Originally Posted by
jmanirish
Curious for you (and others in this thread) who have said this as a reason, why not fly LH then? Is it because you can confirm beforehand? Is it because UA serves your destination without any stops?
This is exactly the reason why I DON'T fly united metal traveling in business internationally. The LH F product is vastly superior and I've had great luck in upgrading with printed GPUs (also since I book very last minute, I'm not beat to the upgrade since it's day of only).
Also, being west-coast based traveling to Europe, the UA flights are poorly timed as I have to leave my house very early to catch and east coast connecting flight. So much better to take an LX/LH flight directly to Europe, and connect in ZRH/FRA.
I generally book based on schedule, which for me boils down to choosing between a 4:15pm LH flight on the 748 or the 6:05pm UA flight from ORD-FRA (similar decision on the way back). I find it difficult to sleep on the 4:15pm flight, so the later flight often wins out. Additionally, flying LH means I have to give up spend towards GS qualification and lifetime miles. All I really care about is being able to sleep going there and work/sleep coming back. LH isn't meaningfully better in this regard, though I'll concede the service (esp in F) blows UA out of the water. If I'm taking my wife on vacation and have some say over my schedule, I'd go LH/LX all the way.