..competition?! Hmm, you didn't get your afternoon tea as yet did you? Come on, 17 years!!

I'm the same way. If I get seriously bad service from a business, that's it. It's over. If I can help it, it will be at least another 17 years until I fly on BA again.

I ate at an Olive Garden restaurant (a large restaurant chain in the States) once in 1989. I didn't like their lasagna. Despite the fact that my wife once worked there as a waitress, and she really likes the food, my feud continues with Olive Garden to this very day.

Twice last year I flew Air Canada Houston-Toronto-Zürich and back, and was very satisfied with the service both times.

This year flying Houston-Atlanta I picked Delta based on good memories from the distant past, and was not disappointed.

Me too. More space, better service — and I have a nice collection of various Swissair branded (stemless) "wine" glasses, because every time I asked about purchasing some, the attendants would wrap a few up and just give them to me.

despite this SIA is still no1 IMO for service and inflight entertainment/food etc -have taken it so many times when i was a student flying back and forth to UK, and now when i go back to HK/Sing/KL (of course i still think MAS is good as it is my national airline but they stopped the direct route ZH-KL last yr and that knocked some points off)

I like BA (except when they strike) IMO they seem to have more legroom in economy
Swiss has always been fine for me (never delayed) but i've only taken it within europe
Emirates have only taken a few times but i don't like dubai airport - the airline service is comparable to SIA.

..come on, everybody knows that you don't eat at Olive Garden. I generally give a business 2 chances before I won't consider using them again...but 17 years? That is an aweful long time.

On the contrary, I never find the smiles from Singapore Airlines "fake". I always fly them on long haul flights, and usually, would end up having a chat with the stewardesses on the destinations, and they gave really good tips on places to visit, things to do, etc.. On a trip to Vienna, the lead stewardess even offered us a ride on their transport to the Hilton Hotel, as we would be taking a train from there to the city centre.

On my last flight to Zurich, a stewardess offered iced chocolate drinks for my kids without us asking. My kids loved the drinks and said they want the same when we next fly again. During a chat, I told the stewardess who made the delicious drinks that we are relocating here (when she asked how long we are staying in Switzerland); a while later, a couple of the staff came over to wish us all the best and also shared some experiences of their friend who live here.

I didn't know. I didn't even know that they had all you can eat salad and bread sticks because the waitress never bothered to mention that fact. I ordered the lasagna off of the lunch menu. The sauce was watery and it tasted sooo bland, plus it was so small I ate it in 4 normal sized bites. It was probably only 5 or 6 dollars, but I was flat broke at that time of my life and 5 or 6 dollars meant a lot to me. So I left there mad, and hungry.
I have been invited to lunch at Olive Garden at least a dozen times since then, but at this point I think it is pretty safe to say that I would rather bite off my own upper lip than to take another bite of Olive Garden lasagna.

It's just the way I am.

True, true...I mean..that's what Olive Garden does to ya...

Very difficult to beat VA in my opinion as for BA!

I've swung between loving and hating most airlines depending on the last experience. For global consistency, long haul, Cathay wins out for me hands down but I've had some great flights on Air New Zealand. In Europe, Flybaboo or Easyjet in that order.

Quite agree, if anything the smiles you get at Swiss/Lufthansa/BA etc are fake, Singapore Air and others just get it right with a truly customer minded service.

Smiles? Depends how much you're paying. I'll settle for safety, reliability, punctuality, seat comfort, decent grub and inflight entertainment.. probably in that order.
In economy I'd be happy with this.....
In business class I'd settle for this.....
In first class I'd expect nothing less than this......

This is because SQ stewardesses have an extremely high standard to adhere to. 3 complaints against you, and you're out. Any single complaint will also throw any chances of promotion out of the window. If you have a chance, observe the level of service that a stewardess in the green, red, purple or even brown kebayas (SQ's uniform - brown is super rare) compared to the normal blue ones in future. Its another mind blowing experience altogether.

I do like SQ and the only think I can fault them is that they try to be too perfect -

Once in business class, I was given a glass of water. I sipped the water while the stewardess poured my wine, and when she put the glass of wine down, I put the glass of water down next to the wine on the left (or right, can't remember..). She looked terribly bothered by it as if it was the worst thing in the world, and quickly switched the glasses around.

And I agree about them being a bit robotic. After a 12 hour flight sometimes, I can't tell the difference between any of the stewardesses because not a hair is out of place, all have the same deportment and all say "certainly sir" and nothing else. It feels a bit cold.

However, if you are travelling with children, the warmth they show is quite a sight. Perhaps they are "allowed" to be more spontaneous when dealing with kids.

I had a particular Green Kebaya serving me which was weird in the sense that she was almost like a subservient slave. Bending down all the time, eyes looking down... maybe some people like that, but I felt uncomfortable.

I have seen a Brown Kebaya in Changi. It was surreal... almost as if time stood still as she glided across the terminal...

I'd still rather have a smile, fake or not (don't we all use fake smiles every day of our lives?) , than some miserable person completely ignore me or look like I've just made them do something that is totally demeaning and inappropriate for cabin crew.

I also think the food is good as well. There's always Asian and western choices. Then there's the entertainment system which, once again compared to BA/Qantas, was superior. Last BA flight I took from Jo'burg to London (economy, sadly) had 12 channels, not on demand...

I suppose, at the end of the day it depends on the cabin crew and plane. I find the SIA are at least consistent in their approach and there's something about those kebayas that's very alluring!