Questions and Answers

I’ll be traveling to India for a week, and would like to know what the best business class product (hard & soft) would be from preferably Detroit, with Chicago and JFK as departure options too. Price isn’t too much of a factor, although it can not be “First Class”.

[USER=907]@WanderingConsultant[/USER]

SQ A380 JFK-FRA-SIN and then backtrack to India?

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/08/21/singapore-airlines-a380-business-class-frankfurt-new-york/[/URL]

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/08/20/best-singapore-airlines-a380-business-class-seat/[/URL]

Optionally EK A380 or EY A380 (starts Dec 1) out of JFK and perhaps EY 789 out of DC Dulles if you are able to connect there?

EY789
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2014/05/04/etihad-airways-boeing-787-9-routes-cabins/[/URL]

All Swiss: JFK-ZUR-DEL
To mix/match: JFK-ZUR-IST-DEL (Swiss & Turkish). Both good products and Turkish has the best business class lounge IMO in IST.

On the way back, try to give SQ a shot.
DEL/BOM/BLR – SIN- FRA-JFK
Any given day EK&EY are great too. If you want super fast connections, ME3 carriers are best. If you want experience a wide range of products then my options above could come handy.
Beware of Air India though!

[QUOTE=”PhatMiles, post: 8235, member: 522″]All Swiss: JFK-ZUR-DEL
To mix/match: JFK-ZUR-IST-DEL (Swiss & Turkish). Both good products and Turkish has the best business class lounge IMO in IST.

Beware of Air India though![/QUOTE]

Have to disagree with Phatmiles here, Swiss & Turkish both have great catering and Turkish does have the best business class lounge in *A. Only thing that can probably compare is the QR J lounge in DOH.

Problem with both are the seats on board.

Swiss is OK if you can get the single J seats which tend to go first, not so good if you get one of the double seats. But even the single seats are inferior to SQ J on the A380. LH group is great in F, but weak in J across their different brands.
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Swiss_Airlines/Swiss_Airlines_A330.php[/URL]

As for TK they have 2-2-2 seating on their Airbuses
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Turkish_Airlines/Turkish_Airlines_Airbus_A330-300.php[/URL]
And 2-3-2 on their B777
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Turkish_Airlines/Turkish_Airlines_Boeing_777-300_V2.php[/URL]

Have to agree with Phatmiles stay away from the Indian airlines long haul if you can.

[USER=907]@WanderingConsultant[/USER]
From you first post I assume this flight is paid by corporate or client? Hence the no F?

If you could tell us where in India you are going that might help to narrow the search down to the airlines that fly to that city?

[QUOTE=”No Name, post: 8237, member: 268″]Have to disagree with Phatmiles here, Swiss & Turkish both have great catering and Turkish does have the best business class lounge in *A. Only thing that can probably compare is the QR J lounge in DOH.

Problem with both are the seats on board.

Swiss is OK if you can get the single J seats which tend to go first, not so good if you get one of the double seats. But even the single seats are inferior to SQ J on the A380. LH group is great in F, but weak in J across their different brands.
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Swiss_Airlines/Swiss_Airlines_A330.php[/URL]

As for TK they have 2-2-2 seating on their Airbuses
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Turkish_Airlines/Turkish_Airlines_Airbus_A330-300.php[/URL]
And 2-3-2 on their B777
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Turkish_Airlines/Turkish_Airlines_Boeing_777-300_V2.php[/URL]

Have to agree with Phatmiles stay away from the Indian airlines long haul if you can.

[USER=907]@WanderingConsultant[/USER]
From you first post I assume this flight is paid by corporate or client? Hence the no F?

If you could tell us where in India you are going that might help to narrow the search down to the airlines that fly to that city?[/QUOTE]

Hyderbad

[QUOTE=”No Name, post: 8237, member: 268″]Have to disagree with Phatmiles here, Swiss & Turkish both have great catering and Turkish does have the best business class lounge in *A. Only thing that can probably compare is the QR J lounge in DOH.[/QUOTE]
[USER=268]@No Name[/USER] – I totally agree with that. I thought suggesting the SQ & ME3 airlines, especially Emirates & Etihad is going to be obvious. To be more than conservative I felt like sharing the not so obvious options and threw in Swiss and Turkish.
However there are so many other options and getting to India in Biz gets you the biggest bang for the buck since it is Ultra Long Haul.

Now that [USER=907]@WanderingConsultant[/USER] said the destination is Hyderabad, ME3 makes more sense for 1 stop connection itinerary. EY seems to be nicer than EK to me. But AUH has immigration in AUH for travel to the US. It has its pros and cons.
I have done BOS-LGA(change to)JFK-TPE-SIN-BLR few years ago. I got exhausted, but I enjoyed it as I got the chance to experience so many Biz class products.

[USER=907]@WanderingConsultant[/USER]

Since you are going to to HYD I think both I and [USER=522]@PhatMiles[/USER] overlooked the true obvious choice.

Cathay B777 from ORD or JFK and then A330 to HYD.

EY seem to use a A320 AUH-HYD with seats in 2-2 aka domestic Us first.
EK seem to use a B777 DXB-HYD with seats in 2-3-2.
SQ only have one flight SIN-HYD a day on Silkair and that leaves during the evening and returns directly as a very short red eye. And the flight from FRA lands early in the morning in SIN.

Another bit out there option if there is F award space available on BA would be to buy a J ticket and upgrade to F with avios as Tiffany described in here post a while back.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/20/upgrade-british-airways-avios/[/URL]

[USER=522]@PhatMiles[/USER]

If we want to send WanderingConsultant on a more adventures routing Gulfair also fly to HYD. AA to LHR Gulfair LHR-BAH-HYD, I would not recommend it personally.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/02/23/review-gulf-air-business-class-a330-london-to-bahrain/[/URL]

Qatar – Chicago- Doha- BOM/DEL/MAA etc in Business. The 777 is an awesome biz product and the soft product (service, lounge in Doha, food) is TOP notch. Miles ahead of most Star Alliance carriers. Of course, also depends on your alliance preference. I am OW and this is by far the best biz option. Better than CX.

[USER=915]@Deepak[/USER]

The first problem is the he is going to HYD, QR only seem to fly a A321 there with F in 2-2 config.

CX flies a A330 from HKG with reverse herringbone seats to HYD in J, even if it takes longer to get there flying west rather than east 24 verses 18 hours.

I will agree with you that the lounge in DOH is great and their soft product when it comes to food and wines might well better better, but problem is the QR 777 in 2-2-2 verses CX 777 1-2-1 on the long flight segment.

Unless you get the seats in the middle of the aircraft you will be climbing over somebody or they will be climbing over you, there is also the whole sitting right next to a stranger for a half day thing.

If you are traveling with somebody you know intimately the QR config might work better than reverse herringbone, but as a single traveler? For me no way.