nonstop flights from Seattle to Europe

British, but you will pay more and pay for seat selection. We haven't tried Lufthansa, but maybe that is good too.

There are these direct flights to Europe: to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Reykjavik. It used to be also to Moscow and Kopenhagen but no more. I would rate them: 1. Amsterdam by Delta 2.Reykjavik by Iceland Air 3.Frankfurt by Lufthansa 4.Paris by Air France
5.London by British Airways

There is now one additional option for non-stops to Europe. Condor Air is flying a couple of non-stops a week into Frankfurt. I cannot comment on their comfort or service yet, but I did buy tickets with them for my trip this fall. They were far less expensive than Lufthansa and I needed to go into Frankfurt. I just priced some random dates in June and you can get a RT ticket in Coach for as little as $1051 and Premium Economy for $1500.

I flew the Lufthansa non-stop from SEA to FRA 2 weeks ago in coach. This was an award ticket using Ff miles, so I had my choice of 3 or 4 airlines that I could pick from. I had never flown Lufthansa before, and had heard reasonably good things about them, so chose this flight. What a miserable experience! Flying in coach, I had low expectations to start, but I was really shocked at how awful it was, how cramped the seats were - I've never experienced a smaller, more uncomfortable seat on any airline, period. Everything about the product was cheap and irritating - little details like the seat trays, lighting, in-flight entertainment system - everything! The service was really, really awful, too. My wife got airsick, used up the single barf bag that had been provided for our two seats, I asked a flight attendant for another and she told me there were no more, I should try to scrounge one from another passenger! Things just got worse from there (I'll spare you the nasty details). I am not looking forward to the return flight in 2 days, and can't imagine I'd ever fly Lufthansa again - a really, really miserable experience. I would steer clear of them. It's a good thing we got our tickets for practically nothing using miles. If I had actually paid real money for that awful flight, I'd be livid. YMMV, but I won't be using Lufthansa again, even if the tickets are more or less free.

Delta and Air France/KLM across the Atlantic have extensive code-sharing. Air France still sells a non-stop from Seattle but it is operated by Delta, which I expect is what you are referring to. The Delta website indicates the route equipment is B-767 aircraft (at least in July, my test month.) In-flight movies depend on pop-down screens rather than individual seatback units. Otherwise the differences between Delta and AF are marginal, based on my experience flying out of the Midwest. AF food and beverage service is slightly tastier (although how much difference can there be in Economy?) and the movies more French. Both operate slightly annoying websites. As to on-time performance, AF probably used Delta's ground staff in Seattle and will possibly still handle Delta's flights in CdG. The rest depends on weather.
More research: www.seatguru.com

We flew Delta from PDX to Amsterdam last summer; my cousin flew from SEA to Amsterdam, and met us there. All of us loved our flights. If you check Seat Guru you will see that the "Steerage" seats on these Delta flights are pretty good; in fact, on the way back, we paid the extra $80PP for the Economy Comfort seats, and had tons of leg room (up to 4" more), free booze, and prefered boarding. Last week my buddy just came back from Germany on that Delta flight, and he said it was great. My 6'5" Nephew flew Icelandic Air from SEA and really enjoyed that experience.

Lufthansa has always been our preferred airline but two years on a return flight it was crowded. Service was decent but I do think they had push the seats closer together. Our last two trips have been with Delta and both had good service. At the moment, Delta would be our first choice with British Air and especially US Air as our last choice. In fact, US Air would never been chosen.

David, Sorry to hear about your miserable experience on Lufthansa. I've flown with them a number of times on code share flights, and always found the service to be quite good. I've found that the seats are usually "cramped" in Coach (ie: "Sardine class"), regardless of which airline I use. Given the current "uncertainties" with Air Canada, I'm trying a different carrier combination this year (WestJet / KLM). It will be interesting to compare the service and level of comfort. Hopefully I'll win the Lottery one of these days so I can try Business class at least once in my life. One point to mention for those in the Pacific Northwest (Bellingham, Seattle), Virgin Air inaugurated their service between Vancouver and Heathrow yesterday (Sir Richard was of course on the flight). It's expected that prices may decrease across all carriers on that route as a result. AFAIK, the flights will be offered four times per week, until the end of October. Cheers!

Just returned home about an hour ago on Lufthansa's nonstop from FRA to SEA. Same airplane and same route as we took 2 weeks ago, but a much better experience this time. The cabin crew were helpful, cheerful, and doing what they could to make the flight go well (this was in stark contrast to the surly and disinterested cabin crew we encountered going outbound). The seats were the same cramped experience, but at least no screaming babies wailing constantly for 10 hours this time - that certainly does make a difference. I still wouldn't call it a great experience - the seats are really cramped (even compared to other coach seats) but it wasn't the miserable slogg that the outbound flight was. I still think I'll try my best to avoid Lufthansa coach in the future, but wouldn't call it the "worst flight ever" (that honor is held by US Airways, which I wouldn't fly again if they paid me.

I just read that Delta had taken over that direct Air France route out of Seattle and that they have changed the planes from what AF used. Apparently, Delta plans to upgrade their fleet, but no telling when Seattle will get the upgraded planes. We had a good experience with that flight last summer, so we're sad to hear this.

Took the Delta/AF flight earlier this month. Same old equipment that we had 4 years ago (and I complained about it - in my journal - then). Really not bad, just old plane with no personal entertainment (sigh) and mediocre food, but service was good and flight was fine. I am not a big person and had an aisle seat so ok there, too. We are flying home KLM direct from AMS and expecting better. Daughter flew SFO to AMS direct and had new(er) 747 with personal entertainment and great food. Will let you know how return is in a few days. Took outbound flight because it was cheapest so really can't complain, but I had looked at Delta's website and thought I was getting their upgraded equipment.

Both my outgoing SEA - FRA and return FRA - SEA Lufthansa flights were on A-330-300 aircraft. These did have individual seatback video/entertainment systems. The narrowness and the tight pitch (distance between the seat ahead and yours) shocked me - and I always fly coach, so I don't think I'm easily shocked. If that is the "upgraded" product, I'd hate to be in the older, un-upgraded planes. I also had seen numerous references to in-flight wifi on some longhaul Lufthansa flights, including some on this route, but there was never any mention of it.

LUFTHANSA: They're currently upgrading the product. The new coach seats are a bit wider and come with in-seat inflight-entertainment etc. The new coach class is already available from IAD to MUC and will soon be introduced on IAD to FRA and then, step by step, on the rest of the fleet. Rule of thumb: If the Lufthansa aircraft is a Boeing 747-400 (code: 744) it's all pretty old and cramped. On Airbus A330 and 340 services the seats are better but there still is no in-seat entertainment unit. Seats with individual touch screens now do appear on some A330 (again, IAD routes first) and then on Boeing 747-8 flights.

We had booked the Air France and it switched to Delta by the time we flew in April. We had flown the Air France flight before and were fearful. We were quite pleased with the Delta service and cattle car class comfort. Not quite as good as Air France but really well done in comparison to our expectations. Food as expected, but with ice cream! and service very good. The cabin crew even dealt very, very well with a potential real problem passenger seated directly behind me. The only downside was the boarding process in Seattle. I would not hesitate to use them again for the price. Much better than any connectioning flight.