Cattle to New York

[DuncanF]

I'm heading over to New York in December under my own steam and hence travelling cattle class. I prefer to use my BA air miles for a number of European destinations.

Given the (seemingly) hundreds of carriers vying for my fare, which carriers offer the best value? As long as I've got a film, a meal and a glass of wine, I'm generally happy, so my biggest "must have" is width and pitch.

Also, have any of you guys tried the "bleary eye" early morning West-to-East flights. I really don't sleep well in cattle so I may give these flights a go on the return. Does arriving in London at 2100 in the evening after a v. short day mess you up worse than a sleepless overnight?

Thanks in advance,

Duncan

[Globaliser]

If it's pitch you're after, it would have to be AA. But you will give up quite a lot of service - including (in my view) a lot of undefinable benefits that give you an overall "feel good" factor. One of the reasons I'm loyal to BA (and reap the corresponding benefits) is all of that, although there are times when it's a bit patchy.

I've done one daylight flight back from the east coast - BOS-LHR. I think that overall it messed me up less, because the horrendous time zone element of the jet lag was not compounded by a very short night followed by a full day. But you have to be prepared to lose an entire day for it.

[The Nr Fairy]

I'll go with Globaliser on that. I stayed up till midnight in Boston once drinking, got up at 5am for the 8:30ish flight home, got to LHR about 7:45pm, home about 9ish, fell into bed knackered and the jetlag was squared away by the end of the following day.

[Departures Beckham]

I'd go with the two above - take the day flight back. Stay up late the night before, get a few hours sleep, take the flight, as soon as you reach your bed you'll be ready for a nice long sleep and will rise to GMT/BST.

I've flown over there with Virgin, KLM (via AMS) and United. Virgin had the most creature comforts, KLM was sooooooo long with no personal TV and poor food, and United was half empty (or half full) with good legroom and a personal TV. So the ranking from Beck's is 1. Virgin. 2. United. 47. KLM .... although they did allow me to fly in/out of Stansted (via AMS).

[PAXboy]

My last two cattle trips to JFK were both with VS and I used the daylight return on both occasions. I stayed the night at the airport hotel and simply fell out of bed into the mini-bus and then fell into T 1. Simple.

However, with the current Air Miles promo, I am using some AMs (regular, not BA) for JFK in Feb, so I shall be able to make the comparison!

I think the advantage of the daylight return is this - you spend the day reading/working and do not have to try to sleep in a small seat. You get home at a reasonable time and go to bed!! If you do have to stay in the air-port hotel, it is cheaper to have one night in the hotel than to pay for bigger seat!! Of course, when travelling on business, you say that the other way around!

Yes you give up the day but, as I said, I prefer to spend a day reading and watching the clouds go by then spending a day feeling like junk because of the short night/long day.

Interestingly, when booking this flight, the Air Miles phone booking agent said (of the return) "There is a rather horrible flight at nine in the morning." GREAT, I replied - that's the one I want!! So it might not be too crowded. 09:00 depart and back at T4 21:00.

[Land After]

Best value for your miles

As an aside, before blowing your miles on European trips, consider the advantage of saving them up for the occasional long haul treat. I used to use my miles in Europe, as transatlantic fares where so cheap compared to short haul. (I remember when 200GBP would get you to Paris or New York!!) Then the LCCs came into the market and gave us cheap European flights and we can still get cheap deals on the transatlantics.

I now use my miles for Long Haul trips in business; usually it’s only double the economy miles. A typical cheap fare from LHR to SFO is around 400GBP, with the cheapest business fare running around 2500GBP. If 6000 miles buys me the 400GBP seat, 12000 miles will buy me the 2500GBP seat – a much better rate of exchange. And personally, I’d rather have a smaller number of comfortable journeys than double the number of uncomfortable ones.

[knobbygb]

I second Land After on that point. If you work out the 'pounds saved per airmile' cost of flights you get somthing like this (all pre-tax):

Paris Economy = £60
Airmiles = 450
Value per airmile = 13 pence

Paris Business = £270
Airmiles = 900
Value per airmile = 30 pence

New York Economy = £220
Airmiles = 2900
Value per airmile = 7.5 pence

New York Business = £2000
Airmiles = 5800
Value per airmile = 34 pence

New York First = £3500
Airmiles = 8700
Value per airmile = 40 pence

So the moral: use airmiles to go in FIRST! (or if you don't have enough, go in economy and come back in First for 5800 miles - no problem with jetlag then!)

[ExSimGuy]

Having a daughter living there, I fly to East Coast (of USA) from UK quite often.

My preference is the "normal" flight timings - fly out from UK morning or midday, arriving late afternoon and stil having an evening together.

Coming back we have the day togetehr and I board the plane early evening, read a bit while getting a few "wets" down my neck, then sleep for 5 or 6 hours and arrive UK morning - no "day lost".

Of course, that's just what works for me, but I don't find I have any significane "lag" doing it this way.

I've done "red-eye" Eastwards across USA (SEA to PHL) and that really messed me - but it was a "staff" ticket so the red-eye made sure that I got a seat however busy the "daytime" flights were