Poll: Best and worst airlines/flights?

[ncr]

A different kind of opinion poll: What was your best/worst flight experience ever?

This is of course very subjective. It may be based on just a single flight with that airline, on service / cabin staff, seating, food, whatever. Or, on a long history of travel with that carrier. If you like, you can give a short explanation. Anyway, I just wanted to get an impression and see if certain airlines are highly regarded or especially despised.

No LCCs please, as we cannot compare them to the traditional airlines. Also, let's separate by class, where applicable.

So here we go:

Economy
Worst: Iberia Madrid (MAD) - Miami (MIA)
Best: Cathay Pacific Bangkok (DMK) - Hongkong (HKG) - San Francisco (SFO) and back

The onward connection from Miami to Guatemala City (GUA) was better though, with lots of free seats in the cabin, friendlier staff and those 0.2 l bottles of Spanish wine they handed out. (The food quality is the best about this airline anyway.) The return GUA-SJO-MAD was bad again, plus we were so delayed that we missed the connecting flight to FRA and the airline was not able to provide seats on another of their planes (we were only rescued by Lufthansa the next day); all in all Iberia managed to create a lasting impression of bad service and gross incompetency.

Cathay was perfect in every detail. Couldn't imagine how Economy could be any better than that.

Business
Best: Emirates Dubai (DXB) - Frankfurt (FRA)

I am one of the poor sods who got their fare share of air travel, but are no frequent flyers either and usually don't get out of Economy. My only Business class experience was a lucky upgrade on this leg and I certainly enjoyed it a lot! (Pleasant surprise at the gate: "Sir, you have been upgraded to Business." What? Me?) :D

First Class
hahaha, just joking (or dreaming)

[jpatokal]

Judging airlines by individual flights is kinda iffy, and my best and worst flights are a nice example of why.

Best (well, in economy): Malaysian, FRA-KUL. Plane was a huge 777, around 10% full at best. Cabin crew outnumbered us passengers and came by every few minutes offering towels, snacks, free booze and later on a great dinner. Almost all pax, including me, got a full 4-seat row to stretch out on and sleep. :cool:

Worst: Malaysian, KUL-FRA. Precisely the same flight a few weeks later, only in the opposite direction, and this time it was packed to the gills, including drunken Irish football hooligans returning from the World Cup and several crying babies. My seatmate was a fat Egyptian guy experiencing acute deodorant failure, his gut was spilling over into my seat, and he spent half the flight trying to hit on me. :eek:

Anyway, having spent most of the last three weeks flying around North America, every reader of this based in BKK should thank his lucky stars for being able to fly in Asia. Even most Asian LCCs have far better service than the average American airline...

[The Enforcer!]

Here goes ....

FIRST CLASS
Best: British Airways
Worst: Thai

BA was simply superb, whilst my three FC trips on Thai have been shoddy, lack of service and poor selection of movies.

BUSINESS CLASS
Best: Singapore
Worst: PIA

What can you say about the Singapore Girl! Beats BA by a mile. PIA, however, is appalling - lazy staff, poor food, inadequate entertainment.

ECONOMY CLASS
Best: EVA Air
Worst: Garuda

EVA 'Elite' is great if you want to save pennies, whilst Garuda is better than walking but only just.

The Enforcer!

[dick]

Best: Singapore Airlines (Amsterdam - New York)
Worst: Indian Arlines: Calcutta-Rangi-Patna/Bankipur (Brrrrrr)

Bad experience: In 2002. 'Business Express' Philadelphia- Boston: failure take off at New York Kennedy Airport after distress intermediate landing, almost crash.
Company took very good care afterwards.

[The Enforcer!]

Bad experience

Arh!! People really want to know? You may never fly again!

UNSETTLING
On 8th January 1989 I was landing at Don Muang (as it was then spelt) at 5.40pm on BA9 when we were forced back into the air - Pilot apologised and said bad weather and lack of landing signals were blamed. We circled for well over an hour: our second attempt was also aborted almost as we touched down ... we were sent screaming back into the air.

The Pilot again apologised and announced that we would have to be diverted to Utopia, as he was not allowed a third attempt.

At Utopia, the engines went dead, and we exited slowly down very poor stairs and were lead across the tarmac to (what looked like) Army Barracks.

It was then announced that the crew had exceeded their flying hours so we would have to wait for a replacement crew from BKK. It was now 8am. There was no canteen, no water (except toilet taps) and few toilets.

At 10am, the senior crew went around all passengers asking if anyone had any Thai cash. Apparently they were trying to get food from the Asia Hotel Pattaya but they would only accept cash! I was able to help.

At 11am food and water arrived but it was soon gone, and still no crew. I would also point out that there were no payphones available.

At 6pm a new crew arrived and we boarded and it took 10 minutes to get back the BKK but, of course, people waiting had been given NO INFORMATION AT ALL so most had gone home (I kept in touch with some passengers who said later they had either no hotel pick-up nor friends waiting). Luckily there was a Dusit Car waiting (although not for me!) and it took me to The Dusit Thani.

