Best Airline You Have Travelled On?

Be interesting to know what airlines you think are the best you have
travelled on. Why are they the best? And how to international airlines
compare with USA airlines?

In my experience the best international airline I have travelled on is
Air New Zealand with the refitted 747's and 777's. Better food in
economy than I have had on some airlines first class, AVOD in seat
TV's, new leather seats with better recline and comfort and the best
service I have received so far. Also have very very good lounges.

Qantas is also very good for similar reasons.

Bad airlines I have travelled on would have to be American Airlines
(worst) and British Airways. AA doesn't offer meals on long flights,
don't even have individual entertainment systems and the flight
attendants and airport staff have to be some of the rudest and
obnoxious people I have ever dealt with. BA can't get anything right,
the seats are far too cramped and staff not the good either. Not to
mention their check in service.

On Mar 30, 9:39*pm, Harry wrote:
Be interesting to know what airlines you think are the best you have
travelled on. Why are they the best? And how to international airlines
compare with USA airlines?

In my experience the best international airline I have travelled on is
Air New Zealand with the refitted 747's and 777's. Better food in
economy than I have had on some airlines first class, AVOD in seat
TV's, new leather seats with better recline and comfort and the best
service I have received so far. Also have very very good lounges.

Qantas is also very good for similar reasons.

Bad airlines I have travelled on would have to be American Airlines
(worst) and British Airways. AA doesn't offer meals on long flights,
don't even have individual entertainment systems and the flight
attendants and airport staff have to be some of the rudest and
obnoxious people I have ever dealt with. BA can't get anything right,
the seats are far too cramped and staff not the good either. Not to
mention their check in service.

Best airline I traveled on was Horizon. This is because everyone from
the ticket counter staff to the flight attendants were very friendly
and really acted, as if they enjoyed their jobs. I also was served
free micro-beer and wine on the longer flights.

The worst was Great Lakes, as a few years back they took over the
service of another airline in our market. When doing this they did it
using an aircraft that was slower than those used by the previous
carrier, but did allow more time in their flight schedules for that.
Needless to say I had to run to make our connecting flight in DEN and
just made before they closed the door. Also they did not anticipate
that their nearly full airplanes would be weight restricted, so they
had a fun time juggling the luggage and even had to leave some behind,
so the flight would come in under weight.

Michael

Worst recent experience was a totally avoidable/preventable cockup on
American:

Flying SFO-NYC on first leg of a 3-leg all-AA flight to meet a boat
connection.

Departure from SFO slightly delayed, arrival at JFK similarly delayed
but since continuing leg was at a gate in the same terminal, looked like
we could just make it.

Despite repeated pleading with cabin crew, they absolutely refused to
transmit ahead that we (and several other passengers) were connecting to
the 2nd leg flight, and would be making a last minute arrival.

Also absolutely refused to move us to front of plane, or ask other
passengers to stay seated on arrival, to let connecting passengers off
first.

And, had no airline person waiting in arrival area to help multiple
people with similar problems.

So: On arrival dashed madly to departure gate for connecting flight (5
of us, as I remember; arrived there literally one minute before
scheduled departure time -- could see door being closed as we neared.

Gate personnel at departure gate -- very rude, unhelpful -- absolutely
refused to communicate with plane, or try to get door reopened.

Did eventually book replacement flights -- 12 (!) hours later. Took
some near abusive behavior on our part to get them to issue us passes to
the airline lounge for the wait.

There was a near equivalent screw-up on the way home as well. Delay was
due to equipment failure this time, but their handling of it equally
unhelpful. Dumped us off the plane in Miami airport this time, late
evening, arriving hours late, connection long gone -- no one at arrival
gate to help, left it to us to find the place to get an overnight hotel
room, battle massive lines to get one, then an hour taxi ride to remote
Indian casino hotel, for about 4 hours sleep.

Net result: we missed the boat (though we were able to connect with it a
day later) -- and so did American, twice. We'll certainly penalize them
whenever there's any choice of another airline in the future.

On Mar 31, 5:39*am, Harry wrote:
Be interesting to know what airlines you think are the best you have
travelled on. Why are they the best? And how to international airlines
compare with USA airlines?

In my experience the best international airline I have travelled on is
Air New Zealand with the refitted 747's and 777's. Better food in
economy than I have had on some airlines first class, AVOD in seat
TV's, new leather seats with better recline and comfort and the best
service I have received so far. Also have very very good lounges.

Qantas is also very good for similar reasons.

Bad airlines I have travelled on would have to be American Airlines
(worst) and British Airways. AA doesn't offer meals on long flights,
don't even have individual entertainment systems and the flight
attendants and airport staff have to be some of the rudest and
obnoxious people I have ever dealt with. BA can't get anything right,
the seats are far too cramped and staff not the good either. Not to
mention their check in service.

I liked my flight years ago on LuxAir between London and Luxembourg.
It was simply the only meal I've ever had on an airline including
business class and first class that I would have been glad to buy in a
restaurant, and this was normal cheapo tourist class. The cold plate
was excellent, choice of wine or beer with dinner, an after dinner
drink, and a quick cup of coffee, all this in the about hour flight,
and just after we had completed dinner, the tires touched down on the
runway.

