What's your favourite Airline?
 

Personaly its Qantas for me. Besides being an aussie and that being my national airline there saftey is outstanding and there service is great.

And now there opening up to Chile (from sydney) so there expanding and growing which is good to see. Though i was dissapointed to see them drop out of Paris and other major places in past years.

What are your thoughts and who do you prefer?

BA long haul none of this silly GB or Ba Connnect stuff, oh n if the manager is reading Ryanair

Lee

Normally, SIA:ok:

But I just had a stunningly good ride to Atlanta with LUFTHANSA:D

I've always lliked Grace L. Ferguson Airlines (& Storm Door Company) ....

:sad:...Ansett...:sad:

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Eastern Airlines. :{:{:{:{:{:{

The American one that went on strike in 89!!

They deserve it so out goes my neck, XL. :)

When flying Business Class.......
 

i. Singapore Airlines
ii. Qantas
iii. KLM

Singapore, Malaysian and Etihad

SQ, CX, KA and any airline that ever says 'Mr. LT do you mind being upgraded?'. Actually I like those airlines that say that the best and I recommend them to all my friends.
Being upgraded is a bit like getting a BJ off a fit bird when you aren't expecting it - nice.
OK it's not exactly the same but it's pleasurable and in that sense therefore it is the same.
Looking at it another way upgrades last longer so they must be better. Some upgrades can last for like 13 hours or so - I'm not sure a 13 hour BJ would be something I could stand - I'd try though - I'm like that - one of lifes triers.

Over the years, people have told me that they won't fly their national carrier. When I worked in Saudi, I preferred flying Saudia to BA! My wife likes BA but not Thai, I like Thai and not BA. Could it be because we see other airlines and cultures as slightly more 'exotic'?
We normally fly BKK-MAN so
China - not very impressed BKK-AMS/ KLM AMS-MAN
Emirates - OK but Mrs Hippo did not like the 8 hour connection time.
Ethihad - Definitely fly them again
Gulf (when we worked in Oman) Thanks but no thanks

EasyJet (domestic routes) Where's the car hire desk?

Yes, the beer is rather gruesome, but to be fair, they don't ship it from Australia- it's brewed in Europe with European water and just their monicker on it. Trouble is it's just as bad down there!

Unfortunately it's a national characteristic of the most competetive sporting national culture there is. If an Aussie has a white piece of paper in his hand, he will say to you 'mine is whiter than yours!'. A Brit would scribble doodles on it. I don't know why it is like that, but it is. So any sporting wins are of undue importance, and sporting losses are a cause of national mourning. A bit immature, but that is how it is. So when the airline bent one at Bangkok that was not an economic repair, they just had to fix it and fly it once to prove that 'they had never lost an aeroplane', so immature people could keep rubbing it into everybodies faces as if it showed they were the best.

Sport down there is not nice- they rub it into your face constantly, the drinking associated with it leads to incredible vandalism and rowdiness. All in all, I prefer our attitude where win or lose (and we seem to do more than our share of that), the playing is the thing (except for soccer), and who cares if England lose again? Did you note the challenge that England may have won against the Aussies, but they won't win the tournament? Why not- they did 4 years ago? Remind me- I can't remember for the life of me who England beat in the final then?

The Qantas safety record only applies to jets though, doesn't it? They've had a number of hull losses of propeller-based aircraft.

I believe Aer Lingus and Finnair have the same record, but perhaps sensibly don't boast too heavily about it.

As for airlines, Cathay is probably the best I've been on, but I haven't flown widely outside Europe. BA is great in Club, but can be a bit of a pain in pleb class on short-haul. Worst experience has to be Transavia, which would have made me long for Ryanair.

El Al - because the world can learn alot about security and screening from the professionals.

EL AL? EL AL? Surely, Sir, you are pulling our collective legs here? I've had the distinct displeasure of flying EL AL to and from TLV once. That one time will also be the last.

By far some of the worst service I have ever experienced onboard a full service carrier, delivered by very rude stewardesses and pontificated by a cabin full of screaming children with parents not seemingly giving a toss. Add to that conversations so loud the engines could barely be heard and, as the final insult, a crappy Boeing 737 to get us to and from.

As for the security, yes, it's fine in TLV. Especially when you've got a security pre-clearance and is being escorted by the operations manager of a handling agent. Took a grand total of 21 minutes from entry into departures until safely past the last (4th?) security check.

