But I think the LH 747 to Chicago is with the old first class and I figure that if I am going to go for it then I may as well get the full experience. Plus, with that routing, I can't travel with my mom.

As for Thai, my mom came over on Thai in first and, while it was nice, I heard they have rooms in first on some of their planes. I met someone in Burma who flew over in one of those. It did look nice (what I could see from his pictures).