MarkedMan

AA's 77W IMO uses the best business seat out there today; opinions will vary. BH and I got into flying biz on Virgin Atlantic, which has a similar concept to the AA seat (just at a 90 degree rotation) and became adept at spending the flight pretty much on our own. We didn't mind, lots to do, it's even better now with wifi and all that

That said, the UA/CO seats you will find on the 777-200 2-class or on the 764s are lie flat, you can get a window/aisle which works well for a couple and if you have no particular allegiances or other reasons (like Emerald status on a OW carrier, say) to fly one over the other you will be fine. I like the food on AA much more than on UA, too, but that again would be debated by some, no doubt.

The best reason for me to go the AA route would be to stop in London for a night (which I often do) and to possibly get the opportunity to bump up to F on the 77W, which is worth the extra miles if you have them and availability comes up later on. Some folk hate the idea of an extra connection, it does not bother me at all, but that would be the primary reason to pick UA in this case. I prefer IAH to EWR, but if time of travel is a concern you'll fine the 764 a perfectly good plane to fly on and you won't notice much of a difference in the cabin other than it's five across instead of 6 and storing luggage in the overhead bins on a 767 can be a hassle.

Random Flyer

I think the definition is clear enough. The language at issue is "conjunction tickets", which according to what I have read elsewhere, amongst other things means tickets acquired in a single transaction and forming a single contract. I believe the term is a travel industry one, going back to the days of paper tickets, booklets, etc. And BTW, I have at least once in recent times noticed the word "conjunction" occurring as a very small text label on a boarding pass (not from AA.) So it seems that the airlines know exactly what it means and therefore know when APD applies.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs has a definition of "conjunction tickets" that appears to differ somewhat from the travel industry definition.

UnitedFlyGuy

LH old C is dreadful. Avoid it.

Happy

You may want to read up the recent reported disturbing data points that AA took away long-booked 77W F awards and IDBed passengers to J at the gate, plus flat out lied to passengers why they lost their assigned seats (suddenly changed to unassigned and the whole F cabin was full with them being unassigned, essentially meant they no longer were in F.)

The new reality seems to be that AA is booting award bookings when F cabin is oversold then lies to customers on what happened without even offering re-accommodation.

jsmeeker

What is you went to GRU? It's not gonna be a way to visit Europe, but it can get a you a ride on the 77W. Does GRU have high taxes?

It doesn't seem clear what other destinations will see the 77W. Maybe somewhere in Asia? Like NRT out of the right market? Do they have crazy taxes ex-NRT?

AZbba

GRU has high visa fees.

NRT is fine if AA ever deploys the 77W there. The problem is, generally, people who can pay for F will still choose an Asian airline for the better service.