OliverB

In my opinion, if you're weighing the two services this heavily, go with J. People tend to fetishize this stuff on travel forums. The reality is that you're on a commercial airplane, sitting in a cube for hours on end, eating crappy food (despite what anyone says or what class you fly) and trying to keep amused or just sleep through the entire ordeal. Long-haul flights suck on any airlines; even the most pampered first class. Nobody would choose to be on the best flight if they didn't have to. Unless you have plenty of miles to spare and you can afford to make this decision without soliciting feedback from others, I think you'd be much better off booking business class and saving the extra miles to put towards a future trip. If you're used to normally flying in cramped cattle-class, you'll be very comfortable in J. As far as I'm concerned, this whole airline class hierarchy is a racket and the worst form of capitalist exploitation. If you've got an abundance of miles -enough to not have to consider F vs J- then first class would obviously be a slight improvement, but it's a minimal improvement and not really worth the thousands of extra miles, in my personal opinion. I'm always relieved when I'm able to redeem award seats in either class because flying economy truly sucks, but don't get too excited about the flight itself: it's the destination that counts!