Favorite Airlines

[greg775]

I was flying from Dallas to KC this week and really on a tight schedule (yeah, like it matters to the airlines you need to be someplace when the weather is nice). The dreaded words, "We are going back to the gate for a mechanical problem; I don't know if it will be fixed or we'll need to get another plane" were uttered by the pilot on the intercom.

It was American Airlines. We ended up thankfully only being an hour delayed. Plane was full of course. Rebooking would have been a nightmare had the plane been grounded for a winter A/C problem. WTF?

It's also a nice touch (NOT) on AA that if you pay 30 bucks you can get a seat in the cabin that is not so cramped. How bout making all seats not so cramped to uh, respect the customer??

 

My question to you is ... are there any airlines you like/love? And do you think the airlines should be ashamed of themselves that with the country's inhabitants getting bigger (fatter) every year, these seats are as cramped as they are?? I don't know how many times I've had some fat f*** basically push me (in aisle seat) almost out into the aisle cause the guy can't fit in his cramped seat.

 

I do give Southwest Airlines passing grades on overall experience (complaints would be 40 minute connection times are begging you to miss your connection and cramped new planes) and can't give any other airline a passing grade.

Any horror stories/comments on the airline industry?

Edited February 22, 2014 by greg775

[Reddy]

Jetblue is my fav, but United is my primary airline and they're better than most everyone else in my experience.

 

Don't like the sit wherever you want thing with Southwest and they're pretty bare bones other than their pleasant demeanor.

[Balta1701]

I'm still annoyed at US Airways for the fact that they literally stopped taking phone calls during the snowstorm last week. I understand if your phone lines are swamped and people have to go on hold for hours, I understand your flights are going to be canceled because of the weather, but at least stick me on hold.

[cabiness42]

1 Southwest

2 Southwest

3 Southwest

[greg775]

Jetblue is my fav, but United is my primary airline and they're better than most everyone else in my experience.

 

Don't like the sit wherever you want thing with Southwest and they're pretty bare bones other than their pleasant demeanor.

 

Is United so good that travel can be considered pleasant or fun? It just seems to me, the bare bones issues like making your connection, getting to your destination close to on time, not being crunched into oblivion on the actual planes have made flying quite annoying to me. I pay the extra money on Southwest to get in the top 30 of the first boarding group which alleviates some of the SW angst, but its planes are also very cramped.

Maybe you are flying first class on United. I just wonder why you like them.

 

I was eavesdropping on some guy talking after we got sent back to the gate and he said he had over 100 hours worth of delays in flying this past month mainly on AA, some weather related, though.

Edited February 22, 2014 by greg775

[justBLAZE]

Is United so good that travel can be considered pleasant or fun? It just seems to me, the bare bones issues like making your connection, getting to your destination close to on time, not being crunched into oblivion on the actual planes have made flying quite annoying to me. I pay the extra money on Southwest to get in the top 30 of the first boarding group which alleviates some of the SW angst, but its planes are also very cramped.

Maybe you are flying first class on United. I just wonder why you like them.

 

I was eavesdropping on some guy talking after we got sent back to the gate and he said he had over 100 hours worth of delays in flying this past month mainly on AA, some weather related, though.

 

It has been a brutal winter for most of the airlines.

[RockRaines]

American is my least favorite and I travel for a living. Avoid it like the plague.

[StrangeSox]

1 Southwest

2 Southwest

3 Southwest

 

[StrangeSox]

It has been a brutal winter for most of the airlines.

Yeah, my mom is a customer service rep for southwest. Every single week, there's been some sort of weather screwing everything up. Lots of mandatory overtime. I had to call southwest last week, and their regular line was just a busy signal and their a-list preferred line was a 45 minute wait.

[cabiness42]

Oh, since most of you live in/near Chicago, you may never have had the experience of having to make a connection at O'Hare. I avoid it at all costs. You can have a plane arrive at one terminal and have your connecting flight leave 15 minutes later from another.

