BA - aka. British Airways.
A long time ago when I started flying they were the best airline to fly with, you were going to get good food, a selection of alcoholic beverages and it would be friendly service and a good flight.
I also have 3 family members who are pilots for them, so I should be heavily biased in their favour.

Having flown with them now for a couple of short haul and 2 long haul flights in the last 8 months I am going to revise my oppinion. I am disappointed.
On a 9 hour flight I was fed twice, and the second time was a horrible sandwich thing, I also had to get water from the tap at the back, they only came around once with drinks (apart from with "meals")
Bad flight I thought, but it happened again on another 9 hour flight. Fed at the start, then wait 7 hours before any more food is handed out.
On short haul I usually don't care about the food, but the other day on a trip up to Scotland I was given a packet containing, raisins, cheesy snacks and some seeds, hardly starters, mains and pudding.
Generally I like BA but I must say their standards in the last 1-2 years have really dropped. (perhaps because of the greedy unions)

I have heard good things about Turkish airlines recently, good food, good service and good planes but I have never flown with them.

What about Swiss, I've only used them short-haul and from Zurich.

Swiss is terrible! Lufthansa is also bad. Both of them have poor cabin interiors and average service. BA is worse than before but still pretty good. Etihad, Emirates, Singapore and Cathay are IMO the best all round.

I like Swiss and KLM
Air France is OK but be prepared to lose luggage or be delayed
American is OK
BA I would not touch

Short-haul, I don't care too much. What I hate is the scrummage for seats on non-allocated airlines and the fact that people who are together site aisle/window. But what they don't like is when I ask for the middle seat.....you know who you are!

It entirely depends on your planned route. Your question is too general. If you're talking about CH originating flights the airlines flying long distance sectors are a given, if you want to fly via LHR or FRA your options increase greatly. What do you have in mind?

I find LX to be the best in Europe, but they are still not a patch on SR back before 2001.

I also don't mind Lufthansa or Swiss but I have never flown long haul, although the pricing on some Swiss flights is ridiculous. Never book 1 way and book as early as you can are my rules for Swiss.

The question is general, I just wanted to hear thoughts on different airlines
I have to fly LOT Polish airlines in a few months, anyone got any experience?

Air France I won't fly on...used them twice lost luggage once and was delayed for 7 hours the other time.

I've been very pleased with Air Canada over the last couple years.

The on-demand tv and movies is fairly extensive, and there's an ac socket to plug in your laptop.

The alcy service was fairly decent too.

It won't be long before they standardize in-flight internet service too.

Jetairways had decent on-demand tv and movies in comparison.
Had to beg the stewardess' numerously for a glass of water when they skipped me.

? Turkish have a pretty darn bad safety-record - would never fly with them.

Malev (Hungarian airline, recently sold to some Russians): in my opinion horrible service, horribly old and unsafe planes (they use a type of propeller plane that SAS have taken out of service because of landing-gear issues) - will never fly with them again.

I tend to group them up:

Asian airlines are the best, such as Singapore, Cathay, Thai, Malaysian.

Middle Eastern are now also very good, with Etihad & Qatar leading right now. I don't like Emirates because it is patchy, i.e., you could be unlucky and get a plane with the old seat configuration. In addition, on their 777s, they squeeze in an extra seat into every row (10 across, instead of the usual 9 across).

In Europe LX is one of the best, but my current favourite is Austrian - fantastic for long haul to Asia.

US airlines... just ok, but flying across the atlantic, there is always a better choice...

Fly on a private plane, you get exactly what you want and more. Or, in First or maybe Business on commercial airlines; service is still somewhat good in those classes of service on all airlines ('cept maybe on short-haul).

I like Delta - the rest has been horrible for me

http://www.airsafe.com/events/regions/europe.htm

Hmm true about Turkish airlines, 10 crashes and the highest accident rate in Europe.

Coming from and going to the States BA was always okay, and they offered a lot of help with our then 4-month-old. Lufthansa from the States seemed more crammed than BA...less leg-room for example. Continental was okay, though my less-than-positive impression could be from the Russian fellow who went nuts on one of my flights.

