[ZKSmith]

AA have scrapped their plans to introduce the new 777W on MIA-LHR route.

http://airlineroute.net/2013/08/26/aa-mialhr-jan14/

[FirstClassWannabe]

Thanks everyone. That is a shame re the AA 777 as had planned BA F out and AA J back. Think I will stick to BA out and maybe IB back.

[first_class_please]

IB back? oh my. I have never flown them, but that is a purposeful decision.

I`m sure there will be a few on here to question your sanity in that choice!

[simplesimon]

I’ve flown the new Iberia BusinessPlus, and thought it was a real step-change from my previous encounters with Iberia. The seat is now fully flat, and very private:

http://www.iberia.com/web/obsmenu.do?menuId=EIVBPB

The food on board was good, some great Spanish wines, and I even had a friendly crewmember (not always the case in my experience!).

However, this new cabin is only available on their A330 and A340-600 fleet, otherwise you get the OK but lacklustre old-style BusinessPlus which is angled lie flat.

I don’t know which aircraft Iberia uses on the Miami flights, but I’d wait until you can be sure of the new cabin before making any “purposeful” decisions.

If American isn’t upgrading its planes on the MIA route, then I’d also steer clear of them until they do.

You’d probably be better off using one of the fares starting in Frankfurt, which could get you out to Miami using the earliest London City Airport-JFK flight, with immigration pre-clearance in Shannon, and connect down to Miami on American (which is now my preferred routing), and then back to Frankfurt via London overnight on a BA 747 flight (so you get the upper deck).

Should cost around €1777 return, about £1500 including tax.

OK, with this plan you miss out on F and the Concorde Room, but you do get to try the London City service, and you’ll be sleeping the overnight home so business class should be adequate.

MIA is not the best route for new F, so best to wait and use the miles earned from this flight on a different route in the future, maybe sampling F in the A380 somewhere like Los Angeles, which is a longer flight to give you time to savour the experience?

[FirstClassWannabe]

I flew IB new business in the 330 and it was fine, service was friendly (once they got going!) although food could have been better. Yes, was going to go from FRA or MUC, thanks for the advice re AA as was still a little tempted.

[FormerlyDoS]

For everyone’s info, the new IB business Plus seat is virtually indentical to the Etihad Pearl Business seat, a variant of which is starting to appear on Air Berlin A332s.

Direct aisle access from all seats, very private in the window seats.

http://www.etihad.com/en/experience-etihad/on-board/pearl-business-class/

http://www.airberlin.com/en-GB/site/landingpages/airberlin_business_class.php?et_cid=14015&et_lid=6760031&et_sub=%5Ben-GB%5Dservice_business

[Author]

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