On the outbound trip, however, I was grilled by some over-ambitious Mossad drop-out for more than an hour. Eventually lost my cool and told him could stuff himself, his airline and his country - I had had it. Was saved last second by some manager type, who just happend to know the very senior IAI bod I was meeting with.

Best airline? Doesn't exist I'm afraid. LH has been good, and awful. Same with BA. All US carriers are consisitenly crap, so that's easy. KL have been very good, and less good. GF was fantastic in F, and borderline crap in C. SK - very nice intercontinenal in C, crap in any class for intra-Europe flights. SQ? Nice, but I fail to see what all the fuss is about - they're not that different from most other quality carriers. EK was ok, and nothing more. And so on and so forth. I'm quitely confident QF would score equally poor and bad, depending on the day.

I've never flown QF, and until such time as continenal drift moves that desolate continent closer to my home shores, or the airline industry abolishes it's no-smoking policy (whichever comes first, I'm not bovvered) I'm afraid that Australia shall remain the sole continent on this here planet I shall not visit.

'I've always lliked Grace L. Ferguson Airlines (& Storm Door Company) ....'

Particularly to Hawaii.:ok:

:hmm:
Just a trifle surprised that there has been no mention of this recently defunct airline and its associated magazine.
http://www.hootersmagazine.com/
The company used to operate 737s until fairly recently. Although the in flight service was not quite as throbbingly thrilling as some might have hoped for, the promise of post flight assignations more than made up for the absence of airborne activity.
The world's best airline will, of course, be the one that provides first class luxury services throughout, from departure address to arrival co-ordinates, The aircraft itself, apart from the usual accoutrements, will have no telephone capabilities, will not serve beer and will not show sports channels as part of its in flight entertainment. It will generally attempt to keep the riff - raff, moneyed or otherwise from travelling and hence at bay. This prohibition would extend especially to those whose habit it is to call others, 'mate' and whose grammatical and syntactical confabulations would cause even a masturbating marsupial to squeeze shut its eyes in pain.;

Favourite Airlines

UK domestic:BMI

USA Domestic: JetBlue and Alaskan

International: Virgin Atlantic

International: Air NewZealand



For long haul travel, Air New Zealand are exceptional. In economy more legroom than most. The premium economy is better than most, and they have the same flat beds as Virgin in club/business/upper.

I like JetBlue because of the legroom in economy, and the staff are usually pretty good.

Alaskan have never failed to provide exceptionally good cabin staff.

Virgin Atlantic is not as good as it used to be, but across the atlantic they are probably better than BA. I previously favoured premium economy on Virgin over BA, but sadly the new prem seats have really reduced the legroom, so BA might win on that score. Sad to say, the last time I flew prem econ with BA, the cabin crew out and back just couldn't give a sh*t, and pulled faces every time a pax happened to ask for something unusual. You get good crews and bad crews, but BA over the last year and a half have really gone downhill.

That's just my opinion.

I find myself largely in agreement with 10secondsurvey, with the caveat that I've never flown with JetBlue. That having been said, my decision process in selecting a flight is:
1. Is there a direct flight?
2. Which airport is used (e.g. always prefer Linate for Milan)
3. COST!
4. Service frequency - if I miss this one can I easily get another.
4. Airline preference (i.e. personal or anecdotal experience with reliability, punctuality and service standards).
There might be a 0. Safety, but this is only relevant in the third world (and even then it's very hard to make an informed choice).

So preference for my favourite airline(s) rarely plays a part in this process.

Domestic - Europe: VO -Tyrolean (though they fly under the brand name Austrian Arrows now :sad: :{ )

International: EK - Emirates (though the seat pitch in economy can be pretty bad the service is usually really good)

Come on boys and girls, am I the only one who remembers BOAC? They are still the best I've flown on. Having reminisced over that my current favourite is Asiana Airlines. I've just done a return to Sydney and back and I rate them the best in the sky in economy. Plenty of legroom, excellent food, excellent service, and the aircraft were clean. Yes I mean clean, all four aircraft I travelled on were clean. The loos were clean, de-odourised, and yes, clean! They were constantly being cleaned by the cabin crew throughout each of the four sectors there and back. The only time I've ever seen that was travelling first on Thai. The standard of service beats SQ, TG, and all other carriers I've ever travelled on. They will get my business again.

