business class

Tag Archives for business class.

Review: United Airlines Business Class, Sydney – San Francisco

by Gary Leff on July 10, 2022

Jul 10 2022

At the end of 12 days in Australia, my wife, three year old daughter, and I were set to fly back to the States on United award tickets in business class, Sydney – San Francisco. Flight UA870 was operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, the airline’s largest aircraft, and every seat was booked.

Here’s the experience in a nutshell: United Airlines business class is (usually now) a better seat than the airline used to offer, but one with less space than you’ll find on Delta, American, Air Canada or Air France. United has good bedding, an the wifi worked on my flight, but the rest of the soft product from food to service was subpar.

Review: Air Canada Business Class, Vancouver – Sydney

by Gary Leff on June 26, 2022

Jun 26 2022

Air Canada offers an excellent if dated business class product and is very competitive between North America and Australia. Food lacks somewhat on the post-11 p.m. departure and service was somewhat indifferent but it was a good flight overall.

Air France Introduces New Business Class Suite With Doors, Debuting In New York This Fall

by Gary Leff on May 10, 2022

May 10 2022

Not to be left behind, Air France will retrofit 12 Boeing 777s with a new business class offering doors. They expect that it will begin flying in September, first on the New York JFK – Paris route. The planes won’t have first class, so presumably will swap with existing Boeing 777-200 frequencies that do not offer first either.

Review: Air France Business Class, Paris – Houston

by Gary Leff on May 7, 2022

May 07 2022

I flew British Airways to Paris in business class with my wife and daughter. Our return trip was on Air France. I booked (3) seats Paris – Houston for 66,500 Air France KLM Flying Blue miles + $383.17 apiece.

These were miles I already had sitting in my account from a cancelled trip Austin – Amsterdam roundtrip at the start of the pandemic.

American Airlines Considering New Narrowbody “Collins Aurora” Business Class Seat

by Gary Leff on April 21, 2022

Apr 21 2022

This represents innovative thinking on the part of American to balance their desire for a top shelf product (business class suites with doors on a narrowbody aircraft) without taking up a lot of real estate on the plane

Dumb – And Chillingly Ignorant – American’s Suites With Doors Won’t ‘Show The Door To The Poor’

by Gary Leff on April 17, 2022

Apr 17 2022

Chris Matyszczyk is known for taking my airline leaks and sensationalizing them. Here, though he takes word of American Airlines business class seats coming with doors on the airline’s new delivery Boeing 787-9s and uses that to pull his very best Christopher Elliott, which is to say taking a travel story he doesn’t understand and doing his best to turn it into an allegory about class warfare and socialism of the North Korean variety.

New American Airlines Business Class Is Coming With Bigger Cabin, Seats With Doors

by Gary Leff on April 11, 2022

Apr 11 2022

We’re not just looking at a new seat, but also more premium seats. I wrote last fall that American Airlines is planning to put more business class seats on planes. That’s true both for their widebodies and also their Airbus A319s.

We’re getting some sense now just what this means from two separate recent reports that I’ve confirmed.

New Etihad Airbus A350 Business Class Seats Revealed

by Gary Leff on November 15, 2021

Nov 15 2021

Gone or on the way out are Boeing 777-300ERs, 777-200LRs, and Airbus A330s. Gone as well the Airbus A380s featuring one of the world’s best first class products. Their long haul fleet instead will consist of Boeing 787s, 777-9s (when those are eventually ready), and Airbus A350s. Only a subset of Boeing 787s will even offer a first class cabin.

Etihad has finally revealed their Airbus A350 with new business class – or at least photos have been shared, rather than the airline officially releasing them.

American Airlines Will Put More Business Class Seats On Planes

by Gary Leff on October 2, 2021

Oct 02 2021

Legacy US Airways planes were heavily skewed towards lots of economy seats. US Airways didn’t sell a lot of premium seats, and when they did they sold those seats cheaply, which matched both their route network and their inflight product.

When US Airways management took over American Airlines they set out to take business class seats out of planes and add seats to lower cabins. Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja suggests this needs to change.

Huge Business Class Sale, Most Of US To Most European Cities $1500 Roundtrip

by Gary Leff on July 13, 2021

Jul 13 2021

United Airlines and Lufthansa have a $1500 roundtrip fare in business class between the U.S. and Europe. This allows travel between much of the U.S. and most of the places you’ll go in Europe as long as you begin travel by the end of February.