless in my experience, at least for someone of my height.

The other advantage of sitting in the first row is the extra legroom it afford, and, since these seats have a relatively deep recline, there’s no risk of someone reclining into you.

The blanket they gave was perfectly workable for Premium Economy, and I actually really liked the rectangular pillow they gave.  I prefer firm pillows, and I’ve often found that the typical pillows airlines provide (in Business Class) are too fluffy or difficult to use with the head rest (in Premium Economy). 

In terms of sleepability, I’d actually rate these as noticeably lower than either BA’s World Traveller Plus or Lufthansa’s Premium Economy options.  The two major differences for me are that BA and Lufthansa’s options are cloth instead of leather and they both offer more recline (substantially more in Lufthansa’s case).

Since I had eaten in the Amex lounge and the flight ended up departing after midnight, I skipped the meal option.  They didn’t have a menu on the flight, unfortunately, so I couldn’t even see what I was missing because I slept through the entire process.  I also skipped breakfast because it was the standard yogurt, cold fruit, and croissant offering that US carriers always offer.  This type of breakfast does not appeal to me.  The most unfortunate part, in my opinion, of the delayed flight was that I was unable to make use of American’s arrival lounge in Terminal 3 because it closes at 1 pm, and by the time I was through customs, it was after 12:30 pm.

In summary, my last transatlantic flight home to England wasn’t really any different from any of the other Premium Economy flights I’ve had over the years.  The flight from Richmond on the ERJ-145 was unremarkable, so I’ll skip it.  The ground experience provided by American Airlines was exactly as expected for a flight through Philadelphia (3/5).  Even the delay was expected.  The other lounges that I tried out were simply for fun.  For the record, I’d give the BA lounge a 1/5 (poor), the Amex lounge a 4/5 (which puts it between an Admirals Club and a Flagship Lounge), and the Minute Suite a 3/5 (a day bed and nothing else of note).  The seat is pretty middle-of-the road for Premium Economy seats, and I always think it’s funny that it’s the same as domestic first class plus the footrest.  (3/5).  I skipped the dinner in favor of sleeping, and the breakfast was the typical fruit, yogurt, and croissant that all the US carriers give you (2/5).  The service was average, and I had minimal interactions with the crew since I successfully slept (4/5).  I didn’t use the seatback TV but could never seem to get the WiFi to work correctly (3/5).  Overall, this flight was just the easiest way to get back home one last time, which was all I needed it to be (15/25).

I paid around $700 for the other half a roundtrip World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy ticket) on my Amex Platinum card (5x points/$), which earned me 3 687 Amex points.  I credited the trip to British Airways, which earned me 10 + 90 tier points and 750 + 7 092 Avios.  The total points earned are worth around $183, for a return of around 21%, which is solid. It also represents that I regained the rest of the points I used to upgrade the flight to Austin.