How much does it cost to fly premium economy on the world’s longest Airbus A380 Superjumbo flights? As will be discussed, that depends on a range of factors, including season, discounts, route, airline, and much more. This article will only consider Superjumbos that have premium seats and are flying routes longer than 7,000 miles. That limits the article to just two airlines: Emirates and Qantas.

Emirates operates around half of the world’s Airbus A380 fleet, and it is in the process of retrofitting them with a new cabin that comes with premium economy. Emirates has been taken aback by the impressive demand for premium economy, which has become a priority for the airline. Other airlines, like Qantas, also offer premium economy on their Airbus A380-800s. This article uses information provided by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, although Qatar Airways is excluded as it currently does not offer premium economy on its A380 flights.

Estimating The Cost Of Premium Economy Is Complicated

For the sake of consistency, this article will arbitrarily pick 20th January 2026 as the day for comparing the cost of economy premium flights, as that is a month from the time of writing. The 20th is a Tuesday and avoids holiday season prices or price spikes that occur just a couple of days in advance. If no A380 flight is scheduled for that date, this article will select the next closest date. All flights will be one-way from the hub to the destination; return flights could change significantly.

It should be noted that prices can fluctuate. As departure time approaches, prices can spike or fall as the system decides the aircraft will not sell enough seats. Prices can also be influenced by a range of other factors. For example, it may be cheaper to book economy class and then wait for an offer to upgrade to premium economy. Note that there is no guarantee that this will actually save money.

One thing that can make a massive difference is seemingly minor connecting flights. For example, as of the time of writing, United Airlines has a direct flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand with premium economy fares set at $4,190. Search for flights from LAX to Auckland, and the price leaps to $7,649. The only difference is an Embraer E175 connecting flight from LAX to San Francisco which connects with the same New Zealand-bound Boeing 777-200ER. Purchased individually, the connecting flight segment costs $393 for the domestic equivalent of premium economy.

Qantas Premium Economy

Qantas offers several of the world’s 7,000+ mile flights. One is from Sydney to Dallas-Fort Worth (8,569 miles), another is from Melbourne to Los Angeles (7,686 miles), and another is from Sydney to Los Angeles (7,487 miles). Note that Qantas has a longer flight from Sydney to London—Heathrow, but because it stops over in Singapore, it didn’t make the Cirium list.

On January 20, Qantas is offering its premium economy seats from Sydney to Dallas-Fort Worth for AUD 4,316 or USD 2,858. For reference, the lowest economy class fare is AUD 1,924 or USD 1,297. For the Melbourne to Los Angeles flight, the fare is AUD 3,209 or USD 2,125. Flying from Sydney to Los Angeles costs AUD 2,282 or USD 1,511. This fare happens to be on sale on January 20, and so it’s cheaper than normal.

Finally, for the two-segment flight from Sydney to London via a stopover in Singapore, the premium economy fares on that flight are listed at AUD 3,397 or USD 2,250. Qantas A380s are configured with 60 premium economy seats. Premium economy is located on the upper deck and features David Caon-designed seats arranged in a 2-3-2 pattern. The seat width is 20.5 inches, the row pitch is 38 inches, and the seat recline is nine inches. They come with a footrest, and the touchscreen is 13 inches.

Emirates’ Premium Economy

The two biggest rival Gulf state airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates, are similar and yet different in many ways. One way they differ is that Emirates loves the A380, going so far as to ask Airbus to put it back into production as the A380neo. On the other hand, Qatar considers purchasing the Superjumbo the biggest mistake it ever made. As stated, Emirates has been surprised by the incredible demand it has experienced for its premium economy options.

Emirates is still in the process of retrofitting premium on its A380s, so it may not be available on all the longest routes. Superjumbos that have received the refit carry 56 premium economy seats. Premium economy is located on the main deck and features Recaro PL3530 seats arranged 2-4-2 with a six-way adjustable headrest, a calf rest, and a footrest. The seat width is 19.5 inches, the row pitch is 40 inches, and the seat recline is eight inches.

Entertainment is available with the 13.3-inch touchscreen. Emirates is adding two new premium economy destinations in December 2025: Adelaide in Australia and Frankfurt in Germany. In 2026, it plans to add Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Barcelona. In the last few months, Emirates added Cape Town, Johannesburg, Madrid, Nice, Kuala Lumpur, Milan, Perth, and Oslo.

Emirates’ Premium Fares On Routes Over 8,000 Miles

The longest flight is the 8,810-mile and 16-hour flight to Auckland, with the cost on January 20 starting at $2,407. The next longest flight is the Qantas Sydney to Dallas flight already mentioned, followed by the 8,334-mile flight from Dubai to Los Angeles. The listed starting premium economy price is $1,789.

Houston Intercontinental appears twice on this list thanks to Qantas and Emirates. Emirates’ 8,165-mile flight to Houston is priced at $1,720 for premium economy. The only other flight over 8,000 miles to make the list is Emirates’ flight to San Francisco at an average of 8,101 miles. The premium economy fare is listed as $2,064.

Note that these airlines are pricing the fares in their respective domestic currencies. Those amounts are converted to US dollars for understandability and consistency. For some of these routes, airlines also display the option to fly mixed flights with partner airlines, though those are ignored in this article.

Emirates’ Premium Economy Fares Over 7,000 Miles

Working down the list, the next longest Emirates A380 flight is from Dubai to São Paulo–Guarulhos in South America. It’s worth noting that Emirates also operates fifth-freedom flights from Brazil that continue onto Argentina, although this is not one of them. The flight is an average of 7,591 miles, and its premium fare is listed as $2,339.

Australia and New Zealand are so far from much of the world that they regularly appear on aviation’s longest flights. Emirates operates a 7,480-mile flight to Sydney, a 7,442-mile flight to Brisbane, and a 7,230-mile flight to Melbourne. The premium economy seats on these flights are priced at $2,269, $2,232, and $2,246, respectively, indicating that Emirates fares to the three largest East Coast Australian cities are all very similarly priced.

Finally, the longest Airbus A380 flight over 7,000 miles listed by Cirium is to Washington-Dulles at 7,069 miles. However, this flight is not of interest to this article as Emirates does not offer premium economy on it. When searching for premium economy options, Emirates says it’s not available on the flight, then suggests a flight with its Boeing 777s connecting to Chicago with the final leg being flown by United Airlines.

The Price Of Flying Long-Haul Premium Economy

So premium economy fares for Qantas’ longest outbound A380 flights range from $1,511 for the flight from Sydney to LAX and $2,250 for the twin-segment flight from Sydney to London-Heathrow. By picking January 20, this article was mostly able to find a somewhat representative fare, except for the Qantas flight to LAX, which just so happened to be on sale, and premium economy was actually priced below Economy Flex (AUD 2,723 vs AUD 2,282).

The premium economy fares for Emirates’ 8,000+ flights ranged from $1,721 to $2,407, while the fares in the 7,000-7,999 mile categories ranged from $2,232 to $2,339. Overall, the fares were quite similar between Emirates and Qantas. The only 7,000+ mile flights that did not offer premium economy fares were Emirates’ flight to Washington-Dulles and Qatar Airways’ flight to Sydney.

While business class may be holding somewhat steady, trends over the last few years in the aviation industry have been away from first class. First class has all but disappeared in much of the world, including across the Americas. That period has also seen the rise of low-cost and ultra-low-cost airlines taking an ever larger share of the market. With mainline carriers, perhaps the biggest class shake-up has been the rise of premium economy, seen by many as a sweet spot between comfort and affordability.