These days airline passengers usually have four classes of service to choose from: economy (coach), premium economy, business class and first class. Rarely will you ever see a business- or first-class ticket cheaper than a coach class ticket—but I have seen it happen. However, on the flip side I’ve seen numerous occasions in which premium economy has been cheaper than economy. A perfect example is the screenshot above that I took from the British Airways website.
I know it doesn’t make sense since you get so much more with premium economy like extra legroom, early boarding, free checked bags, better food, etc….but it does happen. So what’s the deal? I’m not 100% sure but I’m guessing they can sometimes be mistake fares. More often, it happens when coach class is full to capacity and premium economy is wide open. It’s the old case of supply and demand.
So the moral of this story is: Always check fares from all classes of service before purchasing your ticket. You could end up with a much better seat for less money.
Please let me know if this has ever happened to you, and on which airline.
