Questions and Answers

Any suggestions on what airline to use? I prefer a non-American line. Have not heard great things about SAS.

hi Allyson, what mileage currencies do you currently hold?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 25863, member: 79″]hi Allyson, what mileage currencies do you currently hold?[/QUOTE]
I have a Chase Sapphire and Southwest

How many UR points do you have?

Everyone has their own opinion but I really liked SAS twice this past year. Book with united using your chase points. Austrian is also an option.

[URL]http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2016/5/31/sas-a340-business-class[/URL]

[URL]http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2016/10/8/sas-a330-business-class-arn-ord[/URL]

Not interested in the point factor, just trying to determine best airline service.
Thanks!

Well knowing how many points you have and your desired routing would help in making some realistic suggestions. Routing through FRA on LH first would provide great service but it’s kind of pointless of that’s not a viable option.

[USER=2769]@Allyson[/USER], are you looking for an award ticket or a paid ticket? If an award ticket then Gaurav is right, we’d need to know your points balances to be able to make realistic suggestions.

Problem is that there’s not a single airline that stands out overall. US based airlines are pretty meh. Lucky did like Air Canada – maybe you want to look into that? The connection from US to Canada wont be great though. European airlines are pretty great – Lufthansa, Austrian, Air France (new business class), Turkish all come to mind. However, the intra-Europe leg is no fun since it’s mostly economy with a blocked middle. You may get lucky on Turkish, if they use a wide body for IST-CPH. Aeroflot might also be a good choice as well since not all their intra-Europe flights in biz are econ with a blocked middle

[USER=2769]@Allyson[/USER] which class are wanting to fly in (First, Business, Premium Economy, or Economy)
-If you are flying First I would go with LH through FRA, or EK throguh DXB, if you are leaving from the northeast I will add SQ on JFK-FRA connecting to LH to CPH.
-If you are going business look at LX through ZRH.
-If you are looking for Preminum Economy I have heard good things about LH or from JFK on SQ.
-If you are going for economy, LH is good, AF I have heard good things about too.

Basically it all comes down to what class you are in and how far out of your way you want to go out of your way for good service.

Hi [USER=701]@Brad B[/USER] I see you recommend Swiss. Have you flown LX in business? I’d like to hear your thoughts on it. Did you like the seat? How was the food?

[USER=2121]@MarkS[/USER] I have not, however I have heard good things, I was supposed to fly them but was then rerouted on LH due to delay.

okay, just curious. My 2 cents is LX is towards the bottom of *A carriers I’d take to Europe. Maybe I caught a bad flight, but I’ve read others have the same experience on the new 777. It wasn’t terrible, just others better. Austrian is my favorite for business class and of course LH for first. But 110K is a lot of points to go 7 hours across the pond. Getting a peak at the LH FC Terminal makes it a better deal though. At least there are choices.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 25978, member: 79″]Well knowing how many points you have and your desired routing would help in making some realistic suggestions. Routing through FRA on LH first would provide great service but it’s kind of pointless of that’s not a viable option.[/QUOTE]
Thank you so much for your help! I am ok with a stop. Have been looking into Norwegian Airlines and KLM. What do you know about LH?

What cabin will you be traveling in? Lufthansa First is fabulous but be aware that your connection from Frankfurt or Munich would likely be in intra-Europe business which is basically economy with an empty middle seat. LH Business is solid but not spectacular and would have the same issue on the connection. (Of course this is quite possibly true for any intra-Europe connection you make on any airline.) I think [USER=701]@Brad B[/USER] has some good suggestions above.

[QUOTE=”Allyson, post: 26020, member: 2769″]Thank you so much for your help! I am ok with a stop. Have been looking into Norwegian Airlines and KLM. What do you know about LH?[/QUOTE]
[USER=2769]@Allyson[/USER] As many others have said here we really need to know (a) what class you are planning to travel in; and (b) if you are planning on paying for the flight with miles or cash. It would also be good to know what part of the country you are leaving from.

Absent knowing both (a) and (b) it is extremely hard for us to give you good advice. If you are planning on flying in economy I would say to book the flight with the fewest stops that is at a decent price (but don’t book Norwegian). On a TATL flight in economy every airline is going to be more or less the same (except LCCs), AF and LH have good economy seats but if you can book a 3 class UA 777 they have nice seats as well.

If you are wanting to book business or first with cash and are price sensitive I would say book what ever is cheapest because even the third to worst business is better than the best economy (modification after Lucky’s review of UIA).

If you are waning to book in business or first with miles (or price has not limit) this is where we can provide more help (and creative routing ideas) as there are many reviews on different transatlantic business and first class flights and most of the flights are about the same number of miles no matter the airline so you can get the best experience possible (my “about” is about 10-15K), unless you do a creative routing via HKG and DXB on CX and EK.

If Norwegian was one of the options she was looking at, going to assume first class is not the priority 🙂

I checked my miles and together ( Sapphire and Southwest) I have 203,413.
I plan to save these for a trip to Asia next year.

[USER=2769]@Allyson[/USER] – the Southwest miles may be fine for a positioning flight within the US but they’re not going to help you get to Asia. All miles are not created equal. 🙂

You can’t use Southwest miles on any airline other than Southwest, so don’t plan on using those to get to Asia as the closest it will get you is California. If you do have a good number of UR points you will be able to get at least business seats to Asia on SQ which will be nice

I can transfer my Southwest points to Chase Sapphire rewards

[USER=2769]@Allyson[/USER] Is this something new? I haven’t heard about this.

UR transfers are one way you can only transfer out, but can’t transfer in.

Correction: I can transfer my Chase Sapphire points to Southwest but not vice versa.
Purchased my ticket to Copenhagen RT from Boston for $357 on Norwegian Air.
I think I did ok

[USER=2769]@Allyson[/USER] that is the best price but DY will not be the best service and remember you will be charged for EVERYTHING on DY. The below fees are their fees each way:
$45 for advanced seat assignment
$4-$15 for drinks per drink
$10-$45 for food
$65 per checked bag

I just wanted to mention this as often you can find SAS fares that include the above and end up being cheaper in the long run. Although if you don’t care where you sit, only have a backpack, and bring your food DY is the best choice.

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 25996, member: 2121″]Hi [USER=701]@Brad B[/USER] I see you recommend Swiss. Have you flown LX in business? I’d like to hear your thoughts on it. Did you like the seat? How was the food?[/QUOTE]

I can only recommend SWISS. I like them very much. The new B777 Business Class seat (especially the throne seats) are one of the, if not the best Business Seats there are (Yes even over the reverse Herringbone in my opinion as they offer way more space), (okay Singapore probably beats em). The A340/A330 aren’t as good as the new ones but very good as well. Food is always amazing and so is the service. On the flight to Copenhagen the Business is ok, classic european carrier style you get an economy seat with one free in the middle, but as Business you get better food and service. Sadly Swiss doesn’t use the new Bombardies CSeries on the Copenhagen route, that’d have been worth the experience as well. Lufthansa Business doesn’t get close (6 seats in a row? ewww, the only carrier I accept that on is Oman Air) And you’ll get to check out the Swiss lounges at Zurich as well as the amazing airport itself.