Which airline to fly Business Class with 1-year-old between Chicago <--> Boston?
 

It'll be our first trip!!

It's less than 900 miles, so it's just not that big of a deal. Fly the carrier that you are accumulating the most mileage and status with.

US based airlines don't have business class on most domestic routes. The exception is some transcons where some still fly a 3 class planes.

AFAIK, ORD-BOS only has economy or first. One could argue that domestic first is no better or in some instance worst than most international business class, but that's a discussion for another day and thread.

I just wanted you to know that when booking this flight, you need to ask for first class. I can't think of any one airline that flies a 3 class plane on that particular short route.

From here, AA (at least) calls First Class on 2 class flights &quot;Business.&quot; There technically is not First Class then. Is it not that way in the upper 48 or with other airlines?

It's not unusual for international business class to have 55-60&quot; pitch, lay flat or almost flast seats.

Domestic first class is usually 38&quot; pitch, and the recline is no where close to international business.

No it's not. With AA the only exception to the rules are some transcon 767-200 flights where 3 classes are still offered. (767-300 are 2 class so don't miastake the 2 as they do fly on the same routes, i.e.JFK-LAX/SFO)

In fact there are few mid-con routes where AA flies the 3 class 777's but they sell it as 2 class only, first and economy, and the business cabin with economy service, is available to elites on any economy ticket and anybody with full fare economy ticket during reservation and then to anybody that knows the little &quot;secret&quot; during check-in if there are any business class seats still available. (MIA-DFW, DFW-MIA, DFW-ORD, DFW-LAX and I believe they just started MIA-LAX again, all are just 1 flight a day on the 777, the rest are a regular mix of MD-80, 737 and 757s)

Domestically it's first and economy, anything going outside the US borders is business, economy on a 2 class plane, even though it's the same plane. It's all about marketing.

Thanks for the explanation. Still seems weird. . .

Weird? not really.

As I said, it's all about marketing. All the US based airlines use First Class description for the front cabin on domestic flights. The cabin is NOT First Class by any stretch of imagination when compared to truly international First Class, but which airline will have enough ba**s to change the designation when all their competitors won't???

It's just a name, but when all the competitors sell &quot;First Class&quot; from Chicago to New York, no sane executive of any other airline will be brave enough to sell &quot;ONLY&quot; Business Class......especially if it's the same amount of $ for either seat...:-)

Believe it or not, most non-frequent flyers wouldn't know the difference, so if given a choice they would go with First as opposed to Business, although the seats would be (just about) the same in either case. Wouldn't you if you didn't know any better?

Marketing is everything...:-D

Not all! :D Delta sells their transcons that utilize aircraft equipped with Business Elite seating as &quot;business&quot; not first. Unfortunately these are few and far between :( I agree that most non-frequent flyers when given the choice would book the flight that said &quot;first&quot; when they should be doing the opposite.

Also domestic portions of flights that continue on to Central/South American destinations are marketed as &quot;business&quot; by DL though you may actually only get domestic first seating :( Basically, you need to check the aircraft.

I did say that some transcons are an exception....

Sorry, I didn't read your earlier posts. I was going by this statement &quot;All the US based airlines use First Class description for the front cabin on domestic flights&quot;

Anyway, DL's transcons sold as business are actually on 2 class planes.

There aqre few exceptions here and there, but I was just trying to explain why in US we still have First designation for the front cabin on domestics whereas the rest of the world goes by Business class on their domestics or intra-continental flights...

Generally speaking :-)

And I was making it way more complicated than necessary ;)

Thanks, everybody! :)