The second life of 'business class coffins': the world's first premium economy with lie-flat seats is born

Along with the old Business 2-3-2 mounted on Emirates' Boeing 777-300ERs (and now being replaced), to Club World's 'original' 2-4-2 by British Airways, and to the Air New Zealand Business, the Upper Class that Virgin Atlantic mounted on its Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 787-9 is among the worst business class cabins in the world, as for seats and personal space. Even, with typical English humor, Upper Class seats have earned the nickname 'coffins of Business Class'.

The configuration is 1-1-1, so much so that one might say 'well, that's cool.' But no, because the 31 seats look inward into the cabin, with those on the right side looking at each other. What becomes the footrest when the seat is lie-flat is practically in the middle of the aisle with very high risk of being bumped by trolleys/flight attendants/other passengers, the width of the seat is exactly that of the seat (20 inches or 51cm). Not enough, the seat goes down electrically to a tilt of 42 degrees and then can be put horizontal manually. And the IFE's screen is just 11.1 inches, which is as large as the one installed in several airlines' Economy seats today.

Ttween October 2024 and August 2025, Thai Airways purchased three of these A330-300 ex-Virgin Atlantic, which have a Three-class configuration with 31 seats in Business, 48 seats in Premium Economy and 185 seats in Economy, and joined them with three other A330-300s it has had in its fleet since 2009, which are instead two-class with 31 business seats and 263 in economy.

So, it put the three ex-Virgin A330s on five destinations in its network: Chennai and Hyderabad in India, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Jakarta in Indonesia, and Kathmandu in Nepal, with some rare sorties even to Hong Kong and Fukuoka in Japan. In short, Routes that were far from ultra-long, between two and five hour flights, for which a product like the 'business class coffin' seemed appropriate.

Instead, this was not the case, because Asia is not Europe, much less North America (the two continents between which Virgin mostly uses its A330-300s). They are accustomed there (India aside) to quite different Business Class, 5-Star Skytrax stuff or at least high levels of comfort. And so, On the 'business class coffins' it seems a deluge of criticism and negative reviews rained down on social media.

So much so that Thai (which is a carrier that is coming out of a period of severe financial and operational difficulties and Is now regaining its former glory) to make a unique move: namely, 'transforming' the Business of the A330-300s into the first Premium Economy equipped with lie-flat seats to the world and marketing it as 'Premium Economy Plus'.

As of next October 26, that is, with the start of Winter 2025-2026, those 31 seats aboard the three ex-Virgin A330s will no longer be sold as Business Class, but as Premium Economy Plus. In fact an intermediate step between PE and Business Class.

Obviously, the new class will entitle passengers to dedicated check-in, but no longer to fast track and lounge access, which are the exclusive preserve of Business. Another 'minus' of Premium Economy Plus is that it cannot be purchased with miles or points by frequent flyers in the Royal Orchid Plus program and the loyalty programs under Star Alliance, of which Thai is a member, but only in 'cash'.

• airbus a330-300
• business class
• lie-flat
• premium economy
• premium economy plus
• upper class