Who do you prefer for flying and why?

[renegade_987]

In the last 10 years I have been on around 20 or 30 different flights with about every carrier in the business. I have ALSO found that with different flights comes with different experiances. So my question is, who are your, lets say top 3 companies that you like flying and why? Mine would be:

1. Mesa Airlines (Express service of US Airways and United Airlines) I don't usually fly express planes but when I do I prefer them. I used to live in Phoenix which is a hub of theirs and I was always able to get nonstop flights to Iowa, so they wern't bad.

2. United Airlines- Hands down probably my favorite. Great service on the flight, and everyone was very polite and fast.

3. Northwest- Before they merged with Delta I liked flying them, but my last flight on NW in 2009 seemed to be a lower standred of service. The employees of the company were nice enough, but the service just seemed not to be as good,.

 

[xBa380]

1.) Southwest Airlines - By far the friendliest staff and I really dig the boarding procedure of the flights, although I know many hate it. Nothing but great experiences with them and prefer them anytime we fly. Especially with the two free bags. The flight attendants singing, joking, etc... Their awesome facebook contests which won us a trip to their headquarters for the amazing Halloween event, etc... The list goes on. By far our favorite airline for many reasons.

2.) Continental/United - Although nothing 'special' in terms of service, always had positive experiences with them.

3.) Airtran Airways


We usually fly 2-3 times a year, US only. I have probably been on 40 flights or so by now, so I don't have THAT much flying experience, but with the experience I have, those are my ratings!

 

[Nick R]

1. Southwest Airlines
2. Continental/United

 

[volk06]

1. Frontier
2. Continental/United
3. Southwest

Frontier is usually the cheapest out of Des Moines and have had nothing but great service and good flights.

For longer/bigger trips I perfer continential. I've had a few international flights and have never lost anything. I've also had good service.

Southwest is good but they don't have a terminal in DSM but that should be changing soon.

Ive had a few bad experiences with American to where I wont use them again.

 

[Astro14]

1. United
2. Delta

Full disclosure; I fly for United Airlines, but, I have over 800,000 miles of flying on UAL as a paying passenger (not employee), earned over the last 10 years of traveling to the Middle East, Europe and Japan, while on Active Duty and for personal travel. As I near 1,000,000 mile status, I view United as does any other passenger with that kind of travel experience, I know the product, warts and all...

United treats me very well (again, as a customer, not an employee: the Contintal reservations agents have been condescending and unhelpful if they find out I am an employee.) United offers reliable service, less reliable since the Continental merger, but still as good as any carrier out there. The product: economy plus - extra legroom, lie-flat business class seats with 16" personal video, extensive wine list and decent food in business/first, etc., is among the very best in the industry.

I have over 50,000 miles on Delta, and a similar number on Southwest, USAir, and Jet Blue. The product is not as good (no economy plus on any of them..and at my height, I really need that extra legroom), and the discounters don't go where I need to go: overseas, or to Burlington, Vermont, to visit family. Further, Southwest is not always the cheapest...it pays to shop around.

And I have shopped around and flown them all for personal and business travel. I am careful with my $$.

If it's a short flight up to Vermont, well, OK, a few chips and a diet coke are enough..but on a 14 hour grind to Japan or Bahrain - decent food, nice glass of wine and the ability to lay flat are enormously important...and United has the best product, and the best loyalty program among the carriers that fly where I need to go.

It's also important to remember that all airlines have operational challenges: weather, maintenance, etc. It's how they handle perturbations in their system, blizzards, etc. that distinguishes airlines' performance. If it's possible to happen: cancellations, delays, diversions, it's happened to me, and if you fly long enough, it will happen to you. That's just the nature of the business.

It's also my experience that the folks who get the most upset with those unexpected events are the noobs. 1,000,000 mile flyers have seen it all before...and they know that getting upset with gate agents (who have no authority to change things) or flight crews (who have made a decision based on safety) only makes you look like a jerk, and the person with whom you're dealing less inclined to help you...

 

[hattaresguy]

British Air, or Lufthansa, first class. Way better than anything in this country.

In the states Southwest or Jet blue.

Ahh the civilized world.

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
British Air, or Lufthansa, first class. Way better than anything in this country.

In the states Southwest or Jet blue.


no...not really...I've flown Lufthansa 1st class and B-Class and BA on several occasions...they're not as nice as: Emirates, Virgin or United.

United's first class "pod" seats lie completely flat, have built-in noise canceling headsets, 16" LCD monitors with over 100 video programs, customizable playlists, 115V plugs for charging, and very good food and wine.

Luthansa's economy seating is a 30" seat pitch, tighter than the 31" inch on most US airlines and way tighter than the 36" economy plus on UAL. Even my wife, who is 5'7", hates flying Lufthansa because the A-340 is so cramped...

Now, in their defense, Lufthansa has been incredible in getting me to a connecting flight and making my bags connect: I once connected in Frankfurt from Dulles to Bahrain in less than 20 minutes because Lufthansa had a person, and a car, waiting to take me directly from my arrival gate to the plane waiting on the ramp on the other side of the airport..and my bags made it!

Lufthansa is still the best operating airline out there...

edit: just saw your picture, Hatterasguy... That looks familiar: 777? Same size as a United 1st seat...but, the monitor is small, and you have to have the stupid power adapter...no straight 115V outlet...so, yeah it's good, but...

 

[BubbaFL]

Domestic - Southwest

International - British Airways


P.S. Lufthansa sucks. I can't stand that airline. Still haven't forgiven them for the time the flight I was on ran outta gas in Siberia.... and their [censored] uncomfortable planes.

