Originally Posted by
CCayley
I took this routing a few weeks ago, having heard how much better AF's La Premiere is than my usual BA First class. However I made the mistake (referred to above) of booking the A380 and I'm afraid I found the in-flight elements of the journey, and especially the seat and the food and wine choice, inferior to the BA offering.
I'm surprised to hear that. While the seat is of course different on the A380, the food and wine are the same as what AF serves on the 777. To me it's always much better overall than what BA serves on the same route, including the seat. The AF A380 seat is a good bit wider than BA's F seat. But I mostly have flown a lot of IAD-LHR (or CDG) recently so can't speak much to JFK. That flight is so short I don't even eat on the flight, assuming I had a good meal in the lounge.
The main difference IMHO between the AF A380 seat and the new 777 seat is the ability to sleep very, very well thanks to the privacy and bedding. If I am flying west on a day flight I don't care which of the two airplanes I'm on.
But to your latter point about preferring the direct route, I agree. The main reason to choose AF with the stop-over is to try out the AF ground service and La Première lounge. Once you have that out of your system, it makes sense to go back to BA for the JFK-LHR route unless there is a significant price difference or you really want Skyteam miles.
This is all speaking as a regular business traveler. For tourism I would always choose AF with the stop-over.