Am I too early?

My only thought is that if these are codeshare flights, the partner airline may not offer that fare class.

I don't know about United but on Delta, you can buy a Main Cabin seat at the price you want. Then just watch for upgrades to Premium Select and book that later.

Except for a few I checked at La Guardia, none of the other flights were listed as code share; all were UA including Baltimore, Washington, Newark. And even the few that were direct flights did not offer the chance to select premium economy. It is a puzzle indeed.

Mardee - that's one way to do it, but does the airline let you know ahead of time what the cost would be to upgrade? For the sake of my budget, I like to know the total airfare cost ahead of time.

And the fact that there are NO premium economy seats available has me worried I might not be able to upgrade anyway.

I'd look at the planes UA is flying. I think they only operate 757s to EDI, which do not have premium economy.

That’s exactly when I’ll be visiting Edinburgh, and I booked my flights from JFK to EDI in mid-July.

I’m flying Delta, so I don’t know the particulars of United’s process, but maybe they are holding back those seats to offer them as upgrades? Right after I booked my Main Cabin tickets, I was offered upgrades, including to Premium Select. A few weeks later, the Premium Select upgrade offer vanished, and since then I have been offered only Delta One and Comfort Plus as upgrade possibilities. The seat map shows only 6 Premium Select seats as occupied, and the remaining 12 as Unavailable. Looking at the Upgrade/Standby List for the flight, I see 12 seats in PS.

I just thought of something else: My flights to and from EDI this past June didn’t have a Premium Select section; the seating went straight from Delta One to Comfort Plus. The first row of regular (not Comfort Plus) Main Cabin was row 18, pretty far forward. By comparison, I booked that same first row for my trip next year and it’s row 36. So maybe the M.O. is to hold back most of the seats in the premium economy section until they know for sure whether the configuration of the craft they’ll be using actually includes that section. Then they can switch to a different model at any time, and have only a handful of PS passengers to upgrade or downgrade if necessary.

there is no opportunity to select premium economy seating at all.

It might not be offered on the particular plane United is using for that route.

I just checked the IAD to EDI route and it is on a 757. It shows ”not available” and I checked the seat map which only shows business and economy/economy plus seats.

United uses the 757s on the shorter routes. When I flew to Lisbon last fall it was on a 757 and there was no premium economy section.

Scudder -thanks. Looks like that's it. All the flights listed are on 757's.

Dang, now I have to try and find out how good the economy seats on these flights are, or decide if business is even worth it this time. Going to be a real letdown from flying business a few weeks ago to London, but I have a real hard time ponying up the exorbitant rates any of these airlines want for business.

Laura - yes, I think its that there is no prem economy this route. Although I wouldn't have considered a transatlantic hop as a short route.

I don't see economy plus when I pull up the United website. There's just basic economy, economy and economy fully refundable (which I dont think I need.) Would economy plus be considered economy when purchasing do you think?

Sigh. Might just have to suck it up and fly BA with a stopover in London. I think I still have some Avios points left over.

With all their recent cancelling of flights, its not my first choice but the Newark to London is usually a staple for them, so might not be so bad. But def on BA, not Aer Lingus or some other such that more severely limits luggage.

Flying up front in and out of the UK is almost always pretty spendy- part because it’s a high-demand market, and part because of their high departure taxes.

United flies one daily flight between EWR and EDI (UA36) and two seasonal routes one from ORD (UA118) and the other from IAD (UA978). All three are served by 757-200, which do not have the Premium Plus class -- Only economy and business class sections.
https://www.aerolopa.com/ua-75s

Would economy plus be considered economy when purchasing do you think?

On United economy plus, is not a class but an upsell to a more leg room seat that you get to select at seat selection stage of the ticket purchase and is still standard economy.

Would having a comfort + or extra legroom seat be enough for you? When I can't swing premium economy, I usually go ahead and get the extra legroom seats as I find that this makes the biggest difference for me in terms of comfort. One side effect is that sometimes people will choose not to pay the extra fee and I get an empty seat next to me.

don't know about United but on Delta, you can buy a Main Cabin seat at the price you want. Then just watch for upgrades to Premium Select and book that later

And if the price is more than free It’s a rip off. Delta‘s premium economy seats are incredibly uncomfortable. Yes, you have more recline. But the problem is they didn’t allow any more room between the rows so you won’t be able to move because the person in front of you will be in your knees. Their service is coach service with coach food unless they remember to cater it but you don’t know what you’re going to get until you get on the plane. Please don’t pay for Delta premier, expecting anything special

VAP - thanks for the clarification. If I can select seats, and the upsell to those in economy plus, at time of ticket purchase, I would be good with that. More legroom is always a plus.

