My other half and myself will be flying from the US to Athens and then Istanbul to the US in business class. We'll be using miles and would like to know which Star Alliance carrier has the best business class on these routes. I'm a OneWorld and SkyTeam guy, so I'm not familiar with Star Alliance - i.e. Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, SAS etc. We've got a lot of miles to burn. What's our best bang for our mileage in business? Both Lufthansa and Swiss sound pretty nice.

Many thanks,
Matt

I have not flown your routing, but I prefer Lufthansa over Swiss. Their seats are much nicer as well as the overall service. Goodluck and have fun.

What *A airline do you have your miles with? Where are you departing from?

I'd try for Singapore for JFK-FRA, then Lufthansa to ATH, vice-versa on the return from IST.

Who knows, you might get lucky by the time your fly and get the new business class setup:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1222154/M/

In addition to Fodors I use the following websites to decide things.
http://www.airlinequality.com/
http://www.flatseats.com/

Lots of good info and some seat
pictures.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the responses.

All the miles are on UAL. We'll be flying out of Kansas City. Our most convienent options would likely be using O'Hare or Dulles as our gate way as both have numerous non stop flights to and from Kansas City - plus they're served by several Star Alliance carriers.

Singapore would be great, but would involve an extra leg as we have no non stops to JFK.

Does anyone know if a schedule exists for the roll out on UA's new Y class? I believe it starts this month and is scheduled to run through Fall '09. I'm trying to determine when specific routes might be complete - i.e. ORD to FRA, IAD to FRA, IAD to ZUR, etc.

I've looked on both FlyerTalk and www.suitedreams.united.com with no luck.

Y is economy, and (although I'm not a UA person) I didn't think they were redoing Y.

"C" class (or "J" on other airlines) refers to business class, and there's a whole long thread on the topic on FT - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=730184

Actually, it's a new C class (business class). Word was that it would be on 767s first. When are you traveling?

Figured that your miles are on UA and you are leaving from K.C. (given your name) but figured I'd ask because the rules for ticket changes and to some extent seat availability depend on the carriers used.

If you were flying to cities served by UA (you aren't) then there is some small advantage to flying on UA with your UA miles because there is more flexibility with changing the ticket. Once you involve a partner (you must for your itin) the change rules are much more restrictive.

So best, perhaps, may have been to have Lufthansa miles and fly from their gateway. United's business class seats are getting a bit old, so you would do better to take a partner for the whole route, since UA doesn't go to ATH and IST.

Sorry for the typo, meant C, not Y.

mrwunrfl - thanks for the advice.

Lufthansa's business class is absolutely fantastic - seats that transform into flat beds electrically. Food & drink & service is also very good. Premium alcohol in unlimited amounts.

They offer a lot of connections within Europe and are among the most reliable airlines.

For the business class seats I would go with Lufthansa !!
They have 2 major hubs, Frankfurt and Munich, both directly connected with O'Hare and Dulles as well as to Istanbul ! so you also have more schedule choices.

There is another option with only 2 Star Alliance flights:

USAir Kansas City to Philadelphia
USAir Philadelphia to Athens !! and back, but have no idea about their business class !!

but I guess only on summer schedule. Check your travel dates for this second solution.. !!

fabio

Personally, I try to avoid Dulles when flying to/from Europe, trying instead for non-stops from ORD.

But, with that in mind, the flights on UA that go thru Dulles are almost always cheaper. Are they trying to build up that hub?? I've flown the ZRH to Dulles a number of times in the past but have decided to avoid Dulles and pay a little bit more.

I'm flying ZRH to FRA and then FRA to ORD in December.