Originally Posted by
brunos
Getting back to NCE, BA and LH/LX are already major competitors to AF one-stop longhaul traffic and the frequency of NCE-CDG is not that great. As Orbitmic said earlier, they will also suffer from Qr and other foreign longhaul airlines flying into NCE.
But BA and LH have been competitors in this area for decades. That's nothing new. And even with that competition AF used to run lots of flights to NCE with business class. Generally full as I recall. What changed is a lot less people booking business class. Plus post 9/11 security hassle made the train a better option for many.
I used to fly LAX-NCE quite often in the late 90's. I prefered BA F because that was the only flat seat that existed til LH F came to LAX. But I also hated BA because of LHR transfers. FRA was no peach either. If I was flying biz class I preferred AF. All the airlines had awful biz seats back then.
But nowadays with AF finally adding flat biz seats and running pretty well coordinated transfers at CDG, I would still choose AF if I had to transit somewhere. Assuming the price was roughly the same of course.
Transfers at LHR = NO
Transfers at FRA = NO (unless first class or HON)
Transfers at DOH = NO (always at terrible hours)
I've never transited IST but I've looked at doing it several times and the timing is always terrible.