has anyone flown to amsterdam via Continental's business first class seating?

Yes.

Allow me to elaborate. Yes, and it's a relaxing experience. Do you have any specific questions?

what do you mean business first class? Business is business class and first is first class. Is it different on american airlines?

This is probably the equivalent of Northwest's World Business - they don't have First. Sometimes airlines name these classes in weird ways.

BusinessFirst is a step down from a true International First Class.
It was developed by airlines that did not want to offer 3 classes of
service. It is better than US domestic first class: better seating, food, ect.

Have taken it many times. Worth it if you can catch a sale. In Nov. '06 I
got a BF fare EWR-AMS for $1,250 + taxes. For comparison a coach fare
in the summer months could be > $1,000.

If you can only take BF one way, the AMS --> USA leg is a longer flight, and
you will likely sleep on the red-eye going in the other direction anyway.

Have done the mental math many times: BF and a 3* hotel in Amsterdam,
or tough it out in coach and spend the week in a 4* hotel. Either way,
my budget for weed and the ladies remains the same. :)

SunLover

There are less seats in NWA/KLM World Business, and they fully recline, and have more legroom. Right now there's a business fare of $2114/rt from JFK to AMS for August, which is about $600 less than normal.

...and they have an ice cream bar!

W

well, they are having a sale for about $2,500 and since the regular coach is 1,200 already, i want to try the BusinessFirst seating since its double and not quadtriple the price of coach.

I just wanted to know what to expect if i do book a flight on Continential. do the seats recline all the way down? or is it like a lazy-boy recliner type of seat?

Check out www.seatguru.com for seating maps and info on degree of recline for all seats on all airlines. I don't think Continental business seats fully recline, but I may have them confused with Delta. NWA/KLM is still on sale for $2100.

I just checked the NWA/KLM website for the dates that I'm going (21/8-28/8). The coach fare from JFK-AMS has dropped to $698!... But the business class fare has jumped to over $3900.

Airfare always increases to and from Europe in 3 periods, generally on the 15th of the month of April, May and June (the beginning of peak season), and then stays high until the 25th or so of August (the end of peak, although it can fluctuate depending on where the weekends are). It will generally be reasonably cheap until the the second week of September. I've flown this period many, many times...

Not to go off on a tangent, but I just noticed a fare of $279 one way between Chicago and Amsterdam on United. You have to book by Aug 13, but travel must begin in October. Looks like a reasonable deal to me, no?

You have to add in taxes and fees, so figure about $650 rt. Sounds about average for that time of year these days. It wasn't that long ago that $450 rt was the norm.