I’ve been in Europe for what feels like forever now, but it’s finally almost time to get out of here. I’m kind of sad about that, not just because I love everything about Europe (other than the prices), but because I love being in a timezone several hours ahead of the US. It makes being productive so much easier, since I’m “ahead of the game” rather than spending all day catching up.
But I’ve got places to go, and in the next three weeks will be passing through Orlando, Seoul, Dubai, Oslo, New York, and Hong Kong.
Anyway, I’m trying to plan my routing home for this week, and am making an effort to try new products. Nowadays the excitement I get out of the premium cabin travel experience isn’t the experience itself, but how much I enjoy interacting with you guys and sharing the experience. That’s why I enjoy a China Southern first class flight as much as a Lufthansa first class flight.
With that in mind, I think I’ve narrowed my travel home down to a few different options:
Avianca’s new business class from London to Bogota
Avianca has a new reverse herringbone business class product, which is my favorite type of business class hard product. As far as I know they only have one A330 featuring this product so far, but it’s scheduled to fly from London Heathrow to Bogota on a date that could work for me.
Now, getting from Reykjavik to Tampa via Bogota would require several awards and five segments, but it would certainly be one of the more unique reports I’ve written, right?
The other thing that makes this interesting is that it’s what I like to call a “reverse redeye.” We’re used to eastbound transatlantic flights being redeyes, but in this case we have a westbound transatlantic flight that’s a redeye, as it leaves London at around 11PM and gets to Bogota at 4AM. Since I’ve been dreaming of reverse redeyes for a long time, it would be fun to finally try one out.
Besides, I’d like to prove to myself once and for all that Avianca is actually an airline and not just a frequent flyer program. 😉
Singapore A380 business class from Frankfurt to New York
I’ve flown Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class from San Francisco to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Singapore, though I haven’t actually flown their A380 business class.
It’s a fantastic use of Singapore KrisFlyer miles at just 48,875 KrisFlyer miles one-way, and now that KrisFlyer is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, and ThankYou Points, it’s a readily available use of miles.
At the same time, it kills me to redeem 48,875 KrisFlyer miles for business class, when Suites Class would cost 57,375 miles (though there’s no availability).
US Airways A330 business class
Last October I flew US Airways business class from Charlotte to Paris. The hard product was good, while the service was amusing. Miss Peggy was the most prolific flight attendant aboard. She went above and beyond the call of duty, and wanted to make sure we were maximizing every aspect of our travel experience… by telling us exactly when to sleep.
So while it’s not really a new experience, I wouldn’t mind giving them another shot and seeing how the experience compares.
US Airways 757 business class
So hear me out. On one hand I have a hard time voluntarily choosing the less good US Airways plane when both are available, but at the same time reviewing US Airways’ 757 product would be something new. The hard product looks pretty terrible based on what I’ve seen, and after that flight I might just be raving about how great La Compagnie was by comparison. 😉
Bottom line
Which of the above would you most like to read about?
I need to book in the next day or so, so let me know ASAP!
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