[Brian]

1 Southwest

2 Southwest

3 Southwest

 

This. Easy to go with them from Milwaukee to Phoenix.

 

Delta the worst by far. Always late. Old flight attendants.

[LittleHurt05]

My question to you is ... are there any airlines you like/love? And do you think the airlines should be ashamed of themselves that with the country's inhabitants getting bigger (fatter) every year, these seats are as cramped as they are?? I don't know how many times I've had some fat f*** basically push me (in aisle seat) almost out into the aisle cause the guy can't fit in his cramped seat.?

 

Why should the airlines feel ashamed because America is getting fat? Would you expect the White Sox to make larger seats and decrease seating capacity because their fanbase can't stop gaining weight?

 

I live too close to O'Hare to even try Southwest, not worth the commute. I always fly American, it goes everywhere I need to and that's where I get miles from my credit card. They have treated me well, no major issues. There is the occasional delay or cancellation, but that goes with the territory given Chicago's weather. I also always fly nonstop when possible.

 

By all accounts though, Asian airlines are about 1000x better than any airlines in America.

 

 

[Buehrle>Wood]

Southwest.

 

 

You don't know hell until you fly Spirit from Vegas hungover.

Edited February 23, 2014 by Buehrle>Wood

[Reddy]

DELTA - Dont Ever Leave The Airport

 

 

But seriously AA, Delta and US Air are my top three LEAST favorite airlines. Ugh.

[greg775]

American is my least favorite and I travel for a living. Avoid it like the plague.

I did not enjoy my AA experience. I was reading their materials and they are plugging the "New American Airlines" for whatever that is worth.

 

Why should the airlines feel ashamed because America is getting fat? Would you expect the White Sox to make larger seats and decrease seating capacity because their fanbase can't stop gaining weight?

 

I live too close to O'Hare to even try Southwest, not worth the commute. I always fly American, it goes everywhere I need to and that's where I get miles from my credit card. They have treated me well, no major issues. There is the occasional delay or cancellation, but that goes with the territory given Chicago's weather. I also always fly nonstop when possible.

 

By all accounts though, Asian airlines are about 1000x better than any airlines in America.

It just seems to me the airlines don't care, simply do not care that you or your business is paying 300, 400, 500 dollars for flights in the U.S. We are customers and I shouldn't have to have some fat f*** pushing me into the aisle. This has happened OFTEN this winter. They have a responsibility to have people fit in their f***ing seats. Oh wait ... no they don't. If you pay for the luxury of first class you don't have to deal with this. I guess that's their out. I just about asked some asshole if he wanted to make out with me since he was all over me on some recent flight. People can't fit in the seats.

 

DELTA - Dont Ever Leave The Airport

 

 

But seriously AA, Delta and US Air are my top three LEAST favorite airlines. Ugh.

 

Sounds about right.

Edited February 23, 2014 by greg775

[greg775]

American is my least favorite and I travel for a living. Avoid it like the plague.

 

Rock, how do you like flying? The general experience? I would assume your seats are all upgraded since you fly for a living. Do you give a thumbs up to the airlines or not? Are you horrified by the thought of being in the regular cabin vs. first class?

[Balta1701]

I did not enjoy my AA experience. I was reading their materials and they are plugging the "New American Airlines" for whatever that is worth.

They've been purchased/bought out by US Airways.

[greg775]

They've been purchased/bought out by US Airways.

 

I didn't know US Airways was doing that well to buy out AA. Will the hub change?

[hogan873]

I didn't know US Airways was doing that well to buy out AA. Will the hub change?

It was actually a merger, and the new company is American Airlines. They're two main hubs are Dallas/Fort Worth and Charlotte.

[hogan873]

Southwest is by far my favorite airline. I don't travel a lot - maybe a couple times a year. But, I almost always use Southwest. I've never had a problem. I flew US Airways a couple times a few years ago, and I didn't have any complaints. But, they're more expensive. United is my least favorite airline. I've had plenty of problems with them in regards to delays, cancellations, and piss poor customer service.

