Best F to Italy?
 

I'm working on using miles (AA) for a trip to Italy, either Rome, Florence or Venice. Which carrier would you choose that would have the best First Class experience?

Thanks!

Usually, I would say BA first class should be your first choise. But I guess BA trans-atlantic is not an option with AAdvantage.

Therefore, I would suggest AA first class to London and then connect with BA to Italy.

The rules changed July 1, 2003. It is allowed, just not US-UK. So from AUS it would be possible to go AUS-DFW-MEX-LHR-FCO using BA F for transatlantic. Other possible routings are via Canada or BGI if you wanted a caribbean routing, etc.

I haven't flown them in F transatlantic, but you would be able to do Swiss to Italy. I have heard few negative things about their service or about the Swiss experience. Otherwise, you are kind of limited to AA, IB, or BA (from Mexico or Canada). Maybe El Al. I don't know where they fly because I don't know anything about them. But I think there is some sort of limit on taking El Al anyway.

BA is good, AA is alright, and as I said, I heard LX is good. Not many positive vibes coming out of Madrid, unfortunately, though off the board someone told me that their F is fine and everything else stinks.

Only problem is LX not yet OneWorld. When it is onboard it has perfectly lovely first or business and transfers at ZRH are much, much preferable to LHR.

That isn't a problem - AA miles have been redeemable on Swiss for some time (as have AsiaMiles). OneWorld membership is a separate issue.

thanks for all your input. Just FYI, I found out Swiss won't be flying to Venice or Florence after the 26th of this month. Puts a kink into things a little bit. AAdvantage wants to put me on Iberia which I've heard is awful.

So take the American and British, Iberia, or Sabena combo. You can close to route however you choose and you can use more than one carrier.

F on IB is OK (and sometimes very nice), it is their Y and J that are awful. IB staff behave quite differently to F passengers and they don't see most of IB's bad behaviour. Plus the F cabin is very small and often empty (more empty than it would be on any of the alternatives). For your routing I would even go so far as to say it is a good choice (but only in F, and only on MIA-MAD).

F on IB is OK (and sometimes very nice), it is their Y and J that are awful. IB staff behave quite differently to F passengers and they don't see most of IB's bad behaviour... ...I would even go so far as to say it is a good choice (but only in F, and only on MIA-MAD).[/B][/QUOTE]

Perhaps not! See (end of pg1) this recent trip report...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/004097.html

It is very easy to get from FCO to downtown Florence on the train (one from FCO-termini, one from termini-Florence). Takes about 2 hours.