East Coast to London in Business Class
 

Which Star Alliance carrier has the best service / seat to LHR from EWR, JFK, or PHL? I've flown CO so far, and while their service isn't bad, their Business Class seat is not very good if you're trying to sleep. Is there a carrier in Star Alliance that has a particularly good Business / First class seat and service to London?

Thanks!

The new UA flat bed is pretty good, but you'll need to hop down to IAD.

Don't forget Air Canada through YYZ. No more of a pain to get to YYZ than IAD. AC has an excellent business lie-flat suite, much nicer than UA's. Closer to UA's F suites than UA new C.

As a general rule, I'd take anything that wasn't an airline based in the USA.

Does your *A FFP have reciprocity with VS? If so, it's hard to beat VS Upper Class from either JFK/EWR to LHR.

If not, I would use Swiss -- for example, JFK-GVA/ZRH and then connect to a LCY or LHR hopper, but then I'm a big Swiss fan. Direct, your choices are CO from EWR or US from PHL, but US is pretty 'eh'.

Agree with previous posters. Have flown both UA and AC in C recently (well, J on AC) and they are comparable, both for service and flatness of beds. If there are two of you, then sitting together on UA gives you better face time, as AC's configuration is a bit isolating.

Thanks for the replies. Seems like a big gap for the entire alliance to not have a competitive product between NYC and London. Connecting does sound like the best option, but that limits scheduling. I'm a CO FF, so I can get miles through VS - great product - but they're typically pretty expensive.

US flies daily PHL-LHR with A332. 1 out of 3 of their A332 currently has the new flat seats (envoy suite). If you e-mail them and write the dates of you flights, they can tell you wheather they will have the new seats or not (they have done that with my TLV-PHL flights I may fly in APR and MAY).

Thanks for the tip on US out of PHL.

Didn't I hear that CO is planning a new flat bed for BF; or did I imagine that ?

It is not your imagination. One of the 20 772s is already converted and the second should be done this week or so. The 752s (also used on the EWR-LHR route) are also being converted at this point though none are completed yet.

Otherwise you're looking at VS. CO will sell VS flights as codeshares as well so you might be able to find some decent pricing that way, but no guarantees.