I’m flying business class from London to New York. Which airlines would you recommend, and why?
Asked in English, German and Spanish.
What we foundBritish Airways and Virgin Atlantic were in every answer and were named first equally often. Which one came first depended on the assistant.
Named first by assistant, plus United recommendations
Each count is out of 18 answers per assistant. The other test conditions are kept in each group. “Named first” does not mean “best”.
Measure
ChatGPT
Gemini
DeepSeek
British Airways — named first
4 of 18
14 of 18
7 of 18
Virgin Atlantic — named first
10 of 18
4 of 18
11 of 18
United — recommended
16 of 18
4 of 18
18 of 18
Selected results
British Airways is recommended in 54 of 54 answers.
Virgin Atlantic is recommended in 54 of 54 answers.
Assistants disagree
Business class: the leader depends on the assistant
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were in every business class answer and were named first equally often. Gemini mostly put British Airways first. ChatGPT and DeepSeek mostly put Virgin Atlantic first. Gemini also recommended United far less often.
British Airways is recommended in 54 of 54 answers to "London to New York, business class".
Virgin Atlantic is recommended in 54 of 54 answers to "London to New York, business class".
What AI said
Choose British Airways if you value schedule flexibility (they fly the most often) and want a straightforward, modern privacy-door seat on a widebody aircraft.
Gemini (3.5 Flash-Lite) · English · Search available · answer round 1
Selected exact passages. These are AI statements, not verified facts about an airline.
One thing to check
Make it easy to check which cabin a flight really has.
A suggestion to test, not a proven way to change AI answers.
Recommendation counts are not market share. Being named first does not mean being the best. A difference with search does not prove its cause. API answers can differ from chat apps. These results do not predict revenue.
Independent research prototype. Not commissioned by or affiliated with any company named in this report.