US Airways business class

[Pepc]

I've read many posts about US and non-US airlines business class service and seats.

I can not find any mention of US Airways.

Does anyone have experience flying overseas (to Rome) with US Airways?

Thank you very much!

[Travelcat2]

Since you haven't received a response yet -- I looked up US Airways on SeatGuru. Their 330-300 long distance carriers have flatbed seats while the 757 has angled flat seats. So, it depends upon the flight.

[Pepc]

Thank you! That was very nice of you.

The flight is listed a 330-300 jet.

I hope the service is up to par. I know very little about US Airways (other than American Airlines is merging with them next month!).

[drcandon]

Hi...Even though we were out of TO on the last Regent cruise (Oct 23 Rome to Venice 2013). Regent put us in business class on US airways. We were a bit leery as we had some odd experience with Delta and were afraid all US based airways were the same ( sorry unfounded prejudice).

 

I cannot give enough credit to US airways on both the level of service, quality of lounge, personable and professional flight staff, great seats incredible food. The only thing they were a bit conservative on was the alcohol, but then again, what they did serve was first class wine. The seats are not those ridiculous POD creatures that our disgraceful national airlines (Air Canada or as we call it Air Crapida) insists are wonderful, The seats were almost like loungers and were very comfortable. The "survival" kit that was handed out was well stocked with some surprisingly comfortable socks...

 

By the way did I mention the food - first class, the only time I actually have EVER photographed food presentation on a plane..

 

I only wish we flew them on the way home. Instead we got as I said Air Canada. - 2 of the seats were malfunctioning and one outright broken and they knew about it. The only thing I will say about Air Canada is they are not shy with the booze..it was extremely plentiful.

 

So US airways - thumbs up - highly recommeded

Edited November 20, 2013 by drcandon

[gnomie1]

A little known fact - U.S. Airways re-branded themselves as a low cost carrier many years ago, same as Southwest. So the flight is very much on a low end, although the fares are the same as the other carriers. Do not expect much in business class except for a bigger seat, I do not believe they even lie flat. The last time I flew business class on US to Europe they didn't even have amenity kits. For many years I was Chairman's Preferred, the highest level in their frequent flyer program, but when they changed their mode of operation to "LLC" (low cost carrier), I bolted quickly.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens after the merge with American is completed.

 

gnomie :)

[tennisplayerlovestocruise]

Flew USAir business class Rome to Charlotte last year. Excellent!! Lie flat beds. Very good food. All the cocktails and wine that we wanted. Service was very good.

[Pepc]

Thank you for the terrific reviews, drcandon and tennisplayerlovestocruise!

Sounds like the $999 x 2 for biz upgrade was worth it!

I originally asked for an Alitalia nonstop or a Delta flight with better connection times, but Regent's air desk said that the "fare code" was not available.

They said I could book the US Airways flight with no problem.

Now, thanks to the two of you, I'm glad I did! :D

[RachelG]

uS airways and American are in the process of merging, and American has the best business class seats I have ever sat/slept in on their new 777s. And there other business class seats aren't shabby at all. Word from those in the know(tulsa is an AA maintainence hub) is that US airways business class will brought up to the level of AA after merger.

[jhp]

Thank you for that info, Rachel. I have been bound for so many years with USAirways as that is the only airline that serves my regional airport. In all honesty, I fly whatever airline my points will take me in Biz class, and avoid paying for air at all when I can. I know I have flown many times on USAir to Europe, but perhaps not in several years, and always to Western Europe. Hate those flights no matter angle flat or lie flat, they are just too short to get much sleep, and you end up landing middle of the night EST. Your last flight on the new 777 sounded wonderful.

 

I"m happy to see many advantages of the merger, especially one-way awards. Lately, I've been using American and other airlines which allow this, and hoarding my USAir miles. Perhaps after the merger, it will be the best of all. I'm just not happy about leaving Star Alliance, as it has always been so easy for me to get award travel.

[Hambagahle]

Rachel - American may have the best business class seats you have ever seen but my experience with them has been terrible food (when there is any!), terrible service and flight attendants who chew gum, don't brush their hair and could care less about their passengers. I suppose having a comfy seat is a good thing under the circumstances!! Give me SQ any day.

[pingpong1]

Hope I'm not too "off topic" here, but the discussion is about business-class seats on various airlines. We recently experienced our first business class seats AND configurations on British Air. All I can say is (and naturally this is my own opinion) that the forward/backward configuration is......weird. With the pop up frosted plastic dividers between opposing-facing seats, it must make it very difficult and awkward (as well as off-putting to the passengers) for the flight attendants to service those rearward-facing seats next to the bulkheads, or even in the middle sections.

 

In addition, there is absolutely no place to conveniently stick some newspapers, magazines, menus, crossword puzzles, etc. unless you count that awful slide-out drawer at your feet that is virtually impossible to reach without unbuckling your seat belt and leaning way forward and "touching your toes" - something, with my physique, that hasn't happened for a few years! :D

 

I also found the small "ironing board" (foot rest) that you have to manually drop down from the seat back in front of you to be extremely awkward to deploy or to put back up (again, the need to stretch way far forward to reach). And when it is deployed, and your feet are resting on it, the rearward facing passenger next to you has to step way over your outstretched legs to leave their seats to get into the aisle and use the restrooms. If they stumbled and fell on you - you'd be looking at a broken leg or a dislocated knee joint!

 

The entertainment controls, located on a pull-out cord are embedded in the seat frame far back on your left or right side and when the control has been "popped out" to use (for selecting movies/programs and adjusting volume) it's cord gets tangled with your headphone cord - all of this, when taken together with the confusing seat controls, no easily accessible storage, and the stupid foot rests makes one wonder "what were they thinking"? And then the final insult - BA charges you upwards of $200/each seat/each way - in addition to the initial business class fare - to pre-select your individual/desired seats. Otherwise, without paying this additional seat selection charge, you wind up taking "pot luck" and letting BA do it for you. And I guess they consider this to all be "very civilized"?

 

And then (from this admittedly biased "Yank"), for "lunch", you're offered this (reportedly) much sought after hard biscuit (a "scone"?) and "clotted cream" (whatever that's supposed to be! :eek: ). At least the alternative, a salad, wasn't served with Marmite and toast! I would have been quite happy with just a plain/simple deli ham 'n cheese sandwich on wheat with cole slaw and a dill pickle on the side. A plain/simple piece of apple pie with a dollop of vanilla ice cream would have been fine with me, as well. Would that be so hard?

 

Even JAL and ANA at least "try" to serve something that is somewhat "new world" and that would appeal to the overwhelming majority of Yanks on their flights. You still have a selection of various forms of "seaweed", rice, and sushi, if that's your preference.

 

Unfortunately, I'm unavoidably back on BA again for our upcoming flight from Phoenix to Stockholm (via LHR) and back from Copenhagen. The direct non-stop BA service between PHX and LHR is just too convenient to pass up. But I hope they didn't give a promotion or a pay raise to the person who "designed" their business class seating. :mad: Regards to all.

[Travelcat2]

Unfortunately, I'm unavoidably back on BA again for our upcoming flight from Phoenix to Stockholm (via LHR) and back from Copenhagen. The direct non-stop BA service between PHX and LHR is just too convenient to pass up. But I hope they didn't give a promotion or a pay raise to the person who "designed" their business class seating. :mad: Regards to all.

 

Had to laugh -- just a bit at your post:-) BA Business Class seats do take some getting used to. We have flown BA (using Regent air) several times. Here are two hints to improve your experience.

 

1. Find the "code" (forget the exact word) for your flight. You can go into the BA site and change the seats that Regent has assigned. Because Regent has already assigned them, there is no charge for doing this.

 

2. If you want more than enough room for your newspapers, etc. and a quiet cabin, book a seat upstairs. We prefer rows 62 or 63.

 

I like facing my DH on BA flights because it is easier to talk to one another and we almost feel like we are having a meal together -- we can "clink" glasses to make a toast. Many of the new seats in other planes are so far apart that we can only wave at each other.

 

Not much that I can say about the food. The BA lounges that we have been to have some decent food (salads, sandwiches, pasta, etc.). Personally, I would love clotted cream and scones but not sure I'd like hard scones. If you enjoy Indian food, BA makes some very good Indian dishes.

 

IMO, the only airline we have flown that exceeds BA's Business Class is Cathay Pacific. We avoid U.S. carriers due to food and service issues.

[pingpong1]

Hi TC - 43 years ago (uggghhhh where has the time gone!) My DW and I had just gotten married - literally. We drove from the church in western Mass. directly to Boston Logan and boarded a TWA flight to San Francisco with an overnight layover before proceedig on to Tokyo (the old Haneda airport). I was in my sailor uniform and somehow, a flight attendant found out (I think it was my bride's blushing) that we were newlyweds.

 

We were escorted from economy up to first class (this was back in the days when there were lots of open seats) and were embarassed because everyone on the plane started clapping as our "status" was announced over the PA system. We were served complimentary champagne and great food all the way across country and were given another unopened bottle of champagne to take off the plane with us for that evening at the hotel!

 

We were made to feel so special and I remember everything on the plane (even the economy seats) seemed very roomy back then with lots of space to stretch out. On our continuing flight to Japan the next day (JAL), we were back in economy but the flight attendants (they were called stewardess' back then) found us some "open rows". The center arms flipped up and you could lay out completely flat across a couple of seats. They brought blankets and pillows and made everyone (not just the business/FC flyers) feel very comfortable, very special, and very welcomed.

