BBT in NY

I have a business trip scheduled. I have the following options

NYC-DTW/ DTW-NRT (WBC on 744)/ NRT-SIN (WBC on A330)
and
EWR-HKG (CO BF on 777)/ HKG-SIN (regional Business class on Cathay).

I am in a bit of a dilemna on deciding which one to pick.

NW +sides:
AVOD on 744
Upper deck seat
WP EQM on full trip
never tried the A330 WBC product - so am curious to compare it with the 744 config.

NW -sides:
2 connections - longer travel time and later arrival in SIN

CO+sides
shorter travel time.
never tried the 777 BF seat

CO -sides
short connection with Cathay - is there a luggage interline agreement/ will I be issued a Boarding pass for the HKG-SIN leg in EWR?
no WP miles on Cathay -and I might need those extra ones to requalify for Plat.
no AVOD
While I am familiar with the 767 BF product, I never tried the 777 BF seat and have heard some negative feedback (sliding) => is it really so bad?


What would be your recommendations? Thanks!

JohnWM

I have never taken the CO flight, so I cannot share any experiences.

I have, though, taken a transpacific flight in World Business Class on NW (JFK-NRT-HKG) before that flight was discontinued. That flight was on the 744. I found the AVOD great, the service New York casual & friendly, the food plentiful and tasty, and the seat comfortable only as far as NRT (after NRT, my bottom was truly sore). I also felt that the seat itself was not wide enough for my comfort and the arm-rest was narrow and uncomfortable. Basically, a good ride with a few negative points for me. I was downstairs on the outbound and upstairs homeward. Upstairs did not appeal to me: I found it too quiet, too low-ceilinged.

On another occasion, I took NW in World Business Class on the NRT-SIN run. I enjoyed the A-330 seat more than the 744 seat because I felt it was a wider seat with a wider arm-rest. On that run, the food was great, the Asian crew was friendly, the service was nice, and the AVOD was great too (with many functioning choices of film, music, skymap, games).

This is of course only one man's view and YMMV, but I'm glad to share & hope it will be helpful to you.

Enjoy your flights!

themicah

What about the CO/NW codeshare route EWR-(CO)-NRT-(NW)-SIN? Is that an option? You should probably be able to buy it either as an all-CO or all-NW itinerary, so be sure to price it both ways if price is an issue.

Can you fly CO/CX one way and NW the other so you can compare them yourself?

You shouldn't have any problem interlining bags between CO and CX. I don't think CO can give you a CX boarding pass, however.

I don't think you'll have any more of a slippage issue in the CO 777 BF seat than you will in the NW 744/332 WBC seats. If you sleep on your back, you can set any of them to the "cradle" position (rather than the "flat-at-an-angle" position) and you won't have to worry about sliding down the seat.

If you really want to juice miles out of the thing, see if you can add a stop in HNL on NW.

sany2

First of all, I (might be wrong, but) thought that NW/CO didn't code share on EX- NRT flights. Additionally, the NW seat is "lie-flat" while the CO seat is not. The NW seat is the best american business class seat on the market.

kb1992

No question, I would take NW WBC over CO BF.

I had flown both of them. You can't argue with additional 5"-15" pitch space.

In addition, I like the flat bed much better.

You are correct, NW's WBC is the best biz class among US carriers including AA/CO/UA/DL.

themicah

They definitely codeshare.

As a NW itin: EWR-NRT-SIN = NW6009/NW5 and SIN-NRT-EWR = NW6/NW6008

As a CO itin: EWR-NRT-SIN = CO9/5875 and SIN-NRT-EWR = CO5876/CO8.

Many folks prefer NW's old WBC to the slippery-slope new WBC, but that's just a matter of preference. Many also prefer CO's cabin service to NW's. NW's new-WBC IFE, otoh, blows everything else from the USA out of the water (er, sky).

kb1992

Well, UA's 777 F IFE is at least the same, if not better. :-:

And saver F awards on UA require same amount of miles as NW WBC, 120,000 miles to Asia.

ENIAC

I flew WBC for the first time recently. The seats, wine and AVOD were all good in the 330 and the food was platable but not stunning (not this route -- it was AMS-DTW). But the flight attendents were very lackluster. There were only 8 people in the whole WBC cabin, but we still had to flag them down to get wine refils to drink with desert. For the middle half of the flight they were nowhere to be seen -- they just left an open bottle of wine, some water, and glasses out in the forward galley. I imagine that they decided that if they were only getting 60%-70% of their old pay they were only going to do 60-70% of the work.

I don't know if this is a general problem in WBC given current NW labor relations. But it would make me think twice about choosing NW WBC for a long flight if I had an alternative.

I've also noticed that on domestic F the pre-departure drink seems to be a thing of the past. Even if there is a delay of 30 minutes or an hour before take off the FAs just stand around gossiping and make no move to offer drinks.

channa

If you're principled at all about NW removing JFK-NRT, you could take CO over NW.

Personally, I couldn't imagine dropping this kind of coin on a U.S.-based carrier. NH or SQ would be much better if the price is similar.

sllevin

There's something to be said about the EWR-SIN nonstop on SQ.

But if you want to stay on NW/CO, I'd definitely take one connection less and fly CO to HKG and then Cathay onwards to SIN.

Steve

kkua

If you're making a decision based food served, pick your favorite cuisine. Do you prefer Chinese or Japanese? The seat sleeping comfort for me is only 2ndary... the westbound flights are almost always during daylight (except winter months for brief darkness over the north pole), so long sleeping sessions really defeats the purpose of trying to sync with local time zones. I've never flown back to the US on that route b'cos I've always deliberately made a stopover in HNL for some downtime at the beach.

I've flown the EWR-HKG 3 times, all around Thanksgiving time (for those readers outside USA, it's late November) and the menu has not changed from year to year. In cold weather first meal service on the EWR-HKG flight is the same as CO's domestic transcon (lamb, chicken, pasta or fish). The Chinese food selection comes on service #2 and #3. Then on CX, chances are you'll have another Chinese dinner option vs western cuisine.

When you fly via NRT both directions, the options do not deviate much: a Japanese bento box or a traditional 4 course meal with a choice of 2 (sometimes 3) main dishes.

NWA_5479

Even in E+...

sllevin

Actually, on SQ, it's better than that. Coach is 2-3-2 (instead of 2-4-2) with 38" of pitch. So not terribly different that F was on the MD-80. If you have to fly coach (not that I am advocating that, btw!) then you really, really want to be on that non-stop.

Steve

NWA_5479

Well, considering that the service on SQ in Y is much better than NW/CO domestic F, and the seat is probably comperable, I think it is a good option. Its saves on travel time as well.

I wonder what Raffles fares go for on EWR-SIN?

BBT in NY

First of all, thank you all for your invaluable input ^

I ended up booking EWR-HKG (CO BF) and HKG-SIN (CX J) on the outbound and SIN-NRT (NW WBC) - NRT-EWR (CO BF) on the return (special thanks to TheMicah for the suggestion) .

With this, I will have the opportunity to try for the first time both CO 777 BF and NW A330 WBC seats + the CX product (but on A330 Regional J) and have a sample of both Chinese & Japanese cuisines.

As much as I wished I could try SQ or NH, they were unfortunately not part of my company's preferred carriers. I could have booked them if they were cheaper than the preferred ones, but they were both more expensive. Also, SQ non stop flight was fully booked so I would have ended up in the JFK-FRA-SIN flight.