American/Continental/Delta/Northwest/United???

[BRUpax]

How many of you have crossed the atlantic with all or most of these carriers, and in your opinion which provides the best service in ECONOMY as well as in BUSINESS? I'm only looking for input relating specifically to these five carriers.

[TikkiRo]

Hi
I flew with Delta to Portland OR 2 years ago, but have to say although I thoroughly enjoyed the flight in a pretty new B-777, I wouldn't take the airline again - why? I am quite heavily disabled and require specialised equipment, one item being a flotation mattress which is electrically operated, that I have to then take with me whereever I go. Well, despite being told in Belfast that my cases were checked through to Portland, (as was my colleague flying with me from Gatwick!), we had to race (or rather be raced as we were both in wheelchairs) to baggage control at both stops before Portland. But the ultimate was that Delta managed to lose one of my cases between Gatwick and Cinncinati and the other between there and Portland! So I duly arrived without ANY luggage, but more importantly was left stuck without my mattress, as I can't sleep on ordinary ones - causes EXTREME pain, and I'm in plenty of that to start with. So needless to say I wasn't amused. You can probably appreciate that it's a long journey - roughly 10-12 hours travelling all in, and with the time zone change, I was SO exhausted I fell asleep despite the amount of pain I was in. Fair enough, I got my luggage duly delivered to the hotel about 8 hours later, but I'd already suffered excessively and the rest of my stay was heavily affected by my having flared up much earlier than normal. So, unless you're not worrying about that aspect too much, I have no other complaints about them as carriers. The service on board was excellent, but it was really the plane that made it not the crew.
Oh yes - your other point - this was an economy flight.

[This message has been edited by TikkiRo (edited 16 August 2000).]

[OO-AOG]

American: good (Y/C)
Continental: very good (Y)
Delta: good (Y/C)
United: bad (Y)
Northwest: scrap (Y)

Northwest is simply an airline to avoid.
Dirty old planes, bad service, unfriendly staff, unpleasant hub in MSP. United is boring. Continental is excellent indeed, unfortunately they don't have any Airbuses.
Curious to hear whereabouts of USAirways, never flew transatlantic with them.

I just flew Alitalia from BRU to LAX via MXP, I was surprised of the good service received. Does someone else had a good experience with them on long haul or I was just simply lucky?.

[Mode Charlie]

The only one I haven't flown with is AA. The rest have all been in economy.

NW - definitely bottom of my list. Have to agree with OO-AOG's comments here.
UA - just slightly higher than NW, but not a lot. Had lots of problems with seat allocation on trip LHR-HNL. Inflight service not particularly wonderful.
DL - overrall not too bad.
CO - excellent.

[ExSimGuy]

Flew (Y class) on AA LON-BOS a year ago and it was good; seating okay, food & service good, can't comment about the rest as I had been awake for RUH-BAH-LHR and fell asleep right after the meal and slept until finals!

OO-AOG, I too wondered about US being missed (or is the assumption that they will soon be United!) Flew PHL-LON last year and good service. Flew LGW-PHL a couple of weeks ago in Club ("Envoy") on one of the Scare-buses and it was excellent - up to first class standard of acommodation and service from most other airlines :)

Oh yes, and the ticket desk/check in staff at LGW had a hell of a weekend with all 4 flights to US each day fully booked (a little over-zealous "overselling"?) and a group of 16 who missed an earlier conection and had to be fitted in - but they were excellent and handled it with a smile to even awkward pax ;) ;)

------------------
Ah, the VC-10, Wasn't she lovely!


[This message has been edited by ExSimGuy (edited 17 August 2000).]

[The Sleeping Pax]

I had to think about this one. I have flown with American, Continental and Northwest, all economy and my impression is just that. I've flown with them. Nothing special about them at all. Very ordinary.