Rank your favorite *A carriers for BUSINESS class
 

I have enough USAirways miles for 2 business class round trip tickets to anywhere in the world and have been doing some cost/benefit analysis for either business or paying a bit to get to F class for my honeymoon next year.

Since I can do business class for virtually nothing (apart from the annoying fees), I was curious as to where people rank the different Business class cabins of various *A carriers.

Thanks much!

Your problem will not be finding the best C product, but instead finding two C award seats on the same flight. When redeeming miles (especially US miles due to their stupid policy of blocking some LH/LX inventory, though LX inventory is pretty much non-existent anyway) you unfortunately have to be less picky.

But if you tell us where you´re flying, I´m sure you´ll receive some input.

The want that has available seats to my designation in the class and dates I want :)

Final destination is still debatable but Africa is the continent. Johannesburg seems likely as are other areas of southern and east Africa.

Rank your favorite *A carriers for BUSINESS class
 

I'd try and book LH or TK to JNB if possible.

I haven't personally taken SA's J class but that's because I'm led to believe it may be in need of a little refresh.

I'd avoid MS as I'd feel like I wasted my miles.

I think the only other option is SQ through SIN (I'm not fully versed on US's routing rules) but unless it's on a 772 you'll be hard pressed to find availability.

I'd try and book LH or TK and then if you find an LH F seat come up within 14 days of departure grab it, assuming the US phone agent can find the seats

Any idea how LH and TK compares to US envoy? There is a US direct to JNB with envoy but it seems like it couldn't possibly as nice.

No, there isn't. US doesn't fly to Africa.

LH is angled-flat on those flights unless you get lucky with a 748 from IAD or ORD to FRA. And the long day layover in Germany sucks a bit. I'd rather be in IST for those several hours, though the TK 330 isn't as great as their 777, and the 777 is 2-3-2 but the food is pretty darn good.

I've done SA a couple times in C, though not USA-JNB, and if you can get it (you almost certainly won't, but if you can) I'd take it and save the many extra hours of travel time for a reasonably solid overall product.

You will NOT be able to book LH F with US. It is no longer allowed.

Ah I meant SAA It pops up through USAirways booking. Why do you say I definitely wouldn't get the JFK to JNB?

LX basically doesn´t release any awards to *A partners. My preference would probably be SAA (full-flat beds; 2-2-2 works well when travelling together, generally very good soft product), but you´re unlikely to find two award seats on the JFK/IAD-JNB flights. Chances are better ex-Europe or ex-South America.

For your TATL flight, there are plenty of options incl. AC, US, UA, SN, OS, LH. LH will probably be the easiest option to find any availability.

TK also is a feasible option: very good soft product, but hard product not the best IMO.

Another outside-the-box option would be ET via ADD. I quite liked the C product on the 787, but they only have a few of those and equipment changes happen often, so I´d probably not take my chances as the 767 C product is mediocre.

Finding two C award seats on the SAA JFK/IAD-JNB flight is extremely unlikely (see my post above), but if you do find two seats, that would be among my first choices.

It's doable - I got a pair in Feb '12.

I didn't say that. I said it is unlikely as there aren't a ton of award seats made available and it is in high demand. But I also said that if you can get it you should. @:-)

Also keep in mind that partner award booking with US miles means calling it in; their website won't show the award seats. Use UA, ANA or Aeroplan to do your searching, take notes and then call it in and hope the agent sees the same things you were seeing online.

Possible to get an acronym breakdown? I'm not wearing my decoder ring and you're talking to a noob.

My apologies:

IMO = in my opinion

SAA = South African Airways
LH = Lufthansa
LX = Swiss
TK = Turkish Airlines
ET = Ethopian Airlines
AC = Air Canada
US = US Airways
UA = United Airlines
SN = Brussels Aairlines
OS = Austrian Airlines

three letter codes are airport codes (google is your friend)

767 / 787 = aircraft types



TATL = transatlantic