nor4

I'm off to Delhi in November from IAD on a UA business award. The best *A connection is thru YYZ on AC 54/55. I read the sticky on best seats and seatguru.
As this is 14hrs out and 15 1/2 hrs back, I wanted to check with AC folks who have done this in the front end of the 343.

I usually fly UA 747 or 777 in C, which have 55" pitch and 20.5" wide C seats with leg rests. The leg rests make a big difference when trying to sleep. But I didn't see any reference to legrests on the 343.

If anybody has any comparisons or comments on using the 343 for this LONG leg, please chime in.

My other choices are to go on UA/LH (777s and 747 but not sure of the seating) or OS on their 330 (again not sure of the seats yet.)

Thanks for any thoughts.

grumbler

I find AC J (especially on the 343 - which does have footrests, but not the full on bed) better than LH or UA J (but not necessarily first). However, I haven't tried the new LH business class product, so this part may be subject to change !

Andrew Yiu

AC's A343s have 60" pitch and wider than UA's C.

B747-437B

AC's J-class product for the A340 is superior in all aspects (seat, service, etc..) to any C-class product that UA delivers and somewhat superior to LH's 3-class C-product. LH will be bringing their new Business Class to the MUC-DEL route later this year, but no specific word whether it will happen before November.

Retired FF

I can't comment on the seat pitch against UA, but the service on AC to DEL and back was excellent when I took the flight a few months ago. Also you arrive DEL in the evening via AC where as most other flights arrive around midnight ( at least they used to) so the AC gives you a better shot at having a relaxing night after a long flight. ^ to AC.

lslau

I took this flight just in April in J and sat in a Window seat. The flight didn't seem as long as I had expected. With the good seating and Video on Demand , it was actually a pleasant experience. Though, read the threads on the delay trend for this flight.

Andrew Yiu

Keep in mind that not all AC's A343s have VOD, so don't be expecting them on every flight or you'll be really disappointed!

why fly

You will like AC service and seats in the 343 compared to UA. Just hope the flight is non-stop.

yensoy

I believe timings are going to change to a "standard" midnight arrival in DEL and departure soon after. This advantage is unfortunately lost.

While I can't comment on J, the fact is that November is generally a light travel season. The flight I took in May was about half full in Economy and was very much bearable. Therefore, I wouldn't be worried if I were you, unless you had some specific concerns about the seat. On a relatively empty flight, I might even suggest that you hike to the back of the aircraft and find yourself a middle 4 empties to stretch out on.

curt

MUC-DEL is a 2-class A343 with new C/Cl since June 10, 2004.

B747-437B

This is supposed to be a summer-only schedule change to enable the A340s to slip in a YYZ-YVR rotation for extra capacity during peak demand. It *should* revert to the 1745 arrival in DEL from November again.

nor4

Oliver2002 on the LH forum says he flew a 340-300 last week in the new LH business seats. ^ The AC flight is attractive because it gets in earlier and I won't have to deal with transfers in Germany. I'm a little worried about the comment elsewhere on this thread regarding delays on the AC flight YYZ-DEL. Is that a real problem?

parnel

Every now and then they have to make a refueling stop if they encounter strong head winds. Don't know how often and when I went in April there was no stopsin either direction;the seats were great in J as was the service in both directions.