AA First or BA First

[chrizzz14]

Im booking an award flight from NYC to LON and im thinking id like to go First class and spoil myself a bit!
BA and AA are the options qantas gives me to fly, yet im not sure which airline would give the better service!
Both AA and BA in my opinion are behind the times when it comes to their travel classes, but saying that i have no experience in first class with either of these carriers!

Can anyone give me some insight to which might be the more comfortable to fly?

 

[Dave Noble]

AA is better imo on the actual hard product. The AA 1st swivel chair is nicer than the BA one

If interested in the IFE, then the BA IFE definitely beats the AA one
Meal service on BA is generally better
Loungewise the AA Flagship Lounge is nicer imo than the BA Lounge
If taking an overnight flight and planning to use the arrivals lounge, the BA lounge is better
If planning to take the train fron Heathrow on arrival, AA arrives at T3 so more trains to London than T5 ( including Heathrow connect option)

Which to take depends on what you are planning imo.

If taking the nice civilised daytime flight from JFK-LHR, then I would take BA over AA for the food and entertainment
If taking an overnight flight and planning to sleep , I'd take AA over BA since I think the hard product is better and the arrival at T3 is better for trains to London
unless particularly planning to have breakfast in the arrivals lounge since BA does a better breakfast in the lounge

Personally, given the length of the flight, if it is available I would go for BA178 in WT+ ; half the price and for what is around a 6hr daytime flight a nice option imo

If taking an overnight flight and travelling after 28th September, I would also consider the new business class only flight to LCY and be able to avoid one of the layers of Hell that is Heathrow

Neither the above are 1st class, but I would say that east coast US to UK is not the best value use of a 1st ticket given how quick the flight is ( best time I have had JFK-LHR is 5 hours 30 and normally not more than 6 hrs 15

Dave

 

[chrizzz14]

Thanks Dave. Ill be looking to be on an overnight flight so perhaps AA is the way to go, however the BA arrivals lounge does sound quite nice!

 

[Dave Noble]

I would suggest saving the points for 1st for a flight where there is more time to enjoy it unless really wanting to try out 1st for now

If just gonna get on and try and grab 5 hrs zzzz time I would save the points and go business on BA, perhaps trying out the nice new LCY run

Personally I would avoid the night flight if you can ; much nicer ime for avoiding tiredness/jetlag on arrival

Dave

 

[Hawkeye]

I agree wholeheartedly with Dave's comments about the relative merits of each carrier. The AA flagship suite has the most comfortable seat of any product I've flown in (which doesn't include A380 F/R on any carrier, to be frank), both in the sitting and lying position.

I also don't mind the service / meals in AA F - it has a kind of down-to-earth homeliness, and can be rather enjoyable. As long as you don't expect to receive a similar level of cuisine / service as found on other carriers, you'll be fine.

 

[drron]

I am another fan of the AA F hard product.It certainly is the best seat i have tried(but only other F experiences are BA,CX).The 2 over the pond experiences on AA F were really good,one i would go as far to say the best FA i have ever come across on one flight.I didnt mind the food at all.On the other hand an F segment NRT-LAX the crew were the old battleaxes and not good at all.
On BA-2 F segments-1 crew excellent the other so far up themselves-well you know what i mean.The IFE on BA is certainly streets ahead of AA.