My experience with CO OnePass is that they incorrectly label business class products as First Class. I have been told by Onepass agents that CO BusinessFirst is First Class. As someone familiar with a variety of business class and First Class products, the CO assertion never made sense. (Perhaps many years ago it would have.)

Yes I agree that VS upper class is better than most airline's business class though there are a few like the new SQ ones which are probably better. But my point was that they themselves do not compare it to first class of others.

Is there a general trend when CO releases inventory for saver awards (coach or BF). I'm looking for an EWR-SFO ticket in November and there are no saver award tickets available for the return flight (Nov 30). Whereas, they are available for most flights on United. I have noticed the same for other dates too.

The EK J seat is really cool, I was on it twice IAH-DXB and then again DXB-DEL just this week, and it is awesome. The seat is really comfy, good massage feature, and the AVOD is second to none, IMHO. The drawbacks are that the seat is a bit tight in the shoulders (I'm 6'2" and was crowded...they do 2x3x2 in a 777 in J ), the food is just okay, and the seat just isn't deep in the thigh catagory -- my hamstrings were supporting the tray table every time I ate, and they do not serve booze during boarding...only champagne. BOOO! That being said, it was a good experience overall and the J lounge at DXB is truely a sight to behold! ^

Going to try VS UC DEL-LHR-EWR here in a few, so I'll post my thoughts on that combo when I return. Happy Travels!

I found the EK seat better overall, though the VS seat was wider in the shoulders and felt less cramped to me. That being said, neither sucked!

Thanks everyone for their inputs. I had briefly seen the EK business class on the B777 (SFO-DXB) as it was right behind me. I felt the seat was too narrow for J class specially when converted into the flat bed. I haven't seen the J lounge in DXB, but did spend decent amount of time in the F lounge and that too is quite exquisite.

Anyway, so the general feeling here seems to be that VS UC is not worth the extra miles. I still have many months before my next visit to India, hopefully CO will change their policy by then regarding EK F or at least for *A F like SQ.

Not probably. SQ's latest Business Class is indeed better. Consider: 1x2x1 forward configuration opposed to the weird herringbone design of VS Upper Class. Further, SQ's crews are a billion light years ahead of VS' since they are consistently polite, friendly, and caring, you actually feel they are look after you from the heart. The only poor aspect of SQ's Business Class are the airport lounges which certainly can't compete with VS' Club Houses (though the ones for First and Suites Class are excellent).

Having done both, I would say that VS UC, while very nice, is not worth a 60k premium over EK. (And, yes, VS would be 180k in this instance.)

I flew in an EK first class seat redeemed with CO miles 2 weeks ago...
Several routes are sold as 2 class on a 3 class aircraft, such as BHX-DXB, so if you check in online, you can
snag one of the 12 first class seats.

Very much looking forward to the return leg on EK in a couple months CPT-DXB-JFK

120k to Africa in EK J are super value for CO miles =)

Are you saying that even though the ticket was booked in J, you can select an F seat at the time of check-in, or you were actually able to book an F seat? Is this one of their older F cabin or the F suites.

777-300 newer seats, ticket in J (onepass reward) but 3 class aircraft, so able to select row 1/2 at checkin (and only at checkin, not earlier). Only the seat and headset were F, food, amenity kit, etc were C. Also they emptied out the personal minibars.

Only the evening BHX flight operates with this aircraft setup

KE also allows this on intra-Asian routes sold as two-class but operated on three-class aircraft. They let you reserve the F seat at the time of booking, however.

Anyone ever manage to get a First Class award booked with EK? UA has the ability to do it and now with CO joining Star Alliance it has the capability to book F on LH,LX etc...

Not possible...

Best would be to check by calling the OPCC, though I doubt they would have changed the policy with EK even though they now allow F rewards on *A partners. Hopefully after the merger the new UA won't take away this ability. I guess it would depend on whether the new UA keeps the 3 Class config for their international routes.

speaking of EK, I looked at the CO site. Is there a reward chart somewhere?

Also, what are the implications of the partnership if U-CON goes through?