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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Hello my frequent business travel brethren! I will have to travel to Australia once, maybe twice, this year from the East coast of the USA. These trips will be business class. Does anyone have any particular feedback on specific airlines' business class cabins? Most interested in the Gulf carriers, Qantas and Virgin Australia. I flew back and forth regularly for a few years and almost always went Dubai with Emirates. My business partner flew Singapore same direction. Dubai connection can be longish sometimes, but I still preferred it greatly over the shorter domestic flights and western long hauls. One reason for this though is that I was going to Perth. Which coast of Aus also makes a big difference.
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Mar 12, 2014 03:34
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Small White Dragon posted:In my experience, going west is always easier. If you can handle it, I would say just take the nonstop. There isn't one from BOS, or else I'd just do that. Regardless, I'm stopping somewhere. Thanks for the input, y'all.
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Mar 12, 2014 13:59
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I posted this a while back:Trabant posted:I'm most likely going to take a job with a massive US-based tech company, and I'm looking at about 25% (mostly domestic) travel. There's one thing I'd like to figure out as soon as I get started -- a way to get more legroom on my flights, because flying coach when you're 6'4" is borderline punishment. Forget business class, I'll be happy with the emergency exit row. This would be the first time I travel for work and I imagine most of it will be managed through the corporate travel dept. That probably means my ability to manipulate the logistics for upgrades is limited, right? Am I looking at paying for seat upgrades out of my own pocket? I've since accepted the job in question, and now I know a few more details about the travel policy. We arrange our own travel, and here's what I'm looking at:
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Mar 14, 2014 05:18
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I would base your decision on where you typically have to travel to, unless you're going to use IAH/DFW, in which case you should do either UA or AA. Southwest is a decent option.
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Mar 14, 2014 14:11
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:I would base your decision on where you typically have to travel to, unless you're going to use IAH/DFW, in which case you should do either UA or AA. Southwest is a decent option. I'd pick an alliance, as mentioned here. I'm going to guess and say you're flying out of AUS (fantastic airport), in which case both AA and UA will give you options connecting in DFW/IAH respectively and almost 0 direct flights. Economy plus is usually a fairly cheap (~$50) add on to the economy fare, so I don't think you'll have an issue coming within $300 of the lowest fare. Southwest may be good for you from AUS because they will have way more direct flights. Less connections=less time on a plane. You can buy A-list boarding and get an exit or bulkhead seat and be pretty good.
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Mar 15, 2014 03:31
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6'5" goon here. Yeah if you're dead set on having leg room and have to buy economy fares, Southwest is a good choice. There's almost always bulkhead or exit row middle seats available well into the B group. Bulkhead aisle and window seats are usually snagged by disability pre board passengers; they're a 50/50 mix of giant fat fuckers and tiny old people, who I gladly sit next to. On business traveler heavy days, bulkhead seats aren't popular, which leads to the next thing: you can't really carry on if you plan on sitting bulk. When I have plenty of time and don't mind checking bags I'll carry my Nexus 7 and headphones in my pocket and sit bulkhead. Also I loving hate united because 7 out of ten times I'm boarding group 5 and every single person who boards before me shove all their poo poo into the overhead storage (two bags, jackets, hats  ) and I end up having to gate check my big carryon anyways.
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Mar 15, 2014 22:42
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Why don't you have some sort of early boarding status or credit card?
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Mar 15, 2014 23:44
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I'm A-list on Southwest so I get good seats almost always. I fly on united 5-7 times a year due to logistics
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Mar 16, 2014 02:56
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poo poo, just get UAL's credit card. If I were your size, I'd be all over that. I can't even imagine. The rare occasions when I don't get Economy Comfort I feel like I'm eating my knees, and I'm 5'10.
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Mar 16, 2014 04:09
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That CC ain't gonna get me leg room which is why I fly SW and I'll be damned if I have to pay for upgrades out of my own pocket. Also my wife got me some of these: http://www.gadgetduck.com/goods/kneedefender.html Haven't actually used em yet though.
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Mar 16, 2014 04:37
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oxsnard posted:That CC ain't gonna get me leg room which is why I fly SW and I'll be damned if I have to pay for upgrades out of my own pocket. They got talked about a few pages ago. The biggest challenge I see is deploying them before the seat comes down in the first place since you have to break out your tray table to use it. You kind of have to hope you don't have to let anyone past you while you're sitting, either, because once the tray goes back up the seatback is slamming down on you out of spite regardless of what else is going on.
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Mar 16, 2014 06:48
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As another 6'5" frequent traveler whose employer pays for only economy seats -
That said, having even a little airline status helps, since I can usually get the premium economy free if not an outright class upgrade. (Side note. Oddly enough, weight loss helped me a ton with legroom. I was about 245 pounds when I started my frequent travel, and there were some seats I couldn't sit in without putting my legs in the aisle or my legs going numb. I'm down to about 215 now and while it's certainly not comfortable, I've been able to tolerate every seat I've been in - even PHX-HNL in a standard economy middle seat. I guess the back and leg fat made a huge difference.) P.D.B. Fishsticks fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Mar 16, 2014 |
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Mar 16, 2014 13:46
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On the window seat in CRJs, I just wedge my knee up using the sill under the window. gently caress you guy for leaning back your seat in a CRJ2.
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Mar 16, 2014 16:28
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Seat 1B is by far the best seat on a CRJ100/200 because you can extend your feet out into where the door curtain hangs. In 1C you can't do that because you end up tripping the flight attendant all the time. And I avoid the exit row seats because they're always full of guys as big or bigger than myself, so the extra legroom rarely makes up for someone spilling into my seat. Delta is finally adding the occasional CRJ700 flight to my airport. I'm pretty stocked about that even though I'm giving serious consideration to switching over to American with these new skymiles changes.
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Mar 16, 2014 18:00
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Yeah, I think end of 2015 they say they will have cut the number of CRJ2s to 150 or fewer. 
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Mar 16, 2014 18:32
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:
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Mar 17, 2014 15:51
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CRJs would be awesome if the only people that ever flew were children and petite women.
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Mar 17, 2014 16:14
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Thoguh posted:CRJs would be awesome if the only people that ever flew were children and petite women. CRJ2s would be awesome if they were all melted down for scrap. The NextGens are pretty nice, though.
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Mar 17, 2014 16:52
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The CR7s are very nice, especially if you can get someone to book you an F ticket, or score an upgrade. I actually like the old Embraers that American Eagle flies, but mainly because of the seating configuration, since I can have a seat that's both window and aisle.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:43
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Beechcraft 1500's or  . 8 by 8, no overheads, no lavatory on the older models, and certainly no service. But with no door between you and the pilots' cabin, you get to see takeoffs and landings. And they're reliable, even with that horrible knocking noise they make first thing in the morning.Counterpoint: the pilots are rarely old enough to require regular shaving.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:55
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Small White Dragon posted:The CR7s are very nice, especially if you can get someone to book you an F ticket, or score an upgrade. The first class seats on a CRJ7/9 should be the standard coach seats in all aircraft. It would never happen, but air travel would be much more tolerable if it did. It would only require removing one seat per row in a narrowbody.
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Mar 17, 2014 20:14
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I feel that way about AirTran's business class. If all airplane seating was like that I would fly so much more. 22" wide seat, 37" pitch. I was in heaven for those 2.5 hours.
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Mar 17, 2014 20:18
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Upper or lower deck of a LH 744 in J?
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Mar 17, 2014 21:33
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Pissingintowind posted:Upper or lower deck of a LH 744 in J? Upper deck is quieter and most people seem to prefer that. But my experience is Delta, I think all the LH ones are F in the upper deck, no?
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Mar 17, 2014 22:49
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It makes me sad that I could tell you the plusses and minusses of every single seat on a CRJ200 but that my opinion on Business Class/International First class is limited to "it was pretty cool that one time".
