From the states to Europe. Which airline?

Doing a cruise next year with the family probably out of Copenhagen or Barcelona. I fly frequently on Southwest due in large part to their level of service compared to the legacy airlines. So which is better to Europe from the states, British Airways or Lufthansa?

Chevy or Ford. Burger King or McDonalds. It is all a matter of preference.

Plus, if you are in coach, there is very little difference.

Since you'll have a connection at either Frankfurt or Heathrow, depending on which you choose, check to see which terminal the connecting flight will be out of Heathrow, if it requires a terminal change, I'd recommend Lufthansa. If the connection at Heathrow is in terminal 5, then I'd say, six to one, half dozen to the other.

In what airline alliance do you want to earn frequent flyer mikes? If you don't care, choose the one that's cheaper with the best schedule. There's really not much difference in coach.

You will pay for advance seat selection on BA, and LH won't let you select seats until OLCI on the cheaper fares.

If you're flying from Austin, for Copenhagen I'd take BA's 787 nonstop to Heathrow since the connection is inside T5; for Barcelona I'd take American Airlines with a change in either JFK or Miami, unless you don't mind changing from T5 to T3 at Heathrow if you take BA. The 787 will be more comfortable than older planes. I'm no great fan of Lufthansa's economy service nor of Frankfurt airport, and entering Schengen at FRA will slow things down.

If you booked with AA you can select seats at the time of booking.

If you're flying from Austin, for Copenhagen I'd take BA's 787 nonstop to Heathrow since the connection is inside T5; for Barcelona I'd take American Airlines with a change in either JFK or Miami, unless you don't mind changing from T5 to T3 at Heathrow if you take BA. The 787 will be more comfortable than older planes.

Economy on the BA 787 is likely to be pretty miserable, with a 9-abreast configuration. It's the only configuration so far that's caused the airline to have a rapid re-think, although we don't yet know the details of what is to be done. The other cabins, though, are fine - and of course you're right that there are features of the aircraft itself that make the journey less tiring.

The other thing is that however irritating a T5-T3 connection might be at LHR, I reckon that has to be better than a two-connection journey.

Unfortunately, the rest of the OP's question is largely into "piece of string" territory. And I'm not sure that his stated preference for Southwest will be of any use when picking a trans-Atlantic airline.

I just finished booking one way flight to London using Cunard's program. Good fare - much less than any one way going straight to the airline. There is one thing you want to keep in mind : the equipment. In my case it is just my wife and me - we usually fly American, which was available through Cunard, but the seat configuration was: three-aisle-four-aisle-three. Checking Delta, we have two-aisle-four-aisle-two. Much better when you fly with one person to have the two configuration. Depending on your numbers, you might find seat configuration important.

The other thing is that however irritating a T5-T3 connection might be at LHR, I reckon that has to be better than a two-connection journey.

Which is why I'd recommend AA from Austin to BCN; one domestic connection in the US, and free seat selection. CPH isn't served on OW metal from the US, so the London 787 is the only one-stop option. Any other European connection would require going first to DFW or MIA or some such.

I know the BA 787s are high density in coach (although it's the same pitch and seat width as on other BA metal.) Hopefully the higher air pressure and other 787 features would help to lessen the impact. Frankly, coach on BA pretty much sucks in general IMO, but it's no worse than others. Free booze at least.

So which is better to Europe from the states, British Airways or Lufthansa?

That would depend entirely on how you define "better." What matters most to you? Aircraft configuration? Itinerary/connections? Frequent flyer miles? Etc.

Thanks for the answers y'all. FF miles dont mean much anymore on legacy airlines. Between the wife and I we have over 500,000 on Delta and cant use them. If i want to combine them all under one name it would cost me over $600. I mention Southwest because service is a big deal to me. I dont mind spending a few extra dollars if the level of service justifies it. There will be four of us so as long as i get an aisle, the configuration doesnt matter. The last time we went to Europe it was from Houston to LHR. That to me was a long time on the plane. I have always heard great things about the service of Lufthansa that's why i ask. The schedules, as it stands right now, between the two are similar. Its going to take a long a$$ time to there regardless

Thanks for the answers y'all. FF miles dont mean much anymore on legacy airlines. Between the wife and I we have over 500,000 on Delta and cant use them. If i want to combine them all under one name it would cost me over $600. I mention Southwest because service is a big deal to me. I dont mind spending a few extra dollars if the level of service justifies it. There will be four of us so as long as i get an aisle, the configuration doesnt matter. The last time we went to Europe it was from Houston to LHR. That to me was a long time on the plane. I have always heard great things about the service of Lufthansa that's why i ask. The schedules, as it stands right now, between the two are similar. Its going to take a long a$$ time to there regardless

Why can't you use your Skymiles? I have never had a problem cashing them in for a decent flight to Europe or Hawaii. I just got a low-level round-trip BE ticket for the end of April to Rome. And, there were choices of flights at those levels, too. Granted, being in Austin, you are't really in DL territory, but I can't imagine any great difficulty in using those miles. Some of my best low-level business class flights were on the AF flights from IAH to CDG. Took that one a few times.

