I'm considering a trip to visit friends in England in March. I have a couple of non-stop choices from LAX to LHR. Both are the same price ($711).

The options are BA and United.

BA seems good given that drinks are complementary, but it's a 747, and I couldn't get any usable miles from them.

United would be nice for the miles and the times (are a tad better than BA). It's also a 777. But no free drinks and only a handful of seats are left (only 1 aisle, in the row of 5).

Virgin Atlantic used to be the cheapest, but it's now $60 more. I've heard good things about them.

Any thoughts?

Last week there was a story on TV about BA's lost baggage rate, which is extremely high.

"This year, the airline has lost or delayed 28 bags for every 1,000 passengers, according to the Association of European Airlines. By comparison, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported this month that, on average, domestic carriers mishandled baggage for seven of every 1,000 passengers in the same time period."

Right, I'd forgotten about that.

So Virgin Atlantic is also available - for $624. So the price is great, and I've heard good things. But useless miles and an AirBus A340.

i should add that I've never flown any of these airlines trans-atlantic.

Miles or no miles - of those three, Virgin would be my first choice on that route.

Try Air New Zealand, I think they are in the same alliance as United.

If you fly VS, you can earn DL or CO miles. Maybe those are somewhat useful for you.

Looks like Kmurchan is our latest troll and he's not even funny.

I personally wouldn't fly a US-based airline on such a long flight if I had other options. IMO, European airlines have much better food and are considerably cleaner.

mnss, actually you can fly Air New Zealand from LAX to LHR nonstop, due to complicated airline rules governing inter-country airline operations.

Air New Zealand is $850, but thanks for that tip. What is VS?

That's right WillTravel! it just initially didn't sound right to me

In that case, this might actually be a really good option given the great reputation of Air New Zealand, and as mentioned it also belongs to the same alliance as United, Lufthansa etc ie Star alliance.

VS = Virgin Atlantic.

Okay, I just realized you meant VA. And I did not realize that I could get Delta or Continental, so that's good news. Because of the fare, I'd only get half the miles flown, but it's still better than the nothing I'd get on BA. Thanks for the suggestion.

mnss: What on Earth are you on about?? Yes, as WillTravel says, NZ does fly LAX to London . . . . . .

I know Janis; didn't I concur with WillTravel on my last post? though admittedly I was slightly uninformed while typing the first reply!

What VS fare class are you look at?

All these VS coach fares earn 100% CO miles and EQM: W, Y, H, K, B, Q, M, N, L, X, V, S

For Skymiles, every coach fares earns 100%, except for G, T, U, or N, which earns nothing.

I don't see any that earns 50% on CO or DL.

mnss: I wasn't piling on - honest. Look at the times of the 5 entries after WillTravel's at 12:08 - all were essentially all being written/posted at the same time. Basically, there was a log jam and while I was writing mine - none of those others (JoeTro's, yours, rkkwan's, WT's, and another one from JoeT) displayed yet . . . . .

RK,

Thanks for your reply. I was going off of what VA's website said about its own miles ... the trip I'm looking at earns 5,000 something Flying Club miles, rather than 10,000 whatever. But I now see about the partner airlines. It seems like I can't earn any Delta miles with my class of ticket, which is a shame, because Delta is way more useful than CO or US Air. But it's nice to know I can transfer to some US airlines.

We had a great experience on Air New Zealand; coach has a good amount of leg room, individual seatback screens, lots of entertainment choices, and pretty good food.

Lee Ann

Thanks, Lee Ann. Unfortunately, ANZ is a bit too expensive.

VS $591 all-in for departure 3/3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12. $4 more for departure 3/17, 18, 19. Assuming staying for about a week.

"N" class, which earns 100% Continental miles and EQM.