For bad airlines, most airlines are OK until you have a problem, then
you find out who the really bad ones are. Airlines I will not fly
anymore are BA and KLM. And the absolute worst airline staff I've
ever seen was for United Express in Denver. Absolutely no help
(actually obstructive) rescheduling flights in a fogged in situation,
and one of the female employees was the most abusive person I've ever
seen deal with the public. The man in line ahead of me innocently
inquired about his luggage and what was happening with it as he was
boarding a different flight than scheduled, just what I was going to
ask. She blew up, threatened him, and had completely obnoxious
behavior for a simple question. If it had been a man I would have
punched him out if he hadn't, nobody deserves to be treated like he
was. When I landed in Hayden, CO my bag was sitting in the middle of
the floor for who knows how many hours with nobody around. Anybody
could have walked out with it, and I'm sure that I could have
accompanied my bag on that earlier flight if the ground staff in
Denver would have been helpful at all, instead of having no desire to
help at all and ignoring their customers even though they weren't even
busy.

George

On Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:39:20 -0700 (PDT), Harry
wrote:

Be interesting to know what airlines you think are the best you have
travelled on. Why are they the best? And how to international airlines
compare with USA airlines?

In my experience the best international airline I have travelled on is
Air New Zealand with the refitted 747's and 777's. Better food in
economy than I have had on some airlines first class, AVOD in seat
TV's, new leather seats with better recline and comfort and the best
service I have received so far. Also have very very good lounges.

Qantas is also very good for similar reasons.

Bad airlines I have travelled on would have to be American Airlines
(worst) and British Airways. AA doesn't offer meals on long flights,
don't even have individual entertainment systems and the flight
attendants and airport staff have to be some of the rudest and
obnoxious people I have ever dealt with. BA can't get anything right,
the seats are far too cramped and staff not the good either. Not to
mention their check in service.

PANAM in the sixties was VERY good.

irwell wrote:

..


PANAM in the sixties was VERY good.

And expensive (for the 60's)

"Mr. Travel" wrote in message
. ..
irwell wrote:

.


PANAM in the sixties was VERY good.

And expensive (for the 60's)

Maybe that's why it was expensive.

Years ago I flew from Ca. to Hong Kong first class on North West. The
service was outstanding and the food was excellent. Caviar, wine and
cheeses from around the world, filet mignon. Enjoyed the upper lounge on
the 747.

Hi!- That would be Pan Am 747's in the 1970's. They were 'the world's
most experienced airline'. How about breakfast between SFO and LAX in
First Class? And real food & tableware in coach. Also TWA's L-1011's
were great before the Icahn era.

I find the United States airlines in general have good service and staff. By
far the best of those would have to be Alaskan/Frontier. From the check-in
counter to the flight crew to the phone staff (or should that be the other
way round?) are all very well mannered and polite and can't give you enough
service. Their planes are clean, I've never had a delay in over 5 years of
travel with them and they have even supplied me with a free ticket when
being (voluntarily) bumped (when I had more than ample time to BE bumped).
That got me my next years' flight HNL-SEA-PDX return!

I personally can't give them enough praise.

I agree with the above comments, though, that AA are probably among the
worst, if one needs a 'worst'. Delta have their moments too with funny
rules. An example was when I booked Orbitz on them from RIC to LIT via IND
and ATL. Due to rain delays out of RIC, I was re-routed (by Delta staff)
direct to ATL, thereby skipping IND. When I checked at the service desk to
see if I could catch an earlier flight to LIT, seeing as I had bypassed IND,
the reply was "sure, but it'll cost you $500!" Plenty of seats, but booked
at the wrong time and you could be up for big bucks. Needless to say, I took
the obligatory ride up to Indy and back just to keep my cheaper fare! Tall
stories and true.

Qantas until late have been reasonably good, but from what you hear from
others around the traps, seem to be deteriorating over time. The cabin crew
you get could either be great or woeful, depending on the weather it seems.
The food is quite good, equipment is beginning to age somewhat, and when a
Qantas Frequent Flyer now books a flight using their points on a route that
their Low Cost Airline, Jetstar, fly .... guess which airline you end up
on??!!


Hope these comments are useful to some.

cheers.


"Harry" wrote in message
...
Be interesting to know what airlines you think are the best you have
travelled on. Why are they the best? And how to international airlines
compare with USA airlines?

In my experience the best international airline I have travelled on is
Air New Zealand with the refitted 747's and 777's. Better food in
economy than I have had on some airlines first class, AVOD in seat
TV's, new leather seats with better recline and comfort and the best
service I have received so far. Also have very very good lounges.

Qantas is also very good for similar reasons.

Bad airlines I have travelled on would have to be American Airlines
(worst) and British Airways. AA doesn't offer meals on long flights,
don't even have individual entertainment systems and the flight
attendants and airport staff have to be some of the rudest and
obnoxious people I have ever dealt with. BA can't get anything right,
the seats are far too cramped and staff not the good either. Not to
mention their check in service.