LAX-NRT-LAX: Oneworld or *A?
 

Amazing how a person like me can be on FT for eight years, and yet feel like a newbie, as I have never posted on the Oneworld site!

I am going to the Orient this summer in business, and I have the choice of using my UA or AA miles. If I use UA, my flights would be a combination of AC and NH. (I have flown most *A carriers around the world in all classes. Even though there is availability on SQ, I've never flown AC, so I wanted to give them a try).

But then I see that my AA miles can get me there on a JAL/AA combo in business. Never flown either (internationally). I would like advice from the sages as to what I should do!

Take care,

In business class I would recommend to go with SQ to NRT as a first choice if you can gat availability. Second choice would be NH. JAL would be my thrid choice. AA and UA last choice.

If you only want to get to Asia and not just NRT then the best routing right now would be the SFO-ICN SQ 77W flight with the new J class. However, I don't think SQ offer awards on these flights (yet). I recently flew SFO-ICN-SIN in J and it was pretty good.

Agree with Rambuster. JL's new business seat isn't too bad - a bit like QF's skybed, or SQ's spacebed (old business seat). AA however is worse and as for UA I still have nightmares about flying them earlier this year.

ACs new business class is nice so if you can get it, go for it. If you are willing to change planes, there is also OZ for this route (in addition to what Rambuster and Kiwi were saying). In terms of Oneworld, you could also consider CX via HKG rather than AA/JL direct.

From your post, it's not exactly clear what your choices are. The thread title says LAX-NRT-LAX, so I assume that's your routing. When you say JAL/AA combo, is that JAL n/s in one direction and AA in the other? When you say AC and NH, is that AC 1-stop in one direction and NH nonstop in the other?

If that is in fact your choice, then my next step would be to look at flight times to see which is more convenient. In terms of the flying experience, NH is better than JAL, but both are nice so it's a slight edge. The choice is really whether to take a 1-stop AC flight or AA nonstop. In business, that's a toss up for me. In F, it would be AA.