I seem to be one of the few who still likes BA.

Long haul (to China, HK or Taiwan) BA are great. They often have sales to attract non-Brits and encourage people to take a non-direct route. I flew Stuttgart to Beijing last year, via London, for a price cheaper than it would be possible to get just London to Beijing return. As my family are in London this also gives me a free stop-over that I actually want.

I find the service on BA to be excellent. Real people trying to help, not the fake (but pretty) smiles on, say, Singapore Airlines. Service might not be as efficient but it's not robotic either. And they have loads of snacks at the back of the plane for you to help yourself to between meals.

I've flown Singapore Airlines quite a few times. Used to love them. They used to love me (getting enough miles for business class upgrades, and great service) but they've cut back. Very hard for me to get miles or even use what little I have left to upgrade. It's all in the ticket classes and "double miles needed" A380 flights.

I've never risked the Air France / KLM combo to Asia. Treverus has confirmed that my strategy is correct

A few months ago I used Air China from London to HK, with a stop-over in Beijing. It was cheap. And the in-flight entertainment worked. But the service and food was a disappointment. Shame, considering internal flights within China can be so good.

I've used Swiss recently to get from Basel to London. Not much to differentiate them from BA, apart from less friendly check-in staff. Also, I'm odd in that I love LHR T5. So why Swiss and not BA? Swiss have better times.

(All my flights are economy and I pay for them out of my own pocket.)

We flew with them last year from Zurich to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Orlando. The service was great (they came by with drinks every hour or so, everyone was friendly) and the plane was fine. On the way back we got stuck on the tarmac in Orlando because Atlanta was shut down due to bad weather. After about half an hour, the captain declared that from now on all the snacks and all drinks (including alcoholic ones) were free and they started the on-board service even though we were sitting on the runway.
The stewardesses jotted down the passengers' destinations and went to the comm to check whether the collecting flights were late etc. - I was massively surprised at how well they took care of us.

Peter

I'm planning on going back to Canada in the summer. So I've looked at airline conglomeration sites like expedia and kayak for tickets. So far, the cheapest tickets seem to be from BA. But as I have never taken BA before and from reading the posts above I might consider another airline as I don't want to be stuck on a crappy 12 hour flight from London to Calgary.

I've taken Air canada a few times for trans-atlantic flights and I find them quite alright but the prices their offering this time are considerably higher than BA. Does anyone have any suggestions on what other airlines are adequate for trans-atlantic flights?

Thanks a lot, I am flying on my own with my toddler. I am pretty stressed and on top of that, I am scared of hell to fly (even if I fly 20 times/year). It is totally insane how I am stressed...

I only fly Europe but there I fly _a lot_. I fly Swiss and Lufthansa whenever I can and avoid anything else like the plage.

Swiss has more legroom and free snacks and drinks in Y. I don't mind paying, I mind the hassle with the coins.

Alitalia was a somewhat pleasant surprise but I think part of it was because the plane was half empty. If you know you're flying a route that is often full, better stick to Swiss in my experience.

AirEuropa was also pretty good the few times I've tried them.

Iberia, SAS, Spanair are all more or less in the same league and not to the same standard as Swiss or Lufthansa. My main complaint with these is the total lack of motivated staff.

My main complaint about Swiss would be the delays that are a bit too frequent for my taste. Iberia is better on this e.g.

If you're talking about service and the flight experience overall the general rule of thumb / pecking order is:

SE Asia (and some ME) > rest Asia > Central/N Europe > Rest Europe > N America > Almost everything else.

Oh and Everything else > Ryanair

My personal preferences (again service/flight experience) are Swiss/Lufty in Europe or transatlantic (haven't tried Delta for years, nor Finnair), Singapore/Malaysian to Asia.

The first rule of flying is never, ever to change aircraft in the UK (particularly Heathrow) which rules out much BA and I've anyway also heard rather a lot of bad stories about their service recently....

Delta are the standard "get you across the pond in one piece" airline. Nothing flashy, very workmanlike, their business class is very average, seating non-spectacular. Older cabin personnel, friendly but of course, American manners and catering for an American target audience. On the plus side, I've always found them reliable, punctual and interchanging in Atlanta or Cincinnati is better than at other hubs like Chicago, NY or DC. Pretty standard Boeing 767 equipment although certain destinations like SPL (Amsterdam) now use the inherited equipment from Northwest, so you may have an Airbus A.330 especially if you're headed for MSP.

yikes, good to know - I'll be going to MN next summer :-/

I'm doing Zurich-Atlanta-Fort Myers

Treverus,
If you get a good deal on Austrian next time you are going to Beijing, you should try it. I was very pleasantly surprised. The 767s are quite old, but service is good, transit in Vienna is quick. The all red flight crew uniform needs getting used to but the young ladies are quite charming.

I agree Finnair is one of the best options to Beijing as well. SAS is another option but service is so-so.

I haven't found much difference between Lufthansa, Swiss, KLM, SAS or Finnair, all ok, nothing special. If possible, I prefer Asian airlines as well, best service.
Personally I have never had any problems with BA or London airports, guess I've been lucky, so will try again.
As for Air France, we were flying out from Basel recently and while the check-in guy told me that it was not possible to check in for the connecting flight and I would have to do it in the next airport, as we discovered later, he did in fact check in my (French) fiance for the same flight that was impossible in my case. Interesting.

As for American ones, while business class (United) is excellent, in economy you really felt like cattle. I have never met so rude check-in staff in my life - probably as they don't get tipped. And at least this one particular person dealing with me last time was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. First, when I asked where Swiss customer service counter was, she went "Swiss? Oh you mean Scandinavian Airlines!"
Um, no, Switzerland is still not just a different name for Sweden..

