Why has AirlineRatings this year announced a Best Premium Economy AND Best Value Premium Economy Airline Excellence 2024 award? The answer comes down to value and the wide range of offerings in Premium Economy.

We have awards for the best cabin classes across full-service (or legacy) airlines as well as awards for our low-cost carriers, but when looking at Premium Economy we noticed something we had neglected in previous years.

Premium Economy has expanded across a variety of airlines but not all are equal. There's the best of the best and then there's the one that offers far greater comfort but with a better value proposition.

So what's the difference?

Price, legroom, amenity kits and the biggest one? Food and meal service. Are you served Business class meals from the business cabin OR are you served economy style meals from the economy cabin?

When looking at this year's winners, Air New Zealand and Vietnam Airlines, the differences become clear.

Air New Zealand (ANZ) offers a generous 41-inch seat pitch (104.1cm) and a 19.3-inch seat width with a nine-inch (23cm) recline and a five-inch wide armrest. This is among the most generous offered by any airline in Premium Economy. There are also noise-cancelling headphones, a luxury blanket, dedicated cabin staff as well as delicious food and wines from the business class menu including linen and glassware.

Vietnam Airlines offers an equally generous seat pitch of 107 cm and 18cm recline on the 787 and a smaller, though still very comfortable 96cm seat pitch with a 15cm recline on the A350. Vietnam Airlines also offers noise-cancelling headphones, blankets, pillows and amenity kits but the food served is from the economy cabin in economy style presentation.

So straight away we have two attractive but also different premium economy experiences and if all we looked at was 'what's the best one' we would pick ANZ. However, when you look at price this is where things start to change and why we needed two awards in this category.

Now unless two airlines are operating on the same route it's always difficult to do a solid and fair comparison. However, in attempting to do this we have looked at return direct flights with both airlines on flights of almost equal distance. For Vietnam Airlines: Ho Chi Minh - San Francisco October 16th - October 23rd 2024, and for Air New Zealand, Auckland to Vancouver October 15 -22nd 2024.

The Air New Zealand flight came in at USD 2968 and the Vietnam Airlines flight was USD 2372. That's a huge difference of USD 596 (AUD 900, NZD 987 and VND 14898510.00).

The award to ANZ for Best Premium Economy was a tight race between other incredible airlines like Emirates, ANA, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific. The space, seat recline, duvet, armrest space, amenity kit and Business Class meals gave ANZ the edge but it also comes at the higher end of the price bracket

Vietnam Airlines offers a comparable amount of space and seat recline, especially on the 787 and provides amenities, blankets and pillows. Still, it does lack in the food and beverage department when compared to ANZ. Vietnam Airlines also comes in at a far lesser price point giving you perhaps a greater sense of value.

So here we have it: Two airlines offering a superior product to economy class but with two key differences: meal service and price point. We are delighted to be able to break this cabin class down in to two categories and present the best Premium Economy award to Air New Zealand and the best Value Premium Economy award to Vietnam Airlines.