As the year 2000 is coming to an end, many frequent traveller magazines and media are choosing/selecting or nominating the Best Business/First Class for the year. Since a similar contest has not yet been seen on this board, I thought it would be a good idea to hear the ideas from fellow FT members.

This is intented to be a fun contest for all FT members to choose the Best International Business Class and the Best International First Class. Therefore, at the end of the voting period, I will be counting the number of votes each airline gets and rank all of them accordingly.

Rules: All FT members are eligible. Although each member can post as many posts as he/she wants, only one vote per member will be counted. The members are kindly asked to choose only ONE Best International Business Class carrier and ONE Best International First Class carrier. For example:
Best Int'l Business: Air Antarctica;
Best Int'l First: Arctic Airlines
Please do not give more than one choice per category; however, you are welcome to comment on your choices and compare them to other carriers in as much details as you feel like. For example: "I think XXX is the best although YYY and ZZZ come close for the food and leg rooms, so I still go for XXX."

Please choose from the following carriers:

a)American Airlines
b)Air Canada/Canadian Airlines
c)United Airlines
d)Delta Airlines
e)Continental Airlines
f)Lan Chile
g)Mexicana
h)Aero Mexico
i)Varig, Brazil
j)Air New Zealand
k)Qantas Airways, Australia
l)Singapore Airlines
m)Malaysian Airlines
n)Thai Airways
o)Cathay Pacific Airways
p)Japan Airlines (JAL)
q)All Nippon Airways (ANA)
r)Korean Air
s)Air Pacific
t)Air Tahiti
u)Eva Airways
v)China Airlines (CI)
W)South Afircan Airways
X)British Airways
y)Lufthansa
z)Air France
aa)Alitalia
bb)Swissair
cc)Iberia
dd)Finnair
ee)Austrian Airlines & Group
ff)Scandinavian Aviation System (SAS)
gg)El Al
hh)Emirates
ii)Aer Lingus
jj)Olympic Airways (Greece)
kk)KLM

The list is quite large, so the contest may be divided into 2 or 3 rounds depending on the level of participation. Details will follow if necessary.

Have fun!

Surely Ansett deserves to be on that list?

I've never flown them but they seem to keep winning awards for their small collection of International routes (I believe only SYD-HKG, SYD-Osaka, MEL-HKG and I know there is at least a PER-DPS service plus presumably from other cities as well).

I vote for NZ as best C

Best C: Austrian Airlines Group
Best F: Singapore Airlines

C: Air Canada/Canadian
F: Cathay Pacific (only flown CX and UA First)

Best F Singapore Airlines!

The food, the bed, the flight attendants, the lounge, and let's not forget the upcoming A380 launch!

SR and CX are a very close second!

Best C: BA (with beds).
Best F: AA (haven't flown too many others in international F yet).

KLM best business(europe to OZ)Ansett 747 would get my vote if they were on the list!!
Qantas best 1st (sleeper seats)

C: SQ (out of CO, CX, UA, SQ)
F: CX (only flown CX, UA)

I fly Asia/Pacific a lot, but not yet other regions. Would it make sense to give a subranking report by region since folks like me haven't tried C/F on carriers like BA, LH?

C Class : DL Biz Elite

Thanks folks for your participation, please keep voting as the poll is still open!

In response to several calls about Ansett Australia, I did not put this airline on the original list because I assumed it has been merged with Air New Zealand. I can modify the choice j) into Air New Zealand & Ansett or if you prefer, you can vote for Ansett Australia separately as choice ll). Please keep in mind that the vote here is for International services only (i.e. Domestic experiences should be excluded).