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Mar 17, 2014 23:43
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Arzakon posted:Upper deck is quieter and most people seem to prefer that. But my experience is Delta, I think all the LH ones are F in the upper deck, no? poo poo I just checked the flight, it's on UA metal 
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Mar 17, 2014 23:57
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Upper for the novelty, or the very front of the nose.
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Mar 18, 2014 04:26
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Pissingintowind posted:Upper or lower deck of a LH 744 in J? Upper, always upper (except on the 748 where the footwells are smaller). I just got home yesterday from doing this: Wish I could go back to bed now. :P Edit: Pissingintowind posted:poo poo I just checked the flight, it's on UA metal The upper deck is definitely the place to be in J on the UA 744. I like row 14 or 15 because it's equidistant from the crappers and from the rear galley. Beef Of Ages fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 13:24
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Mackieman posted:Upper, always upper (except on the 748 where the footwells are smaller). Huh. Details please!
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Mar 19, 2014 02:06
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I'm sorry for all of you tall people and reclining seat issues. I'm 5'3" and I still find most airline seats uncomfortable mostly because I can't put my feet on the floor and the headrest is useless. I spend a lot of time slouching. I did learn my lesson about reclining seats last year. I used to fly out 6am Monday morning and I would always drop the tray table, put my head down on it and pass out for a couple extra hours of sleep. Until one day when the passenger in front of me reclined their seat. Ever woken up in a panic thinking your neck was broken? I don't sleep on the tray table any more.
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Mar 19, 2014 05:01
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People who recline without asking the person behind them are horrible monsters.
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Mar 19, 2014 05:15
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oxsnard posted:People who recline without asking the person behind them are horrible monsters. That's a bit too extreme. Perhaps just take turn around and take a look. The eye contact is implicit enough that you want to recline. Talking to strangers is scary 
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Mar 19, 2014 05:23
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kaishek posted:I'm going to guess and say you're flying out of AUS (fantastic airport), in which case both AA and UA will give you options connecting in DFW/IAH respectively and almost 0 direct flights. Yup! AUS-based people keep popping up in this thread for some reason. Thanks for the advice. Judging by my coworkers' habits, I'm probably going to become familiar with AA routes. Not exactly my favourite airline, but I'll deal with it. Also, I second wanting to hear details about Jason Bourne here: Mackieman posted:I just got home yesterday from doing this:
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Mar 19, 2014 05:47
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i81icu812 posted:Huh. Details please! It was actually two trips that got melded together because I'm a The original trip was a vacation with my wife and I, my sister, and my parents. We were flying IAH-IAD-LHR//DUB-IAD-IAH on UA over the water and we had intra-Europe segments on BA for LHR-VIE and SZG-LGW-EDI and EI for EDI-DUB. My sister (the trip was her Master's program graduation gift) and my wife are huge Harry Potter nerds so we had to go to London so they could go see all that stuff (I went to the pub). We then hopped over to Vienna for a couple of days and made a day trip down to Bratislava so I could check another country off my list. As it turns out, Bratislava is badass and I'd love to go back for a few days. We had a train over to Salzburg for an overnight because I cannot pass up the opportunity to visit the Augustiner whenever I'm in that part of the world. Then over to Edinburgh for Stirling Castle (more Harry Potter poo poo, another pub for me) and a quick stop by the Falkirk Wheel because I'm a power nerd that way. Finally a hop over to Dublin for an overnight to avoid the UK departure tax. We were to leave March 6 and come back on March 16. Until I got a phone call from an exec at work asking me to be in CAN (Guangzhou, China) the week of March 3-7. The only other dates I had available at the time were in the middle of Chinese New Year so that was a non-starter. I decided that I'd take the trip to China and show up a day late to my vacation. After all, work pays for J and that's a whole shitload of miles. However, this presented a problem: I already had airfare booked for the vacation, and while joining my family a day late wasn't