KLMBlue From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 267 posts, RR: 0 Posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 813 times:
Over the summer I will be traveling from Boston onto Los Angelese then onto Sydney. I am pretty sure the airline will either be Qantas or United. I will be travelling in Economy Class. What should I expect? Good seats? Good food? ect.
KLM
OO-AOG From Switzerland, joined Dec 2000, 1426 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 781 times:
I flew SYD-LAX with UA back in 1991 with a 744. Not a great experience indeed, very long flight, no legroom. But it was a long time ago and I never had any good experience with UA anyway.
Picarus From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 298 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 767 times:
I'm making this trek next month. Fortunately, I'm booked on Air New Zealand which offers greater seat pitch in coach than United. My expectation is that service will be more attentive as well.
You may want to consider booking AZ if you're flying UA on the BOS-LAX segment. As Star Alliance members, they codeshare on each other's flights to Australia & NZ.
QantasA330 From Iraq, joined Dec 2000, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 740 times:
Fly Qantas. GREAT service, great planes, helpfull crew, and always on-time.... I have made the LAX-SYD trip about 20 times... and even more the other way
*I flew UAL 5 times (and NZ 3), and ALL 5 times we were late, the crew was rude and tierd, the bags were late getting to the plane on one flight, and the lost 2 bags all together - the one good the thing about UAL was that their food was slightly better than average!
*NZ was better, but (of the 3 times) we were late twice, and the food was pretty average. Crew was nice though.
*I have NEVER (read my lips NEVER) had a single bad experience on Qantas. Their seat - pitch is better than UAL's and New Zealands. Food is great, and the crew was soooo helpful; they would be running around the plane all night and day picking up cups and trash, and getting you whatever you want. (I was in Coach).
If you were to fly UAL, NZ or QF in Bus. or First, things change... QF is still the best, but UAL is close behind.
Sccutler From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 5103 posts, RR: 28 Reply 4, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 738 times:
I have always read that NZ had better pitch than QF and UA; true/false and sources and measurements, if someon out there knows.
I flew NZ, had excellent service, but cannot compare to the Q or the U.
...three miles from BRONS, clear for the ILS one five approach...
Picarus From United States of America, joined Dec 2000, 298 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 713 times:
The seating chart on the NZ homepage states 34" pitch in Pacific Class seating for the B-744. Speaking from personal experience on UA's B-744s, coach seating pitch is closer to 31".
I don't know about QF. QuantasA330 - do you happen to know?
Parisien From France, joined Dec 2000, 819 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 708 times:
I like NZ the best...I flew on UA, QF and NZ on this route.
Are you a smoker ? Well if you are, smoke a lot before you get on the plane, bring some nicorette or patch for the flight.
SR 103 From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 1702 posts, RR: 42 Reply 7, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 701 times:
Regarding the seat pitch:
Air New Zealand 34 inches
Qantas 32 inches
United 31 inches
This is acording to the Business Traveller which is i front of me as I typed this. Personally I haven't flown QF or NZ (that will be changing in a couple months) but I have flown UA's 777 and I can say that I think you should take Air New Zealand. I have heard better stuff about them than the other two!!
Airnewzealand From New Zealand, joined Oct 2000, 2538 posts, RR: 6 Reply 8, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 666 times:
AirNZ dominates this route, They only have One flight aday to Los Angeles and they are usually totally booked out. I would Say Qantas and AirNZ are about the same. Some aspects of Qantas are better than AirNZ and some aspects of AirNZ are better.
Many people prefer to Fly AirNZ on this route and Qantas is followed slightly behind.
AirNZ have 34", Qantas 33" and UA 31". Please donot choose United i have haad the worst Experience with them.
Qantas and AirNZ will have the PTV's installed on all their SYD-LAX, and vise versa flights in the next few months.
Anyway if you choose either Qantas or AirNZ you will enjoy the great Down Under experience that most passengers enjoy.
Have a great Trip and remember to post a Trip Report and what Airline you will be flying.
If you choose AirNZ then you must book a couple of Months in advance to Garuntee a Seat.
Please donot bite my head off about anything i have said.
Cheers
mikey
Haere RA (From New Zealand) AirNZ: The worlds warmest welcome!! Qantas: The spirit of Australia!!
Sccutler From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 5103 posts, RR: 28 Reply 10, posted (12 years 5 months 1 week 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 652 times:
...while in Australia, we visited at some length with some Aussie expats (as in, they live at Dallas) who travel DFW-SYD 5-6 times per year (they own a second home at Manly[sp?]); it came as quite a surprise to me that they told me they had a strong preference for UA over NZ and QF. Sorry to say, I don't recall any specifics.
Just reporting what some very experienced Aussies opined; in all my airline travels, I've never had cause to set foot on a UA plane, don't much care if I never do.
Don't shoot the messenger.
...three miles from BRONS, clear for the ILS one five approach...
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