Travel to asia

Looking for opinions regarding business class on all Nippon versus air china?? I have to choose and know nothing about either

Given that business class products vary even within an airline, providing routing and equipment always makes for more accurate answers.

For example, business on Emirates is COMPLETELY different depending if you are on an A380 or a 777. One has individual seating areas with full aisle access and one has seats where 3 people in each row have to climb over someone to reach the aisle.

So, what CA and NH routes, flights and equipment are we talking about?

These will be long haul flights from Houston to Singapore on 777s. Award travel

I did the ANA to Narita (Tokyo) this past April from Houston and thought it was great. Business class was 1-2-1. I took the 1 next to the right window as I'm right handed and could place things to my right. I'm short so I can't speak to how long the seat is when reclined to flat as it was longer then I am tall! The food wasn't fabulous, but it was good. Crew was very good. Don't know anyone who's gone from Houston to Beijing on Air China, so can't help there.

While I have not flown on either, being a Star alliance FF miles collector I have read plenty on both. The general feeling I get is that ANA provides a superior product; add to that, I think there was an issue with Air China cancelling awards bookings a few months ago... All in all, I would be favouring the ANA flight.

These will be long haul flights from Houston to Singapore on 777s. Award travel

Air China will give you a business class in a 2-2-2 configuration. The window seats will climb over the aisle seats, but the two in the middle will each have direct access. ANA has two different business products - the old version is a 2-3-2 config while the new is a 1-2-1 that has gotten some good reviews.

If you are a couple that want interaction during your flight, the CA middle seats will work out fine for you. The old NH could be fine on the outsides (with the window climbing over) but the middle seats would have someone else on one side (while still climbing over). The new NH will effectively cut off a couple from each other with a large dividing area between the two of you. OTOH, much more personal space and storage areas.

Mrs FT has no problems with being separated for the duration of a flight. She would take the new NH in a heartbeat. How your spouse would feel is unknown.

NH service should be a bit better than CA (though you are always at the mercy of your crew assignments), and I would prefer to make connections at NRT than at PEK (where officialness can sometimes make for extra lines, checkpoints and hassles). Plus, the overall quality of the lounges at PEK doesn't come up to NRT levels - though neither will be truly memorable like some around the world. The NRT lounge will have a beer machine, if you've never experienced one before.

So, a number of factors that you have to assign your own values to. Hope this helped a bit.

Just came off a CA business class connection PEK to Singapore yesterday, it was a decent enough flight.

We were able to get our boarding passes for the FF CA portion in IAD ( and would have used them if the dang UA flight to PEK hadn't left 6 hours late causing us to miss our connection). I very much agree with FT's comment regarding PEK...it added a lot more complexity in getting on track to our final destination. Particularly on a day when half the Chinese population seemed to flying back home after the New Year holiday.:eek:

Thank you all for your input. This did help