Looking for some advice

Basically I have a redemption coming up soon that goes

BRU-JFK-ICN-NRT-AKL , however I have been checking the ana tool daily for JFK-NRT seats which there are still none available as that would be my preferred route although the JFK-NRT flight seems to be toughest of ANA flights to get bus or first seats on as, usually you can get LHR and FRA flights a week or so in advance but there does not seem to be such a trend on the JFK flights, anyway I digress

I noticed that instead of spending the night in ICN I could fly JFK-YYZ-NRT. Now what I was looking for was for some opinions on whether OZ is better or AC.

Seat wise I was thinking AC would win as fully flat however I have read good things on the service regarding OZ. I have not been on either?

Which would you choose taking into consideration ease of transits,seats, IFE and service

JFK-YYZ-NRT or

JFK-ICN-NRT

Well I can't imagine there are going to be too many seats going spare on flights to NRT over the next few weeks.

As for OZ versus AC, all I can say is that in my opinion AC is one of the very best *A airlines. I wouldn't have spent any time looking any further if I'd found AC seats. Do you know what aircraft they have on the route? If its a new 767 or 777 then there's no question you should go for AC. 330 needs some further checking to make sure what the cabin type is on the route you are flying but these have insufficient range for many Pacific routes.

There are no more new/old AC aircraft (apart from a couple 767s that fly vacation routes) All 767/777/330s are flat bed pods.

I dont know how you are going to fly from JFK to YYZ though - no Star carrier does the route, and certainly not AC, they only go from LGA/EWR. Transit in YYZ is very easy.

There isnt a BRU-JFK flight either, are you going to EWR?

I hope you are right as I have a redemption coming up, but they still had them just before Christmas on the YUL run.

$30 return on the bus to LGA then you need a flight starting from there:

http://www.nyairportservice.com/

Moving this from the BMI forum to the Star Alliance forum, as this thread is not really related to the Diamond Club program, but rather discusses different *A carriers...

Jasper2009
BMI Diamond Club Mod Team

There are 3 of these ghetto 767 birds flying around on leisure routes. All A330s are flat bed.

Apologies, it was using BMi miles so I placed it the BMi forum oh well live and learn, anyway it makes more sense here.

I was looking at EWR-YYZ-NRT as I currently have JFK-ICN and I was leaning towards the Flat beds for the 12 or so hours. SO thanks for the replies I think I will try my luck with the AC seats

I'd take AC for the seat and IFE.

AC has flat bed seats and AVOD. OZ has some flat bed seats, but not enough yet to guarantee that it will be on whatever route you take. OZ IFE is all over the place, even in premium cabins, some AVOD, some not. OZ cabins also tend to be stifling hot. Food and wine probably slightly better on OZ. OZ service will be more Asian style if that is important to you.

are you only looking at C or F as well?

personally I would probably go the other way around via LHR, FRA or MUC if there are seats available.

Out of interest, why are you considering that crazy route when you could go europe-asia direct instead?

If I were you I would book europe-BKK-AKL or europe-NRT-AKL. europe-PVG-AKL (usually lots of NZ C availability on this route) etc.

Basically the routing is because I have done the eurupe-asia-nz run a few times and I wanted a stopover in New York on the way and when I originally booked it there were no seats West Coast USA to AKL so this is what I ended up with in Business but I was looking for first class availability as I was willing to spend the miles but nothing so far, and I Was jsut looking at better ways to get across down to Auckland. Basically now there are West Coast USA seats to Auckland but no seats New York West Coast on the dates I need.

It is difficult to do any detailed research with out knowing the approximate travel dates and the number of travelers.

I believe the only *A carriers with an F service TPAC are UA, NH, and OZ.

I did some award searches using the ANA tool and did find possible F availability JFK-ICN on OZ in early April, for two passengers. ANA lists the availability as "RQ" as opposed to "OK". This means there may be availability, but you would not know until you tried to book the award through your airline.

There doesn't seem to be any NH or UA availability in F.