Carol now retired - yes, I think I could go with the extra legroom if the add-on fee isn't too high

Carol - I've never flown on Delta, so this is valuable info. Thanks!!

Ironically, the lack of premium economy this flight on United sent me over to BA, just to browse a bit, or so I told myself.

I'm actually thinking of going back to them even though the flight would layover in Heathrow, and for only about 1 1/2 hours each time (arriving and going back home.)

Dh and I did the Philly - London - Edinburgh/return flight five years ago and had no issues, but it seems to me we had a bit longer layover. At least, that's dh's recollection. I can't remember how much time we had.

As it would be a single ticket each way, probably only carry-on, and there are other flights both too and from each day, does this layover seem give us enough time (barring weather, etc) ? I'm almost inclined to go for it.

I am seeing lots of options on BA.com from Philly to EDI, with various layover lengths you can choose. All with Premium Economy on offer for the long-haul flight.

Depart 18:00 on AA to Dublin, and choose a layover there for 2h 15 minutes or 4h 30 minutes. The second flight is on Aer Lingus, which I believe you want to avoid due to carry-on restrictions.

Depart 18:30 on BA (777 plane) to LHR, choose a layover of 2h20 min, 3 h, or 6h.

Depart 19:45 on AA (787 plane) to LHR, and choose a layover of 3h 40 min, 3 h, or 6 hr, on a BA plane.

I did not check the return flights but there should be a similar array of choices.

joncatmantim1, I actually do not find Delta Premium Select uncomfortable - it is definitely better than Main Cabin and with the extra perks you get, it's a big step up from Comfort. Here's an article that explains what it offers. That said, I wouldn't pay too much for something like that on any airline. The only time I will buy an upgrade is if the price is right. Last year, I got PS for 12,000 miles, which was an incredible bargain. It does pay to keep checking the app to see what they are offering. Prices go up and down frequently.

I have a different opinion than Carol regarding Delta's Premium Select (correct name). There is 3 extra inches of leg room compared with economy (equal to extra leg room in Comfort Plus). The seats are wider, the arm rests are wider. I hate the food on Delta, even in Delta One, but I have always been served better food than economy and have always received extra attention from flight attendants. For me, it is worth the money YMMV.

I was looking before tea and yes there is a similar range of choices of layovers at LHR on the return leg. On sample dates all the options via LHR are the same price.
Be aware as the EDI-LON ones marked as BA Cityflyer arrive at London City, then you have to transfer to LHR- not a great idea.

Have you set up Google Flights price alerts? You can track price fluctuations, research history of prices, and easily look at the major carriers' routes.

About two months ago, I found BA business class seats from LA to Amsterdam for under $2000 RT, for April 2024. I had been randomly checking every few days, and started to find low BC rates to other cities, and finally Amsterdam came up.
At that time, business was the same price as economy, and premium economy was actually more than business. Crazy!
I stacked the AARP discount with the British Airways visa discount, so each RT came in around $1850, booked directly with British Airways, business class.

Since that time, I kept the Google Flights alerts on, and have observed the fares with wild fluctuations: prices doubling, coming down a third, going back up, and recently coming back down. There can be huge price changes within 24 hours, and between different days of the week.

You have a lot of time. Set up your Google Flight alerts, and just keep watching. Good luck!

Lola - thanks for looking. If I decided to do BA, I don't want to do a rideshare. Just a preference. I would rather pay a bit more for all BA flights. The 18:30 looks good out of Philly. I was concentrating more on Newark when I looked, as Philly always seems to be a bit more pricey as well, but I like the layover lengths in Philly more, so will check that out as well.

Mardee and Vandrabrud - I'm primarily a United or BA flyer (Southwest for domestic), but I appreciate the info. Before I made any decision, I would Google all the airlines I'm interested in. I've done business and prem econ on both BA and United, so those are known entities. Fingers crossed I can afford one of those two classes when the time comes to order tix. But I'm glad to have your advice. Thanks!

isn31c - I saw a few with Cityflyer and yes, definitely am staying away from those. The last thing I want to do is have to change airports. It's bad enough if I would have to change a terminal.

Pat - I hadn't even remembered to do Google Flights, so thanks for the reminder! I think I'll watch it for the next few weeks or so and see if things are changing quickly or remaining somewhat the same, then go from there.

And again, a good heads up on the AARP discount. I haven't joined yet, but had heard on another forum that BA offers discounts through them. As I didn't think I would be using BA, I didn't really follow up, but will look into it now.

All good ideas!