BA World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy) review

There comes a point when you are a little older, a little richer, and you can no longer bear to sit 13 hours in Economy class, squashed next to your neighbors like sardines in a can.

On the other hand, your budget doesn't quite stretch to Business-class, which can easily cost 3 to 5 times more than Economy class. In this situation, Premium Economy is worth a look, especially for long haul flights.

For the week of January 10 - January 17 2019, as an example, Economy class from Penang to Rome would cost around RM3,200, and Business-class costs a minimum of RM12,000! And that's on a Chinese airline, which are well known to be quite terrible.

However, if you select Premium Economy instead, you can fly the  longhaul KUL-LHR segment in BA's World Traveller Plus cabin for RM5,158 per person.

The extra RM2,000 per person is in my opinion, money well spent, assuming you can afford it.

For starters, pitch, or the distance between seats, is 38 inches on World Traveller Plus, compared with the usual 31 inches on Economy. This translates to noticeably more legroom.

Furthermore, because there are only 7 seats in a row, compared with 9 in Economy, each seat is considerably wider.

Meals are also better, as WT+ gets Business-class meals. To our pleasant surprise, BA actually has very decent meals.

Overall, we had an excellent flight between Kuala Lumpur and London. Service was excellent, food was good, and the seats were comfortable enough to easily fall asleep in. And the best part is that you no longer have to rub shoulders with the peasants back in cattle class.

Singapore Airlines Krisflyer sweet spots

This article is a complement to my previous one. The reason why I am focusing on these two FFPs is because for most credit cards in Malaysia, they allow you to credit miles to either Krisflyer or Asia Miles (they also credit to Enrich but that's a pile of crap so we won't go there).

Krisflyer is a zone-based program, which is quite different from Asia Miles' distance-based program. This has both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are when you are flying to a large zone such as Middle East or Europe; for example, the cost to fly from Singapore to Istanbul (5388 miles), is the same as flying from Singapore to Muscat (3422 miles), even though the distance is considerably greater.

The disadvantage is flying within zones or between two cities that are in two different zones but geographically very close, such as Penang to KL in  Economy (still costs 7,500 miles, the same as Penang to Bali!), or Penang to Bangkok (a ridiclous 12,500 miles!)

However, as a zone-based program, it's a perfect complement to Asia Miles's distance-based program. Since credit cards can redeem points on both programs, you can split the miles as necessary for your maximum benefit.

1.) Malaysia - Middle East. 45,000 Krisflyer miles for a one-way business class ticket from Penang to the Middle East (including Turkey) is a real steal. The distance between Penang and Istanbul exceeds 5,000 miles, so being able to fly 12 hours in SQ business class for only 45,000 Krisflyer miles is incredible value.

Istanbul is so close to Europe that you can fly onwards to most European cities for under RM500 return. Granted, this is in Economy, but the distances are so short anyway that Business isn't really worth it, and not to mention the fact that a lot of intra-Europe flights are just Economy class with the middle seat blocked off.

However, do note that PEN-AMM does not seem to be viable, so if you want to visit Jordan, you'll have to book it under Asia Miles. Apart from Istanbul, SQ also flies to Dubai.

2.) Middle East to Europe. There are plenty of interesting places in the Middle East that are also reasonably safe to visit, such as Turkey, Jordan, Muscat, Dubai etc. While you're there, why not tack on a business class flight to anywhere in Europe for only 25,000 miles one way?

As mentioned earlier, most European short haul "business class" flights are economy class seats with the middle seat blocked off, so Turkish or Egypt Airlines would be the preferred choice here as they have actual business class seats.

The distance between Dubai and London is 3,420 miles, which is a long way for only 25,000 Krisflyer miles.

Incidentally, Malaysia - Middle East (45,000 miles) followed by Middle East - Europe (25,000 miles) is cheaper than Malaysia - Europe (85,000 miles!) So you get to save 15,000 miles each way, and get to visit another city, win-win!

3.) Central Asia to Europe. You really don't want to transit in India if you can help it. Thankfully, both Male (Maldives) and Colombo (Sri Lanka) are also included in this band. Both are wonderful countries for a stopover on the way to Europe, and flying to either of these countries from Malaysia can be very cheap.

