Surprise: British Airways Quietly Rolls Out New Premium Economy Seat

British Airways seems to have plans to introduce a new premium economy seat, without much fanfare…

British Airways 787s get new premium economy cabin

In recent years, British Airways has been rolling out its new Club Suites business class product on many of its long haul aircraft. On Boeing 777-300ERs, we’ve also seen the airline introduce new first class seats (really just a modification of the previous product, including adding a privacy door), though other than that, the cabins have been left alone. At least that was the case until now.

British Airways is currently starting the process of reconfiguring its Boeing 787-9s with the new Club Suites seats, but it seems that’s not all that’s changing. Photos circulating online from the carrier’s facility in Cardiff also shows a new premium economy cabin on these planes.

There hasn’t been an official announcement about these new seats, but it would appear that the cabin may be the same size as the old one — it’s still in a 2-3-2 configuration, and it appears there are six rows of seats along the windows, and five rows of seats in the center section.

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).

However, it’s certainly a different approach than Lufthansa, as the carrier rolls out the Allegris product line, where there are new seats across cabins all at once. To be clear, I’m not saying that Lufthansa is a shining example of how things should be done, but it’s just interesting to see the approach, with so many different “generations” of seats on the same plane.

I suspect that this new premium economy seat will also make its way onto Airbus A380s, when those start to be reconfigured within the next year.

Bottom line

British Airways is introducing a new premium economy product, which is debuting on refurbished Boeing 787-9s. We knew these planes would get the new Club Suites business class, but it’s interesting to see them also be the first planes to get a new premium economy.

Ultimately this looks like a solid premium economy, and we should learn more details soon.

What do you make of British Airways’ new premium economy rollout?