ren0312

How does the international business class of US airlines like United, Delta, and American compare with the likes of Qantas, Air France, British Airways, JAL, and Cathay Pacific, in this category people who can afford to travel this way tend to choose features vs price presumably.

Mwenenzi

No correct answer. Business/first class can vary a lot.
Depends on the route: short haul/long haul/regional.
And on the aircraft. These can vary day to day or be changed on the same route

deniah

Features? Not so much

Id wager to say its a decision of routing/convenience, and loyalty/preference. Pricing is also a factor (hello turkish!)

In general the leading asian pacific carriers have a slightly leg up to the leading european carriers with a big gap to the american legacy carriers.

Although i have to say my earlier years on (pre-merger!) Continental in BF was nice. Personal introduction from FSM/purser, decent lounges, ice cream cart, and enthusiastic service. United really took it down a couple of notches.

lhrsfo

This amply demonstrates why so much is a matter of preference - I found UA's Business Class has got worse since Continental took over.

On the point generally, I agree that the pecking order is Asian best, European middling and N. American worst. Broadly, the accommodation is similar amongst airlines which offer true lie flat: the principle differences lie in the service, the food and the wine selection with the N. American carriers a long way behind.

But, to make up for this, they tend to throw miles at you in a way others don't. For some years the global alliances meant that you could fly a foreign carrier in Business and still earn miles and status as if you had flown your domestic carrier but this is less straightforward today. Particularly with the N. American carriers, they are clawing back on incentives to fly their partners.

poverty.jet.set

lhrsfo did say the same thing as you - post merger UA is worse.

where do the middle eastern airlines rank?

84fiero

Why do you ask? Are you planning a particular trip and wanting some information to compare options? I'd agree with Mwenenzi, sort of impossible to have a meaningful answer as there can be a lot of variation even within the same airline (model variants, refurbished vs. unrefurbished, short/long/medium haul product, etc) - much less comparing different airlines.

Among 100 people there may be 100 different opinions. What you will mostly get here is anecdotal and necessarily limited by individual experiences which won't be nearly as comprehensive as your question. And around post 45 we will devolve into general airline economic debates, which by post 57 will turn into political and cultural arguments - possibly including unions, wages, and social welfare - before becoming focused on a debate between two particular airlines' products around post 75 and after that the thread will slowly slip off to forum page two.

travelinmanS

I find the American big 3 better than the Euro big 3 these days in business class. Asian airlines, outside of Chinese airlines, are generally a notch above service wise.

kkjay77

They are with other reputable Asian carriers as long as you don't fly EK 777 or QR A330.
WY business class seat is the best business class seat, but I've heard that they are introducing worse hard product.

dvs7310

I couldn't agree more with 84fiero's comments. There is not one blanket answer or even 10 "best" answers to your question. In my own experience, United, though worst in many consumer satisfaction metrics, has been quite good for me. Nearly every time there has been an issue during my trip with United, either a call to the Premier Desk or a stop at the customer service desk inside a United Club has solved it right then and there. I know not everyone has this experience with United, but I have and I've been very pleased as a result. I've also had a number of very pleasant trips in both UA C and F post merger and CO C pre-merger, they are not perfect and the food is inferior to overseas carriers but other factors made it worthwhile.

On another example, though Asian airlines are often rated the best by many people, I am extremely critical of certain flaws by both of the big Japanese airlines that purely and simply can be attributed to certain peculiarities in Japanese culture on a macro scale.

Other factors that come into play that you'll see a huge difference is age of the cabin crew when comparing carriers in various regions. Many Asian carriers have a very young crew, nice for eye candy, but rather annoying when you're flying F and you get someone working their second overseas flight ever. I also find the same with their customer facing ground staff, far too often you get stuck talking to the 24 year old recent college graduate with no experience and knows nothing about their own airline's rules and systems, let alone other airlines in the alliance which you're connecting to on the same trip. I'd choose the 50 year old rep at United, American, or Delta with 25+ years of experience any day over one of these folks, sure you get a few on a power trip here and there but most of them know what they're doing and are quite good at their jobs. I feel like every time I go to Haneda I'm providing free training for ANA to their reps.

As far as equipment goes, again as everyone else points out, it varies greatly by plane type and routes. There is no one airline that I can think of that has a superior seat on all routes. In Asia the regional C seats range from mediocre to just downright poor, in Europe you have the very universally hated "Eurobusiness" cabins with economy seats and a blocked middle, North America narrowbodies which dominate the domestic and regional international market are slightly better but not much. One could just as easily point out good, bad, and marginal seats just within the long haul fleet of many airlines. ANA for example, the 772 is horrible, JAL it's the 787, Asiana still has old 772s, Lufthansa the 748 is good but quite a few other planes are still old, Swiss has good seats but not all direct aisle access, AA still has many old style 772s, UA is all flatbed but some planes have way too many across like the 744 and pre-merger UA 772. This list could go on for a very long time.

There is just no easy answer to your question. The worst airlines have good points and the best airlines have bad points, so knowing more about your own priorities would be useful to give much real advice.

ckx2

I'd prefer AA 77W Business class over any BA Club World seat anytime. Yet none of these mentioned carriers can compete with QR/EK/EY. It's all subject to personal opinions. I do not regret keeping my business with American. Yet I have no bad experience with United or Delta at all.

Gamecock

I travel premium cabin soley on points. In the last year I have flown CX, BR, LX and US.

I must say that my US flight was very nice, great FAs, IFE was surprisingly good. Food? Meh.

Swiss was a bit dated and service was just OK.

BR had a great hard product, food was good. The FAs were very eager but service was a bit chaotic.

CX took the honors for doing everything consistently well.

ren0312

Do JAL, Korean Air, and ANA pay their cabin personel less compared to Lufthansa, Air France, and British Airways? Plus I guess Northern Europeans have a reputation for being aloof and standoffish?

ren0312

Are Asian carriers allowed to operate in a free market. or do they get hidden subsidies, or are in the too big to fail because of national prestige category, I mean if Pan Am were an Asian carrier no offense but it would still be around for national pride purposes. Are US so bad because of unions? Or is it because of the riding public being so budget concious which poisons the entire well even up to the premium classes? I have seen Philippine airlines 7 across business class on the 777-300er and the hard product does not seem so bad.

Annalisa12

I sat next to a JAL pilot going to Narita over 10 years ago. We were chatting and he said that the mechanics worked in regular teams and there was shame in having one of 'your planes' out of service. He said pride was a very important part of the JAL environment.

I always think that the Middle Eastern airlines do what they do so they can be better than their competition. I imagine they are very big on the one upmanship.

ren0312

The Middle Eastern carriers get special help, so I did not include them in this category, I mean if American, Delta, or Air Canada were getting a boost every year it would be like Qatar Airways too.