Travelling first class using AA miles

[dfwrealtor]

Hello All,
I am fairly new to this. we (me and my wife) have accumulated around 200k AA miles by doing some CC and MS.
Closet airport to us is DFW. We would like to take our first "First Class" on a nicer plane. We don't mind if its a quick turn around flight or a short vacation. Any where in the world is fine.

can any one recommend some places which might be worth flying first class too? We don't mind using all of our miles.

Sorry, if the qs is too vague.. its our first MS trip!

 

[Matt]

Just for the bragging rights? It's not something I've done, but I would certainly be looking at partners for the answer here, and you are a bit short of miles for most of the good stuff.

The airlines I would recommend (and I hope to be corrected with people who have flown F in them or others) would be:

JAL
Cathay
BA

Without knowing anything about the latest hot routes - we can identify the following airports to be generally viable:

Tokyo
Hong Kong
London

Are these something of interest? Of course there are many more routes and options available, but these are good generic starts, since you had quite an open post.

Note that BA F to London is going to be rather hefty with regard to fees.

 

[Differentplanet]

Just to add to Matt's list, the new AA 777-300s are wonderful and departs from DFW. Note that business class is perfectly fine. The seats are as great as Cathay and definitely better than BA, but the service is not as good as on Cathay. I flew JAL to NRT in business a few years back. I have no need to repeat that experience.

 

[Hanaleiradio]

I'd stick with Cathay and JAL for F. The hard and soft product for F and J on on both are excellent (with exception of JAL 787 NRT-SAN). 62.5k to Asia 1 (Japan/Korea) and 67.5k to Asia zone 2 (Hong Kong or connecting to SE Asia) is a steal in the current age of devaluation. F on JAL isn't too hard to find; whereas F on CX has become very difficult. I recently was able to book F awards on JAL in early Nov and again next May.

AA's 77W metal to Sao Paulo is excellent, but very hard to find award seats in J or F. Their JFK to Barcelona flight, which flies the newly configured 767 (not sure if it has F--check seat guru.) is reportedly solid. Both are 62.5k miles. JFK to London also flies the newer 77W, which is an excellent hard product. Award seats are hard to get, but not as hard as the others.

Fuel surcharges on BA F will be higher than a coach ticket. Defeats the purpose!

There is absolutely no doubt that the award chart will be devalued significantly for J and F once AA rolls out the new program, so I would advise that you book by the end of the year.

 

[Matt]

Just to add to Matt's list, the new AA 777-300s are wonderful and departs from DFW. Note that business class is perfectly fine. The seats are as great as Cathay and definitely better than BA, but the service is not as good as on Cathay. I flew JAL to NRT in business a few years back. I have no need to repeat that experience.

I've never flown international 3 cabin F - though plenty of Business Class. For me, I couldn't really justify the splurge in pts, even though its not really that much, without the soft product. Though ironically, I am now able to earn way more points and would likely fly F, but have the little bundle of joy, so that might be tricky...

Long story short -pure F, I would imagine CX and JL to be yards ahead of AA when considered overall (especially the soft product)

 

[Hanaleiradio]

Have not flown them, but former colleagues also rave about Qatar F.

 

[Hanaleiradio]

Just to add to Matt's list, the new AA 777-300s are wonderful and departs from DFW. Note that business class is perfectly fine. The seats are as great as Cathay and definitely better than BA, but the service is not as good as on Cathay. I flew JAL to NRT in business a few years back. I have no need to repeat that experience.

JAL has revised their business product, and now all of J on 777-300s are lie flat seats. Service is much improved from a few years ago. Ironically, the exception is on their 787 between NRT and SAN or Vancouver. New plane and no lie flat seats, and old JAL type of service. Don't want to sound too much like and entitled Lucky, so I'll end it there.....

 

[vike]

I have flown CX in F several times, and have another trip in Jan 15. It is really a special experience that you should have at least once to celebrate your accumulation of miles. If possible do a roundtrip to or through Hong Kong that allows you to also enjoy the 1st class lounge at the Hong Kong airport on your return. There are many trip reports that show and describe the private cabanas, excellent food, and relaxing atmosphere. A nice Cathay connection from Hong Kong would be to Bali (Business class only), which I did on my first trip. Hope that gives you some ideas.

 

[thepaul500]

Fly DFW-AUH on Etihad? Could fly first one direction for 90k each, then turn around and fly back in biz for 67.5k each?

 

[Alpen_Geoff]

Unfortunately 200k won't get 2 of you real far in true F both ways though you could get close by doing a mix of F & J and going to either Japan or Korea (Asia 1, 225k RT for 2 with F OW and J OW) but you're options would be limited to JAL or AA. I've seen some decent reviews of the new JAL F (and will be flying it in December) and you could aim for the JFK-NRT flight to maximize the experience.

Anything else will require a few more miles, which I would wait and save for - it will open the door for CX F to HKG and beyond, or EY F to AUH or a circuitous routing could see you on the new QR F though you'll be in for some extra taxes by connecting in LHR. Of course if you get lucky and your timing is right you could snag QF F to SYD/MEL/BNE.

I like AA's old F seat (haven't flown the 77W yet) but wouldn't choose it if I had other options as AA's partners have superior soft products.