Will be doing an air deviation, so as much as possible will have some flexibility in airline choices. Would love to fly Miami to Europe non stop (and then will connect to Florence). Any thoughts/experiences with Lufthansa, Air France, Swiss or Alitalia in Business Class? Probably Delta would be better, but hate to do another leg flying to ATL for connection to Europe. Thanks. Bonnie

Bonnie -
This evening I'm flying Alitalia from Boston to Rome Business class.
Oct 20 flying AF from Paris to Boston Business class.
Will post impressions.

Will be doing Alitalia Magnifica class end of October from Rome To Bos
first time so will report on it as well..

Thank you both, very much! Your input will be very helpful! Have great trips!! Bonnie

We live in South Florida and use the Miami Airport for all our travel. We have flown Bus Class on Alitalia, Air France and Lufthansa.

We flew back from Rome in July on Alitalia and it was much better than the past few years. The plane was new but the seating in Bus class was single seating. It was fine for us as we sat one behind the other. The food was the best we have had on a plane in a long time.

We didn't like AF to Paris out of Miami as the aircraft was old and not comfortable. They did not have lie flat seats 2 years ago.

Lufthansa would be our first choice, we loved it. We flew to Nice a few years ago and it was great.

We flew Air France from IAD to Paris last year in biz class, on the Airbus 380, biz was upstairs, and it was one of the best flights all around we've ever had, quiet, comfortable, great flight attendants and food was fine. We have also done Lufthansa biz class and found it very good, although not in a few years. We did UA biz class coming back from Rio last year in the new configuration, and we found it ok, its a little weird looking across the aisle at someone facing you, but it wasn't a full flight, so it felt roomier probably. Food was typical UA, and the service and such was fine.

Our flight on Air France business class Paris to Boston on 10/20 was not as good as Alitalia business class Boston to Rome on 10/3. As Doris mentioned above, there is some 'single seating' which are the window seats and some of the center seats, but there are 3 groups of seats that are together in the middle. Those are the best for people who want to sit next to each other.

Thanks for the update Kim. We are doing Alitalia Magnifica back to boston on Sunday and will report

I think it's rows 1, 3 and 5 that have the center seats next to each other. We were in 3E and 3G. That partition between the seats can be raised.

Thanks Kim . Carla wanted a window seat so she got 2 a and iam right behind her. Plane is really booked up so glad we got what we got.

Oh, that sounds good then! You guys have a nice trip back home. Sox are up 1-0. Very interested in your Azamara impressions! Regarding 'waiters can actually pour wine'.. our first night on MARINER in Compass Rose.. a new waitress touched the wine bottle to my glass. I explained to her that was a "no no" and why. Five minutes later sommelier came to the table and replaced my glass. That waitress was never to be seen in our area the rest of the night . I think they moved her to a different area. Not sure where she went, but I worried I got her fired! A bunch of us were in the mariner lounge before dinner and she was there. Marc said it was her first week onboard. But I saw her in Horizon lounge many times during the cruise.

Thanks for the update on the sox Kim.. except for Alitalias stone age of planes trains and automobiles to actually board one of there flights in Rome, I would say Magnifica Class is exactly what it says it is.. Direct flight was painless and no waits at Logan at all for anything.. From landing and all was home in under an hour amazing.. Will post my Azamara review sometime this week once I am caught up on a few things.. The wine thing just struck me as a funny one, because one of my biggest pet peeves is waiting for wine or refills, and that never happened on Azamara and it did a lot on my last two Regent cruises.. BTW! Its freezing here..

Welcome home Frank & Carla! It is brisk!
So glad you enjoyed the flight over. It's so true about FCO. Getting our connecting flight to Istanbul was painful -- ugly, uncomfortable gate area and long hot bus ride to board the plane. But we really did enjoy Alitalia.

Not flown the airlines like Emirates or Singapore as they are not in our FF alliance. We have flown on most of the One World Partners and on Delta. However, the new American 777-300ER is the best we have found yet. We have done first quite a bit (thanks to miles) and the business class on this AA plane was better than first class on BA.

The business seat is a true lie flat seat and wider than the first class seats on their other configurations. It also offers more options on the seat control. I like my legs ALL the way up to horizontal on the foot rest and my back slightly reclined. As you would sit in a recliner. This cannot be done on the BA business or first class seat. Not a problem on this seat.