 

[MNgopher]

1. Sun Country - the only "hometown" airline left. Bend over backwards to thank you for your business. Had one weather issue several years ago that Sun Country went way above and beyond to accomodate holiday season travelers.

2. Frontier - not as good as they once were, but still enjoyable to fly.

3. Delta - gets me to pretty much wherever I need to go, when I need to go. Price is high, but that comes with being somewhat captive at a hub. The non-stop service is a plus. Still miss the Redtails of Northwest (always made me feel like home whereever I was).

4. United/Continental - Had nothing but positive experiences with either one. Tend not use (Continental was not convenient) and United was nearly always higher priced.

 

[ctrcbob]

Southwest for domestic flights.

Air Canada (from Toronto) for flights to France.

Air France to France.

Delta/Alitalia just once for family business to Sicily. Had no problems with either. Matter of fact, the Delta portion was outstanding.

 

[UNC017]

1) Southwest. GREAT service, don't nickel-and-dime you with baggage fees, and ever since they went to assigning line position based on check-in time they're as easy to fly as anyone else. I always hated the old days when you'd get a bunch of people lined up an hour before a flight so you had to stand in line. Now you can sit until the last second and keep your place.

2) American. Fallen greatly from their glory days, but still my favorite traditional airline, mainly because of their routes and the fact that they use D/FW as a hub instead of some awful airport like Atlanta.

3) Continental/United. Never liked United much, but always got decent service from Continental. Their routes just don't match my needs nearly as well as American, but IMO they're a better overall airline. Houston Intergalactic is also a sucky hub compared to D/FW, just because of the painful layout of the airport.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Just flew Southwest for the first time a month ago and have to say it's pretty good for basic air transportation. For a legacy airline I like Delta. Having Atlanta just above us helps with connections I guess.

For international travel (to Asia) I prefer the major Asian carriers. I only get to fly coach, and the service on Asian carriers are a step above American ones imo. We flew American from DFW to NRT a few years ago and it was not necessarily terrible, but the cabin crew were probably way beyond their prime for servicing a 13 hour flight. You can tell they've been in the business too long from the attitude that they had. And the food was barely edible. Good thing about American was the seat was wider.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
British Air, or Lufthansa, first class. Way better than anything in this country.

In the states Southwest or Jet blue.

Ahh the civilized world.


I had a setup like that on a recent US Airways flight. Seat folded flat, gave me NC headset, very comfortable. Woke up in Europe very refreshed.



I typically fly US Airways because of convenience. It used to be that I liked American super 80 aircraft because some of them had a smidge more legroom than other airlines.


US Air, American and Delta are what I fly most. Ive had good experiences with United when all goes well, but their customer service sucks, and they claim that the US Virgin Islands is not part of the USA.

 

[D189379]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2


Ive had good experiences with United when all goes well, but their customer service sucks, and they claim that the US Virgin Islands is not part of the USA.


Doesn't that just mean you get to bring extra bags along? Lol.

 

[JHZR2]

No, there is no bag concession like there would be flying to Europe, but there IS a 10% of the ticket purchase price (as costed that day, at check-in, not your purchase price) for lap children who do not need to have a seat.

Our cousins just went through this.

And Ive had customer service issues with them at other times, like when they had equipment failure at 10PM at night, and didnt want to put me up in a hotel, though it was at their fault and they were oblgated to do so.

 

[Jarlaxle]

None. I will hitch hike before I will ever fly on a commercial airliner!

 

[PandaBear]

Personal favorite out of the tiny few that I've been on:

Iberia for service quality
Singapore for their food
Southwest for the efficiency and price

Personal hate:

Continental (now United) for their inflexible policy for changing flights
America for their old planes
Most of the Chinese domestic airline for their inefficiency and poor training

p.s. It should be "one meter" line, not one "rice flour noodle"

 

[JHZR2]

LOL, translation fail!

 

[renegade_987]

Originally Posted By: volk06
1. Frontier
2. Continental/United
3. Southwest

Frontier is usually the cheapest out of Des Moines and have had nothing but great service and good flights.

For longer/bigger trips I perfer continential. I've had a few international flights and have never lost anything. I've also had good service.

Southwest is good but they don't have a terminal in DSM but that should be changing soon.

Ive had a few bad experiences with American to where I wont use them again.


Ya, they should be starting service in Des Moines on September 30th, according to AirTran, who they bought

 

[fdcg27]

There aren't very many nonstops to places other than airline hubs from either CVG or DAY anymore, so flying on CRJ or ERJ equipment to a hub is the norm for us, except for Airtran from DAY and we'll have to see what Southwest does to Airtran.
Anyway, Airtran from DAY was very good a few years ago, with good schedules, good connections at ATL and service to a pretty broad area. Was not so good when booking for last winter.
So, we booked Delta outbound and USAir coming back.
The outbound Delta flight was actually an MD80, although we were stuck way in the back, where we could really hear those engines howl, while we were then not so far in the back of a 757 from ATL to our destination. Not bad.
USAir provides for cheap, nonrefundable first class, which means that it is sometimes cheaper to book this than a seat in the back, especially if you have a lot of baggage both to check and to carry on, since there is no then no charge for baggage, and there is ample bin space up front for items carried on.
This made the trip back very pleasant, although we were stuck in the back of an aging CRJ for the leg from PHL to DAY.
Preferences right now?
1. Delta
2. USAir
3. Airtran
4. How about a new entrant for either DAY or CVG?
Both airports have loads of unused gate space.