Worst & Best Airlines

The worst flight I've had is with Northwest (Northworst) Airlines from LA to Minneapolis. Crowded flight, surly staff and an inedible meal.

I haven't flown with too many different airlines. Canadian, Singapore, Qantas, Delta, TWA, AA, NW, BA and Air NZ are the only ones I can think of and only QF, CP and SQ for long haul. I'm happy with the service provided by Qantas and will continue to choose them, although I am going to try BA's World Traveller Plus next trip to Europe.

I just remembered that I have also flown DJ once and that was enough. In my opinion they are a McCafferty's bus with wings.

 

For the quality of the service food and comfort I would say that Emirates is the best, perhaps followed by Singapore or Cathay.

The worst is a lot harder. Having spent a couple of years in Eastern Europe I have a lot to draw from, but for sheer poor service and inedible food you can't beat the Russians. A flight from St Petersburg to Kyiv on Pulkovo Airlines was by far the worst.

Notable runners up here are Aeroflot, Ukraine International Airlines, Malev (Hungarian) and Turkish Airlines.

 

Had the pleasure of flying Cathay from Sydney to Osaka in Business, two weeks ago. Their product (in my humble opinion) puts QF's product to shame. (I have flown QF J to Frankfurt return, LAX return, and from HK to Sydney, in the past 9 months - none in the Skybeds)

The Business seats are very comfortable, and recline to around 20 degrees. Sleeping and sitting in them was very comfortable; I had a great sleep back to Sydney. At 180 cm tall, I found I had a few spare centimetres on the bed, so presume that someone, say, 185 cm tall might not be able to lie completely flat on the chairs.

The food service was good, probably much the same as QF's food service. There's a small mini-bar area which is stocked with small bowls of warmed cashews, rice crackers etc, which was nice. Flying out of SYD in the morning, breakfast was served promptly, but the second meal was not served until around 15:30 Sydney time, by which time I was getting peckish (despite numerous helpings of snacks).

I thought the staff were excellent on all four sectors flown. Friendly, attentive, and certainly not offhand in any way. Overall, I found the staff delightful.

The IFE was fine: multi-channel on-demand, reasonable rather than great selection of movies. Games weren't as good as SQ. Loved the information that is broadcast just before arrival in CLK, informing passengers of gate of arrival, and gates for connecting CX flights.

The downside? Not a lot of downside, to be honest. Scored a lot fewer points than an equivalent trip in QF, but that's about it. Not sure about ease of using QF FF points to snag a CX Business seat, but would seriously think about doing so if this were possible

 

Depends on the class I'm flying

Best:
First - Qantas or Cathay (Haven't done Singapore yet)
Business - Cathay (love the entertainment on demand)
Economy - BA

As 60%+ of my flying is with Qantas I can say I've had some truly dreadful flights with them- bad food, surley staff, older rundown aircraft but have had some wonderful times to - an attendant doing magic tricks from LA - New York was great fun.

Worst:
Garuda - was 20 odd years ago and flying internally also with a dishonerable mention is my one and only flight on United Tokyo- Hong Kong

 

Best flight I ever had was a Cathay Perth to Hong Kong service with only 70 or so passengers on the flight. Hard to fault the service on that. In any case I generally find Cathay quite good.

In more normally poulated flights a SYD-LAX flight on QF was good (aside from running out of meals with meat in them!!)

As for worst flights, its tough, zI really have never had a flight that was really bad. However, I have had a QF and a TG flight the seemed way below the norm for the two airlines. (for various reasons I missed out on flying China airlines once, but reports from those that did travel that sector on that airline suggests that it would have won hands down in this departtment had I flown them!!)

 

I wonder which airline was carrying Jon Voight (as Mr. Phelps in the first MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie), when he lit up a cigarette, and blew smoke past his seat... to cover the video tape self - destruct smoke?

When was that movie made? About the late 1990s?

How many airlines still allowed smoking at that time? Even in first / business?

Just a little side trivia.....

 

I think Garuda airlines allowed this. My friend who is a smoker took the HKG-BKK flight and was not happy with all the smoke everywhere. This would have been in mid 90s.

Regards
Daniel

 

Best - CX on the Asian routes. Far better than QF on the SYD-BKK / HKG route

Worst - Canada 3000 MAN-YVR (Manchester, UK - Vancouver)

They actually ran out of food on the plane and when asked by a passenger where her meal was (that she'd paid for in the price of the ticket), she got told rather curtly that "we ran out of meals before we got to you" - being at the back of the plane.

 

What a great idea for a topic - I should look at this forum more often!

How about most obscure airline too? Mine is Air Tanzania from Kampala to Dar es Salaam about 15 years ago. Nothing wrong with the flight - had to take it as the Lake Victoria ferry I was going to use sank the day before I was to leave! :shock: (all safe) This was the first time I had to walk out to my bag on the tarmac and say "that one's mine" before it was loaded. Also the whole front half of the plane opened up sort of like something out of The Thunderbirds. They filled that with freight and the passengers only occupied about 10 rows at the back.

