Note that with JAL, if you upgrade to E+ at the airport you won’t get lounge access unless you purchased a full Y ticket. Both JAL and ANA offer the occasional E+ sale and two years ago, I paid $500 more than the discounted economy fare. Completely worth it, IMO to get the lounge access, better comfort and amenities for the 21+ air hours plus ground time. Plus it was nice to have Dean & Deluca vanilla ice cream and curry udon カレーうどん, as E+ snacks. Yeah the main meal was the same as economy, but still pretty good and much better than Untied economy.

Regarding the sky high fees and taxes, I take it this is your first trip to the UK in a while. This is purely the part of the British government which doubled the air travel taxes back in 2007 and increased the taxes again in late 2010. These taxes are based somewhat on distance traveled by “bands” and taxes are nearly double on premium cabin travel vs. economy. Seems that premium economy is considered premium in the eyes of the UK government.

As the name suggests it’s an upgraded economy class, not a watered-down business class.

So, bigger/wider seats, larger screens, more legroom, dedicated washrooms etc but more-or-less Economy F&B.

It’s unfortunate that your expectations were of something “fairly close to business class” but they were, ahem, your own expectations.

The swing up screens in Economy are only found in rows where there are no seats in front.

And as for “regular” business configuration being 2-3-2 or 2-2-2, I do hope you one day fly Virgin Atlantic’s anything-but-regular Upper (business) Class with its 1-1-1 or 1-2-1 configuration, flat beds, guest seats, sit-down bar, anytime dining, limo transfers, Clubhouse lounges.

Now that’s something you be better off walking into with “something like business class” expectations.

Happy travels,

Penny.