The next day, BA sent the money I lend them to me direct but no ‘thank-you’ or apology. So much for caring about (business class) passengers!

All in all we spent 10 hours in poor conditions. I complained to BA Board but failed to receive any reply. I never flew BA again until my employee sent me first-class on it in 1997!


FREIGHTENING
On 15th October 1989 was I returning from holiday in BKK on QF1 (business class) when (about 7 hours out) I could not sleep so I opened the Window shade (which were all down) to look out and I saw that the far right engine was aflame. I woke my partner and we pressed the steward button. He said immediately that they were aware of the situation and it was under control. Unfortunately he was overheard and there were, suddenly, lots of window shades being opened and lots of talk.

Suddenly the lights came on and the pilot announced that there was a problem with Engine (no.4?) and that he was now en route for an emergency landing at Bahrain. We were kept informed for an hour and then came into land quite normally. The fire appeared to be out.

At Bahrain, Qantas staff took us to the lounge and took details (who was meeting us, if we can connections etc). After three hours we were transferred to another Qantas aircraft and took off and continued our journey.

Needless to say I flew Qantas from then onward until I moved to Bangkok in 1996, when I started to use Thai.


The Enforcer!

[ncr]

Don Muang (as it was then spelt)555 (ha ha ha) ;) :D :rolleyes:

"Utopia" is also good.....

[GWR]

Anyone one remember the Radio 2 DJ in the UK who always used to talk about Gatport Airwick?

[The Enforcer!]

Anyone one remember the Radio 2 DJ in the UK who always used to talk about Gatport Airwick?
No, but I recall LHR used to be called London Thiefrow Airport.

The Enforcer!

[ncr]

The "Indian Airlines Pilgrim Fauxpas" (http://in.news.yahoo.com/070426/48/6f1w7.html) certainly has to rank high in the annals of managerial inaptitude (or is it inanity?)...... And then the brazenness to ask passengers to "take a cab to Kolkata"!

What a gigantic f***-up and PR disaster.

[ncr]

Best (well, in economy): Malaysian, FRA-KUL. Plane was a huge 777, around 10% full at best.10%...??? How could that happen?

Cabin crew outnumbered us passengers and came by every few minutes offering towels, snacks, free booze and later on a great dinner. Almost all pax, including me, got a full 4-seat row to stretch out on and sleep.Reminds me of my best TG flight to date (SIN-BKK-FRA). Could almost be a tie with the Cathay flight mentioned above. Fantastic experience: Very pleasant, dedicated staff, came around every 5 minutes and virtually drowned us in snacks and drinks (and the plane was full, don't know how thay managed to do that). I mean, asking passengers in Economy after dinner, "Would you like some Whisky, Sir?" is really more than you'd expect. Anyway, good opportunity to test various liquors..... And another advantage on TG intercontinental/long-haul flights are the beautiful dresses of the female FAs. ;) A minus point for TG is (or was at least, back then) always the poor in-flight-entertainment/amenities. But anyway, this was more than made up for by the overwhelming hospitality displayed by the cabin crew.

Sidenote:

Not sure if it was on the same flight, but I once pressed my handheld GPS to the window and actually managed to get a reading somewhere over Kanchanaburi and the Burmese border (indicating a ground speed of ~900 kph and an elevation of several kms)... which is not easy at all, given that the windows are so small and have multiple panes and the GPS antenna has to acquire a signal under a very unfavourable angle (and again, at this high speed). Now, I almost feared someone would think I was using some sort of prohibited electronic gadget that might interfere with the plane's navigation (this was maybe 6 years ago when these devices weren't that well-known yet) and cause me trouble; but then a very smart TG flight attendant who happened to pass by managed to take me by surprise, asking: "Excuse me Sir, is that a GPS?" Bingo. You passed your general education test. :D

TG's domestic operations, on the other hand, were never that impressive. My last domestic flight with TG had been in early 2004 (then Air Asia appeared on the scene...), and I was very disappointed with the food offered, just a dry curry puff or dry, shrink-wrapped sandwich or something. But then I came back from Ubon after Songkran 2007 and was positively surprised. The catering had decidedly improved: a nicely designed meal box with water, multi-fruit juice, two slices of tasty meat pie, salad and a yummy cream tart. The crew also came twice with coffee and tea. No complaints! Some talk of this can be found in this thread (http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?p=14401#post14401): increasing fares, but also offering better services. (BTW, as far as I can tell the "ueang luang" (Royal Orchid, or whatever) name, once intended for a planned new domestic subsidiary (http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=1661), is now apparently used as a brand of products/services for domestic flights. They include it in the flight and cabin announcements, and it was printed on the meal box and even the drinking water container.

Only unsettling thing on that flight..... I dunno, but one of the female flight attendants actually seemed to be a katoey..... :eek: