OMGImInPattaya Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I'm in the process of planning my annual sojourn Stateside (and Songkran escape) for next month and have been doing some comparison shopping at the airline websites. For the past 3-4 years, I've flown UA and EVA exclusively to my destination of SFO. The prices were keen at around $ 3000-3500 for business class. I also especially liked UAs schedule on outbound leg as it gets me in SFO mid-morning of the same day as my departure. Anyway, now that UA doesn't fly their own birds into Bangkok anymore they seem to have gone wild with their pricing, which is now in the $ 4000-4500 range. EVA is still around $ 3500 but their schedule kinda sucks. Anyway, I see that this time around, the northern Asian carriers are quite competitive on price where before they were always much more expensive than UA/EVA. Cathay Pacific, Korean, and ANA are all quoting $3500-4000 to SFO on business. I haven't flown any of these carriers in years so was interested in feedback on who among them has the current best trans-pacific service. Both Korean and ANA have their latest 180 degree flat bed sleepers on their respective SFO runs. I don't know about Cathay. For those who have recent flying these carriers in business, who do you prefer? Thanks in advance for the feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bcgardener Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I flew Cathay business about a Month ago, but only to China. Service and food were pretty good and I think their pacific flights have flat beds. Skytrax comments are always worth a read to see what others think Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcb2001 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 This year I flew Korean and was pleasantly surprised. Korean Air's layover in Seoul was only 3 hours and it now flies directly to my home in Vegas. Skytrax www.airlinequality.com is a great website for airline reviews as mentioned by Bcgardener in the post above. Good luck flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I've tried Korean and ANA. I love Korean and yes Seoul Airport is EXCELLENT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiwangirl Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) I have flown KAL and Asiana to the US, as well as United. In the business class, they are all pretty comparable in terms of service. I know a lot of people complain about US airline service, but I am pretty low key and do not want much, so all three delivered. My one complaint was on a trip back - I cannot remember if it was KAL or Asiana, but they woke us up for breakfast about 5 hours before landing. I think they were trying to get the body adjusted, but I would have rather slept. Unfortunately, the flight I had on KAL did not have the 180 lay flay, just the "recliner" style, so was not as nice. Asiana seats were comparable to United. (I am 5 feet and 3 inches FYI). For the United flights, I always left at around 0600-0700. For the Korean flights, I left at around 0100. I did not like leaving at that time, but as you mention, it does get in in the morning in the US. On the return, all planes left at about the same time, but the Korean planes get in a bit earlier as there is a shorter layover in Inchon. More Asian material on the in flight entertainment, rather than US based as on United. Edited March 12, 2014 by taiwangirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebluewater Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Korean Air is my first choice by far. "Excellence in Flight" is their motto and they do it better than any other carrier I've had coming and going out of the States. I'm a back-of-the-bus kinda guy so could not tell you about what you will find in business class however. Come to think of it, I may now have enough miles that the next time I go back I may be able to give it a go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleboylost Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 I fly Cathay 5 or 6 times a year to the US and Europe. Individual pods with lay flat beds, good choice of in flight entertainment with a mix of UK and US TV and films. Service is very attentive and the Wings lounge in HK is excellent. I try to stay with One World members so really can't comment on the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RabC Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Read Skytrax and you will see it is either Asiana (who you don't mention) or Cathay as having the best quality product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OMGImInPattaya Posted March 13, 2014 Author Share Posted March 13, 2014 Read Skytrax and you will see it is either Asiana (who you don't mention) or Cathay as having the best quality product. It's just those Asiana pilots seem to have a problem distinguishing between water and tarmac on the approach to SFO! I will check out seat guru and skytrak but just wanted any feedback from forum members as well. The mentioned airlines all have food transpacific business class products but just wondering if any stood out more than the others. Schedule and layover time will probably be determinative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RabC Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 Read Skytrax and you will see it is either Asiana (who you don't mention) or Cathay as having the best quality product.It's just those Asiana pilots seem to have a problem distinguishing between water and tarmac on the approach to SFO!I will check out seat guru and skytrak but just wanted any feedback from forum members as well. The mentioned airlines all have food transpacific business class products but just wondering if any stood out more than the others. Schedule and layover time will probably be determinative. I would say again for reputation and quality of service then Cathay or Asiana (when they find the airport). