British Airways seems to have plans to introduce a new premium economy seat, without much fanfare…
As you can see, this looks like a pretty modern and solid product, in particular with the added privacy “wings” on the head rest. I’m guessing this is the Recaro PL3530 product, which LATAM also recently announced as its new premium economy seat, coming in 2027.
For what it’s worth, British Airways’ most recent new premium economy product prior to this was introduced in 2019, and debuted on the Airbus A350-1000.
My take on British Airways’ new premium economy
British Airways’ new premium economy seat looks nice, and while exact details are limited, I trust this will be an improvement over the old product.
As we see this new seating product introduced on the 787-9, I can’t help but point out how scattered British Airways’ product renewal is. Let’s just use the 787-9 product refresh as an example:
- The plane still has British Airways’ older first class product, and that isn’t being updated to meet the newest standard
- The plane is getting British Airways’ new business class, which at this point isn’t so new anymore, and was introduced back in 2019 (like, the tech could certainly be more updated, as an example)
- The plane is now getting a brand new premium economy product
I understand why the product rollout is happening like this. After all, installing new airplane seats has become complicated, in terms of supply chain delays, certification issues, etc. British Airways is clearly introducing new products as it can, while staying on a budget (in other words, not updating existing first class products that it thinks it can still get away with).
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
