Lounge access is a nice option, but if you have little time between connections, might not even be a

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 la quinta inn and suites federal way 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.
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 la quinta inn and suites federal way from Madrid to New York.
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 la quinta inn and suites federal way the food options la quinta inn and suites federal way 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.
The problem with reading too many trip reports before going on vacation is that you go into your travels with a pre-conceived notion la quinta inn and suites federal way 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.
British Airways was the only airline la quinta inn and suites federal way 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 la quinta inn and suites federal way and was the perfect example of service with a smile, helping to make our short flight fly by.  I was surprised la quinta inn and suites federal way to see that even on our short flight we were provided hot towels before our meal, pillows, blankets, and more.
I really la quinta inn and suites federal way 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, la quinta inn and suites federal way 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.
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 la quinta inn and suites federal way  They win on quality, too, not just quantity, completely beating out AA s stingy drink service and BA s boring la quinta inn and suites federal way options.
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 la quinta inn and suites federal way 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.
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), la quinta inn and suites federal way 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, la quinta inn and suites federal way I think they d have a fantastic transatlantic service once you factor in an internationally-configured la quinta inn and suites federal way 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!
I get tempted to fly business class when I read fancy schmancy trip reports, but I continue flying coach because as a leisure traveler I don t have tons of miles to burn and because coach is comfortable enough for me (I can sleep through the night in a coach seat).
I have been able to try out some lounges in the past year thanks to lounge passes. They ve all been nice, but none have convinced me to pay for lounge access in the future la quinta inn and suites federal way out of pocket. The lounges I ve visited have had snacks, but I ve yet to construct the equivalent of a meal in a lounge. In most cases, I m better off spending my airport time in the nicest restaurant in my terminal.
@NB, My IB experience was absolutely fine, so I can only see it getting better in the future as they move towards harmonization. I d like to try BA, but simply can t justify the extra costs. Not worth it to me.
@Kay, I booked business for 2 reasons: la quinta inn and suites federal way curiosity and the hope of being able to sleep on the red-eye. My curiosity has now been satisfied and frankly the flights to Europe are too short to sleep even if you re comfortable. The nap I managed meant I was still exhausted on arrival even though I slept well. With neither of those being factors in my decision anymore, I d rather forego la quinta inn and suites federal way the premium cabin and instead use those extra miles for an extra getaway. Many other flyers have enough la quinta inn and suites federal way miles for both premium cabins and extra trips, but since I must choose, I ve prioritized to meet my needs best.
@New Girl, I agree, the flights to Europe are way too short to sleep. Flights to the Middle East (Tel Aviv, Amman, and Cairo in my experience) are perfect. In 14 hours you can get a good night s sleep and enjoy a bit of the flight. I assume it s the same principals going to Asia, but I have limited experience with trans-Pacific la quinta inn and suites federal way flights.
Lounge access is a nice option, but if you have little time between connections, might not even be available for long enough to make it worthwhile. I will say, though, that the BA Terraces lounge in London probably has far superior food to what you ve eaten in US domestic airline lounges. And I ve found the BA lounges at both JFK and Dulles to offer excellent dinner options, making it possible to do dinner before the flight so that you can spend more time sleeping on the plane.
I do need sleep (or at least the ability to stretch out and doze) on the way to Europe (although not so much for a day flight coming back) so I ve found that a red-eye la quinta inn and suites federal way business class seat paired with an economy or economy plus seat on my return to the US works great. This combination is almost essential for me on a short trip, such as my four-day trip to Dublin earlier this month I just don t have enough time to get adjusted to jet lag.
It helps though, that I have a decent leisure budget for travel and that I can upgrade a paid World Traveller Plus seat on BA to a Club World seat for almost the number of Avios I earn for the flight itself. I view it as getting a business class seat for roughly the price of a coach seat in a high season period. If I had a lot less money or airline miles (as was the case when I was just out of college), I d definitely be looking to stretch my budget to allow more flights.
I ve always been satisfied to fly coach. I totally agree that I d rather save the miles for future travel since I m a leisure traveler and won t have the luxury (even with numerous credit card sign up bonuses) to keep up with elite status bloggers la quinta inn and suites federal way who have millions of miles to burn. Would be nice to fly first class or business if I got upgraded for free, but why spend the extra miles when every section of the gets to the same destination? Thanks for the po