snufkin

Well, I will have to do this journey soon and I don't know which airline to choose: KE or SU. I will need your help here fellow flyertalkers!

As far as I can see:

KE: better product, better lounges, longer journey (around 20h outbound and 24h inbound with a stop at ICN), better planes (747 and 330)

SU: shorter journey (outbound 12h30, inbound, 12h30), smaller planes with no sleepers (320)

I would tend to go with KE... then comes another consideration: with which journey would I make more miles flying C? I am currently FlyingBlue Ivory and I don't know where to find this information.

Thanks for your help!

apoivre

You can use this page to see how many miles you get on each partner in each eligible booking class
http://partnersearch.ehn.klm.com/af/us_en/

Flying SU you get 175% in C and J or 150% in D or I class.
Flying KE you get 125% in J, C, D or 100% in Z.

So you're looking at something like 13500 or 16900 mi return if you go the KE way and 13400 or 15600 mi if you choose SU. All in all it's a wash

Only you can decide how much flying a better product (KE) justifies spending longer in the air. Or you could fly one on the outbound and the other on the inbound and share your thoughts on Flyertalk as to how the two compare.

P.S. Personally I find J on Aeroflot's A320s more than adequate on shorter flights and have no experience with KE on longhaul. But I flew one of their older 747s in J on mid-haul back in 2008 and it was absolutely nothing to write home about.

snufkin

Flying one and another, this sounds like a good idea!
Thanks!
I understand that the SU A320 seats don't have much recline, would you confirm this?

apoivre

It's 18°, or so their website claims
http://aeroflot.aero/cms/en/flight/comfort_service_pr

It's definitely fine when one's flying SVO to BER, AMS or CDG. But flying all the way to ULN might be a bit too much. Too bad the route doesn't support a proper widebody