Business or First Class?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I will be planning a trip in March from the US to China. I have made a trip before flying coach. Let me say it was one miserable time. The physical agony and mental stress of knowing you’re in physical agony and nothing can be done about it.

Well I have decided to fork up the cash and upgrade this time. I have looked into the prices of business versus first class, but since I have never flown either on international flights, I have no idea what I would be paying for and if it’s even worth it. Is business class almost as good as first class? Will there be ample legroom and comfort sleeping? Do different airlines offer better/worse business/first class international seating? Any input will be appreciated.

2

I’ve never flown first class. However, I have flown both coach and business class from Frankfort to Chicago. I would s-t-r-o-n-g-l-y recommend business class. If I understand the pricing structure properly, the cost to fly business class is more reasonable than first class but you don’t get some of the perks like free food and drinks. The seats were wonderful and leg room was more than ample.

Godspeed and fly safely!

3

In general all major airlines first class accomodations offer much more leg room than coach, it’s pretty noticeable and if you’re around my height it is worth every penny.

I fly a lot and typically only fly first class, but I’ve flown business class before. Business class is more airline specific as to how nice it is, in some there’s quite a bit of room and the only real difference between it and first class is the meal and drink offerings not being of the same quality.

In others, business class is a bit more spacious version of coach. It really will depend but I do think your best bet is first class. Flying to China isn’t something you want to do if you’re uncomfortable the entire time.

4

Oops, forgot to add that my flight on business class was with Luftansa.

5

Go business class. In my experience of long haul flights (mostly Sydney/London/Sydney) I’ve found that the additional comforts and service of first class, while pleasant, are not sufficiently better to justify the increased fare.

6

Well, to start with I think all the US carriers no longer offer first class to China. At least Northworst doesn’t - it’s just a bigger business class.

Second, international long haul business class is the equivalent or actually better than first class in the US. My biz class tickets are first class for the US leg. It is not just a slightly bigger seat. You get the full or almost full reclining seat, multimedia center, linen, good chow, all the booze you can drink starting when you board.

Third, if you want real service, don’t take a US airline - Hag Air and Northworst both suck. The international flight air staff are usually geriatric hags that gave up on customer service at least a decade before in their career. Singapore Air is really nice, Thai if you want to go back to the good old days of when stewardesses were stewardesses, and if you appreciate Japanese service then JAL is really good too. Canadian Air is certainly a step up from the American airlines.

7

I fly exclusively business class on Air Canada and Lufthansa. And cattle class on Yemenia. Luckily the Yemenia flight is only about 2 hours long. I total about a 100,000 miles a year.
Air Canada’s business class is a combination of first and business called Executive/First. They don’t have an exclusive first class service. It is better than Lufthansa’s business class service. Both are far better than in the back with the goats and chickens.

I’ve flown first class on upgrades with Lufthansa between Frankfurt and Dubai. While it offers larger chairs than in business class you still couldn’t lay flat out as the middle of the chair had a 2 inch drop in it right at your hips, so in order to get comfortable you had to adjust the seat into a partial sitting position that didn’t give you any better position than in business class. Air Canada’s business/first is better than Lufthansa’s first in my opinion. This varies by airplane, of course. Maybe you’d end up with the new seats that allow you to recline all the way. But, you wouldn’t know until you got on the plane if this was so.

Another few annoying things I’ve found out about flying first class (at least on Lufthansa) the few times I’ve been in it.
The meal service took 3 fricking hours! I wanted a quick meal after travelling all night from Calgary on Air Canada. Half the flight was taken up with this service. Almost everything was done at the seat with the damn cart blocking all egress until they were finished farting around before going on to trap the next row of hapless passengers.
When they were serving cheese each piece of cheese was cut as requested using mini utensils that seemed useless for the task. Watching the waitress try and cut this milk white gooey cheese for about 5 minutes with a dull butter knife left me feeling very nauseous indeed<blerk!>. It didn’t help that the guy sitting next to me had to try every combination on the appetizer cart multiple times over (speaking of farting. Can you imagine what caviar, sour kraut, and eggs does to a person who overindulges? Yeah, it is best to be avoided). A guy I was travelling with a few rows back who also got bumped up to first said the women sitting next to him ate all three choices for the main meal. It seems people want to get their money worth and eat the extra hundereds or thousands of dollars they paid.

Unless they offered you a free upgrade stay away from First class. It isn’t worth putting up with all the hoity toityness. Business class is worth it unless you are young and nimble enough not to be paralyzed by sitting in a chinese torture box for 12 hours, or so.

