CJ91

Hello forum.

not sure if this is the best place to post but I am wondering if BA is the best airline for flying between London and New York in business class?

would the experience be much the same on all the big players, or are there noticeable differences in what’s offered?

the background is that I’ve just started a new job based in London which will require a few work trips over to NY and back. Our company travel agent books BA by default, but my manager said and I can request them to look at other airlines if I want

enviroian

Just don't ask for a double.

orbitmic

Not really possible to answer without knowing what you care about. No, they are probably not the best, but in some ways no airline is, they just have different styles, strengths and limits.

IanWorthington

If you're based in the UK I would suggest that signing up for the BA club would make most sense, then you can try out both BA and AA and see which suits you best. I flew both a couple of weeks ago and both were good but with minor differences that might cause someone to prefer one over the other.

mikeyfly

You can book AA or BA on a BA corporate TA deal presumably using BA codeshare. Take a couple of each and make your own mind up - maybe different one each way ? Outbound try a T3 vs a T5 depart, see the different lounges and of course the different on board. Sticking to OneWorld will get you Gold fairly quickly, which will make travelling on both rather nice !

I'd be inclined to go AA out BA back

Buster CT1K

My personal view is yes. Delta uses old planes and outdated seats, United can’t be trusted, Virgin swaps equipment and still has those terrible coffin seats on many of its jets. BA’s seats are excellent on this route and even have doors.

CJ91

thanks for this I’ve just been chatting to a colleague who said something similar about going on AA because Terminal 3 is quicker to get to on the train and has double the trains, and apparently the food and entertainment is better on AA, but I would only care about that on the day flight and I would maybe be expected to be working and not watching TV!

infrequentflytalker

AA food and service is almost always worse, food is in fact sometimes inedibly bad. I wouldn’t ever pay for it myself as it is very poor value for money on every count: the lounges, amenity kit, service and F&B disappoint.

Maybe try a YouTube review of both and try and visualise the difference that way?

Can I help you

I would never just that colleague again if they think AA food is better. 😂

Lefly

in J and on day or evening flights, for me and my tastes I usually prefer AA meals to BA ones. Better nuts, better bread, better dessert. Appetizer and main are maybe too close to call, but from what I've seen this past months, at least for the appetizer the portions are bigger on AA. Regarding entertainment, AA has maybe a higher amount of recent movies than BA.

In any case, I think it's a very personal matter of preferences if the price is basically the same.

PLeblond

Agreed that asking on the BA forum if BA is best may not yeild the expected results. And of course fewer data points from other airlines as most people here are BA heavy travellers.

A few questions I would ask mysef are:

• Do you have other frequent destinations to fly where an aliance is better for accumulating possible statuts? If yes which alliance works better?
• You mentionned JFK. Have you checked if EWR is possibly a better location for the work places - at which point UA has a lot more frequency there.

If you are a free agent on flying (no allince affiliation) then I would do as some have suggested and youtube reviews of each offering to see which one fits better with your personal prioirties, be it schedule, hard product, soft product, etc.

In the end, having a choice as to which Business Class product you want on one of the busiest routes in the world is a really nice problem to have.

Happy flying

poplarflyer

I often favour BA out, AA back (ignoring the pre-departure lounges at LHR...).
For me, BA (in general) has better service, nicer food, and better drinks for a day flight. Whilst AA has a quicker service routine on the overnight (so less disturbances whilst trying to sleep) and, most importantly, individual air nozzles to ensure I'm cool enough to actually sleep! They do, however, seem to have the seatbelt sign on almost constantly so it's never clear whether you can pop to the toilet when you wake up in the middle of the night...!
For some reason I've never managed to 'gel' with the AA style of service, and feel much more comfortable on BA (again, in general - certainly had opposite experiences plenty of times!). What I've never had, however, is a truly 'good' meal on AA as opposed to plenty on BA!
The other point is that, of course, AA on the way back to LHR doesn't give you EU/UK261 protection... that's led to some additional expenses occasionally.

alexwuk

and for the other perspective: I think BA has better inflight service and faster WiFi, so I prefer them for the Westbound dayflights. For the Eastbound night flights: I’m asleep so don’t care about those, but AA landing at Terminal 3 means no shuttle train faff from Terminal 5B or 5C and a shorter Heathrow Express journey - I reckon I save about 20 mins to Paddington by flying AA to T3 versus BA to T5.

AJNEDC

This will inevitably be subjective, as peoples' likes will differ. For travelling between London and NYC, I prefer VS and for the following reasons:
Not having to pay for seat selection
The VS lounge (Clubhouse ) in London is one of the best lounges in the world.
VS offers PJs which I like changing into for any flight with a duration greater than 4 hours.
The seat for sleeping are pretty much both the same in terms of comfort.
I have never had a we don't have anymore of your first choice of meals with VS.
I am a fan of foie gras and VS serves this in the clubhouse
The VS lounge at JFK is also pretty nice.
The business class lounges of BA I find to be just a step up from a fish, market with slightly better food.
While BA has more frequencies across the pond, I have never had a problem with finding a flight at a time on VS that works for me.

Hands down - I would only fly BA as a last resort.

GM1985

You could try a few different airlines to see what works for you. Everyone has different opinions and tastes. For example, I'd disagree with your colleague and say that BA has better food than AA.

On a practical point, something to consider for the return JFK-LHR leg is that you don't have EC/UK261 protection if flying on a US carrier. You would only get that on AA/UA/DL on the leg departing the UK.