Various business class seats
Just a few notes and a surprise about business class seats...
Here are a subset of the flights I have made over the last few months and comments on the seats:
LHR<->Seattle and LHR<->Dallas on BA: the usual Club World seats. I have been noticing that the tables have varying amounts of tilt and had to hold it up using a pillow on one flight as there were no free seats to move into. BA has the best privacy, though the seats are narrowest.
Frankfurt-SFO with an A380: Same Lufthansa seats as on other LH flights as far as I can tell. The only difference appears to be that the screens have better resolution. The air conditioning seems very different. I get really dry bleeding sinuses on most 11-12 hour flights and did not feel that at all on the A380. Another passenger told me the A380 is the only aircraft where the air is humidified. The angled lie-flat seats used to be good, but now seem outdated. I have not been on the new 747-800s with the new seats.
Zurich-SFO on an A340 with Swiss: The seats/lie-flat beds are very comfortable indeed. More comfortable than those in First Class on the way back. The A340s have the old First Class seats and there is no plan to change them before the aircraft are changed, according to a crew member. The First Class seats are allegedly much better on the A330, but I have not tried them. For privacy, be sure to choose the business class seats that are on their own. I think these are all along the right side of the cabin and every second row on the left.
Vienna-Dubai on Austrian on a 767: Angled seat/beds in poor condition. Outdated video. Not very comfortable.
United Newark->Geneva and Chicago->Frankfurt: Surprisingly, in my opinion, by far the best video system with big high-res screens. Easily the best lie-flat seat for sleeping. Don't know why. Something to do with the way the area around the seat hinge really goes flat, I think.
So... if the timing works and you don't have to worry about earning HON miles (not possible on United, while Senator miles work fine), take the United rather than LH flights on any route where they operate, in my opinion. I don't know how much of the fleet has the new seats though.