For me:

UK Domestic (full fare): BA from LGW or LCY
Domestic (lo-cost): Virgin Blue. In the UK, easyJet.
European: KLM
International: Malaysian
Puddle-jumpers: Aurigny

BA at their best are the best in any category - but at their worst they are awful. The Houston-Detroit leg of a LHR flight particularly sticks in my mind :rolleyes:

13Alpha

QANTAS anyday of the week

air india... anyone?

domestic : kingfisher/jet

international : lufthansa/air india...

I think whoever said there's no such thing as a best airline have got it right, but we all have preferences

USA Domestic: Alaska (not Alaskan - pet peeve) and Horizon (wines and microbrews still complimentary!)
European: SAS
Asian: Cathay Pacific and Singapore

Back on topic.........

UK Domestic Full fare : BMI
UK Domestic LoCo: EasyJet

European Full Fare : LuftHansa
European LoCo : Ryanair

Transatlantic Scheduled : Delta
Transatlantic LoCo / Charter : FlyGlobespan

US Domestic : Delta Connection
Canadian Domestic : AC Jazz

Long Haul Far East : Singapore Airlines


Donkey

Spain domestic: Spanair
Canada domestic : AC Jazz
Germany domestic: Lufthansa
Europe:
Lufthansa Eco
Air Berlin (they've done some good work on their service within the last years
Longhaul:
Air Canada First Executive
Lufthansa Business (We've tried their Longhaul Eco back from YVR last winter and never felt so uncomfortable - in service means - before. If that's their way to convince people to pay the extra penny for business - it worked just fine. ;-)

Ryanair, of course !

In Business Class..............Etihad :D - best business class seats I have ever had. Then Singapore Air and Cathay Pacific about level pegging - will NEVER get on another Emirates flight again - rubbish :=

Favourite locos:

USA : JetBlue
Europe : Air Berlin

Legacy carrier Long Haul: No favourites because I tend to fly KLM because they're convenient and I'm an FF with them. They have cheaper C Class fares for advanced bookings and I find the service and comfort acceptable for that price.

Having said that, I always find these kind of threads very subjective. It could only be of any significance if we all flew on every carrier in the world!

Cathay Experience
 

I just flew Cathay SYD - LHR - SYD.

The only sector that was anywhere near acccpetable was SYD - HKG with the new business seating. The remainder of sectors were flow with old seat barely acceptable for premium economy. Most of us fly business to be able to work when we get to the other end so spending a night (well 24 hours LHR - SYD) in the 'Z' seats is very counter productive.

I wouldn't mind if I knew what I was in for but Cathay advertise flat beds so to pay the same fare as BA and QF and more than Emirates is very disappointing.

To rub salt into the wound, the inflight entertainment system broke down on two of the sectors and the airline didn't even bother to provide ANR headsets.

I am sure there are reasonable explanations but at the end of the day it was an expensive way to learn not to fly CX until they have fixed their seating.

I have to say... QANTAS!
After going on 9 flights in the space of three weeks with QF I have to say them as they were ace... and seemingly more leg room than most.
Also I was lucky enough (and charming enough...) to get to go in the cockpit to chat to the four pilots at singapore... (made my whole trip that did!)

On the UK side of things would have to be Virgin Atlantic although I feel the service has slipped a lot in the last few years of flying with them.:ok:

Excalibur Airways!!!

1) BA for me long haul is best.
2) Monarch
3) Cyprus Airways

Worst (got plenty of those!)

Thomsonfly (ackkkk)
Easy (are okayyyyyyyyy)
Ryanair (crap)

Dont like any of em much if its bumpy even Concorde in its day i would have hated !!

oh i forgot 2 more crappy ones....

Air France
Iberia

... been on my first Ryanair flights in December, never thought I would go that "lowco". To be honest: will not be my favourite - but for a low cost I found it quite ok. And I was quite impressed by there C/C concerns for safety as I had a lady beside me who only spoke german, and the C/C was very attentive and concerned if she had understood the safety proceedures. Against my odds, I felt quite comfortable on my 2 Ryanair flights so far - maybe because of only about 60 people aboard on each flight ;-)

On longhaul, I'm going to try another longhaul charter extreme: Air Transat Club from FRA to YYC and back from YVR to MUC this summer - I'll be sure posting my opinion here ... watch for it in August ;-)

You should be OK with Transat. I've done a few transatlantic crossings with them in the past & they're pretty good. Apart from a couple of rabidly Quebecois cabin crew you shouldn't have any problems. Service is normally on a par with legacy carrier standard.

Virgin Atlantic number one! BA second :)