 

Ahhh, the "good old days". Regards

[pingpong1]

TC - Hello Again. Yes, I agree with your suggesting on the seat selection on the BA 747's. After our recent experience in BA Business, I selected seats in Row 63/upper cabin for our next adventure in June. Regards.

[Travelcat2]

TC - Hello Again. Yes, I agree with your suggesting on the seat selection on the BA 747's. After our recent experience in BA Business, I selected seats in Row 63/upper cabin for our next adventure in June. Regards.

 

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful honeymoon story. Really enjoyed reading it.

 

Hope you find your next BA flight better than your last. At least you will be in a better area of the plane (IMHO).

 

Lastly, thank you for your service to our country:)

[RachelG]

The BA business class seats are definitely weird. Not terrible but just different, but not nearly as comfortable as the new AA seat. Or as roomy.

 

As far as flight attendants on AA, we love them for the most part. We much prefer them over those on any other airline we have flown (and we have flown on a lot). But it is probably because they are like hometown girls, not pretentious, and very down to earth. And in business class, there is plenty of food, of pretty good quality in recent years, as they have definitely improved recently. Since SQ is not an option for us 99% of the time! I will stick with AA.

 

Now BA has the best lounges for sure.

[pingpong1]

RachelG - Yes, I like AA, too. I'm hoping that the upcoming merger with USAIR will make them - both of them - even better and will give AA the the cash they need to keep moving forward. I think USAIR will gain a bit, as well, with the cultural/corporate influence of AA. On our recent cruise we flew AA direct from Chicago to Rome. Wonderful seats, fully reclined without the drop down "ironing boards", and meals were great, too (no clotted cream :p). Yes, the flight attendants are exactly like "hometown girls"! They were down to earth and very friendly.

 

The lounge we had in Venice was definitely not a BA-exclusive lounge. It was a "shared lounge" with about 5 other airlines that served Venice. Certainly not up to the standard that I've heard about the BA lounges. I'm looking forward to my first experience with them (BA) in LHR when we pass through there on the way to Stockholm and on the way back from Copenhagen.

 

TC - Back when I was flying a lot, I used to enjoy upgrades on United up to business class and loved the upper cabin. There was room to stretch out and there was a nice compartment next to the bulkhead to put your briefcase in. On the direct flights from Chicago out to Tokyo and Seoul I always looked forward to the ice cream cart that the attendants would roll out to your seat about midway through the flight. They'd make you a great "Sundaes to order". Do they still do that? Best Regards to all

[Travelcat2]

TC - Back when I was flying a lot, I used to enjoy upgrades on United up to business class and loved the upper cabin. There was room to stretch out and there was a nice compartment next to the bulkhead to put your briefcase in. On the direct flights from Chicago out to Tokyo and Seoul I always looked forward to the ice cream cart that the attendants would roll out to your seat about midway through the flight. They'd make you a great "Sundaes to order". Do they still do that? Best Regards to all

 

Ice cream cart? Wish they still did that:-) We used to fly United as well (first class using frequent flyer miles). We would get caviar and Dom Perignon champagne but the seats weren't flat in those days. The upper cabin on United is similar to BA in terms of having a lot of room for your things. The only negative of being upstairs is that you are amongst the last to place your food order and sometimes they run out (not completely -- just run out of what we generally would like to have).

 

On your next BA flight, will it stop at Heathrow? That is where the lounges are great (although not quite as good as Cathay Pacific's business class lounge in Hong Kong). We have deviated to Cathay Pacific on Regent for our Christmas/New Year's cruise as well as a cruise in March (after which we will take a few months off:-)

 

Really enjoy your posts:-)

Edited November 22, 2013 by Travelcat2

[countflorida]

We've flown home twice in relative new US Air Airbus 330, business class, and it was very nice. The first was from Rio a year ago, we were seated together in the last row of the middle section, next to each other, loved it, and got a good sleep (±11 hours Rio to Charlotte if I recall correctly, leaving at midnight. My only complaint is that Regent evicted us from the Mariner at 8:30 AM for an 11:55 PM flight, and left us basically on our own such that we felt compelled to make our own arrangements.

 

At the last moment almost they did come up with some half-baked transfer/tour thing, but people who took it still waited 5 or 6 hours at the airport. After we finally got to board the plane, it taxied back and forth up and down that long runway as the wind shifted, I guess. More than 40 minutes from gate to rotate, and we were first in line the whole time; the only plane on the field moving I think.

 

We had good seats, plenty of storage space, didn't check the entertainment system, decent food, even at 1 AM, and we made our Charlotte connection after Pat pushed Ted from Rochester through the Charlotte airport, while the one US Air attendant available pushed me and the luggage. The only lounge we got into, in Rio, was kind of crummy.