All asile seats. No one to climb over.One per side and then two in the middle. Sitting in your seat you cannot see anyone else and nor can they see you. All facing the correct way forward. If you are flying together in the middle you just need to lean forward to talk to each other not a problem. LOTS of room for your stuff this is a huge difference over many other planes. A compartment that is fairly large to hold whatever you like to have with you on the non aisle side. Plus a nice amount of "counter space" as well. The tray slides out easily not a battle to get it out of its compartment.

The TV is larger and on the demand system is larger. When selecting your choice the shows are shown with cover of the movie like it is on net flix. This gives you a sense of the movie immediately. You click on the picture to get more details. Great system.

Food I am sure was the same but it tasted better than I have had before probably because I was such a little happy camper it made everything better.

I went up and looked at first class it was a nicer looking seat and even wider but will be hard to get. Very few first class seats and I think about 50 business class seats. I am VERY happy with business on this plane and will make sure I get this plane any change I get.

For us it flys DFW to London. May be more on different routes I am not sure I just hope they get more of these planes.

That AA 777-300ER has one sweet biz seat! Especially the window seats on the side for solo travelers!

Thanks everyone for your great input! As it turns out, we've decided to delay cruising for a while. We'll be doing land only in Italy late March/early April. Booked Alitalia Magnifica class Miami to Rome. After several trips to Asia, involving multiple stops and airlines and way too many hours to get to our destination......this is going to be a real treat!

Just when switch over earning to AA and forget about Delta, I was able to get three trips using Delta miles Europe/ Australia/and Europe again. All Biz Class at lower level awards, Alitalia/ VA Australia /Virgin Atlantic.. just burnt through almost 900k miles but I think it well worth it and was glad to be able to use these miles and not get killed like I did in the past so many times..

FV

Go figure, Frank. I guess that is why I try to balance my "points" across the board. I've had good luck with Delta from time to time and can transfer through Amex. What I want to do now is build up on Star Alliance, because I will lose my points when they are transferred to American soon.

So I got Chase Sapphire Preferred cc. I always want a good balance with the airlines when I want award travel. I LOVE free flights!

I agree Olivia: As I said before I think the Delta experience we had hit us pretty hard back in 08... I now go with the bloggers advice I do the SPG and Amex Membership rewards and just recently this year got the Chase ink bold for my business and really have built up a ton of points.. I think Chase Ultimate rewards has some good partners and the points really build up fast..

I am in the same boat as you with I have a good amount of US air points and AA points as well I guess sometimes in 2015 both FF accounts will be combined..

I agree I love free flights as well, as I get older I know I can get a decent hotel room pretty much anywhere paid or not, but with flights I want a decent seat because It really does give you a better travel experience.. I

We just returned from a fabulous week in Rome. We flew British Airways Club World (Biz) class via Heathrow. On our long haul flight to and from London Heathrow we were on an Air Bus A 380-800. I'm here to tell you that this is the strangest, screwiest aircraft ever.

The seating is a jig saw, herringbone configuration where you have seats facing forward and backwards. Down stairs main deck the seating configuration is 2-4-2 (yes, 8 across) and upstairs is a 2-3-2 (this is the least bad of the two). The seats are narrow, they don't lay flat so really tough to sleep if you're a side sleeper (imagine sleeping on your side in a Lazy Boy recliner).

The worst part is that when the foot rest is up you have to step over the person next to you or you're the one laying down being stepped over, even if you had a window seat. It is terrible. Luckily, we didn't have a stranger sitting in the middle seat between us on our flights. I can only imagine having a full flight and sitting next to 2 strangers on the lower main deck where business class has 8 seats across.

I would suggest avoiding Business class on this aircraft. I'm sure first class is great with normal type seating. We did have excellent friendly flight attendants, good food and entertainment so I'm not dissing British Airways, just the TERRIBLE seating configuration on this aircraft!

This is a seating chart of the main/lower deck (in blue) and the bottom is the seating chart of the upper deck where we sat (7 across)

A similar configuration in business is on most BA aircraft and this looks identical to the other planes. We do not like it at all. Only the aisle bulkhead seats are usually configured where you do not have to climb over someones legs to get out. Nearly always someone you do not know. However on the other planes they do lay FLAT but VERY narrow.

Actually I do not like BA first that much either. The leg rest only goes up a little unless you are leaning right back. I like to keep my legs up level with my body and you can do that on most aircraft. So to watch TV or eat with my legs up I have to steal every spare pillow on the plane and jam them behind me. The seat slides forward but I am so short it does not help.

Unfortunately we have to fly BA a lot but if I can on any other airline I am all over it.

My new favorite airline is Qatar - GREAT seats and actually better food than most airlines.

