CSAFI

Does anyone have any recent experience with these two in First to HNL? Services, food etc? I'm using OK miles and would prefer CO but impossible to book at this point.
Also transatlantic NW KL or DL in Business? Again CO impossible to book.
Thanks

wally34949

Most airlines are using the 767 aircraft on flights to Hawaii. According to www.seatguru.com, Delta has six seats across in first while Continental has five seats across--which means more room. I flew Continental to Honolulu in coach and they had video screens in coach and free cheeseburgers. Today, most airlines have food for purchase in coach going to Hawaii. I would choose Continental over Delta.

rkkwan

If possible, get the MSP-HNL on Northwest. Even though the plane is an old DC-10, you get World Business Class seats that they use on international flights. Much better seat than those on NW's 757-300 flights from the West Coast, or DL's 767-400.

For Atlantic, try to get a flight on NW's new A330-300. New planes, excellent audio/video-on-demand (AVOD)system.

Patty

Have you been given some flight choices to HNL on DL and NW? If so, can you post them? Different aircraft with different front cabin configurations are used on various routes.

DL uses a Business Elite equipped 763 on the ATL-OGG nonstop but primarily domestic FC equipped 764 on other routes and there's a huge difference in seating comfort.

Same goes for your transatlantic flights. What cities? I find KL and DL mostly comparable in business, except that WBC seats on KL's 763 have much less recline than seats on other KL aircraft or DL BE. KL only has AVOD on their 777, but the WBC cabin is 2/3/2 leaving the possibility of a middle seat. DL has no AVOD. I've been happy with the food/service on both carriers in business. No experience with NW in business class.

Patty

I take that back. I've flown NW WBC once but that was in 1992

CSAFI

Now I'm booked on DL 219 ATL-HNL a 764, I need the one segment ATL-HNL. I couldn't get NW 99, DC-10. I believe the 764 and 757 are relatively the same in comfort and entertainment to HI, so the question I guess is service and catering.
Also I'm booked on AF 69 in First, the old config, so I hope it's worth it.
Any ideas why CO won't confirm reward seats at time of booking even if they are available?

rkkwan

It's hard to get award seats on CO. They have better first/business products than DL and NW, and with those in bankruptcy, a lot of DL/NW fliers are claiming CO awards. There are only a limited number of seats to go around.

Patty

What do you mean by "CO won't confirm reward seats at time of booking even if they are available"? Where did you see that award seats were available? On the CO website? If so, could it be possible that those award seats are available to Onepass members but not if you're redeeming OK miles?

I like the bulkhead rows on the 764 and disagree with the seatguru ratings on these. Seat pitch is tight in every row (except 7E/F but these are reserved for crew rest on longer flights like ATL-HNL) but at least here you don't have any seats in front of you leaning back. You lose the footrest and storage space but I find it a fair trade off. Others may feel differently.

Domestic catering is OK, nothing special. I don't know if they do anything different going to Hawaii.

Enjoy your flight in AF First!

rkkwan

I have no idea what CSAFI means by that either. There are either award seats available or there aren't.

As for FC on DL's 764, I believe "7E" is the preferred seat of all, as one can press a secret switch in the armrest and get extra recline. Do a search on Flyertalk.com and you may find the detail.

Patty

I believe the magic lever is found on both 7E and 7F, but I thought these seats were used for crew rest on longer flights. Maybe they've changed this policy 7E/F also have a lot of extra legroom so if they're available, grab 'em.

CSAFI

So what I mean with the CO seats is that I have found availability through OK and booked the seat with the next day phone call that CO won't confirm those seats until prior to departure, so what's the point in booking unconfirmed seats. Have you ever heard of this practice?

rkkwan

CSAFI - I've booked dozens of CO awards seats during the past few years, online and on-the-phone. I still don't understand what you mean.

You either get a seat - and you're confirmed with your itinerary available on continental.com within minutes - or you don't get a seat.

If they say you're waitlisted, that means you don't have a seat.

LoveItaly

CSAFI, I don't understand either.
Do you mean you got your reservations but they will not let you reserve your actual seat as in say Row 10, Seat A for example. In otherwords you know you can fly on the plane you just don't where you will be sitting?

Or are you saying that they are telling you they won't even tell you whether you have an actual reservation for the flight?

Patty

Are you saying that OK told you that award seats were available on CO, booked you on the CO flight, but someone called you the following day and told you that your CO seat not confirmed?

There are two situations that I can think of where this might happen.

I don't know how the OK program works but could it be that CO award seats are given to those redeeming OK miles on a request basis, i.e. OK has to send a request to CO asking for the seat and wait for CO to respond because OK doesn't have real time access to CO award inventory? I know this is the case when you request partner awards seats on SQ and MH through DL Skymiles (but usually seats on Skyteam partners can be confirmed right away).

The other possibility is that this is just some communication screw up between OK and CO in which case, I'd look to OK to set things right since they were the party that told you there was availability. However, I don't know if they can convince CO to release that award seat for you. More than likely, they would just get you to your destination on another partner carrier which is what it sounds like they've done.

Good luck!

rkkwan,
I think the difference is that you book your CO awards through CO and this may be some specific issue between CO and OK.

Patty

Then again, all of my guesses could be wrong.

There's no OK forum on FT, but you could try the Other European FF program one - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=469

rkkwan

I'm so sorry. I didn't see the OP mentioned "OK" in his original post, and in the subsequent ones, I thought he/she meant "okay". Sorry.

Yes, it's probably an issue with OK's FF award desk not getting instant inventory on CO.

But anyways, CO award seats are indeed hard to come by, especially trans-Atlantic BusinessFirst seats.

CSAFI

I think you are right Patty with your first idea that OK can't get real time confirmation which i think is strange being SkyTeam. I have asked OK about this several times but they can't give me a concrete response. All I can do at this point is wait and try to snag a seat close to departure or in the meantime. It also seems that OK and perhaps other airlines can't see or are not able to book certain award seats. For example when i call AF for A class seats they see what I see with KVS that there is availability but when i contact CSA they don't even see that class listed on the same flight. Perhaps i should switch alliances, but CSA is a very good choice for European flights in C class.

rkkwan

If OK's FF desk has so much trouble booking partner flights, you can simply switch to FlyingBlue and credit your OK flights there. No need to switch airlines or alliance.

Patty

Are you sure that you can redeem F awards on AF using OK miles? I know this option was eliminated for DL Skymiles members recently (Y/J awards are still available but F no longer) and I believe that it's never been an option for NW Worldperks members.

CSAFI

So I finally found out today that they need to do a special search for A class seats at CSA. I found one First class seat in the NTC to JFK on AF and also booked a CO BusinessFirst seat from LGW to IAH. They said the seat is confirmed, but let's wait and see again. Now the question is which flight would be better. Any ideas or recommendations?
Also with CSA they are one the last airlines in Europe to upgrade you with only Elite status and using no miles, so better stick with them.
Thanks for the help, it finally got someone to really find out the problem.