Off Topic Discussion: What is your Favorite Airline?

It is a discount Canadian service which has fantastic prices, customer service, and clean flights. All airlines should follow its business model.

Virgin doesn’t fly to/from KC so no experience there for me. I had a very nice experience with Frontier the time I flew with them. Great service.

I’ve never had any problems with American and United. I was almost stranded by a weather cancellation in Detroit once but a United ticket agent performed some magic and got me on a Northwest flight to get home in time. Unfortunately American and United keep cutting their flights out of Kansas City, leaving this market to the suckage of Delta and USAir.

No bag fees, you can sit wherever you want and their fares are often cheaper. Plus, I have a more secure feeling w them because their planes are all the same type so their mechanics dont have to deal w different types of planes so the maintenance should be better. And their employees are generally friendlier.

Singapore Airlines is a solid 2nd.

After that Thai, Emirates, Virgin

I’m out of STL and American has less and less direct flights over the past 2-4 years so I went from almost only flying American to other carriers. In STL we have 2 terminal…one is the main terminal that has all the major airlines besides Southwest and the other is dedicated to Southwest. These days I almost always fly Southwest or Delta though I prefer Southwest. Here is the breakdown:

Southwest:
- They have no regional jets so every jet is a 737…I’m not a huge fan of regional jets as you seem so crapped, tight and the overhead bins are much smaller. Here is the breakdown that makes me want to fly Southwest as much as possible.

- Southwest has no bag fees and everyone else does…these days I almost always have 1 checked bag so looking at overall cost you have to account for that $25 each way extra on other airlines.

- In STL the security lines are typically shorter and much less walking from security to your gate on Southwest because they have a dedicated terminal…aka - you don’t have to get to the airport as early.

- Baggage claim in STL main terminal is BRUTAL. From parking at the gate to bags coming out of baggage claim in the main terminal is usually 25-45 mins…I have never been to any other airport where it is this bad…its amazingly brutal and when all you want to do is go home it pisses you off. In the Southwest terminal baggage claim is much faster.

- A few negatives for Southwest is less food options in their terminal compared to main. They don’t fly to ATL where my sister and one of my best friends lives and I fly there at least twice a year (though in Feb they will FINALLY start flying to ATL…so this will go away soon - YAY!). For some the concept of not being able to get an assigned seat is an issue…every since Southwest went to the line assignment concept this has been very sufficient for me as I usually travel with either myself or my wife…so no big family to worry about sitting together.

So there ya have it…I prefer Southwest and its really not even that close.

very cheap.

The staff were polite and charming (the accents helped, and the fact they kept calling my wife things like “love”… yes, I know it was not necessarily sincere, it was still nice). We managed to upgrade our seats somehow on the flight to Italy to something better than coach but not first class or anything. Nice amount of space, great service, option to watch something or other on monitors with complimentary headphones. Lots of offers for tea or coffee. Food wasn’t even bad at all.

The return flight was almost as good just in seats that weren’t quite as nice.

The other runner-up is one of the airlines that flies mostly in the Northwest (can’t remember which at the moment). It was either Northwest, Frontier, or Alaska I think. It was during some holiday season and they were offering either a free beer or free wine. I took the beer, and it was a very nice seasonal craft beer of some sort. I want to say a winter/Christmas ale from someone in Washington or Oregon. That was a nice little surprise.

Don’t touch the bunny.

is relatively inexpensive, and therefor the one I fly the most. I don’t get to chose, since I’m usually flying for work. But Southwest does OK.

Since we’re on the topic, the best airline food I’ve ever eaten: Lufthansa. No contest.

Wish they ran out of my hometown more than once a day, and wish they were faster than driving, but the overall experience is far more pleasant than the cattle-herding that is modern air travel.

Anyway, count another for the “Anything but USAir” faction — unfortunately I’m from Pittsburgh so they control a lot of the flight in and out of my hometown, but after last Thanksgiving I’m pretty sure I will never fly them again. After a missed connection that was entirely their fault (two-hour delay on the first flight, the connection left the plane while we were on the between-terminal shuttle), they booked my pregnant wife and my two-year-old three rows apart for a plane four hours later and put me on standby for it. I did make it onto the plane, and the person who was booked next to Lil Zane agreed to switch with my wife (well, no one wants to be next to an unattended two-year-old), but that is not something that should be handled ad hoc. To add insult to injury, they informed us that they no longer give out meal vouchers for delays. And their mode of operation seems to be to lie to your face to keep you quiet until you realize how badly they’re treating you. (That was my experience in this fiasco, which the linked article severely understates; the check-in line at DFW that day took about three hours.) Delta treated us much better on the return trip; when we had to move out of an exit row, they seated us all together, and I noticed that our connection was actually held up a few minutes while they waited for a couple folks to catch the plane.

Anyway, for my favorite airline I was going to say Midwest, if only because I moved out of its service area in 2005 before I remember things really going to heck. But it seems to have merged with Frontier. So my favorite airline is convincing my family to visit us.

Just flew Air France overseas in October/November for the first time, and I couldn’t rave about them more. Within the US, it has to be Jet Blue for me. Thankfully, flying out of Newark/JFK/LaGuardia makes it easier to choose most. I haven’t been subjected to Southwest’s cattle call yet, which I hear is horrific.

The Free direct TV does it for me, along with the free snacks, great customer service, and letting me fly direct into Long Beach so I could avoid LAX.

I also really like United, not only becuase they seem to fly everywhere that I need to go, but I have had good luck wth their CS. When my flight from SFO to IAD got canceled, and I was stuck in SFO for 6+ hours, they gave everyone in my group a $400 travel voucher because they couldnt get us on a flight to BWI that we werent supposed to be on anyway. I also love the economy plus seating, great for tall people like me.

Southwest the no bag fees is nice, but they dont really fly anywhere out of DCA/IAD, and I have no interest in going out of BWI.

Delta and American I have only flow once. Just the starard experience, Although I like the headrest on American, and the free food on Delta.

U.S. the one time I flew them I got the b!tchy flight attendant going to Hunstville. Myabe the destination was why he was in a bad mood, but still after your plane has been delayed for a few hours, not what you want to put up with.

I have never flow Virgin, or any international airlines
One airline I really liked, but no longer seems to fly anywhere is Spirit, they where really cheap.