trooper

Folks....

Looking for opinions/experiences. I am helping a non FF friend with planning for a trip (with his wife) to our sports World Championships in France next year.

SYD-CDG

They are not regular travellers and are only looking at Y.

The most economic options appear to both be via ICN. OZ all the way.... KE all the way...or KE SYD-ICN then on AF metal ICN-CDG.

I have not flown in Y on any of them.... and not on KE or AF at all.... help!

Any thoughts appreciated....

chris19992

Personally would avoid AF, purely due to the fact you can never know if they will be on strike or not, they're not LH bad but it's stress you don't need when planning a trip.
I cannot say between the other two as I have only flown KE once and liked their service but have also been told by numerous people that OZ are better.

eigenvector

I would go with OZ all the way. They are one of the best airlines to travel with in long-haul economy.

trooper

Thanks! I'll pass that on!

Wangja

I have flown this route in KE and AF many times, but rarely in Y.

If they could run Eco+ in AF that would be excellent value. I have never flown OZ but KE Y I rate higher than AF in Y.

bhomburg

The most comfortable Y flight experience will be with Korean on their A380s. KE has the lowest seat density of all A380 operators on these with 34 inches of pitch, and it shows. If you can get both legs on an A380, this is the way to go (schedule considerations notwithstanding).

Asiana uses an A380 from SYD to ICN, which is equally nice especially on the upper deck. The (longer) segment to Paris is flown by 777-200s with less spacious seating. Those are still 3-3-3 (not the hellish 3-4-3 many other airlines have resorted to) and acceptable, though.

Air France's offering in Y is the least comfortable here - they use a B777-300ER on this route, and those are 10-abreast high-density sardine can hell. Avoid.
However, they offer premium Economy which is often attractively priced (the fare difference can be less than 200 Euros one way, definitely worth it IMO).

Long Train Runnin

I've done both KE and OZ in Y JFK-ICN.

Personally I prefer KE. 34in pitch 9 across Y on the 777 pretty hard to beat I'd say.

Food is good is decent. They will even leave you sleeping and leave a note on your seat that you missed the meal service, and serve you when you wake up.

trooper

again....THANKS!!!!

trooper

They ended up booking with KE.... 380 ICN-CDG-ICN

Long overnight layover outbound... but they APPEAR to be eligible for STPC.... which would be nice.

Thanks again for the guidance.

(I'm flying SYD-HKG-LHR-CDG//CDG-HEL-HKG-SYD in J using AA miles...much more "Flyertalk like"...lol)