I haven't flown BA nor LH (outside of LH intra-Europe), but I wouldn't recommend the AA flights. DFW-LHR and LHR-LAX 4 years ago were some of my most uncomfortable flights ever. The IFE boxes under the seats I had took up all the foot space, so I was cramped up next to some stranger for hours and hours. Not fun. Been through both LHR and FRA; had to do the terminal shuffle at LHR - a tad confusing, even with the signs for connections.

Thanks for the answers y'all. FF miles dont mean much anymore on legacy airlines. Between the wife and I we have over 500,000 on Delta and cant use them. If i want to combine them all under one name it would cost me over $600.

Why would you find a need to take two accounts with 500k between them and combine them? You do know that miles from account A can be used to redeem a ticket for person B? The only reason I can think of is if there aren't enough in one account for a ticket and you need to move some to get to the right amount.

Make you an offer....if I can find flights, will you put the tickets in my name. 'Cause it can be done. Sometimes takes some work, sometimes some flexibility, sometimes some creative routing. But it can work.

Unless you're the "it has to be this flight, on this date, non-stop" type.

I know the BA 787s are high density in coach (although it's the same pitch and seat width as on other BA metal.)

ok so i did some homework. In order to transfer miles to my wife, Delta wants wants .01 for each mile transferred plus $30 for every 30,000 miles. That would cost us about $800. No a big deal in the grand scheme of things but hate paying for miles i have already earned.

In order to transfer miles to my wife

Why are you transferring anything? Do you not have enough miles on your account for 2 tickets?

ok so i did some homework. In order to transfer miles to my wife, Delta wants wants .01 for each mile transferred plus $30 for every 30,000 miles. That would cost us about $800. No a big deal in the grand scheme of things but hate paying for miles i have already earned.

Why think about transferring miles? Just use them from your account to get flights for whoever you want.

Doing a cruise next year with the family probably out of Copenhagen or Barcelona. I fly frequently on Southwest due in large part to their level of service compared to the legacy airlines. So which is better to Europe from the states, British Airways or Lufthansa?

I always use BA so for me the choice is easy but you might not like the same things I like.

If you shall cruise from Copenhagen you might have more connections to choose from if you fly with Lufthansa since Lufthansa and SAS are in the same allience.

There are four of us going. According to Delta in order for all us to be on the same IATA number the reservations have to be under one sky miles account.

You want service? Delta-Air France. Star Alliance-Luftsansa.

There are four of us going. According to Delta in order for all us to be on the same IATA number the reservations have to be under one sky miles account.

Does that really matter?

Thought - most awards now (and I think Delta has gone to this too) are essentially sold as one-ways - so, could you reserve the going portion on one account and the return on another? I actually did this last summer with my Aeroplan rewards tickets.

There are four of us going. According to Delta in order for all us to be on the same IATA number the reservations have to be under one sky miles account.

Thought - most awards now (and I think Delta has gone to this too) are essentially sold as one-ways - so, could you reserve the going portion on one account and the return on another?

it makes it easier to have them all under the same number if problems arise, ie miss connection or try to bump us. we will probably risk it by doing 2 separate IATA number because the money we save, even spending the $800, would allow us to get a nice cabin for the cruise. When it comes to flying I am extremely anal because i do it about 30-35 weeks a year on Southwest.

There are four of us going. According to Delta in order for all us to be on the same IATA number the reservations have to be under one sky miles account.

IATA number? What does that have to do with anything.

Whether you have one, two three or four people, they do NOT have to be on the same reservation. Mrs FT and I often fly together but with separate reservations. You can have everyone with their own reservation/ticket.

Think of your miles as a form of alternative currency. You can buy as many tickets from your account as you have miles to pay for them. Let's say you have 310,000 miles in one account and 190,000 in a second one. Tickets are 100k each.

Account A can buy one, two or three tickets - up to 300k in "mile cash". Account B can buy only one - it doesn't have 200k "mile cash" to buy two tickets. But you can ALWAYS buy four tickets with 500k in two accounts because there can't be more than 100k "left over" between the two, no matter how they are divided.

I get the feeling you are trying to put the miles together in one account so you can have one reservation. Yes, you could do that, but is having just one reservation worth THAT kind of expenditure?? Is there some structural reason why they can't be split up? The only thing I could consider would be three children and only one parent. With two kids, break it two and two. Or 3 and 1.

Now, this is all assuming that there is inventory to be able to buy four tickets. Which is even more reason to have separate tickets - you may need to split your party so that some fly on one routing and others on a different one. On an upcoming award trip, Mrs FT and I will be going to our Euro-hub together and then flying on separate flights to LAX and SFO, eventually meeting at SEA within 30 minutes of each other. No big deal IMO.

I will admit that there are some people that just HAVE to fly together. For those folks there needs to be a recognition that that requirement comes with a cost....just like the folks that HAVE to fly non-stop. Or whatever.

Tell you what - here's an offer. Give me some specifics and I'll work you through this. How many miles in each account? Where do you want to go (start and end cities) and when? Class of service? How many adults and how many kids? And no...I won't show up at your airport looking for your group to check in.

it makes it easier to have them all under the same number if problems arise, ie miss connection or try to bump us.

Like FlyerTalker, my companion and I are often travelling on the same flight on different reservations. We've never yet had problems because of that.

And being on the same reservation hasn't avoided us getting split up, although fortunately so far it has only meant that only one of us got upgraded.