Originally Posted by
Brasila
I will take LH FC any day over COUA LCC's B/F.
That's not the relevant comparison. It's whether you'd take LH C over UA/CO C.
There's also the rather major point that most of our experience with longhaul F is as aspirational award travel, or as upgrade from C, unless you are truly shelling out 5 figures for your flights, in which case, congratulations, and I might ask this: why are you bothering with UA loyalty instead of simply whatever carrier will give you luxurious experiences in F?
And because aspirational awards are an important part of UA's program, I'll point out that while LH has much nicer lounges and soft product than UA, LH Miles and More is a horrible program for upgrades compared to UA/CO, and their award chart's much, MUCH worse in mileage requirements than UA/CO's.
Aren't you one of the ones complaining about how $mi$ek is ruining M+? How do you think most 1Ks would like
210K F awards from North America to SYD to go along with a hypothetical SFO First Class Terminal and caviar on the plane?
2 SWUS/CR-1s per qualifying year as a 1K to go along with Mercedes rides? Do let me know what you think about that one.
Originally Posted by
boolean64
Having just flown LH F last weekend, I can say that if sleeping and IFE were the two most important criteria for me, I would take UA over LH F (on an A340) all the time. LH blew UA away on everything else, but the UA bed and IFE were without question superior. And 11 hours on a good bed with more than one movie that I actually wanted to watch would be worth much more than 10 minutes in a mercedes.
Honestly, pajamas and better wines would make UA very competitive with LH in the air.
As the 747/A380/revamped A340/A330 hard products roll out, though, LH comes out well ahead. (I also don't have problems sleeping in LH F or mind smallish screens, so LH superior soft product will win my mileage redemption business... as puny as that is.
)
The other thing UA would need to work on would be the premium experience on the ground to come closer to LH's. Right now, LH has better facilities in NYC (JFK lounge) than UA/CO does at EWR. If they're serious about their F product, I'd think they would want to invest in premium ground experience at EWR/SFO/ORD. Doesn't have to be a Mercedes, but refreshing the lounges... well, I'd argue that the VS lounge at SFO beats the UA IFL there.