Curry Express: Business Class to Frankfurt

The first request! This comes in the form of a business class ticket from New York to Frankfurt. Specifically this individual is interested in the best business class seat available between the two cities and wants to fly non-stop. He needs to travel in early October and will spend about a week in Germany.

First lets take a look at the airlines flying in this market. I'll include airlines both to New York-JFK and Newark-Liberty because they serve the same general area: Lufthansa, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Air India. The last two airlines are unique in this market and provide tag-on service to their respective hubs via Frankfurt. Note that all flights from the New York area to Frankfurt are overnight, red-eye flights so an environment that promotes the ability to sleep is preferred.

Differences in seating type arrangement can separate a restful night over the Atlantic and a fitful one. Each of the airlines offers a seat advertised as 'lie-flat' on the planes they fly between these two cities. On closer inspection many of the 'lie-flat' seats do not actually lie completely flat. Most, in fact, only flatten to about 170 degrees and tilt the traveler at an angle. This sometimes causes the traveler so slide down and is not very conducive to sleep. Lufthansa, Continental and Singapore offer this style seat the planes used between New York/Newark and Frankfurt.

Air India and Delta offer a lie-flat seat that actually does what it says -- that is it reclines to 180 degrees and when in that position is completely horizontal. Obviously this is much preferable for red-eye flights. Delta, however, flies much older Boeing 767-300 aircraft which are currently in the process of being reconfigured from an older sit-up style business class seat to the lie-flat variant. Air India flies much newer 777-300 aircraft which already have the lie-flat seats. So which should he choose?

In my opinion the horizontal lie flat seat is the better choice so Lufthansa, Continental and Singapore are out. Delta won't be able to guarantee that the newly configured aircraft will operate this route on any given day which means its possible to be stuck sitting up all night. My pick for this trip is Air India which flies from Newark-Liberty International airport in Newark, NJ. This will ensure he has a the opportunity to rest in the most bed-like position available. Additionally Air India offers some fantastic business class fares on this route (which happens on occasion with airlines operating outside their home territory) and is supposed to have decent catering for on board meals. Finally this traveler shared that he will be driving to the airport from New England which makes Newark the ideal choice as it's location along Rt. 95 makes it much more accessible than JFK for those coming from the North, South or West.

Happy flying!