FlyerGirl77

Hi all,

We are planning our summer family visit. We are two parents, and (then hopefully) 2 kids, one 3y old, the other 3m old.

We are flying from SFO to FRA, economy or economy plus.

There are two direct options, one is with UA (B747-400), the other one is with LH (A380). One of us is Mileageplus Gold / Staralliance UA*G member.

We have three full seats to book and cannot book the "Infant in Lap" seat until Kid 2 is born.

From your experience: Which airline and airplane would you recommend for the above setting, if prices are similar?
What are bassinet rows in the planes, the ones with at the bulkhead?
Also, would you recommend booking online or having a call with the agent?


Any additional thoughts?

THANK YOU SO MUCH
FlyerGirl77

JVPhoto

Note that Economy, Economy Plus and Premium Economy are 3 different things most importantly that E+ and PE are synonymous.

On the UA flight your Gold status will allow you to select 2 E+ seats free of charge and the 3rd you'd have to pay for. E+ is a regular coach seat on the UA plane but will have increased leg room. It's not additional recline/width/etc.

On LH there is no E+ but it has Premium Economy which you do NOT have free access to as it is considered a different class of service as it's a wider/more recline/bigger seat than normal economy. The cost can vary from 2-3x the cost of a normal economy seat.

For that I would say pick UA as you'll get a little more out of the E+ seat. You can pick an ABC or HJK row for your family or you could do the gamble and pick DEFG selecting the D G and then either E or F and hoping that it's not a full flight and no one sits in the empty seat and then you guys get an extra seat.
It's also possible that this can swap to a 777 as UA is in the process of fast tracking the retirement of the 747s.

goodeats21

I think you meant to say E+ and Prem Econ are NOT synonymous.

sbm12

Aren't all UA bassinet seats E+? Could the OP not request that for the newborn and get E+ for free? At a minimum request non-*G and baby for bassinet and then *G and *G+1 the other two seats in that row?

JVPhoto

Correct!

drvannostren

A380.

At least then you're guaranteed an AVOD system for the kids. Last time I looked the UA 747s didn't have them, I haven't flown on one but that's what I recall seeing on the seatguru page.

I recently flew LH long haul and UA, found both to be pretty decent. LH 340 had a better seat and better service, food was kinda equal, but it was also 99% load factor. Conversely, flying UA 777, avod was decent, had arguably better choices, flight attendants were fine, service overall wasn't as good, but the flight was like 60% full, so that made the experience far better.

If you can guarantee your family a row basically to themselves, cram the kids in the middle seats then maybe UA isn't a bad option.

JVPhoto

UA 747s all have streaming PDE (personal device entertainment).

drvannostren

Good to know they at least have an option, but I know in MY family's case, my niece and nephew only have 1 ipad between them, so they'd have to share...and I've seen how that conversation goes lol.

Personally I don't mind the ipad system, but there's something about the angle of it on the tray table I don't like. I like the placement of the personal screen. NOW, that's all moot if/when the seats with the proper backs are in place that have the clamp for your device, regardless of size (I've only seen them on the 777 service out of GUM/HNL I forget which) or on the ones that have a space to hang from the smart cover, which at least for an ipad mini is fine (dunno bout the weight of the full size ipad) which I've seen on UA/AC rouge, but I'm not sure if they every replaced the vintage seats from those 744.

Either way I think the choice is fairly even, I'd take the 380 cuz I've never flown one before, but that doesn't take price/connections/time/nerdiness into things.

gr8pirate

We've flown LH LAX-MUC return seven or so times with one and later two kids. The downstairs bathroom area is wonderful, gives you some extra space to walk a little one around. LH flight crew was also wonderful every single time.

gr8pirate

never mind, LAX-MUC is on a different aircraft, sorry.

steveo

I would do the LH since you will have seat back entertainment. I know on the United 747's the streaming works about 75 % of the time, so there is a good chance it'll fail, and that owuld be no fun