Best airline?
 

My husband and I are planning to take a Regent cruise in October starting in Istanbul and ending in Greece. I was wondering if anyone could comment on which airline they have flown on similar trips and if there are any in particular that you recommend? Also, which airline has the least changes/layovers from the US East Coast?

Thanks!

use www.itasoftware.com to find the airline with the fewest changes

you can go to www.airlinequality.com to check out reviews AFTER people tell you their "bests."

One person's "best" airline won't be the same as another and the east coast is a large area. Where in the East Coast? It is possible to do it without connections from somewhere like JFK.

MrNuke, Traveling from Charlotte, NC, but would change in JFK or other east coast hub if necessary. We're flying business class, so "best" on this flight would be the most comfortable seats, best layout of business class, etc.

There are flight to/from Charlotte that change in Frankfurt, but would like to avoid US Air if possible.

Thanks

If you're flying business class, you might consider flying Turkish Airlines. They don't have the best business class, but they do have direct flights from JFK to Istanbul. I've flown with Turkish Airlines half a dozen times from France to Turkey in economy and always had good service. Turkish partners with several major airlines so you could accumulate points on the flight with an American carrier - and should be able to use points from certain frequently flyer programs with them, too. They have been changing some of their partnerships, so I can't remember exactly who they partner with.

Where on the East Coast?

Which class of service?

Without answering the first question, your second question is not answerable. And, without answering the first question, I can't really recommend a carrier either.

We flew Air France business class from JFK to Istanbul last year with a connection at CDG. Everything went well (which can be shocking for CDG!) and the service was excellent. However, now Continental has begun nonstop service from EWR ( Newark) to Athens. If I were going again, I'd probably look into this route, and connect through Athens for the very short onward flight to Istanbul.

From Charlotte you are going to have to make at least one stop. My first inclination would be to go Lufthansa. They have a CLT-MUC flight. In Munich you can connect to Istanbul.

Turkish Airlines partners with American, but I've heard that their business class is not as good as Air France or Continental. And if you took American, you'd have to connect, probably in Paris, possibly London.

All right, now I am embarrassed, I missed the response where you stated you were flying from CLT.

At any rate, from a comfort perspective, I think you really have only one choice - Lufthansa. This is based upon a simple mathematical truism:

International Biz<US Domestic F<European Biz.

As such, you should try to maximize you time in International Biz. From Charlotte, this leaves you with the Lufthansa flight. Wish there was something more to offer, but I just don't see the value in adding another connection, which is what you would be doing to avoid Lufthansa.

Just do an open jaw ticket from Charlotte to JFk and then nonstop to Istanbul on Delta from JFK. For your return,fly Athens nonstop to JFK then to Charlotte back on Delta. Two legs and no changing planes in Europe with waiting between flights!