 

In September, we flew home from London on US Air, same type of plane, with us in fore and aft window seats (the business cabin setup is 1-2-1). This was a day flight, much nicer, about 8 hours, I didn't like the food choices but at that point I snacked on a few of the accompaniments and likely benefited from skipping the lunch after the full cooked English I scarfed down at breakfast. The London lounge was nice, but charged for drinks I think. I guess they all do now? I know my 'usual' Delta does.

 

The amenities kits are fine. We have so many we give them to the nieces and cousins as cosmetic bags. I'm a big tall man, and I can lay out flat, roll up on my side (can't sleep flat on my back; old injury) and get several hours uninterrupted sleep, so I think the US Air Airbus 330s are just fine! Unless you just ahve to ahve a window, if you're traveling with someone, take two in the middle.

 

Haven't gotten to try the newly advertised Delta business seats yet, but the US Air are better than the old Delta and even better than Air Frances' 747 and 380 business seats (spring 2012) which were flat but at about a 25-30 degree angle, and seemed narrower than the US Air seats. There sure is a lot of room around the 380 seats, so expect an extra row or column to appear one of these days if it hasn't done so already.

 

US Air has a better frequent flyer rewards program, too, but I doubt its favorable rewards structure will survive the merger with American. Too bad, the miles required to fly to Asia or 'down under' were so much lower than the others.

 

Enjoy your flight!

Edited November 22, 2013 by countflorida
clarify and correct punctuation

[gnomie1]

When flying internationally, I usually always fly in business. Because we live in the northern NJ/NYC area, we mostly fly out of Newark, which was ok as long as it was Continental. The merge with United has been HORRIBLE - fares have skyrocketed (Newark is one of the busiest airports in the U.S. and 84% of the flights are controlled by United). The quality of service on United is quite inferior to Continental and after one too many poor business class flights which we had PAID for the tickets, we started to look elsewhere. Two years ago we took a flight on Delta and we haven't looked back - their new planes are wonderful in business, very roomy and comfortable and we find the food to be excellent. We stopped flying BA when they started to charge to select a seat in Business and we didn't like their seating arrangements. The JFK lounge is quite nice.

 

gnomie :)

[Pepc]

Countflorida - -

From one Floridian to another, thank you for taking the time to detail your experiences on US Airways 330s!

Hopefully, we will have a good experience in business class.

We chose two seats (section A) behind each other. That way we both have a window to rest our heads on!

I think I prefer that to the two seats next to each other in the middle section.

[Gig103]

US Air has a better frequent flyer rewards program, too, but I doubt its favorable rewards structure will survive the merger with American. Too bad, the miles required to fly to Asia or 'down under' were so much lower than the others.

 

Enjoy your flight!

 

Fewer options always end up with a better experience for the customer! ;):(

US already announced that they're going to use the AA mileage plan (One World?), and drop out of Star Alliance.

[Travelcat2]

Fewer options always end up with a better experience for the customer! ;):(

US already announced that they're going to use the AA mileage plan (One World?), and drop out of Star Alliance.

 

Thanks for posting that information. I am personally happy that they will drop out of Star Alliance. Hope this means that Regent will use them less (or maybe not at all:-)

[Gig103]

Thanks for posting that information. I am personally happy that they will drop out of Star Alliance. Hope this means that Regent will use them less (or maybe not at all:-)

 

On the flip side, doesn't Regent charge extra for business class on AA and BA? The merger means fewer flights without that surcharge.

[Travelcat2]

On the flip side, doesn't Regent charge extra for business class on AA and BA? The merger means fewer flights without that surcharge.

 

I'm trying to understand this. AA and BA are in the One World Alliance. LAN and Cathay Pacific are also in that alliance and Regent does not have an extra charge for them but usually does for AA and BA (think it depends on where you are flying from and to).

 

Regent uses Lufthansa and "some" Star Alliance carriers but we just paid $2,000 to fly Air Canada direct from Sydney to Vancouver and they are Star Alliance.

 

I do know that flying out of Canada is different than flying out of the U.S. We can fly out of Seattle or Vancouver but prefer Vancouver. It would be hard to figure all of this out because it is dependent upon so many things. The only thing that is fairly consistent for us is that we can fly Lufthansa or Cathay Pacific without a surcharge if we fly out of Vancouver.

 

In terms of the merger..... I have no clue how it will affect flights that Regent uses. We cancelled a cruise this year because we would not fly U.S. Air. We paid to book American but decided that we would rather cancel the cruise than fly American with too many stops (the problem was with Rio to Vancouver or Seattle flights...... they are horrible!)

 

To add one more bit of confusion, Regent has used Delta quite a bit lately on some legs and they are part of "SkyTeam Alliance".

 

I believe that Regent is doing the best it can. It needs to keep down airfares or the prices will continue to be passed on to their customers. In my opinion, airfares are out of control!

Edited November 27, 2013 by Travelcat2