After much deliberation, I booked business class award tickets for my trip to Morocco. ?I had a really hard time deciding between coach & business class (after all, that 20,000-mile premium would buy me a reduced mileage award making the opportunity cost pretty high), and in the end, I?m glad I chose business class?if only to satisfy my curiosity and confirm my suspicions that from now on, coach will be adequate for all my European travel.
Moroccan Marvels
- Booking Award Flights to Morocco
- Battle of the Business Class Flights
- Stopovers: Take ?Em or Leave ?Em?
- Morocco in a Nutshell
- Sensory Overload in the Marrakech Medina
- A Suggested Two-Week Itinerary for Morocco
- My New Favorite Hotel
- The Best Aspects of my Hotel Stays
- Giving Madrid a Second Chance
I?m not much of a fan of photos of hot towels or bowls of nuts, so I?ll save your sanity by not giving you the minute-by-minute report on my flights. ?If you?ve got specific questions, though, ask away. ?Instead, I?ll be assigning a winner to each aspect of my flight to give an overview of three airlines in one post. ?This isn?t exactly a fair competition since I didn?t have equal routings on each airline, so keep that in mind.
I flew American Airlines on my overnight transatlantic flight from New York to London, British Airways on a roughly 3.5-hour flight from London to Marrakech (considered ?intra-European? service), and Iberia Airlines on my daytime transatlantic flight from Madrid to New York.
Best Lounge
Winner: Iberia Airlines
Over the course of our trip, we tried the Admirals? Club in JFK, the British Airways lounge at London Gatwick, and the Iberia Velazquez lounge in Madrid. ?While I was thrilled with the speed of wi-fi at JFK and enjoyed the food options at LGW, Iberia had the full package. ?In addition to a decent buffet of snacks and light meals, plentiful drink options, free wifi, there were also computers and printers for use, showers, TVs in some areas, and bests of all, a relaxation/nap room that looked like I might actually want to use it on a layover.
Best Seat
Winner: American Airlines
The problem with reading too many trip reports before going on vacation is that you go into your travels with a pre-conceived notion of what to expect. ?I?ve never flown international business class in my life and assumed I was in trouble from the outright because American Airlines has angled-flat seats. ?In reality, I had no problems sleeping on AA?s seats at all and would consider another angled-flat seat in the future. ? Iberia?s lie-flats were also fine and I?d happily recommend them, but there was something about AA?s pre-set ?position #1? that cradled me so comfortably while not sleeping that AA wins. ?Sorry, British Airways, but your short-haul seating didn?t stand a chance in this category.
The Winning Seat
Best Service
Winner: British Airways
British Airways was the only airline that seemed to have genuine, friendly service on my flights. ?Iberia was great with frequent service but a bit robotic. ?American had downright snarly and inattentive service to the point of frustration. ?Our attendant on British Airways, Emma, was more than happy to help out with any request and was the perfect example of service with a smile, helping to make our short flight fly by. ?I was surprised to see that even on our short flight we were provided hot towels before our meal, pillows, blankets, and more.
Best Food
Winner: British Airways
I really expected Iberia to be the winner of this category with its Spanish cuisine, but British Airways won the best food category by a landslide. ?Ironically, they were out of the beef stroganoff option I intended on ordering for lunch and I was ?stuck? with the lamb dopiaza, which turned out to be fantastic. ?No, it didn?t look appetizing. ?No, I didn?t think I?d be happy eating lamb and lentils before spending time in Morocco eating?more lamb and lentils?but it was really quite delicious. ?No, it wasn?t a multi-course affair like on AA or Iberia, but a simple, quality meal beats a poorly-executed fancy meal any day in my book.
Hard to go wrong with lamb and beer
Best Drinks
Winner: Iberia Airlines
Fact: It is impossible to drink quickly enough to keep up with Iberia?s drink service without floating away. ?I tried, my husband tried, and we both failed. ?I started with a flute of pre-departure cava and went on from there to wine, water, wine,?dessert wine, coffee, wine, a gin and tonic (except they didn?t leave room for the tonic!), wine, and just to round things out, a final glass of wine before landing. ?And that?s after the self-serve bar in the lounge? ?They win on quality, too, not just quantity, completely beating out AA?s stingy drink service and BA?s boring options.
Cava was just the beginning...
Best Entertainment
Winner: American Airlines
Poor British Airways? short-haul service didn?t stand a chance against seatback options with both AA and Iberia. ?AA?s selection of movies and TV shows was larger and exactly suited to my preferences, meaning I had more to choose from than I had time. ?On the flipside, Iberia had exactly one movie that appealed to me, leaving a lot of free time to entertain myself on an eight-hour flight. ?Additionally, American Airlines offers noise-cancelling headphones for your use during the flight, making it even easier to enjoy that entertainment.
Best Amenity Kit
Winner: American Airlines
On long flights, a few amenities can really make a difference in your comfort, so I really appreciated that both American and Iberia offered amenity kits so I didn?t have to dig through my bag to find my own personal items. ?Both were completely adequate, with standard items like moisturizer, lip balm, toothbrush & toothpaste, eye shade, ear plugs, socks, refreshing towlette, and comb. ?So why does AA win? ?For one thing, I?m biased to the American brands they used (like Colgate toothpaste), but they also had a nicer bag and scored bonus points for including a pen and tissues.
I?m not going to declare an overall winner, though based on my short experience with British Airways, I think they?d have a fantastic transatlantic service once you factor in an internationally-configured seating arrangement rather than their short-haul product. ?Iberia was also a surprisingly pleasant experience despite the age and condition of their aircraft, though given their limited entertainment options, I might recommend that one particularly for any overnight segments. ?Unfortunately, I think I had bad luck with American Airlines simply due to my flight attendant having a bad day (or at least, I?ll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she?s normally more attentive), so I?d be willing to give them another chance since there were certainly parts of the experience I enjoyed.
All in all, my next European adventure will be in coach, but I did enjoy having some more room to spread out so maybe another business-class flight will be in my future for more distant regions of the world?we?ll see what 2013 brings!
Source: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/newgirlintheair/2012/12/30/business-class-trip-report/
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