I am considering booking US Airways Business Class flights for September from LAX to CLT (Charlotte) using an Airbus 321 and then flights to and from Heathrow from Charlotte which uses an Airbus 333. I have read some reviews, good and bad, about these flights and the aircraft. Is it worth the 100k miles for round trip flights on this aircraft? What was your experience on these flights or aircraft? Thanks for sharing.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
15996 posts
The A321 is a narrow body aircraft with a 3-3 seat configuration. It is the longest version of the A320 family. Basically it's the Airbus equivalent of the Boeing 737-900 which is the longest version of the B737 family. The 737-900 was the replacement for the B757, no longer manufactured.
The A333 is the code for the Airbus330-300. It is the smaller of the Airbus wide bodies. It has a 2-4-2 configuration in Economy class. Compared to the A330-200 it is slightly longer by a few rows, therefore it has a few more seats. It's one of the most modern aircraft in the market and probably the most fuel efficient in that category.
Wikipedia has articles on all aircraft you want.
For exact configurations with US airways go to seatguru.com since airlines configure seats a little differently, therefore even with the same aircraft seat pitch may differ from airline to airline.
Posted by
Freedonia
16196 posts
Since you're thinking of flying business class, you can ignore the previous post's seating information because that was about flying in coach.
Seating on the 321 will be 2 x 2 and on the 333 you'll have an individual "pod."
Here are the seat guru pages for the aircraft so you can see the seating arrangement as well as photos:
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/US_Airways/US_Airways_Airbus_A321.php
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/US_Airways/US_Airways_Airbus_A330_300.php
The 321 is nothing to write home about but better than sitting in economy. You should be very comfortable on the 333. It has lie flat seats.
But.....since you're flying out of LAX, and the USAir/AA frequent flyer plans will be merging in a few months, why not see what you can get on American Airlines from LAX to LHR? They have nonstops. And roundtrip on AA, I believe, is less than 100k miles.