Gaikhao

Experience and no big secret. EVA has historically had a parallel distribution system. Very frustrating to find out that preferred travel agents could access better premium class airfares too.

bradders239

UA biz class is way cheaper than EVA with better hardware and in flight service. Yes I know its hard to believe but I have used it 3 times this year between USA and Taiwan and I have been amazed.

Jaimito Cartero

It’s been a couple years since I’ve flown transpac biz on UA, but they weren’t close in food or service then, compared to my BR flights this summer.

east_west

What planet do you live on?

Davvidd

Does anyone know these preferred agents in Canada?

bradders239

Before making such stupid comments you might want to try UA and then eat your own words. Like Is said I was also amazed.

east_west

I'm a UA MM and have been 1K for many years. I have the pleasure (?) of flying UA at least 50 flights a year and I have a hard time finding qualities in UA that are better than BR (or NH/SQ/JL/CX) other than the US route network. Particularly service, since you called that out, it really isn't even debatable. As for price, they only compete head-to-head on SFO-TPE for which they are both consistently around 5K plus/minus.

Kacee

lol I have over 1.2 million lifetime miles on UA. There's no aspect of UA's product that's better than BR's, except the bedding and the Polaris lounges (which you can access on a BR departure anyway).

And it's inaccurate to make sweeping statements about one airline's fares being lower than the other's. Fare pricing is highly variable depending on route and inventory. I know that on the routes I fly from SFO, BR is typically thousands cheaper than UA for business class and PE.

Eclipsed830

No way... United hardware is HORRIBLE. The even seats literally face into the isle so you stare at everyone walking by, and because the angle is so intense, the footrest is actually curved so you can't put your feet evenly inside. Not to mention they cram the seats in there so you are on top of each other... where EVA is much more spread out.

Also United will fill every single seat with upgrades, EVA will leave them empty and let you set up your bed in an adjacent empty seat.

The only thing United does better is the desert cart.

restlessinRNO

I fly UA SFO-TPE several times a year and am UA 2MM. I agree with Jaimito Cartero, east_west, Kacee and Eclipsed830. BR offers a far superior service, and the price for business class on this route is very similar.

Kacee

I've flown both UA Polaris and the Cirrus seat that BR uses many times (more than two dozen in each), and while the odd windows in Polaris offer more privacy, overall I find the Cirrus seat preferable. It's a less dense configuration (6 fewer seats between doors 1 and 2 on a 77W) and that has two main consequences. First, the Cirrus seat is not so narrow and constricting compared to Polaris, which is particularly tight at the shoulders. Second, with the Cirrus, virtually all the seats are equally good or bad, whereas with Polaris only 25% of the seats (odd windows) are really desirable, while a full 50% (even windows and middles) are flat-out undesirable due to exposure to the aisle.

While Polaris seat is certainly an improvement over what it replaces, the compromises that were made to increase density keep it out of the top rank of business class seats IMO.