Questions and Answers

Heading to Rome this summer and I was able to put these two reservations on hold.

SNA to DFW to LHR to FCO on BA First Class.
[I]62.5k Points with $492 fee.[/I]
[LIST]
[*]Closer to home to get to airport.
[*]Arrives in Rome at 2 or 4pm.
[*]Concord Lounge in LHR
[*]Obviously First Class.
[/LIST]
Or

LAX to LHR to FCO
[I]50k points with $100 fee.[/I]
[LIST]
[*]Later flight so I arrive in Rome around 7-8pm
[*]Hour drive to LAX

[/LIST]
Basically is it worth the 12.5k points and $400 difference to fly British First Class?

AA business no brainer. You’ll be flying a superior product with one less connection. Not to mention less miles and money out of pocket.

[USER=1483]@phant0m[/USER] — Welcome! I guess it depends on your finances and miles? BA F is better than AA J, and you’re dealing with the hassle of LHR either way.

Personally, for a leisure trip, I would probably go with BA (getting to Rome earlier is also a plus), but for a work trip I’d go with AA to leverage the WiFi.

It is a leisure trip. Thanks for the advice. I think I will go with the BA F since it makes my life a tad bit easier and the miles is a non-issue. Plus I get to compare a European First Class to my experiences from Singapore Suites 😀

[USER=1483]@phant0m[/USER]

Sadly I would not get my hope up that it will be anything like SQ F, but it’s still better than AA J as [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] says. In fact Lucky calls BA F the worlds best J.

If you want EU F that can compare to SQ F you will have to try LH or AF F.

Review by Tiffany
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/10/british-airways-777-first-class/[/URL]

Review by Lucky
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2013/12/30/review-british-airways-a380-first-class-london-heathrow-los-angeles/[/URL]

But from your big grin I guess you knew this before hand?

Haha yea that grin was a bit of sarcasm. I did a bunch of reading on it before hand so I’m going in with very low expectations lol.

So with today’s news this changes a bit.

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/01/29/american-first-class-awards/[/URL]

I can get a first class flight on AA metal, a 777-300ER to be exact with similar times and save $300. Does AA First get access to the Concorde room? Would this be better than the British route I had?

BA F is somewhat better than AA F, especially as you have BA A380 F booked.

AA doesn’t get access to the Concorde room, and you’d be changing terminals at Heathrow. Neither is a big deal, and I’m not sure whether or not BA F is $392 per person better. Depends on your finances and such, probably.

It’s actually BA F on a 777 vs AA F on 777.
$400 wouldn’t be an issue but if the product is barely better that’s a hard sell.

Well, the soft product on BA is definitely better, and the seat is way more private on BA. Maybe look over a couple of Ben’s trip reports and see which seems more appealing? I think a lot of it comes down to personal preference — I would probably still choose BA over AA for a leisure trip, but that’s just me.

[USER=1483]@phant0m[/USER]

This is my very first post ever! ;o) Your question compelled me to sign up for this forum, which I just discovered a week ago. I may be new to this forum, but am not new to global travel (I’m also an AA Lifetime Platinum/OW Sapphire 2million +) and have some good insight for you regarding BA (although I’m no Lucky!)

You mentioned the “Concorde Room” in your initial post which awakened my soft spot for you. I’d hate you to see you fly BA with hopes of gaining entrance to the elusive Concorde Room only to be declined and/or embarrassed. As with most international “Lounges” (which are to be confused with “Clubs”), the only way to gain entrance into the Concorde room is if your ONWARD journey is booked in International First Class or if you have certain elite status on British Airways. Your ticket from LHR to FCO is most likely reserved in BA’s “Club Europe” which is simply a Business Class seat in a not so nice upgraded Economy cabin. It’s been a couple of years since I experienced the Concorde Room so please check the details further before deciding to finalize your itinerary.

For example, I am based in DFW and flew DFW-LHR AA First with an onward journey on BA in FIRST from LHR to Moscow on a 747 which offered 4 classes of service (Econ, PremEcon, Business & First). At that time, the London to Moscow route was BA’s shortest flight that offered a First Class cabin….which still may be the case today. I too was very curious to experience the Concorde Room so I made sure to maximize the award ticket and stretch every rule possible. I flew from DFW to LHR in AA FC, checked into the LHR Hilton Terminal 4 then enjoyed an afternoon/evening in London while still enjoying my legal <24 hour layover. The following morning, I arrived at LHR extra early to take full advantage of the Concorde Room breakfast before my First Class flight to Moscow on BA. I thought the Concorde Room was certainly nice, but doesn't live up to mystery and romance of the old days.

I don't know about everyone else on this blog, but I always boycott BA on the transatlantic leg when using AA miles simply because of the taxes. Why would anyone pay over $1,000.00USD in taxes when the ticket should really be free (for the most part)? If the AA reservation you have on hold is on AA's new 777-300, I would drive an hour to LAX (or treat yourself to a limo with the money you'll save) and RUN from that BA transatlantic option even if it IS in First Class. I agree with Lucky that the Business hard product on the new 777-300ER is tough to beat. Even if you DID fly BA in FC over the Atlantic, you'd be directed to the same lounge (Galleries/Terraces which I happen to like) had you flown American from LAX. Honest! I hope I've been some help and that my advice isn't too late. If I AM too late and you chose the BA First Class option, go ahead and double check the Concorde Room rules before you are jet lagged and disappointed.

[USER=1534]@Martinimasher[/USER]

Great that you are an experienced flyer, but in this case you are very wrong!

[URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1566425-ba-concorde-room-access.html[/URL]

And before making any more comment about international “Lounges” you might want to brush up your knowledge a tad bit.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/08/25/know-lounge-access-international-itineraries/[/URL]

The irony to this entire conversation is that I was in the Galleries First lounge last weekend, and I really think it might be better than the Concorde Room, on balance.

@ No Name…thanks for the link above. I have saved the second link to my favorites for future reference.

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] , I agree with your recent impression of the Galleries First lounge. Perhaps my expectations of the Concorde Room were too high.

[USER=1534]@Martinimasher[/USER]

Welcome.

Sorry if I was bit harsh in my replay above, we got a user whosnameshallnotbementioned here a few weeks ago that also made similar comments about the Concord room being off limits (among other thing) and would not believe us when we told him that he was wrong.

Tended to make very long posts on old dead treads that had to be corrected, for a minute there I was sure you were him under a different name.

Again sorry.

[USER=268]@No Name[/USER]: ;o-) No worries and no offense taken. I sincerely appreciate the information you included above and look forward to losing my ‘Lucky newbie’ status soon!