International flight questions
 

I'm heading to London with my daughter this summer (another thread) and I have some flight options. Considering it's an 8 hour flight- which would be preferable?-

747-never been on one

777-I think I was in one. REALLY wide plane and tight seating. Not too comfortable but I could be mistaken.

Airbus 343-never been on one.

All of it is non-stop from Chicago. Prices are all about the same-about $1100.00. Is that a typical price?

TIA!

I would think the particular hardware wouldn't be nearly as important (from a passenger comfort standpoint) as the specific class of travel you're selecting. IMHO an upgrade to Business or First Class is money well spent on long trips.

If you are going 1st class, enjoy the flight. If back in the ghetto area, try to get emergency row seats, aircraft doesn't make any difference to me, it's more for the comfort, convenience and safety that I shoot for the emergency row.

Also what airline are you traveling, BA is quite civilized as compared to some of the others, if you have any bonus/advantage miles see if you can upgrade. That would be a really nice trip up front. Wife might be a little jealous, I know mine would.

Back in the good old days, I was able to fly 1st class for my business so got spoiled on the international flights, it's a completely different world, even in business class.

Enjoy your trip, London is one of my favorite destinations across the pond, Berlin is also wonderful.

Check this website:

http://www.seatguru.com/

Here is my take on this: I have been on many Airbus planes...
and the seats always Suck. They are made by Recaro but are
very non-ergonomic and have this fake "synthetic leather" coat
that is hard as a rock and very non forgiving.

Now Ive never been on an "Airbus 343" but Ive been on many
319s and 320s and the seats always blow. So to sit that long
on those seats would be a deal-breaker imo.

On my trans-Atlantic flights the 747 was fine, quite stable and
good enough to deal with the normally cramped seating in the
coach section, if you are taking coach.

If you can get seated by the middle of the plane, I think its called
the "bulkhead" where you get more legroom..definitely do that.

Otherwise Upgrade to first class if you can do it...

I have done some long haul trips in 747s. I'm headed for India this Saturday via Cathay Pacific.

Depends on the 747 model. British Airways planes were decked out with a nice entertainment system that made the flights a breeze. British Airways service was superb as well. Quantas did not have entertainment systems, but service was good as well.

777 is nice, even in back. Some of the -47's are getting long in the tooth. I am not an Airbus fan, so not for me.

Which airline and in steerage or business or first class? Makes a big difference... I make the round trip to London or Dubai at least 5-6 times a year.

Joe

Try and get an exit row seat, very roomy and at least one of the seats will have an empty space in front of it

BA Traveler Plus. Its the cabin between Economy and Business. My last minute round trip ticket 3 weeks ago cost 1700. Quite comfortable on a 777 its 2-4-2

I flew a 777 with Swiss-Air and it was quite comfortable in the "back". I recently flew KLM in the cheap seats and didn't have enough space to open my laptop, less room than on a 737.

Let's see, American from Logan to Paris was a 767 and it was reasonable in the back. Most every other time, I've flown either business or first class.

Which airline are you flying?

As you can see from the responses, the airline is more important than the bird for these kinds of questions. I've flown South African air and American, both in 747s, and the legroom was vastly different for the same class of ticket. (American had more... But South african had better business class when I was able to fly that class)

+1

I'll probably use United to get/use frequent flier miles.

Definitely going to park in the ghetto as the cheap seats are 1/3 the cost of even business class. $1100 vs about $3500. I can save $4k (2 tickets) by putting up with some creature comforts for 16 hours. Call me cheap, but $4k buys me a lot of suspension upgrades.

I'll take a few Valium and try to score exit row.;)

It also depends on the time of day that you go. Last time I flew to Germany, I took a night flight from JFK to Frankfurt. After takeoff, they started the in-flight movie. Nobody seemed to want to get any sleep; there were people wandering all over the plane. Lot's of kids. Lots of noise. I ended up trading my seat space for the floor space of the two ladies on either side of me. Laying on the floor with a pillow over my head, I could finally drown out the ruckus and get to sleep.

Have fun...

JR

Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Lufthansa, and BA are all excellent choices, provided they are going where you are.

The worst experience I had was like javadog above going to London on Northwest. Kids, loud, terrible movie.

+1. You arrive way feeling better. That's worth a lot!

Cheers,

Paul.

+2 My company does business class over seas, and there is a reason. Sixteen hours in coach leaves you in a numbed/dismal state. Pay for, or cash in/buy miles for an upgrade. It's more than worth it. I went first with the wife on Virgin Atlantic, the flight was as good as the trip. I travel overseas about ten times a year, I did it ONCE in coach, never, ever again.

I will be taking in a couple of hours a London to Las Vegas flight with Virgin in their Business Class in a 747-400 (10+ hours flight), after several hundreds of flights of 8 hours or more unless is First Class with sleeper service (seats recline flat) there is little difference between economy and business. I am your typical frequent flyer-emergency exit-aisle type of traveller with over 5 million miles in the past 15 years.

Anything over 6 hours it really does not matter unless you are in First (and with sleeper service), try to get on a plane with TV on the seats instead of projection in the cabin, get some Bose Quiet Comfort headphones.

Good luck

I just flew in a 777 to/from Dubai on Emirates Air--14 hrs. each way--I was in business class and it was fairly comfortable--going over was cake--as the flight wasn't nearly full and I had an entire row to myself--coming back was a different story--full flight--kids, etc. not nearly as pleasant--but I did have planty of room,a nd the in-seat movies made a long trip go faster--over 140+ choices.

And the Australian stewardesses were very nice...

I suspect that the cheap seats will all be pretty similar, but I found that when I flew KLM the service was great. I'd happily fly them again.