tikchik

Hoping to get some reviews, hard and soft product, for BA's 772 and AA's 77W in First. I have never flown BA and my last First experience on AA was back when their 772's had it. Price is about the same for my dates.

enpremiere

In my humble experience the F service seems to be constantly be better on BA's 772, even with a mixed fleet crewing. Until the T5 situation gets worked out, if ever, AA-BA connections at LHR aren't a trip.

AA's service is hit and miss in F while the seats are quite nice, just a bit more open cabin than BA's 772 birds.

kjranabargar

I have flown both products. I think the hard product is a bit better on American - you get lots of space / very comfortable especially on a long haul (I've done LAX / LHR on this product a number of times). I've flown once on BA in first LHR to JFK. Hard product wasn't quite as nice and to be honest it was a night flight, so can't really comment on the soft product in the air. One plus for BA though if you are going via LHR is the Concorde lounge at Heathrow. Really nice lounge.

JDiver

I prefer AA 77W First from a hard product viewpoint and find the soft product on both to be somewhat unpredictable and variable.

Unterwegs

Done both a few times.
The hard product on the BA380 is ok, on the other planes it is more like a (good) business class seat. Just for comparison: BA has 14 seats in F in the nose of the 747, other airlines usually have (or had) around 8.
The AA seat is a bit more spacious, but does not have much privacy. Also when in bed mode the head is too close to the aisle.

The soft product in my experience is just ok on BA, on AA can be between almost ok and horrible depending on the crew.

If you need to transfer in LHR I would avoid the T3-T5 transfer. Even T5-T5 requires an additional security check which you (depending on where you are coming from) don't need in other airports. Also AF, LH, LX have spectacular F lounges, the concorde room is just meh.
If paying the'normal' F fares I would prefer AF, LH or LX. If the price is in the range of business class I might consider.

IflyonAA

BA F service is much better but they should upgrade the seat in the future to make it a true F seat of this era that being said the 772 F cabin is spacious vs the 747 which is cramped in my opinion. I have flown AAs 77W First - can't really remember it so maybe that's says a lot.

ijgordon

It often is. I frequently do NYC to "Europe" searches on Google Flights to look for good deal F fares, and invariably there are tons of BA options, often in the $3500-4000 r/t range (including nonstops to LHR). On the "real" airlines, it's usually $6-7k and up (but sometimes there are good deals, and especially these days if you originate in Europe, although GF doesn't seem to let you search *from* Europe *to* a specific city)

tikchik

Appreciate the replies. Sounds like a coin flip if price is the same.

One thing surprised me, the having to go thru security again at LHR. My plan was to connect on the Finnair A350 to HEL, never crossed my mind I would be subject to that.

SFO777

Neither are very good. Then again, there is a reason that they are both usually cheaper than a proper First Class one finds on AF, LH and LX. AA First is worth an SWU and that's about it. Nice swivel seat for working but the entire cabin is way too wide open and the right side way too close to the light and noise from the galley. AA crews are hit or miss but mostly miss and just logging the hours. Most 77W "curtains" are wafer thin and do not block light. 2A and 2J are partially in the J cabin. Eye shades and baseball caps are your friends, especially in 1J and 2J. IMO, one gets more privacy in 3A or 3J in the forward mini Business cabin.

SFO777

How much is LH, LX or AF on your dates?

tikchik

I have not seen anything sub $5k on those airlines for F.

SFO777

You can get LH/LX as low as $4,250 RT from the EU to the west coast. AF in the $4,850 range. What is your routing?

tikchik

DFW/LHR/HEL

SFO777

Yeah, ex-DFW you only have the OW option since LX doesn't fly there and neither LH or AF run F cabins.

carlosdca

Why not try AA on the outbound, BA on the return?

With AA you get a T3-T3 transfer to Finnair which is nicer than T5-T3, only because of the bus.
With BA on the return you avoid the AA boarding process zoo on flights to US, and the annoying security questions. The AA lounges are also a zoo, IMO avoid.
On the return (T3-T5 transfer) you can time your flights to spend some time at the Concorde Room (only for F pax). Concorde Room is nothing to write home about, just less crowded and a tad nicer than the Galleries Business or First lounges, and, IMO, much better than any of AA lounges at LHR.

IME, BA service has always been OK, never outstanding, never horrible.
AA F service sometimes can be horrible, bordering insulting (FAs rolling eyes, FAs completely ignoring pax requests, etc.).