First time in First class...CX or QR?
 

Hey guys,

just curious to get the opinions of some veterans of flying, so I have around 70,000 miles I want to spend before the devaluation on March 22nd, I was thinking of flying oneway JFK to BKK in first class on either Cathay Pacific or Qatar. I have found availability for both on the BA site. So, this will be my first time experiencing a first class product and want to make the correct choice. Any advice or tips?

Thanks,

Ian

JFK-BKK is only allowed via the Pacific if you want to use one award (thus meaning you'd need to fly CX). If you want to fly QR, it would be two awards - one for JFK-DOH (J as the highest cabin flown) and one for DOH-BKK.

Haven't flown QR in F, only J...
but I would definitely take CX over QR, regardless of routing, etc...

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And with only ~70K miles in his account, the OP does not have nearly enough miles to route via DOH on two awards.

JL F via NRT is another option.

CX F
 

Last year I flew HKG-JFK in F for 16+ hours-The service was so outstanding, that I felt a pang of regret on final approach, even after almost a whole day in the air. I kind of wished we could have gone into a WX holding pattern.

Does that help?:D

I was kinda leaning towards Cathay, I forgot that Qatar would be two awards. I'm excited to try it, was thinking of routing via Canada so I can stay on the plane longer! lol

Why on earth would you do that? No, just book the JFK-HKG nonstop! :-D

Apart from the routing/two awards problem mentioned above, my answer is that it depends. For an overnight flight, you can't beat the comfort of the CX F bed, IMO. I sleep better there than I do in my own bed. For a daytime flight, however, I'd be inclined to go with QR F, having just flown F roundtrip between DOH and CDG. It's great.

First time in First class...CX or QR?
 

CX hands down

Both airlines are quite good and QR has a very tasteful F product. Unfortunately, they don't bring it to the United States so that pretty much limits your options.

JFK and BOS are the two longest flights Cathay flies, I believe. YVR is quite a bit quicker, and IIRC, YYZ no longer has F.

I add my vote to CX @:-)

QR has a better F product on the A380 (you can do Europe - Middle East for 40K one-way in F) than CX 77W, but the rest of the QR fleet has horribly outdated F cabins that can't compete with CX's.

Do you already have these awards held? If you haven't visited the AA/CX award thread, the CX F ticket is a unicorn. It's very difficult to get your hands on one unless you're talking about close-in. If you're planning for travel in late 2016 or early 2017 - that's a whole different animal. BA shows seats 30 days earlier than AA has access to them. By the time they open for AA, the F seats are usually gone.

It becomes a basic stallion closer in though. So can book J and upgrade to F days before the flight. But there's a whole procedure to go through since the deval us coming up. So get reading OP.