[NorthSideSox72]

Unfortunately, the most pleasant experiences are often on niche airlines that don't fly many places - JetBlue is good, I like Frontier a lot as well. AirTran was good, but are being eaten up by Southwest slowly.

 

As far as major airlines, none of the big 3 (AA/US, UAL/CONT, DELTA/NW) are particularly good. I'm 6'3" and leg room matters a lot, so I avoid Delta at all costs, as they consistently have the least leg room. Plus Delta is the one of the big 3 that doesn't hub in Chicago. AA is usually my slight preference over United because I find AA's customer service better when something does go wrong... But, United offers Economy Plus for a little extra, and I take that every time so I'm not so cramped and could, in theory, actually use my laptop.

 

Southwest is a unique animal, and we use it regularly when we fly with your young kids. With little ones you always get, at worst, boarding between groups A and B, so you'll get to pick a row... they don't charge for checked bags, and when flying with little kids, you have a lot of stuff... and when we plop down in a row or two with kids, people almost never take the remaining seat next to us, LOL. And they have far and away the best customer service of any larger carrier.

 

I used to have a job where I travelled every week. Greg, are you saying that AA now has an Economy-Plus type deal, where you can pitch in $30 or so and get more leg room? If so, that's fantastic. I haven't flown much in the past year or two.

 

[NorthSideSox72]

Also Greg, I'll throw this out there... best non-airline website for flying information - SeatGuru.com. Without a doubt. You can find the specific plane found for your flight, and see a map of the plane, with info on every seat. It tells you which might have more or less width or leg room, which are exit rows, which have power ports, which might not have tray tables, which are louder, everything you can think of. Then you can select the right seat. Highly recommended.

 

[SnB]

I went through a bit of an airline free-agent experience this past spring, where I traveled the 4 major airlines in the same month for my business trips. American, Delta and United all seemed to be the exact same experience, while Southwest was very different.

 

The seating process just beats everyone else by a mile. You don't have the herd of people all trying to board in one group.

 

Southwest wins, but if I don't want to travel through Midway - it doesn't really matter.

[RockRaines]

Rock, how do you like flying? The general experience? I would assume your seats are all upgraded since you fly for a living. Do you give a thumbs up to the airlines or not? Are you horrified by the thought of being in the regular cabin vs. first class?

I have been flying for work for a good portion of 10 years with peaks and valleys. Some years over 200k miles and some less than 100k. The funny part is I actually have a decent fear of flying, well at least taking off.

 

Most of the last few years I've flown almost exclusively Southwest. The reason being because Midway was easier to get to, cheaper to park at and was always easier for me to get through security and the airport in general. SWA has a great program called A-list or A-list preferred that allows you to skip the line and always be in A regardless if you check in or not. I also tend to upgrade to business select which guarantees me one of the fist 16 seats on the plane. Most "business" flights to where I go have the same people every day so you actually make some pretty funny friends that are going to the same companies you are. My minneapolis flights were my favorite since their airport is AWESOME and it was always out of the same gate at the same time.

 

If I have to fly another airline I usually choose United since I still have their credit card and some status from years ago. If I am going to denver I like Frontier because of where their gates are located. I almost never fly first class for work since I like to save upgrades for personal travel. Nothing is better than taking your wife on vacation and plopping down in first class where you both can relax.

 

The funny thing about business travel in general is that its not as great as people think. When I was in my early 20's and single it was great to get away and buy an expensive dinner, but living in hotels starts to get old, spending your days in airports tends to wear you down and you just get sick of the thing overall. These days I try my best to take day trips if I am flying less than 3 hours each way. I'd rather leave my house at 5am and get back at 8 or 9 pm then staying in a hotel overnight.

 

As for the height things, I'm 6'1" about 195 lbs. SWA is perfectly fine for me but If I am on United I am doing economy plus every single time.

Edited February 24, 2014 by RockRaines

[Jenksismyhero]

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