Then she proceeded with check-in and opened my passport where I had a Russian visa (the visa does not have my photo anywhere and yes it does say VISA in big letters). My protests that "um..sorry...this is not.." were silenced with the internationally recognized gesture "Talk to the hand". So she types a little and says - where is your visa?
Me - what visa? I don't need a visa for Switzerland.
She - Yes you do, it says here that Russian citizens..
Me - I'm not a Russian citizen. That was not the right page you opened. And not only am I an EU citizen, here is my 5-year permit for Switzerland
She - (mumble mumble stupid mumble passports) well, if you didn't have the permit, you could only stay 90 days!!

Well, at least she got the last word.

United, Ted (slogan a part of United), Delta and American.
I would rather fly in a cement mixer, piloted by a drug addict and I have flown with Aeroflot in Sowiet times.
Seems that todays American airlines are run by Chicago gangsters, the stewies are not much better then prison wardens but with out the morals and compassion.
After the last time I flew with Delta I made a mental note to fly with Vinny three fingers catapult service in future.

We used Delta last year for Zurich-Atlanta-Phoenix and found them pretty good. Just don't expect in flight entertainment on the transatlantic portion (at least in economy) - they have ancient overhead TVs in the long haul 767s so bring your own personal DVD player/netbook/other gizmo to keep yourself entertained - or maybe the toddler will take care of that for you!

The flight crew were the oldest I've ever seen but were charming southern ladies who served us efficiently.

We chose Delta because we were able to secure exit row seating (for the legroom) at time of booking. Another plus of the 767 (which is used for Atlanta with NY being served by a 757) is the 'couples' seating on either side of the central seats. Far nicer to sit next to your significant other without a third wheel in the way (such as you typically get in economy on a 747/777).

For the domestic US flight we had full seatback entertainment.

All in we were pleasantly suprised and found it a more comfortable experience than BA transatlantic. Note to those who like to imbibe only the first alcoholic drink is free, after that something like $6 or 7 a pop.

Hey aeroflot was not bad at all back then, I still remember some excellent grilled chicken that was served (well that was indeed the only dish ever served, but still)

Lufthansa: flights more or less OK, although they won't communicate properly if something goes wrong. The usual chains of people/information not going to the end... the plane is faulty, since 12 just say it dumbs, so people waiting for the flight knows!
Also dont even try to fax their customer service, number won't work. they also reply like 3 months after a complaim, even when they denied your rights. Crooks. **** customer service.


BRitish Airways, relatively expensive, average.

Lot: its very similar to lufthansa, member of start alliance, and lots of flights are actually run by the two "companies".
Was nice, I never had to complain to their customer service so far, so I dont know...

Etc..
I flew easyjet, bmi, ryanair, etc....

The best was FLyglobespan (RIP), very good prices, very good services.
Unfortunately they got bankrupt...


As for the rest (nice singapore airlines, etc...) are more expansive, so that should explain the nice services

I would have thought that you might have forgotten about this incident by now

I just realised that my favourite airlines are all based in Asia and Middle East. Really sad to see that none of the European carriers are on there.

- Singapore Airlines (SQ)
- Emirates
- JAL
- Cathay

I've flown BA from London to Boston a couple of times but nothing negative that I could remember about them but nothing spectacular either, compared to the horror stories on this thread. Cant comment much for Swiss Air, KLM or Air France as I've only done short flights with them.

Did a flight on United Airlines from Singapore to Hong Kong once and the seat on the plane was broken. Go figure.

Qantas (sorry Aussies) is sh!t. On a flight from Singapore to Perth, I broke my heel as I was boarding the plane. Asked the stewardess if she had any slippers on board and she huffily said "no, as you can see, we are not on a night flight" and then proceeded to laugh (yes laugh) when I showed her my broken heel, which was why I was asking for slippers. Had to hobble all the way through immigration and luggage before I could hit the shops to find a pair of cheap flip flops. Other times on Qantas, I found their service and attitude to be extremely poor as well. Never again - I rather do transits in future than take Qantas.

For long haul flights, the comfort on SQ and Emirates (especially on Business Class) are second to none. Their economy seats arent too bad either, especially on the newer planes. I personally cant wait for SQ to launch their A380 services at the end of this month, and try it when I get back home! Not being patriotic, but I try to fly SQ for long haul whenever possible.

used to fly with BA a lot when I was in US and headquarters of the company I worked for was near London. All business class flying, achieved high status etc etc...job ended, stopped flying like in 2006 had couple of 100k miles with them at one point...I had 90k or so miles left and they removed them recently...no reason, no warning - just gone...have not had a chance and the energy to call and bitch about it but it is not acceptable. Other airlines send you an automatic note reminding you to fly or loose the miles but not BA...
chances are I will not fly with them again. Unless they nicely give me all my miles back.

I've only flown with Swiss twice (Zürich - Berlin Tegel), and I really enjoyed it. It'd been a long time since I'd flown with an airline that still give you free stuff (juice, croissants / muffins, and tiny toblerones).

Normally I only fly between Zürich and Gatwick (so easyJet all the way for me- Gatwick is very handy for me as when I'm in England, I go to Brighton), or Zürich to Dublin (Aer Lingus- not so handy because I live 100miles from Dublin airport, but only way to get any closer to home for me is to fly from Geneva.. not so handy when I live in St Gallen).

I will however be flying Swiss again as I found the service to be pretty good, and their times are better than, say, Aer Lingus (when flying to Dublin), and when I booked, the prices compared pretty favourably.

It is definitely not fair to brag about a trip to Florida when it's freezing out there.



My last trips on Delta were great, I used to fly with them a lot when I lived in the States, and I have flown them a few times from ZRH to JFH and ATL. Decent equipment, good service, very attentive, ok food, free drinks (IIRC).

I hope you have a good trip. www.seatguru.com is your friend.