Originally Posted by
EQDsSUCK
Thank you so much for sharing your answers. I have only flown flatbeds on ua and aa, though I've seen pics of Asian biz class. :-)
If I want to experience these other products, what airlines or routes from US would you take? Australia, South Asia, and Japan/Korea are all on my future travel list. I would try to use AA or UA miles. Or I could sign up for the host carrier's plan if I can get some sort of bonus to start and just get miles for a one way biz flight on that carrier and then come back on another.
This is almost OMNI in its breadth, but I'll take a swing at it. United lacks direct isle access on its entire fleet, and some of the seats are either very short (763 2-class, some of the 789 seats) or are narrow (pmUA ITPE seats in J in the middle). The soft product is at best third rate. AA has (or had, Parker has taken a meat ax to it) better soft product, but some of the "slant" seats were worse than what UA offered. That said, the new AA lie flat seats are better than what UA has.
As to what you can get to ASIA, using miles, lots of fans of ANA (in J) on this board, good seats, fawning service, much better soft product. JAL has also upped its game (AA miles) and is the equal of ANA IMHO, which I, and I suspect most would not have said three years ago.
I personally like Asiana (UA miles), some mixed feelings about them. But clearly better than UA. Also some fans of BR and their new product. Its clearly better than UA, but how much better? I'll let others comment on the current Royal Laurel, my experience is several years old.
Had you asked I would have said CX was vastly superior to UA, but the airline has really fallen. Seats are still nice, but soft product has fallen. I'd take them over AA, but the gap is narrowed. Better than UA by far, but again, gap is less (in J, once the new 777W is on SFO-HKG). SQ remains a very good carrier, but you can't get SQ J easily with UA miles, they are not friends.
Skip the rest of the pacific carriers, especially with miles (see AirChina)