Thai Airways recently caused a stir on social media by announcing a brand-new “Premium Economy Plus” cabin. The airline’s Facebook post promised “spacious seats, generous legroom, and exclusive services,” complete with images of a true lie-flat bed.

However, for experienced travelers, these seats look very familiar. This isn’t a newly designed premium economy product; it’s a clever rebranding of an older business class cabin. Instead of a costly retrofit, Thai Airways is marketing its dated business class as a top-tier premium economy experience. Let’s dive into what this means and the potential sweet spot it could create for award travelers.

The new Thai Airways Premium Economy Plus lie-flat seat in a herringbone configuration.

What Exactly is Thai Airways’ Premium Economy Plus?

The new Premium Economy Plus cabin will be exclusively available on three Airbus A330-300 aircraft that Thai Airways recently acquired from Virgin Atlantic. The cabin features the old Virgin Atlantic “Upper Class” seats in a 1-1-1 herringbone configuration.

Here’s the breakdown of the aircraft’s unique three-class (or four-class, depending on how you count it) layout:

Cabin Seat Type Configuration
Premium Economy Plus Lie-flat bed 1-1-1
Premium Economy Recliner seat 2-3-2
Economy Standard seat 2-4-2

This product is being positioned as a step above Thai’s standard Premium Economy, which is also present on the same aircraft. The “Plus” offers a fully flat bed, direct aisle access for every passenger, and even access to an onboard bar area—features typically reserved for Business Class.

This new cabin will launch on October 26, 2024, on select routes from Bangkok (BKK) to:

  • 🇮🇳 Chennai (MAA)
  • 🇧🇩 Dhaka (DAC)
  • 🇮🇳 Hyderabad (HYD)
  • 🇮🇩 Jakarta (CGK)
  • 🇳🇵 Kathmandu (KTM)
The onboard bar area in the Thai Airways Premium Economy Plus cabin on the A330.

The Huge Potential for Award Travelers

This new cabin presents a good opportunity for those booking with points and miles. The big question is: how will this cabin be categorized for award redemptions?

As of now, the cabin doesn’t appear to be bookable with miles. However, once it enters the award ecosystem, there are a few possibilities:

  • Best-Case Scenario: It books into the standard Premium Economy award class. If so, this would instantly become one of the best award redemptions in the world—a lie-flat bed for premium economy mileage rates through programs like United MileagePlus, Turkish Miles&Smiles, or Air Canada Aeroplan.
  • Likely Scenario: It will be assigned a unique fare class, priced somewhere between Premium Economy and Business Class awards. This would still represent excellent value. For programs with dynamic pricing, this makes perfect sense, as they could easily price all these flights slightly higher than on the “standard” Premium Economy experience.
  • Worst-Case Scenario: It’s treated as Business Class for award purposes, which would make the “Premium Economy Plus” name purely a marketing exercise for cash fares.

We will be monitoring award inventory closely. The chance to fly flat on a 4-5 hour regional flight for a fraction of the typical business class award cost is exciting.

Thai Airways
Thai Airways

Final Thoughts

Thai Airways’ “Premium Economy Plus” is a creative and pragmatic solution for integrating older aircraft into its fleet. While it’s essentially a rebranded, dated business class, it has the potential to be useful for award travelers if it becomes bookable at premium economy rates.

Be the First to Know with AwardFares

Ready to score a lie-flat seat for Premium Economy prices? Use AwardFares to find award space on Thai Airways and other Star Alliance partners.

  • ✈️ Search for Thai Airways award flights using United MileagePlus, Turkish Miles&Smiles, and more.
  • 📆 Compare award availability across multiple dates instantly with the Timeline view.
  • 🔔 Set up alerts to get notified as soon as award seats for Premium Economy Plus open up on your desired route.

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