Cathay, Etihad or BA?

[Big News]

I love planes. I love razzing around the sky in little piston aircraft. I love stepping-stoning my way around the country in a glider. But I seriously cannot stand being cooped up on an airliner. I'm off out to Australia for the winter (to work at a gliding club, funnily enough) but getting there means 30+ hours of abject boredom, pins and needles, and the general public.

Cathay, Etihad and BA are all within about £20 of each other in terms of ticket cost; which would you pick?

Thanks!

[smifffymoto]

If I was ever to go on a flight that long It would have to club or Premium economy at the very least.

[Wanchaiwarrior]

1. Cathay
2. Etihad
3. BA

Stop over in HK for a couple of days to help with jetlag.

HTH

[SimonV8ster]

I recently fly with Cathy Pacific for the first time and was very impressed with them, will definatley go with them again given the choice.

[GT03ROB]

Aside from the fact you will fall off the other end feeling pretty st, irrespective of who you fly with, the difference is really not that great. I've done BA & Cathay in cattle both are similar in terms of comfort. Service is more crew dependent on BA, you get good days & bad days. I've only done business with Eitihad & they are pretty good. I've also heard good reports from others who have flown Eitihad cattle.

Comfort is going to be very similar in all of them & I really wouldn't fancy going to Oz in economy. I'm going later this year with BA, but thats because again price wise there was not a lot in in with other carriers & having status with BA means I may get a bit better treatment if things fall over.

No I'm not going economy.

[XJSJohn]

Wanchaiwarrior said:

1. Cathay
2. Etihad
30. BA

efa

[GT03ROB]

XJSJohn said:

Wanchaiwarrior said:

1. Cathay
2. Etihad
30. BA

efa

There seems in some places to be a hatred of BA, not fully sure where this comes from. I've done around 30 flights with BA this year on domestic, european & intercon routes, in all classes 1st to economy. I've had good to excellent service, no delays, no lost luggage. I can fly direct to my destination without changing or stopping. I'm looking for a service thats efficient & works, I don't need pretty young hostesses.

[AJS-]

I'd go with Cathay mostly because HK is a good stop over for a couple of days. I would imagine Abu Dhabi to Australia would be a long second leg?

If you're going to do it in one go (and having done that once I wouldn't recommend it) then I would go simply on the quickest connection times - awful as planes are hanging around airports is even worse.

[XJSJohn]

GT03ROB said:

XJSJohn said:

Wanchaiwarrior said:

1. Cathay
2. Etihad
30. BA

efa

There seems in some places to be a hatred of BA, not fully sure where this comes from. I've done around 30 flights with BA this year on domestic, european & intercon routes, in all classes 1st to economy. I've had good to excellent service, no delays, no lost luggage. I can fly direct to my destination without changing or stopping. I'm looking for a service thats efficient & works, I don't need pretty young hostesses.

to be fair i have not flown BA for about 15 years other than one obscure flight 7 years ago when my intended carrier could not fulfill its obligation so transferred me to a BA Flight (and 1st classs). I think i was on the oldest plane in their fleet, in flight was still High 8 tapes!!!

Anyway, had some very bad experiences a long time ago and have steered clear of them ever since. I am sure that things are very different now and i am tarring them with a very old brush, but being Asia Based BA are generally not the obvious carrier for me either these days.

[nyt]

It probably depends on the exact route that you're intending to take. Airlines have different interior fittings for different routes. I'd imagine that a popular business route to HK would be better equipped than lesser routes (Bangkok say)

I have flown east (via Bangkok) on BA and Cathay. The BA business class is very tired. Seats were literally shaky and people have to step over your legs to get into the inner seats (often hitting your legs and waking you. Service etc was fine though

Cathay was much more moderns and their lounge nicer.

But .. I've not flown on either for 18 months so planes may have been upgraded.

Check the reviews on seat guru.com

[Campo]

GT03ROB said:

XJSJohn said:

Wanchaiwarrior said:

1. Cathay
2. Etihad
30. BA

efa

There seems in some places to be a hatred of BA, not fully sure where this comes from. I've done around 30 flights with BA this year on domestic, european & intercon routes, in all classes 1st to economy. I've had good to excellent service, no delays, no lost luggage. I can fly direct to my destination without changing or stopping. I'm looking for a service thats efficient & works, I don't need pretty young hostesses.

Generally by people who hardly fly and don't really know what they're talking about. I'd go Cathay, BA then Etihad purely due to the stopovers. Economy class in all 3 really isn't much different.

[XJSJohn]

nyt said:

It probably depends on the exact route that you're intending to take. Airlines have different interior fittings for different routes. I'd imagine that a popular business route to HK would be better equipped than lesser routes (Bangkok say)

I have flown east (via Bangkok) on BA and Cathay. The BA business class is very tired. Seats were literally shaky and people have to step over your legs to get into the inner seats (often hitting your legs and waking you. Service etc was fine though

Cathay was much more moderns and their lounge nicer.

But .. I've not flown on either for 18 months so planes may have been upgraded.

Check the reviews on seat guru.com

Cathay do a HK, BKK, SG, HK and HK, SG, BKK, SG route 3 times a day each and its a very popular business route using newly refurbised 777's thats very nice. I think BA code share with QANTAS for the HK leg (or whoever the other Asian OneWorld partner is)

edit - which i see is Cathay, so if you do a Stopover you will probably fly BA the first sector and Cathay the second anyway!