Oh yes the list!
Best
Singapore (J)
JAL (J)
large gap
Qantas (J)

Qantas (Y)
Gulf (Y)
Malaysian (Y)
gap
British (Y)
Lufthansa (Y)

Worst
Egypt Air (Y)
United (J) (staff go out of their way to be as unhelpful as possible)
American (domestic Y) (cattle class defined)
Olympic (Y) (ancient plane thru a thunderstorm - big scare)
Iberian (Y)
No absolute shockers just the general thing of occasional run-down aircraft, surly overworked staff or incredibly obnoxious passengers who should have been pulled into line but no one would do anything (BA!!!) Can't say I enjoy Virgin here much - sardine can planes and the 'playful' (read: annoying) staff with not even crappy meals to relieve the boredom.

 

singapore Econnomy

Very good !!! From Aus-Asia and Asia - Europe

Very helpfull,
Snacks every half hour or less, (cake, kitkat, etc)
FA was happy to get my OJ whenever i wanted (was premium stuff, not some concentrate stuff)
I was also fealing abit cold and hungry during the night flight,
The FA brough me SOUP!!!!!! as well as a plate of chocolate and some biscuits !!!
also meals were very good


Thai Air ecconomy -
AUS-> NZ
morning flight
Breakfast was brilliant for airline food, and i was offered and given a 2nd meal

as well as that pastty was also served as desert, they musht have had tones of this as at least every passenger was given 2 and they were still asking if people would like more



Air NZ - USA-> Aus
service was happy and fun - overall mediocure due to no personal screens and limited activities
food - medium



Bad - United within america
4 peanuts and 1 coke on a 4 hour flight


Bad (not my experience)
Luftansa ASIA->germany

plane was full of germans who had been doing their shopping in asia,
4 or 5 peices of carryone luggage per person was brought on

my mate was sitting in row 3 and he didn't find any storage room for his 1 bag till row 17.

Then during the flight the FA tried to put excess bags under his feet !!!

 

I have the good fortune to be old enough to have been flying for 30 years.In the early 80's I flew CAAC from Beijing to Xian.First there was the well organised Beijing airport- waiting at the gate where our flight number was displayed wondering where our aicraft was and why there did not appear to be any other passengers on the flight when finally approached by an english speaking woman asking which flight we were waiting for to be told that the plane was waiting for us and that annoucements had been made in chinese for the last 10 minutes!
Finally on the plane and I only had one half of a seatbelt and as the crew spoke no english it was rather difficult to explain why I wasnt going to do up my seatbelt.
Then came take off when the back of my seat fell into the lap of the person sitting behind.He was in a red army uniform and obviously had had way too much garlic for breakfast.
2 hours later as we had missed out on breakfast and it was past lunchtime went looking for an attendant to find out if there was a meal service.Pulled back the curtain of the galley to find all the cabin staff sitting on the floor around an OPEN fire roasting chestnuts!
Thinking back this flight was so bad it was great. :roll:

 

Was it Christmas? Did they have Bing Crosby playing in the background?

 

air india back in the day wins my vote for worst airline

cathay definately the best

 

For a special worst airline nomination for Virgin Blue read my post "I'll never fly Virgin again!" :evil: :x :twisted:

 

Best airlines- There is no doubt that singapore and cathay pacific is my best pick for first/business class. Service was great .

Japan airlinfor economy Japan airlines/cathay singapore. i believe Garuda for a budget airline is great.

worst in first class never had any bad experiences.

business class I must say British airways is pretty ordinary, There was nothing spectacular about them. apart from the biggers seats and the entertainment system.

economy- I say qantas. for an international standard this had the worst meals. let alone it is hard to get a smile out of the cabin crew. as a passenger to me they have got some kind of attitude problems.

I remember once a bottle of Johny walker fell on top of a passenger head next to me from the overhead locker. this was just after take off. Blood was pouring over his head. I shouted to the flight attendant. They would not come as the seat belt light is still on. I am sure in this emergency you can help out as how often do i see qantas cabin crew get their personal luggage when we are taxing to the terminal.

 

Qantas in economy class don't really make it into my brilliant books on the SE Asia to Aus runs, because after several hours the toilets look like a bomb has hit them.

No pun intended.

But, I did have a really nice check-in from MEL-ADL on Tuesday....

First up, the security droids. "I'm sorry sir, you've set the alarm off (on the metal detector).

"I know" replies me (I suppose it's my fault, because of the amount of metal I had on me)

I proceed to take off/out my tie clip, pen, business card case, Tag Heuer, etc. and walk back through. Go through, no problems.

QuickCheck (also known colloquially as SlowCheck to QF Ground Staff, although I am not at liberty to say who) was a breeze. Had carry-on only, and within 30 seconds was confirmed on the flight.

The plane is leaving, and odd - what's this ? They're asking for all OW Emerald, Plats and Gold to come forward ?! (priority boarding) on a DOM flight ?! :?

Nobody listens and everyone storms forward. The right hand ticket reader isn't working. Chuckle from icemann.

uh oh. Shouldn't have done that. The QF FA's face was :evil: "Is there something wrong, Sir ?"

"No ! " replies me

(like off the 3 advert where he says "Nothing, Darling")

 

World's best: Top 10 airlines named:

This list was posted to the AFF forum recently, though I can't find it. So here is another link:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/02/pf/goodlife/best_airlines/index.htm

Can't say I agree with the rankings. For example, I'm surprised that Qantas came in at number 2 while ANA ranks 10. Maybe I need to reconsider my fierce aversion to Q?