Spanish low-cost carrier LEVEL has a unique Premium Economy option installed on part of its fleet. With some ex-Virgin Australia A330s under its wing, the IAG sub-brand offers lie-flat business class seats on the cheap.
This unusual Premium Economy offering comes with some compromises, however. On a recent night flight from Miami to Barcelona, I put the product to the test.
The LEVEL experience begins before you arrive at the airport, with an email inviting you to customize your meal. I had ordered a vegetarian dish so I was only offered a choice of beverages. I selected a lemonade for my main, and a ginger ale for my breakfast meal.
Oddly, I kept receiving daily emails to personalise my onboard menu for a full five days after the plane had landed.
I arrived at the airport three hours before departure so I was processed without issue. My ticket included two checked bags, each up to 23 kg. The check-in counter also has a sizer for cabin bags, but mine weren’t checked.
The only snag was that my booked seat (4A) had been switched to another seat (2A) for no apparent reason. The gate agent didn’t know why.
Despite not having any TSA PreCheck status, there was very little queueing at security, and I passed through without incident. Overall, the airside experience was functional and speedy. I was pleasantly surprised.
After using my Priority Pass to wait out the time in Turkish Airlines’ lounge, I arrived at the gate 50 minutes before departure.
Though I had priority boarding with my premium seat, there were no designated lines for the various boarding groups so an amorphous crowd developed around the gate.
Pre-boarding began 35 minutes before departure. Fifteen minutes later, Group 1 was called, and the crowd shuffled forward onto the aircraft.
After being welcomed by a crew member at the door I turned into the premium cabin, which comprises 20 Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats, configured 1-2-1 and arranged across five rows. Each seat has its own overhead compartment, so I stowed my carry-ons without issue.
While passengers were boarding, I inspected the cabin. It was very dirty. My screen was covered in a splatter of residue, and the tables and surfaces were ingrained with grime.
The bathroom was not much better, although it did appear to have been cleaned before we boarded.
I turned my attention to the seat, which features a grey fabric seat cover and darker plastic shrouds. A teal antimacassar as well as the pillow and blanket set gave a splash of colour, as did the blue and green LEVEL logo shining on the IFE screen.
Paying a Premium Economy fare for a hard product that’s based on a business class lie-flat is a very novel experience, but there are bound to be compromises, and these were evident from the moment I boarded.
Firstly, a lot of my seat’s functionality did not work. The personal locker — where you would expect to find headphones or some water on another airline — was broken, and would not close. The armrest was also broken, and would not go all the way down.
The seat was controlled by a touchscreen next to my elbow. It would regularly light up as I brushed against it.
The seated position felt quite comfortable for this 50” chested passenger, but the fabric was unbearably scratchy. It reminded me of the hard-wearing material you find on office furniture in open-plan offices. Within 20 minutes I had capitulated and laid the blanket underneath me to make it feel more comfortable.
Notably, the cabin was filled with very unusual odours throughout the flight, including stenches that reminded me of kerosene and fresh paint. It was also very warm.
Each seat has two overhead air nozzles, however, which helped me to cope with the high temperatures.
The service was so-so. I was offered juice or water in a paper cup after boarding. I chose the juice (which tasted very strange). My cup was not collected before takeoff, so I had to hold onto it.
After takeoff, amenity kits were distributed with all the usual contents you’d expect plus a refreshing mist spray. The products were basic but I especially appreciated the cotton satchel.
It took quite a while before dinner began, with one flight attendant dedicated to our cabin. Nevertheless, my meal did finally arrive with my pre-selected lemonade drink.
I was served a cheese and tomato pasta dish as my main, which was accompanied by a small fruit salad and a regular salad with no dressing. The pasta was soggy and watery, suggesting it was also the gluten-free variety.
LEVEL does offer inflight Wi-Fi, priced €6 for an hour, €13.50 for four hours, and €20.49 for the whole trip. A free messaging service was only available if you signed up to receive marketing emails. I declined.
The IFE system features a bright but fuzzy screen, and offers a small collection of films (no blockbusters) and some TV shows. It does have complete television series, however, which was good to see. Flight information was provided but there was no moving map, which was a bit of a let-down.
I used my phone for content. Handily, I was able to keep it charged up as the seat features a universal power socket and a USB-A port.
Let’s talk about sleep
When I booked this 9-plus hour Miami-Barcelona flight my number one goal was to sleep.
The broken armrest at my seat meant that I could not stretch out well, so I could only sleep in one position — on my side. I admit, at 193cm, I am not the usual passenger, but this would have limited motion for anyone. Moreover, the scratchy fabric of the seat made it unpleasant to wriggle or fidget, so it was daunting to try and find a better position anyway.
One of the obvious mismatches between the business class seating platform and LEVEL’s low-cost Premium Economy service is the bedding. I was presented with a thin felt blanket and a tiny pillow, the kind you would expect to see in economy class on a legacy carrier. Light bedding is welcome in a hot cabin, but the pillow offered no support on the flat surface of the bed, and it was very uncomfortable.
Nevertheless, once I had eaten my meal, I put on my sleep mask (which then immediately snapped), and tried to sleep. I managed to get five hours! That’s slightly more sleep than I would normally get in a Premium Economy recliner (found elsewhere in LEVEL’s A330 fleet.)
The cabin lights came on 100 minutes before landing (no soft wakeup), at which point the breakfast service began immediately. I received a breakfast quesadilla, which was very dry. It was accompanied by another fruit salad which was identical to the one I was served at dinner, only with more kiwi. With 75 minutes left of flight time, I finished breakfast and went back to sleep.
As we landed in Barcelona, I reflected on my flight experience, and found it to be a mixed picture. On the one hand, the food was bad, the cabin was dirty, and the bedding felt very shoddy indeed.
However, even though the dark thermoplastics on the seat made the space look cramped, it was actually fairly roomy. And once the lights were lowered, I was able to sleep undisturbed for the night. I certainly felt more human at the end of the flight than I would have in a typical Premium Economy seat on a transatlantic night flight.
Importantly, the crew were professional and I felt safe.
LEVEL reminds me most of a European night train. The cabins are not luxurious, the beds are not the most comfortable, and you don’t get a refined meal.
What you do get, however, is space to rest and a lot of time to sleep, helping you to face the next day.
If LEVEL invested in more comfortable seat fabric and/or a larger premium pillow for this lie-flat version of its Premium Economy product, then the unique selling proposition of a cheap sleep would be hard to resist.
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All images credited to the author, Fintan Horan-Stear
