NRT to SIN FC or E+
 

Hello,

UA837 NRT to SIN currently the wife and I are booked in E+ (award ticket) but I'm debating surprising the wife and moving her to FC.

What are the pros and cons? Any advice is greatly appreciated

Thank you

Only cost, what other cons could their be ?

UA F on that route is not worth 55,000 miles, IMO.

But if you have lots and lots of miles to burn, maybe it is to you.

A better value would be 40,000 miles in J, NRT-BKK-SIN, with NRT-BKK in J on the TG 380. Still lots of miles for a $1000 ticket though.

thanks for the replies...my total trip would be GUM-NRT-SIN....they have two options: total business class all the way for 60k or GUM-NRT E+ while NRT-SIN is FC for 55k...which would leave approx 70K in the bank

Not sure I understand how J prices at 60K rather than 35K, but if those are your choices, I would go for F at 5K less. You'll get to use the ANA F lounge at NRT. Ask to waitlist for business class on GUM-NRT; it's the same price.

Business Standard is 60K. (Business Saver can also be 40K v. 35K if on partners).

Clearly, I'd redeem the Saver F price, and waitlist for I/IN on the other leg.

Yeah, route usually doesn't have too much saver J space because it's quite often sold out with paid J travel (one of the harder routes to upgrade).

Benefits are obvious, but it's 7 hour flight and you get the lie-flat seating (2-4-2 in biz). Given mileage cost, obviously there are other flights you could go longer in biz or FC for the same amount, but you're not looking to book, e.g., IAD-NRT or ORD-HKG, so there you have it.

I would say a 7 hour flight is definitely worth the additional miles to fly in Business Class if you have the miles to spare. It is true they don't release I or even R inventory on this route very often. IME upgrade from Y-C came within 12 hours of the flight for one leg and 2-3 days in advance for the other leg. So saver award availability would be tough to find. But of course the business class seats are going to be more comfortable.

I just flew the NRT to SIN flight yesterday on ANA in business. I am always pleased to choose ANA over United metal as the food and drink offers are superior (always opt for the Japanese selection and the French wines and champagne compared to United's mystery wine and sparkling wine). The ANA flight attendants are quite good.

I would splurge for the business class seat which is a fully flat seat. Where was only one person in the ANA first section, the seat is larger than the business class seat.

If transferring into NRT, I would opt for United Global First to gain access to the United GF lounge in NRT and likewise if transferring out of SIN, I would opt for Global First on United because you can gain access to the KrisFlyer First Lounge in SIN. I'm assuming the KrisFlyer business lounge is also good---just my preference.

Save some miles and go J. It's way better then Y but not that much 'worse' then F.

The J option is actually 5k more.

Personally I'd deal with UA E+ for the first leg, then be able to fly sinagpore first and use the sq first lounge in nrt just to try something else. I can deal with Y for the first part of a flight if the latter part is going to be in F.

And we are talking 10 000 miles for someone who has ~70 000 in the bank, that's a pretty decent savings.