British Airways/American Airlines vs Delta

Posted by Phrank (NW Ohio) on 02/19/18 06:57 PM

I've been researching flights from Columbus, OH to Rome for early October. At this time, both British Airways (operated by American) and Delta have RT pricing for approx. $1260 for premium economy. The BA flight is on an Airbus A330-200 whereas Delta is on an Airbus A330-300. Can anyone share their experience with either of these?

I've done some research and it sounds like American has re-vamped their planes but those changes are not yet showing up on SeatGuru. And it seems like Delta has tweaked their premium economy in the last several weeks, not necessarily for the better.

Any information you can share will be appreciated.

Posted by Roberto da Firenze ⚜

San Francisco Bay Area (USA)

02/19/18 07:19 PM

16209 posts

I’d be more interested in time, number of layovers, and routing. The planes are the same, the A330-300 has a longer fuselage than the -200 to accommodate more seat rows.
I presume the BA flight has at least one layover at London Heathrow. I’m sure there is a second layover, unless American has started a non stop from CMH to LHR.
How about Delta? Where is the layover and how many? Atlanta, JFK, Paris CDG, Amsterdam?
My preference is for the least amount of layovers.
Assuming one layover only, I prefer that layover to be in Europe rather than the US.
Also some airports are better than others for quick transfer. AMS is good, CDG is bad, for example.
Layover time plays a role too. If your layover is at CDG and the times are tight, the chance of missing the flight is high. That will delay your journey.

Posted by Phrank OP

NW Ohio

02/19/18 07:36 PM

202 posts

Both have one layover in the US. The BA flight is shorter. The lack of information on the seating and amenities is primarily what prompted my questions.

Posted by Rocket 🚀🧳

San Francisco area

02/19/18 09:14 PM

1900 posts

Purely a guess on my part but the lack of updated info on seatguru may be due to issues getting the aircraft refitted with the new seats. In recent years the seat manufacturers have fallen behind on their deliveries to Boeing and Airbus forcing delayed delivery to the airlines.

More info from the points guy indicates seat used on A330 is same as on 787

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/07/aa-a330-retrofit-details/

Since It is likely that AA is still in the process of upgrading their aircraft I would go with BA if flying premium economy is important to you. I really like the PE product and would be disappointed if there was a last minute substitution to a regular economy seat.