Help please on LA, AA, BA 1st class
 

Hope someone out there can help this new FT'er on seating and other advice for a hard earned OW RTW in 1st class in may (QF OW award ticket). We are 2 adults plus 1 infant. Our itinerary is SYD-X/SCL (QF321/LA800), X/SCL-GIG (LA756), GIG-JFK (AA950), JFK-X/LHR (BA), X/LGW-RAK (BA6926,U), RAK-LHR (BA6919,U), LGR-SYD (BA9). Any advice on which are bassinet seats if any in 1st class on the above flights (QF could not help as none is on their metal), and any other tips on how we can make the most of this once in a lifetime experience would be very welcome. Thanks!

SYD-SCL is operated by LA using 343 equipment and has a single row in F, so not much choice of seats there (LA has nice food and wine, but a crummy F cabin). All F cabins have at least one basinette position (must be required by regulations, as all airlines have it), it seems to be either the first or last row (usually first). You can get seating plans at the web sites of the various airlines that you are flying.
If you are trying to maximize the experience of flying in F your flight selection consists of some of the worst for F on the Oneworld network (in terms of comfort, quality of service). For example AA flights out of GIG are infamous for being sub-standard and having surly crews (some have even reported F meals being unavailable, and later seen to be eaten by the crew) ... very atypical of AA. JFK-LHR is very short flight (7 hours), which makes it much less comfortable than the longer west coast (SFO/LAX/SEA-LHR) flights. LHR-SYD is better done with a stopover in BKK or SIN (or even better to go LHR-HKG and then HKG-SYD on CX). While BA is superb LHR-SYD, the flight is just too long for pleasure, even in F. In terms of enjoyment of inflight and ground service, you would have done better to fly SYD-AKL-HKG-SFO-JFK-YVR-LHR-BKK-SYD or something like that (within the 35K mile limit for QF Oneworld awards). If you were constrained to go to SCL, GIG and JFK then your routing is mileage limited and you had little choice in airlines; but since you are worrying about getting the best seat, you should be aware that you could have had much better planes and much better airlines by using a different Oneworld routing (makes the seat selection rather insignificant by comparison). Be sure to make use of the Concorde Room at LHR, the nicest perk of your F award given your routing.

Very interesting... are you paying for the baby's fare? Would that be 10% of the full First Class fare for your entire routing then?

Thanks for the tips number_6. Unfortunately we are constrained to GIG, JFK and RAK, also was told by QF we were limited to max 5 stopovers on OW award (which is a pity given the 35K mileage limit). JFK-LHR is actually on BA2 (only OK'd by QF after checking with a supervisor as my wife and I are both QF Plat - it seemed they would not have permitted this flight on the award otherwise). Thanks especially for the suggestion of CX via HK - will definitely explore that one.

Guy Betsy, in anser to your question there was no charge for the infant apart from the taxes (a little known perk of the QF FFP.)

Well number_6 I would have to disagree with you re: the LA cabin. I've just flown LA800 SYD-AKL in F and found it to be very comfortable. The seats are almost identical to AA's flat seats on the 767 but I thought just a tad flatter and with better padding. Only having one row made for quite an intimate cabin and the crew went well out of their way to make sure that I had a good flight. The entertainment system was good, maybe not quite as many selections as BA or QF but much better than AA and it was a VOD system. The games were pretty good too.

FWIW there are two bassinet positions - one on each side of the cabin. You have to ask the crew for a cot that inserts into the bulkhead.

Wow! Concorde is an AUD 2850 surcharge on RTW fares, so being Plat is over AUD 5K benefit to you. And the infant fare is another 1K saving ... you have done well in that respect. That 35K mileage limit on QF is very mean (AA allows up to 50K miles on Oneworld awards, but for greater cost). These other rules or exceptions make up for it, quite a tangible benefit. I'd suggesting flying BA LHR-HKG and then CX HKG-SYD. This gets you the BA lounge service at LHR T4 (Moulton Brown spa and Concorde room) which you wouldn't be able to access if departing on CX; and you can compare to the Wing/Pier lounges in HKG (maybe the best F lounges in the world, certainly with the best food). Plus the shopping in HKG is better (duty free can be 30-50% lower than other duty free cities, at least for the things that I've noticed). VS flies to HKG and BA is on its best behaviour on the HKG route (using better equipment, for example). And this routing leaves the best service for last (I think you'll find that CX is a notch or two or three better than the other airlines on your trip).

SYD-AKL is a 3 hour flight, a bit different than 14 hours in that cabin! The LA cabin is fine but it is sub-standard compared to the other OW alternatives trans-pacific (CX, QF). It stops being cosy at the 8 hour mark, and becomes claustrophobic (to be fair, AF uses the same arrangement in their A343s, albeit with better seats). The seats are not really up to current standards in comfort, but I suppose we should be thankful that LA kept a few routes with F service (having gone to mostly 2-class service this year). But routing SYD-LAX-GIG instead of SYD-SCL-GIG takes this ticket to 35.4K miles.

Is that with or without your recommended HKG routing to SYD ?

Also can you pay for just the extra 400 miles or is there another alternative ?

LHR-HKG-SYD is 2 miles longer than LHR-SYD (while LHR-SIN-SYD and LHR-BKK-SYD are over 100 miles longer). One of the rare cases of an intermediate city happening to be on the great circle route (of course the great circle is not actually flown on this route, for many reasons). The 400 extra miles must be eliminated by changing the routing, it cannot be paid for. There is a hard cap of 35K miles for Oneworld awards on QF and zero leeway (in theory). The likely solution is to take 400 miles out of the LHR-RAK-LHR flight, maybe going to casablanca instead (but I doubt that is close enough).