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dddave Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 (edited) I have recently flown both Cathay-Pacific and Korean to and from USA, CX JFK-BKK via HKG and KE BKK-SFO via Inchon. On both itineraries I was upgraded to Business Class for the return. Both carriers are top notch but I give the edge to Korean for service and food but C-P had a slightly more comfortable lie-flat bed. Korean's seemed to have a slight downward tilt that I found distracting, though not uncomfortable. Inchon (ICN) is also one of my favorite airports for a layover: free mezzanine "Rest Stops" with free showers and lounge sofas as well as some great, interactive handcraft kiosks. HK airport is also really beautiful but C-P seems to run it's connections quite tightly so you might not get too much chance to look around. My JFK-HKG connection to BKK had only an hour. Fortunately, a representative met us at the gate and walked us...well, ran us actually, through security and to the next terminal for our departure. After the 14.5 hour JFK-HKG leg, it was nice only having a 2 hour 30 minute leg to Bangkok rather than a 7 hour leg from ICN. Both are close enough that price and convenience should be your determining factor. I have flown ANA numerous times and while they are decent, they aren't; IMO, quite up to C-P and Korean. Edited March 13, 2014 by dddave 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfukata Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 did you check out delta airline (NWA) from BKK-SFO through Narita? Asiana - Bangkok - iCn- SFO. I flew on Asiana several month ago on business from BKK - HNL, good inflight services and the Korean food was excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuketrichard Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 I have flown ANA, Korean and Asiana from Puket to SFO. ( last time China eastern which was not that bad ( always had 3 seats to myslef) but food sucked but it was alot cheaper) they are all just about the same. 2 factors to take into layover time cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lomatopo Posted March 14, 2014 Share Posted March 14, 2014 CX has some seasonality built into their pricing but their Business Save (least expensive/most restrictive) but I saw ~ 92,675 THB all in to SFO not so long ago, for travel in March and April. I see 103,175 THB all in today on some days. Use the Thai CX website, but choose English. You probably should have started looking a while ago? Also, maybe use a TA here in Bangkok as they may still have access to some decent buckets? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OMGImInPattaya Posted March 14, 2014 Author Share Posted March 14, 2014 (edited) I have recently flown both Cathay-Pacific and Korean to and from USA, CX JFK-BKK via HKG and KE BKK-SFO via Inchon. On both itineraries I was upgraded to Business Class for the return. Both carriers are top notch but I give the edge to Korean for service and food but C-P had a slightly more comfortable lie-flat bed. Korean's seemed to have a slight downward tilt that I found distracting, though not uncomfortable. Inchon (ICN) is also one of my favorite airports for a layover: free mezzanine "Rest Stops" with free showers and lounge sofas as well as some great, interactive handcraft kiosks. HK airport is also really beautiful but C-P seems to run it's connections quite tightly so you might not get too much chance to look around. My JFK-HKG connection to BKK had only an hour. Fortunately, a representative met us at the gate and walked us...well, ran us actually, through security and to the next terminal for our departure. After the 14.5 hour JFK-HKG leg, it was nice only having a 2 hour 30 minute leg to Bangkok rather than a 7 hour leg from ICN. Both are close enough that price and convenience should be your determining factor. I have flown ANA numerous times and while they are decent, they aren't; IMO, quite up to C-P and Korean. Thanks for the current info...and to SFO as well. I'm a little tempted to go with Korean, just because I've not been through the new Inchon airport. However, the layover time is a long 10 hours (but lots to do there). Koreans website shows them using their newest 180 full-flat seat/pod on he Inchon to San Fran run. Many of the Cathay flights only have a 1 hour layover in HKG on the return, which is cutting it very close. Delta is showing about B130k and two stops, which is not ideal, and Asiana is quoting B150k, which is not competitive, especially when they employ near-sighted pilots!Thanks all for the feedback. Edited March 14, 2014 by OMGImInPattaya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dddave Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 I'm a little tempted to go with Korean, just because I've not been through the new Inchon airport. However, the layover time is a long 10 hours (but lots to do there). There is a tour desk in the arrivals hall that offers a variety of "Layover" tours. Several were free my last time there. If you want to explore on your own, the subway/Metro has an airport station and takes you into Seoul. Almost worth taking Korean for the opportunity to see a bit of a fascinating city as well as some amazing infrastructure projects on the way into the city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OMGImInPattaya Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 Doing further research for my trip, I discovered that ANA flies "direct" to San Jose International Airport. When I was plugging in SFO only, it was routing me through 3 stops (usually through Vancover) with a transfer to some UA metal for the final leg into SFO. However the flight to SJ is direct from Narita. In addition, they're flying their spanking new 787 Dreamliner on this run (when they're not on fire) so this would give me a chance to get on this new plane. The only downside is the cost/time to get from SJ to SFO but this is balanced out by the new plane and low price (just over 100k). I'm seriously considering this ANA flight to San Jose now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rijb Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I'm taking Korean to Hawaii next month, for the first time. But, I'm also interested in your trip experience. Please keep us posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OMGImInPattaya Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 I'm taking Korean to Hawaii next month, for the first time. But, I'm also interested in your trip experience. Please keep us posted. I'm leaning against Korean at the moment as the layover on the BKK-SFO flight is 10 hours and the reviews of the Korean business lounges at Inchon are not very positive. Its come down to Cathay, ANA, and possibly EVA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dddave Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 EVA has a very nice lounge in Taipei but it gets really crowded, especially in the 7am to 10am slot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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