If you're going to Athens, BA is your best choice - they actually run some reasonable equipment on LHR-ATH instead of the underwhelming Club Europe to other places intra-europe.

new to FT
 

thanks so much for your advice. this will be my first trip abroad in 20 years and am looking forward to traveling in business class. I will try to get club world seats on LHR-ATH but it looks like they have Club Europe seats on that portion. Glad that you alerted me to this! thanks again!

LHR-ATH is still called Club Europe, but the seats and service are better on that route. Search the BA forum and you should find more information.

Welcome to FT!

You dont want to take Malev, period.

If you are talking about how the Club World seat looks like, you can check BA site there is a whole area devoted to Club World related - from seat to food to lounge whatever.

If you are talking about the Seat Map i.e. how the seats are arranged - you can go to Seatguru.com or Seatexpert.com to pull up the corresponding aircrafts (747 and 777) and look at the seat maps. In General, 747 upper deck is quieter and more spacious. Window seat has a lot more handy storage bins (3 of them along the window) but the seat is facing rear and not easy to get in and out especially your seatmate at the aisle is a stranger. Aisle seat has very limited storage space for personal items such as eyeglasses but the seat is facing forward.

For non-status flyer, you are NOT able to pre-select your seat until T-24 at Online Check-in unless you have a Minor in your group (T-72).

Club World refers to the business class seat on International Longhaul.

Club Europe refers to the business class seat on Intra-Europe service. Club Europe is decidedly an underwhelming product. (In my opinion, a poorly designed product.) However almost anywhere intra-Europe routes it will be Club Europe majority of the time. Intra-Europe routes are shorthops so it is not a big deal even the seat is really nothing special.

To learn more about BA, go to BA forum and read the STICKY. There are lengthy discussions on the Seat Arrangements on various aircrafts.

How the revenue is used has zero bearing on the economic principles and functions of a green tax.

Technically (?) you may be correct, but most folks use the term to refer to a tax that either (a) penalizes and thus discourages an anti-environmental activity (e.g., a congestion tax designed to discourage driving private automobiles in a part of the city) or (b) raises money for a pro-environmental activity (e.g., when a permit fee for logging is designated to plant new trees).

If the politicians are simply raising general revenue, why call it a "green" tax?

..... like flying on an airplane?

Could be, if -- like the congestion charges -- it is high enough to get folks to choose another alternative. Is that the case here? Is the intent to get folks to not use Heathrow and use the Chunnel instead?

Or simply to encourage people to travel less frequently? I have reduced my annual number of transatlantic flights, but not the number of days abroad. Fly less often, stay longer.

Not fully accurate.

Just can't cross the pond using one airline's FF miles on other airline's metal when crossing the pond between UK and US. No such restriction via Canada or other routing (Bermuda, Caribbean islands, Mexico City, etc.), which is what I have done using AA miles on BA flights.

Steve32

This thread pertains to using BA miles, in which case the stated info is completely accurate. Since AA doesn't fly "across the pond" from any points outside the USA, there's no argument (the fact that AA miles can be used on BA metal from Canada, Mexico, etc, is not relevant to this discussion).

But can BA miles be used for the likes of BA LHR-CDG x AA CDG-JFK/MIA/ORD?

It would require a phone call to book, even if allowed by BA.

No.

Thanks for the info:

Seems like the limitation on the use of BA miles for transatlantic awards is indeed not a mirror image of the limitation on the use of AA miles for transatlantic awards. BA miles restriction applies to even US-non-UK transatlantic service while AA miles restrictions applies only to US-UK transatlantic service.

I posted this on BA forum, but I think I might get a faster response here.

I was trying to make a reservation for ICN-JFK for 25K miles. Of course, BA.com does not show anything if I type in ICN-JFK, but when I break it down to ICN-HKG, HKG-JFK, BA.com has quite a few days available all on CX (though they are same-day connections.)

With this information, I called BA executive club desk in the States, but the agent told me that she doesn't see anything at all in her system.

What can I possibly do to make this booking? Do I just call again and again until I meet a helpful agent?