I'm planning to fly from Malaysia to Newark/JFK and was wondering which of these business class airline to pick from. 1) Thai & Brussels Airline combine (Thai longest leg) 2) Thai & United combine (UA longest leg) 3) China, ANA and UA combine (UA longest leg)
The common wisdom here would probably say to travel on Thai rather than United, so #1 would win, especially if it included time in the Thai lounge in BKK.
Other considerations not mentioned include things like lifetime mileage accrual, status mileage accrual, class of service bonus, which will make me choose UA every time (until I am a 1 million miler), especially since I can get into most airport lounges around the world by other means...
I have flown TG several time both ways in business and in First and the service is always immaculate but the hard product is a bit dated. Recently, we flew UA892 ICN-SFO and we were pleasantly surprised that not only the plane was refurbished but the service was also excellent. Never flown China or Air China! Hope this helps!
It depends on what China airline are you talking about: china airlines or Air China? If you are Star Alliance, you should fly Air china, they recently upgraded their whole international fleet to B777-300ER and 787(soon)
This might not be desirable, but you could try Singapore Airlines SQ21 from EWR-SIN (17 hours) and then fly to Malaysia.
Great pics. Thanks Kalboz. I'm considering UA only cuz I've flown CO international before and liked their service but UA itself didn't have great reviews on international services, even in BUS/FIR class. I'm trying to find out if the plane from HKG-EWR is newer plane.
Thanks United747&777Expert. I've been trying to get SQ flights to/from US with miles but it's been impossible so Thai is next best as of now... MAS (my own country's airline!) doesn't allow kids in BUS/FIR class so my baby will have to sit in economy while I travel BUS/FIR....
My experience has been that UA offers quite a bit more when it comes to redeeming miles to travel to that part of the world. It might involve going through HKG but I have successfully redeemed miles on UA to travel of SE Asia over the last 3 years... In general, one should expect to do some contortions to redeem successfully...
If you can fly in United's new F class, it's pretty decent. While the service isn't the same as the Asian carriers, the hard product is quite good.
I just went to and returned from MEL, Down Under, in UA BusinessFirst (depicted above in some of the pics posted by Kalboz) and found nothing to complain about either with the service or the hard product...and that is from someone who is a frequent SQ and CA flyer...
Hmmm, so they've improved their BizFirst cabin too huh? One still wonders though, why it's taken so long for U.S. carriers to realize that they actually need to compete with the better international airlines...