Talking about the Aussie airlines, I am not Aussie or Kiwi but I flew there a lot. In fact for the last 10 months, I have stayed in Australia over a month! If there are any Aussies out there, I would like to know why Ansett has been awarded "Best Business Class award of the World"? I remember seeing on a big board near Sydney airport and I was wondering? Who gave Ansett that award? Ansett is a relatively small airline and flies mostly within Australia and few flights in the Asian-Pacific region. I flew on them a couple of times domestically and internationally when I was there this past Summer(Northern hemisphere) after I was 'assimilated into Star-Alliance' by force. No particular remarks except that the service on and off the ground is warm and professional, especially the check-in agent at the Sydney International Terminal for Business classs passengers. BUT, I was reluctant to go to their Int'l loung because I knew Ansett is a small airlines and would rather pay a visit to Air New Zealand or Singapore Airlines' lounge. The very nice Ansett agent insists that I can try theirs b/c she thinks their loung is nice. It turns out I didn't go there. I went to Singapore Airlines's lounge. Then, there are two lounges there for Singapore: Kriss Flyer and First Class lounge, just side by side. I got there, but could not use First Class lounge b/c she said I only have an International Business Class boarding pass and Star Gold status are not enough. I need to have a first class boarding pass! But I went in anyway, and it was nice and spacious and simple but delicious oriental breakfast. I was curious about how Ansett's lounge look like, since it was just in front, so I went there for a while just for my curiosity. You know what, it was so crowded, small, little facitilies that I say to myself: "You call this a nice lounge? Oh, boy you must have not visited the Int'l Maple Leaf lounges in Toronto." There was no Internet stations and the food...sorry, just doesn't make the standard. I flew Qantas when I first went to Australia almost a year ago. Qantas was far better in terms of facilities. I mean Qantas clubs are much better. The services are at similar level; however, the equipments of Qantas are much better and advanced. That's my personal experience with Aussie airlines.

Don't worry about it. If the time permits, I will make a resonable anaysis and break-down reports or statistics of the answers.

Here are my choices:

C: Air Canada/Canadian
F: Japan Airlines (JAL)

I flew International Business on five different carriers this year: Air Canada, Canadian Int'l, Alitalia, American Airlines and Ansett. Qantas can be counted if you consider Dec.31 1999 as the year 2000.
No one beats the generous space and the huge seats in the Canadian carriers' Int'l Business Class. You can inclined to about 150degree. The space between seats are much bigger than other carriers' Business Class. Food wise, very good, but somewhat simple, not fancy enough so definitely beatable. Entertainment wise, games are a bit old, some controls are not functionning very well. Still, if you compare to Alitalia and Ansett, huge difference. Alitalia has their single setas in the center and pair seats on the two sides, funny configuration. I don't speak Italian, but the flight attendants don't speak English very well either. It looks as though they are nervous if they have to speak in English. Biggest dissappointment: Quality of food->I was expecting really top notch food from them since they don't offer First Class and Business Class is their highest class of service and that it cost almost $5,000 for the return ticket to Europe + Italy is known for the food...but, it was BAD. Prima platti, Segunda platti... Sorry, you have to try it to know it, but the main courses looked as though they are from 3 star restaurants, not 5 star. American was o.k. overall, nothing particular. Seats are a bit small though. Ansett, no comments there. Qantas, very good service and nice seats overall, would love to try their First Class someday.

JAL: SkySolo seats in F is just awesome. They have the best entertainment system I've ever seen: EyeTrek, what a treat! Can you beat a personal visual screen of 62"? Eye trek give you that. That's more than 4 times bigger than many other carriers. Food was excellent. Seats, just like other F seats: Beds but it was a solo seat, so that's even better. The services are of top quality from check-in to arrival.

I forgot to clarify one point: Some carriers do not offer International First Class, so you may just vote them for Best Int'l Business Class. However, for those carriers who offer both, you may choose the same airline for both categories if you wish.

Best F : CX - their Betsy seats beat SQ's. I've slept on park benches that are softer than SQ's F seats Haven't flown on SR which I hear is quite nice. Maybe in 2001.

Best C : Tough one....would like to say UA as I often get UG to F when flying C....But I think I'll vote for CX again in this category. FA's were so friendly, great lounge for C pax. SQ and SR were def. not far behind in this contest.

I'll rate what I've flown this year in international J class:

Seat:
CP (top)
CX
US
QF (bottom)

Food:
CX
US (just below CX but pretty good)
CP
QF (really gone downhill)

Service:
All about the same. CX's could actually use some polish and coordination

CP (YVR-HKG/NRT/SYD)
US (PIT-FRA)
CX (HKG-NRT/BKK)
QF (BKK-MEL, SYD-HKG)

Biz: Delta BizElite (on an upgrade only)
Virgin Upper

First: Singapore Airlines (especially since the latest upgrade of the cabin)