AA Intl J or LAN Intl J
 

Simple one i guess; would like peoples opinions regarding AA Intl J v. LAN Intl J - the flights would be either GIG-JFK with AA or SCL-JFK/LAX with LAN, all part of a DONE5 i need to get to North America for the end of July to make a mad dash back to London for a few days before picking up where i've left off. Am happy to fly either from LAX/JFK-LHR so getting to either is fine.

I've heard pretty mixed reviews lately of both carriers so not really too sure which to go for - all similar duration, and timings! who'd your preference be????

LAX-LHR is a much nicer flight than JFK-LHR so that might affect your decision. LA has little or no advantage over AA in J, at least not with their present seats, however LA F is quite nice. But I think going via LAX is better unless you really need to arrive in LHR before noon.

I actually like the AM flight from JFK-LHR on AA 142 in J or F. Service is grea and lack of jet lag is a big plus as flight arrives at LHR before 9PM...

I found LA's J seats to be better than AA's J seats in terms of seat back comfort, but AA's J seats better for leg support. LA's food and wines are better than AA's.

LA is hands down better in terms of service, food, and IFE (at least on the A340 they fly to LAX with on-demand IFE).

The seats are about equal, I believe. I've flown many times on AA J, but only once on LA J.

With seats being comparable, I think LA wins due to the first point. I really believe that LA is one of the most under-rated airlines worldwide, irrespective of the cabin of service.

Buen viaje!

If having a lot of space between seats is important to you then AA is the clear winner. For anything else LA is better.

Interesting how the same feature can be construed differently. I prefer the AA J IFE on the 763 (which is what AA operates on these routes) ... it is a personal DVD player with a selection of about 20 well-chosen movies. A lot better than the LAN IFE (for me). It is the AA 777 J IFE that sucks -- but not relevant to these routes.

AA J catering out of EZE is spectacular -- markedly better food quality and presentation than other routes (same menu but better execution). I presume SCL also has good catering (but I've only flown LAN F out of SCL, except for SCL-EZE and on that short route LAN is pretty poor in J).

For service, LAN is atrocious on the ground until you find the 1 person who is competent (and then the service is excellent); it took 20 minutes to change a full-J ticket from 1 flight to another an hour earlier (as my connection arrived early). In-flight is hit and miss, the FAs disappear at times but give good service at other times; it is no better than AA, just 30 years younger FAs.

Thanks for the heads up, i've ended up booking SCL-LAX as GIG-JFK was unavailable for the dates i wanted to travel, at least it wasn't in 'D' class! Fingers crossed it's a LAN767 with the new premium business config.

I've also got a seperate, but related question nonetheless - Flying into S.America i'll be doing SYD-SCL-GIG, all with LAN - I was planning on spending a night in SCL to recover before getting the early morning LA750 to GIG the next day..

But i've been advised that it'd be no problem to connect to LA756 on the day i arrive into SCL all sounds good but just want to see if anyone has any experience with LAN A320's, the LA756 is operated by an A320 and the LA750 by a 767, normally i'm not fussy as to what aircraft i fly - not when the product is the same i.e. the ongoing 777/747 in F/J debate!

So, are the seats different on LAN's A320 & B767 aircraft? If not, it makes sense to just get on with it and go straight through i guess, otherwise i'd like to recover from the SYD-SCL leg and just catch the LA750 flight the next day...

The A320s are all in short-haul config (so the J seat is circa 36 inch pitch, similar to AA MD80 F), while I think all of the 767s are in long-haul config so you get the real J seat. If you aren't otherwise entering Chile you may weigh the cost of the visa in the equation as you save this expense by staying in transit.