I’ve been flying Vistara since 2018 but all of them were on Business class, thanks to the points and vouchers. This too was supposed to be one such business class flight but unfortunately I wasn’t able to upgrade (you will know why shortly), hence ended up with the premium economy ticket.
Table of Contents
Booking
Booking was done via points for Premium Economy with an intention to upgrade at the airport, again using points. Thanks to the Points Fest – it certainly helped a bit.
But you may ask “Why this stupid idea?” – that’s because my friend’s booking was done via voucher and was not a confirmed business class, hence was trying to either upgrade both or leave it.
Flight | Air Vistara UK 721 |
Route | Delhi (DEL) – Guwahati (GAU) |
Seat | 5B (Premium Economy) |
Revenue Ticket | ~6,000 INR |
I Paid | ~450 INR (Points Redemption) |
Ground Experience
Check-in
The idea of upgrading to business class at the airport failed miserably!
They politely denied when I asked “Maybe you can upgrade considering my previous travel history with Vistara and a healthy points balance on account?”.
Hmm! I wish he at-least went through the history and denied. We still had an option to upgrade by paying about 10K INR each but I politely denied. 😀
So I ended up with the same PE ticket which I was issued before my connecting flight.
Lounge
As the Vistara lounge is closed for now, I accessed the busiest airport lounge in the country Delhi T3 Plaza Premium lounge via my credit card.
It was full by the time we entered but someone helped us to get a seat in a minute or so. While leaving the lounge I figured out that there was a big queue waiting to enter the lounge. Will cover more on this shortly!
Note that this lounge also has a business class section which allows access to Business Class & Vistara Gold/Platinum members. As I recently got downgraded to Silver tier, I wasn’t able to use it.
So if you need a pleasant time in Delhi T3 lounge, consider getting yourself CV Gold via Axis Vistara Infinite Credit card.
Flight Experience
Covid Protocol
As a safety measure everyone in the flight across all class gets face shield, mask and a sanitizer (which smells good) just like what we saw in Business Class article.
I took the seat 5B which means I got to wear an additional layer of use and throw dress as per the covid protocol for middle seats.
Food
Just like the Business class, here too you’ve two options: Veg or Non-veg. I took the veg and my friend took Non-Veg and here’s how they look:
And oh yeah, this was taken when the aircraft was flying at ~1000 Km/hr (as per the app). Good to see these realtime information while flying – thanks to the AvGeek friend.
And oh, the food was COLD compared to the smoking HOT food served in Business class that I had few hours before this flight.
Those corn were really tasty except that I wish it to be served hot. Sandwich was OKAY!
Seat
Premium economy seats usually have slightly better legroom with leather seats. But generally speaking, there is no noticeable difference between the economy and the premium-economy seats.
I felt being crushed in the center seat!
However PE definitely makes a difference if you get the spacious first row, which I couldn’t grab during this trip.
Bottomline
I wanted to experience the Vistara Premium Economy for a long time and its good that finally I was forced to experience one. 😀
Premium Economy is always better than Economy but the premium you pay has good value only if you get a front seat (or) if its a short flight (or) during non-covid times as you can enjoy the hot/cold towels, dining menu, etc.
However note that the experience may differ with the premium economy seats on wide-body aircrafts – which I’m not sure how many are flying in India.
Have you been on Vistara Premium Economy? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
“upgrade at the airport, again using points.”
Is it possible to upgrade a ticket with points booked by points at the airport.
I was told over the phone that a ticket booked through points cannot be upgraded at all paid/using points (exception: only through upgrade vouchers).
Only revenue tickets can be upgraded using points is my understanding.
That’s what I said. Its not possible.
But I never go with phone support. They even say redemption voucher + upgrade voucher not possible. But it works. So was basically trying my luck at the airport.
Ahh.. that makes sense
Btw The new exclusive gold support is awesome. Very knowledgeable and courteous. The normal support line varies in their knowledge.
You should consider going back to infinite version. The gold status and business class ticket more than makes up for the extra 7k annual fees imo.
Aside gold members get reciprocal gold status with itc too.
+1 on the new Gold support being awesome. I was taken by surprise.
Hey Sid..just to clarify, for redemption voucher + upgrade bot possible via call center ?
If yes , do they accept at airport directly ?
I was able to upgrade an year ago or so..
But now support is saying its not possible
The difference between Vistara economy and premium economy is minimal, as also suggested by the pricing (1k difference usually).
The business class is the real upgrade, but too expensive for points redemption.
The best way to use vouchers is to book premium economy with cash and use 1 voucher to upgrade.
Biz is not really expensive with points at the moment. Its pretty decent for most sectors.
If you really want to fly biz on revenue , dont buy a full revenue ticket , buy a PE ticket (other than 737 fleet) and eco ticket (737 fleet) , out standby upgrade bid vis optiontown (confirmed upgrade bid if desperate) , works out to be cheaper than revenue business
Yeah I saw the bid emails. Any idea what range of bids actually goes through?
It isnt a dynamic bidding system where we quote prices , they only have 2 options , standby upgrade(where you get confirmation upto 24hours before dep)(if not upgraded , money gets refunded in abt 15days after your flight)and confirmed upgrade (if you buy , within 2 hours you have a biz ticket in your hand) , prices depend upon seat availability , just explore the portal next time , they dont charge you till you go past the payments page
Air india also used the same portal , but never got a chance to fly AI in Biz (i dont know current status of their tieup)
Now they broke up with optiontown and hited plus grade to handle the upgrades , bids on my latest PE bookings for BOM DEL start from price of my PE ticket(6,895) for worst bid and 18210 for excellent bid one way per passenger, also requires intl transactions to be enable as bid confirmation costs 1 Canadian dollar , only credit card visa MasterCard discover accepted
any idea if PE bookings via axis card voucher will be eligible to upgrade via bidding??
Can you share some detail on the app you mentioned to track the speed?
Ulysse Speedometer – Only for Android. Not sure if we have similar apps for iPhones.
Sorry I beg to differ here. The leg room in PE on Vistara’s A320s is much better than in economy. You can cross your legs on top of each other and sit comfortably in PE which is not possible in Economy.
I will be flying to Guwahati from Delhi this week in PE. Are they still following mandatory RAT test at Guwahati airport ? How long it take ? Or they just letting go with self declaration form ? One of my friend traveled recently and said they didn’t performed test and just needed to fill self declaration form and out of airport. How was your experience ?
We took the mandatory test – 1hr max. Locals may have different policy.
The business lounge is available via Amex cards.
Ah I see. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find the sign for Diners/Amex which I heard from a few last year, so didnt mind to ask.
So I missed it!!
Is this available with all Amex cards or some specific ones?
Upgrade Voucher can be used. Just that you need to use it 90 min before flight and seat is subject to availability.
Hi Sid, I am also from Coimbatore. How the Vistara points helpful for you as coimbatore has no Vistara Airlines?
I use it from Chennai.