Star Alliance - Help Selecting Best Hard J Product for IAD-BKK on *A

Hi folks, so I'm planning on making a *A award booking using UA miles on short notice (aiming to leave approximately 7-14 days from today's date) in J. My primary goal is to fly the best hard product (ideally I'm looking for fully flat seat, direct aisle access, suite style set-up). I flew the new CX J HKG-JFK earlier this spring and loved it (of course this isn't a surprise haha) so ideally I'm looking for something similar to that. I also realize that it may not be possible to meet all the preferences I listed above but just looking to get as close as possible.

After messing around on gcmap it looks like there isn't a huge difference between flying TATL vs TPAC: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=iad-nrt-bkk%2C+iad-fra-bkk&MS=wls&DU=mi so I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to evaluate the abundance of routing options I have. I also am aware that most airlines have some routes flying new J config and some routes flying old J config but don't really know how to figure out if I will be getting the old or new config. Some carriers list the routes that have new J on their sites, such as ANA here: http://ana.ms/MDYV9R but many others don't so I have no idea how to figure it out (SeatGuru/SeatExpert are helpful to a degree but if a carrier has multiple configs flying the same route on the same plane type then it doesn't help much)

Since some carriers are much stingier than others about allocating J seats on short notice I also need to factor in how feasible it is that I can find the space needed. I've been running plenty of KVS searches and so far it seems like there's a lot of availability routing TATL on LH and then connecting to an asian carrier from there or I could go TPAC on UA or ANA.

Final question: Am I correct in thinking that the availability that I get when searching on KrisFlyer is not an accurate reflection of what is available to *A partners? I've been trying to search EWR-SIN using AC or ANA but neither of them are showing results for the EWR-SIN routing.

What ideas do you guys have? TIA

Hi folks, so I'm planning on making a *A award booking using UA miles on short notice (aiming to leave approximately 7-14 days from today's date) in J. My primary goal is to fly the best hard product (ideally I'm looking for fully flat seat, direct aisle access, suite style set-up). I flew the new CX J HKG-JFK earlier this spring and loved it (of course this isn't a surprise haha) so ideally I'm looking for something similar to that. I also realize that it may not be possible to meet all the preferences I listed above but just looking to get as close as possible.

After messing around on gcmap it looks like there isn't a huge difference between flying TATL vs TPAC: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=iad-nrt-bkk%2C+iad-fra-bkk&MS=wls&DU=mi so I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to evaluate the abundance of routing options I have. I also am aware that most airlines have some routes flying new J config and some routes flying old J config but don't really know how to figure out if I will be getting the old or new config. Some carriers list the routes that have new J on their sites, such as ANA here: http://ana.ms/MDYV9R but many others don't so I have no idea how to figure it out (SeatGuru/SeatExpert are helpful to a degree but if a carrier has multiple configs flying the same route on the same plane type then it doesn't help much)

Since some carriers are much stingier than others about allocating J seats on short notice I also need to factor in how feasible it is that I can find the space needed. I've been running plenty of KVS searches and so far it seems like there's a lot of availability routing TATL on LH and then connecting to an asian carrier from there or I could go TPAC on UA or ANA.

Final question: Am I correct in thinking that the availability that I get when searching on KrisFlyer is not an accurate reflection of what is available to *A partners? I've been trying to search EWR-SIN using AC or ANA but neither of them are showing results for the EWR-SIN routing.

What ideas do you guys have? TIA

I think swiss (LX) has the best hard J product of the *A airlines. You could fly IAD-JFK/EWR/ORD/MIA/BOS/YUL-ZRH-BKK pretty easily. You would have a longish connection in Zurich to connect to BKK on LX. The weather in Zurich should be great this time of year so you could enjoy the city during your layover.

I know this isn't what you asked, but if you're considering flying through Europe, Thai does have some 77J aircraft that they are leasing from Jet Airways. Now these have extremely nice suites in first. Only flights I'm aware of are from CDG or FRA.

I just took the BKK-FRA flight (in first) and thought it was one of the best experiences to date. If you could find a LH F seat to match it with, you'd also have access to the FCT in FRA and the Thai first class lounge (and Spa) in BKK. Both are amazing.

Anyway - just saying...

Billy

I think swiss (LX) has the best hard J product of the *A airlines. You could fly IAD-JFK/EWR/ORD/MIA/BOS/YUL-ZRH-BKK pretty easily. You would have a longish connection in Zurich to connect to BKK on LX. The weather in Zurich should be great this time of year so you could enjoy the city during your layover.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing about LX but I decided to go with QR IAD-DOH-BKK since I've never gotten to experience them before and it sounds like a pretty awesome experience. I am hoping to use LX on my return flight but haven't been able to find any space on August 11th or 12th to JFK/EWR or IAD. I haven't checked YUL, ORD or BOS yet. I don't want to go as far south as MIA though. Are they usually pretty good about opening up space or is it always hard to find seats on them?

I know this isn't what you asked, but if you're considering flying through Europe, Thai does have some 77J aircraft that they are leasing from Jet Airways. Now these have extremely nice suites in first. Only flights I'm aware of are from CDG or FRA.

I just took the BKK-FRA flight (in first) and thought it was one of the best experiences to date. If you could find a LH F seat to match it with, you'd also have access to the FCT in FRA and the Thai first class lounge (and Spa) in BKK. Both are amazing.

Anyway - just saying...

Billy

Thanks Billy, any idea how the seats are in C on those 77J aircraft? I've heard they are pretty decent.

Does anyone know what the C seats are like on UA's 752's? I'm looking at this seat map (http://i.imgur.com/aYt3A.png) and it looks like they are the new lay-flat's but seatguru says they are recliners. Anyone know one way or the other?

Does anyone know what the C seats are like on UA's 752's? I'm looking at this seat map (http://i.imgur.com/aYt3A.png) and it looks like they are the new lay-flat's but seatguru says they are recliners. Anyone know one way or the other?

Depends on which route you are flying.

UA has 2 type of 752 C seats. PMUA ps 752 are recliners, only fly JFK-LAX/SFO, PMCO 752 are flat beds fly out of EWR to Europe or domestic transcon.

Depends on which route you are flying.

UA has 2 type of 752 C seats. PMUA ps 752 are recliners, only fly JFK-LAX/SFO, PMCO 752 are flat beds fly out of EWR to Europe or domestic transcon.

Ok so it's safe to assume that any UA flight originating in Europe on a 752 is going to have flat beds in C (regardless of whether the destination is EWR, IAD, BOS etc?)

Ok so it's safe to assume that any UA flight originating in Europe on a 752 is going to have flat beds in C (regardless of whether the destination is EWR, IAD, BOS etc?)

Correct

Ok so it's safe to assume that any UA flight originating in Europe on a 752 is going to have flat beds in C (regardless of whether the destination is EWR, IAD, BOS etc?)

I was on a UA 752 this morning EWR - MAN and the bed was nice and flat, might be a little narrow if you are big.

Correct

Ok, thanks

I was on a UA 752 this morning EWR - MAN and the bed was nice and flat, might be a little narrow if you are big.

Sounds good, thanks for the confirmation. So assuming it's a new lie flat is there any difference between the C seats on a 752 versus a 763 or 772? The only difference I'm seeing on the seat map is that the 752 is 2x2 whereas the 763 is 2x2x2 and the 772 is either 2x2x2 or 2x4x2. Is that correct?