Agree that this is awful and unique! No other airline at least that I have been on has this ridiculous configuration. Not only does someone have to climb over you if you are on the aisle but if you are in the inside aisle you are face to face with the 2 persons inside until after cruising altitude when you can raise your privacy screen. Very awkward! Still better than coach I guess.
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Helen

Uh-oh! This configuration is looking way to familiar. This is how we are flying to LHR in September......I can't remember which airline had the really narrow seats (not BA) and I thought they were miserable!

I have had this configuration also. I can't remember the airline. I had to try to step over someone who was sound asleep, and that was not easy at all as short as I am. I felt like I couldn't even get out of my seat for fear of bothering someone. Just as awful as Marcie and Ngaire say it is.

Well the joys of sharing information on LCT are in my mind today. THANK YOU EVERYONE. We had FF tickets on BA to Africa in July for Giraffe a combination of first and business - longest legs in business. We also had a free companion ticket so only used miles for one person the other was free - paid the taxes only and knew what to expect. So we were pretty happy with our FF tickets.

Using BA miles going through London is a killer with taxes. We have managed to use BA with out going through London (not easy but we have done it) then the taxes drop significantly.

However this thread caused me to wish we were on Qatar instead. Good schedule going to DFW - JNB. A night in the Doha airport hotel on the way down and a night in the Doha airport hotel on the way home. The hotel is IN the gate area of the airport so very convenient. It takes longer to get home hours wise but much easier on the body and the planes are GREAT.

Right now Qatar has a sale so we checked and it worked..

Two business class tickets
BA 350,000 + miles (using a companion ticket or it would have been 700,000 miles) and about $3500 in taxes
Qatar $7000 and all our miles back and a $60 charge for the change.

Yes $3500 more - (I prefer to look it as $1750 each) but worth it.

I wanted to spend ONE day in CPT at the end but on BA that was not available and now I am getting my one day in Cape Town. All about Food, Friends and Shopping. My favorite places to eat - Oceans Basket, Willoughby's and Baia, one more dinner with the Turners, and I am going to buy a wire leopard for my new office from the ONE and ONLY hotel in CPT.

Interesting Facts:

We are flying on a Saturday, if we flew home one day earlier or one day later the fare jumped to $19,000.

We are flying CPT to JNB to DFW. If booked JNB to DFW on the exact same flights the fare doubled. So the extra flight CPT to JNB is savings us THOUSANDS and we are in CPT anyway when we head home.

NUTS!

As I have always said "you have to be a brain surgeon to figure out the airlines"

Took us a long time to figure it all out last night but we were very happy we spend the time.

Glad to read this, Ngaire. I was reading the thread to Al and told him we were using BA business from ORD to LHR and he said CHANGE IT!!!!

I looked at Qatar for our trip next year to Cape Town. Our dates are not open yet but looking at random dates in 2017 this really looks good: $8400 for both of us from LAX and a 787 Dreamliner! Not been on that plane yet but I hear good things. Thanks for the info, Ngaire!
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Helen

That is a lovely plane and the seats are super. You can use AA miles on Qatar they are One World Partners.

learning to always look at the middle eastern airlines especially coming back from South Africa. Right now emirates for 2017 from JNB is approx $2000 a person. So we will be looking at Cheetah in another month + trying to use FF to SA and money home. Usually can find on SA for business at 75000 each.

Transfered 100,000 AMX miles to Singapore FF miles. It took almost 3 days which had me on pins and needles hoping the flights were still available. They were but that's a lot of miles to be sitting in an airline we wouldn't be using again. Looking on line it seems it can take anywhere from 3 hours to 3 days. Very happy with what we got but it was a tense 3 days.

Yeah Pam good outcome. I can imagine how anxious you were until those miles posted.

Usually AMX miles post almost immediately. Live and learn

I recently transferred some Chase miles to SQ and while the web site said up to three days it only took a little over 12 hours. I think the processing is due to Chase or AMEX in your case needing to transfer in an overnight processing cycle and SQ doing the same on their end. The time period may be dependent on the time when the transfer was started.

A transfer of AMEX to SQ got much better than a transfer to BA when AMEX and BA changed to only providing for 80% of the miles transferring. i.e.., 1000 amex becomes 800 when going to BA. Amex to SQ are still 100%.

I recently used Chase miles on SQ to return from Milan to AKL after the March 2017 Explorer crossing. Turned out to be a really good value for the miles and we ended up where we needed to be.

I like Chase to use Air Canada Aeroplan. This has worked for us a number of times for South Africa.