Another rule:
Get an aisle seat when sitting in cattle. That way you can stick your feet in the aisle for more room. You won’t sleep so it doesn’t matter if people climb over you to go to the washroom, but that extra room is heaven. Also, never ever, ever, sit in the middle unless you are travelling with people you know on either side of you. There is nothing like getting stuck between Gargantua and his cousin, Bigfoot.

In business and first, always take a window seat. You can sleep here. I prefer climbing over others when I need to get out than having others climbing over me when I am asleep. This is especially true if you are unlucky enough to sit next to the ‘drunk’ who takes advantage of all the free booze. You don’t want the drunk climbing over you to get to the washroom. No sir, no sirree. You certainly don’t want that. At least if you have to climb over him, you can get some revenge for the wine he spills on you by ‘accidently’ stumbling while doing the ‘hop’ over his footrest and landing a knee to his groin. :smiley:

Then there are all the snifflers, coughers, and pukers. Oh, my!

Hmmm… Yeah, if I was you I’d just stay home!

8

I recommend the opposite option. Get a window seat, bundle up a blanket against the side of the plane or bring a travel-pillow, and go to sleep.

9

Yes, my hairy brother, but I can’t sleep sitting up, so I might as well be as comfortable as possible. Granted it is my number two choice if forced into cattle.

10

My theory is that business class was invented when companies banned first class travel for employees. So it’s a step up from coach but not technically first class.

I’d recommend that SoulSearching look into what sort of seating is available in business class vs. first class. For a long flight from Asia to the US, those fold-flat seats would probably be worth the additional expense so you can get a proper rest. So if you can get them in business class, you probably don’t need first class.

11

On my flights to Japan the differences between First Class and Business were small. I would book Business if it were me.

12

Took Air Canada business Shanghai-Vancouver 3 years ago- very nice- seating is basically a Barcalounger, you can sleep very well for the 12 hour flight. United in the US (used to, double check if it is still so) partners with AC for the China flights so you can book the ticket with them and end up on the AC flight from YVR-Beijing.

And if you have some time to kill between flights and want to leave the airport, a 10 minute cab ride brings you to Richmond, mecca of good Chinese eat’n on any continent. I’d recommend Sun Sui Wah.

13

Just got back from a trip to India (16 hours) and took Business Class on American Airlines. From what I could see the biggest difference was that in First Class the Barcaloungers went totally flat, like a bed. In Business Class you could recline comfortably-but you weren’t laying flat. Other than that, the food/service was exactly the same. Now I have no idea of the cost difference–but for me (and my company!) it wouldn’t likely be worth the cost. I personally slept fine on the Barcalounger :slight_smile:

14

Is worth looking into booking something on a code-sharing airline? Say, for example, I want to fly Albuquerque to somewhere overseas for a vacation and want to do it booking through American Airlines because that’s where I have the most frequent flier miles. So a flight to Hong Kong has the Vancouver to Hong Kong flight on Cathay Pacific with the flights in North America handled by American. A flight to Sydney would have the LA to Sydney portion handled by Quantas and the domestic flights handled by American. Or is it better to pick who you want to fly with for the international flight and get to the airport however you can (possibly by Southwest), accepting that you’ll have to get your luggage, leave the secure area, check in, reclear security, and do it all with the time restriction the airline puts on getting to the gate for boarding before the flight? For example, I can book Albuquerque to London Heathrow directly through Air Canada or British Airlines but I can save literally thousands of dollars if I fly to say, Chicago (though that switch from Midway to O’Hare could be a real pain, though orange line to blue line is simple enough–it’s just a question of time) on Southwest and then start my international trip from there.

15

IMO, it all depends on who is paying…

16

United continues to offer 3-class service on all flights to Asia. You are correct that Northwest offers 2-class cabins.

17

I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to get the hell out of Dodge after the film is finished, possibly to Ireland or England. It occurred to me that my birthday would be a good time, so I looked into ticket prices on American Airlines for a departure of June 9th and return of June 23rd. Cattle class is $1,155. Business class is over $10,000! :eek: :eek:

I don’t understand why Business Class is ten times the coach price. I can upgrade (both ways) for 50,000 frequent flyer miles and $500.

18

Because very few people pay those prices. Most people in business class are frequent flyers who upgrade using miles or coupons they get from the airline. Or they get to the airport and are upgraded to an otherwise empty seat.

19

So how do you get those “upgrades”? Every time I’ve inquired, the airline personnel look at me like I have elephants flying out of my ears.d

20

On international flights, it starts by flying 50k+ miles per year. Without gold-level status, it’s hard to upgrade internationally, but it also varies by carrier.