a big deal, I needed to fly the outbound sectors of that vacation ticket so that the return portion was valid. Given that, I developed the following plan: Change my vacation ticket that was departing March 6 out of IAH to depart February 28 out of AUS (where I actually live). Work agreed to pay the change fee. I had secured upgrades for everyone on the outbound portion of the vacation ticket, and was able to find AUS-IAH, IAH-IAD, and IAD-LHR that had R space (UA's upgrade bucket) so now I could leave from AUS and remained in a premium cabin the whole way. I then bought a work-paid ticket from LHR to CAN. This consisted of two tickets, LHR-FRA-HKG//HKG-MUC-LHR on LH and HKG-CAN//CAN-HKG on CZ. For those playing the home game, that's three separate tickets on three different airlines (creating three unprotected connections) across almost two and a half weeks. All told, I flew: AUS-IAH-IAD-LHR(UA)//LHR-FRA-HKG(LH)//HKG-CAN(CZ)//CAN-HKG(CZ)//HKG-MUC-LHR(LH)//LHR-VIE(BA)//SZG-LGW-EDI(BA)//EDI-DUB(EI)//DUB-IAD-IAH(UA) I am exceedingly fortunate that, as a charter member of the Tall-rear end Dudes Brigade™ at 6'8", all of the flights (except the intra-Europe segments where I had exit rows) were in premium cabins thanks to upgrade certificates that I acquired from generous friends and/or buy-ups, and work pays for J on international trips. Because I had a full J fare on FRA-HKG, I was able to use a paper SWU given to me by a friend to upgrade to F on the LH 747-8. That didn't suck.  The only real issue I had was on the way back from CAN when I arrived in HKG five and a half hours before my flight to MUC left and the LH ticket desk didn't open until two hours prior to departure. I was stuck in the transit area at HKG for three hours, living as Tom Hanks in that terrible movie The Terminal. All in all, though, it was a great trip and I got all sorts of fun dots, lines, and new aircraft types for my FlightMemory.
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Mar 19, 2014 13:45
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oxsnard posted:People who recline without asking the person behind them are horrible monsters. Truer words have never been spoken.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:06
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caberham posted:That's a bit too extreme. Perhaps just take turn around and take a look. The eye contact is implicit enough that you want to recline. Talking to strangers is scary Yeah, I do the same. I've never asked someone permission to recline and I don't expect the person in front of me to do so. It is annoying if somebody just pops their seat back all the way in one sudden jerk, but beyond that somebody reclining in front of you is just one of the lovely things you have to deal with in air travel.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:48
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As a fat person I often recline without intending to because just sitting in the seat, my thigh is pressing the stupid button. I'm sorry tall people, FWIW, air travel sucks just as much for me as it does for you.
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Mar 19, 2014 14:59
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Has anyone gone through the PreCheck enrollment directly with TSA? My Nexus pass expired, I live in STL where there's no Global Entry enrollment facility, and I don't travel internationally enough to justify the hassle of trying to line up an appointment somewhere that I think I might be a month or two from now. So it's just easier for me to pay the $85 for a 5 year membership and be done with it. I've got an appointment tomorrow for the in-person part of the process, just curious how much time I should budget and what they actually do besides take fingerprints and (I assume) a photo.
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Mar 20, 2014 02:35
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kitten smoothie posted:Has anyone gone through the PreCheck enrollment directly with TSA? I assume the interviews should be fairly similar, it's basically dealing with the sky DMV. I went to the Homeland Security office in SEA-TAC and they were an hour late getting to me and the interview was cursory at best. I also learned that the best way to offend a Homeland Security agent is to call them a TSA officer. That was a nice lecture.
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Mar 20, 2014 03:23
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I did it that way at IND at the end of last year; they basically just had me verify the things I entered on the form, fingerprinted me, and took my payment. I don't even recall them taking my photo (not like you get a PreCheck ID card, and you wouldn't need it for a background check), though that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I didn't have an appointment, so I had to wait like 75 minutes to be called up, but once I was, I was done in ten minutes.
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Mar 20, 2014 05:04
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