Ok, I regularly fly to China and will comment on the options between here and Beijing. As they are private trips, I am price sensitive. There are no direct flights between Zurich and Beijing, so I tried out pretty much all alternatives:

Air France (over Paris CDG): Worst flight ever! Never ever again: A really run down 747, from the four toilets, one did not work from the start, two more break down during the flight leaving a booked out economy class with one toilet... "entertainment" was limited to a couple of old, small CRT TVs that were so old, that each showed the movie in a different color, but never with all. The one next to me showed the movie in a nearly monochrome red. I could keep on about the expected friendlyness of French service personell, but I will only say: Just do not try it yourself.

KLM (over Amsterdam): Not recommended. Our first leg (Stuttgart-Amsterdam) was first delayed and finally cancelled. Not for technical reasons, but obviously financial ones. We therefore did not manage to get out flight to China and had to "hope" that we would be allowed to board the next one. The KLM staff in Stuttgart refused to book us on it and was generally extremely unhelpful. Waiting for four hours got us two vouchers for buying food, unfortunately, they were so low that I had to pay extra to get a beer... I know I bought cheap tickets, but I am still a customer. The plane to China we finally got on hours later was a code share with China Southern, so we could just as well book through them, would probably be cheaper.

Air China (over Frankfurt): the default choice we made the last years: Cheap, decent planes, decent food and the best: Knowing that the guy next to you actually bought a Lufthansa ticket and paid easily twice as much as you is priceless.

FinAir (over Helsinki): FinAir seems to have a new strategy and are increasing their offer to all types of destinations in the far East for very competitive prices. We used them this year and it worked very well: The plane was modern and well equipped, transfers worked well. We will fly with them again. (On the way back from Helsinki to here, they screwed up the seating set-up and the flight got delayed to get a technician to come and turn the last business class lines back into economy (from two seats into three), but I guess that is a minor thing...)

BA bad.
London - GVA one hour on the tarmac at Heathrow and no information, I expect the pilot to say something, we lost a wheel, we are waiting for the co-pilot to sober up, the fuel pump is not working and we are waiting for the spare .... SOMETHING but in stead we had the one stweart shouting at the passangers to turn their mobiles off. Considered to write a letter to BA but then who has time? Food was horrible (I do care cos' usually I fly very early or very late so I am hungry). On the flights where BA is flying the new airplanes the seets recline to 100% horisontal even in business class so that is fully appreciated and in that case I don't care about the food.
Qantas = friendly staff and good service but the fleet is getting old at least on the LHR - MEL route, I know that they fly the new A380 LHR - SYD but that is not a route I do
Virgin = good
Flybaboo (from GVA only) = VERY nice, especially for Rome where you would have to fly
Alitalia = Bwahahhaaa what a joke, the only airline I've seen where the flight attendents where reading the newspapers in the back seats during the flight
Swiss = neutral
Other airlines only used occasionally so can't tell

We flew BA to and from Barbados. It was fine, cabin crew were friendly and helpful. Food was so so, but we could go and fetch a drink anytime we wanted.

I ranted in a previous post about flying BA, lack of water during a 12 hour flight etc. Terrible, arrogant airline just like Qantas and I would never choose to fly them unless I was using old points or they were a lot cheaper than the competitor airlines.

I agree with an earlier poster who said Asian airlines were the best. I still rate Singapore airlines the best with Cathay a close second. Thai and Malaysian are OK but I find their planes old and going through Bangkok and KL is not that great although Bangkok is better now with the brand spanking new airport.

I think it has everything to do with the attitude of the staff and I think Asian cabin crew seem to understand that I am a paying customer and I should therefore be treated as one. I've not flown any US airline for many years now but I continually hear how the staff are old, grumpy and overweight and act as if you are doing them a favour by flying with them. Likewise with BA and SAS, although I can still forgive an older Scandinavian woman more easily than a stroppy UK (or these days, Spanish with the Iberian merger) woman.

Recent experiences with South African Airways was not great either but still better than BA. BA = bloody awful, buggered already..blatent arrogance..

I use KLM mostly. Not because I think they're any better than any of the others, and they are damned expensive, but because they practically take me to my door in England. I can leave the airport and be in my favourite pub in under ten minutes.

I would also put a vote in for Finair, have flown to Helsinki with them and apart from the camera in the nose for take off and landing....(omigod where's the runway, where's the runway, we're all gonna DIE HE CAN'T FIND THE RUNWAY...ahhh there it is) they were really good.
Reasonable food, clean, on time and friendly...I can't remember if there was any entertainment.

..and that is cetainly a detrimental criteria when chosing and airline!!

I am flying with them at they end of the week, please tell me more about Delta!