From Central Asia, it only costs 47,500 Krisflyer miles to fly business-class to anywhere in Europe. Incidentally, Malaysia - Central Asia in business class is only 35,000 Krisflyer miles, so Malaysia to Central Asia followed by Central Asia to Europe is slightly cheaper than Malaysia direct to Europe.

A dream holiday in Europe with a stopover in Maldives sounds pretty awesome, if you ask me.

4.) Middle East to North America. For only 69,000 Krisflyer miles, you can fly Turkish Airlines business class from Muscat to New York. This is a long flight, clocking in at 7,099 miles total and 16 hours in the air, a bargain.

Unfortunately, it seems that only destinations on the East Coast are available. Still, it's an incredible deal for 16 hours of business class on a highly regarded airline.

5.) Southwest Pacific to Southwest Pacific. For only 28,000 Krisflyer miles, you can fly one-way business class from anywhere in Australia to New Zealand or even Tahiti (theoretically). The reason why I say theoretically is because award space on Air New Zealand is quite difficult to come by.

If you do manage to find award space, Melbourne to Tahiti via Auckland is over 8 hours of flying and 4,187 miles, and usually costs RM10,000+ for a return.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles sweet spots

Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles program recently had a devaluation / readjustment, and there are some interesting sweet spots to be had with the new distance bands.

Sweet spots are redemptions that come in at the upper limit of a distance band, making them good value redemptions for that particular band, in terms of distance flown / Asia Mile.

In the case of Asia Miles, the band limits are 2,750, 5,000 and 7,500 miles. There isn't a large difference between the Asia miles costs for the 7,500 and 7,500+ mile bands, hence we'll focus mainly on the 2,750 and 5,000 mile bands.

As always, redemptions should be made for business-class and above, as the various fees and surcharges generally make economy class redemptions poor value for money.

1-way redemptions are particularly good value, as these tend to be exorbitantly expensive.

1.) Penang - Hong Kong - Jeju / 2,575 miles / 10,000 Asia Miles + RM283 each way on Cathay Dragon economy-class

Ok I know I said it's not worth it to redeem miles on economy-class flights, but this is actually not a bad deal. It's a single stop flight to Jeju (for all you Winter Sonata fans) and it normally costs RM2,700.

The downside is that you need to stay overnight in HKIA on the return leg, which will cost an extra RM250 on a twin share basis. Adding this RM250 to the RM566 in fees means that you're getting RM2,700 - RM816 = RM1,884 in value from the 20,000 Asia Miles, or over 9 cents per mile, a very decent amount.

2.) Maldives- Doha - Frankfurt / 4,904 miles / 50,000 Asia Miles + ~RM500 each way on Qatar Airways business-class

If you ever wanted to visit Europe with a stopover in Maldives, now's your chance! Sri Lankan Airways and a few LCCs fly there for very reasonable rates. Once you're there, you can look forward to 11.5 hours of Qatar Airways business class to your European destination.

You can also route to Milan, Zurich, Rome, Munich, Vienna or Prague for roughly the same costs. Cities further west like London or Paris are out because the distance would exceed 5,000 miles.

3.) Penang - Doha - Amman / 4,515 miles / 55,700 Asia Miles + ~RM500 each way on Qatar Airways business-class.

Jordan is usually a very expensive place to get to, but that's irrelevant when you're paying with miles! This is a great route, as you get to fly direct from Penang to Doha on Qatar Airways before connecting to Amman.

Interestingly enough, Qatar sells certain regional business-class routes as first class. The seat is the same but you get access to the exclusive Al-Safwa lounge. DOH-AMM is one of these routes so you'll get access to this amazing looking lounge.

4.) Australia - Hong Kong - America / 7,500+ miles / 85,000 Asia Miles + RM1,133 each way on Cathay Pacific business-class.

This is probably the best value redemption available. Asia Miles' top band is 7,500+ miles, and this redemption clocks in at a whopping 12,643 miles for the SYD-HKG-JFK route, but you'll still pay the same amount as a 7,501 mile redemption.

The cash cost of this flight is around RM20,000 return so you're getting incredible value for money.