I find that U.S. Airlines sensor movies more than the British Airlines, BA and Virgin Atlantic. I was on a BA flight and in a movie, the guys had to tie a rope to their privates and trust that there was enough rope for the brick to hit the ground. The brick went down a man hole.

I saw the same movie on the Continental flight and said to the stranger next to me, this part is really funny, unfortunately, they cut it out.

<i>You're in the minority, based on awards and ratings from millions of other airline travellers</i>

I don't mind being in the minority. I fly a lot (15-20 long-haul segments per year + 20-30 short-haul segments per year) and don't find a clear European/American divide on quality. There are good and bad carriers and good and bad planes, and I think that level of distinction is much more meaningful than the European vs American distinction.

I mean, exactly how is BA or AF a better experience in coach than Northwest across the Atlantic? In what way are KLM or Iberia not as bad or worse than AA or Continental?

Even in business class, BA and Virgin are probably better than the US carriers, but SAS, Lufthansa, and Air France are just ordinary. KLM might be worse than all but US Air. And if you find yourself on a Swiss A330, you will regret spending the money.

<i>One gives you free booze the other one doesn't. End of story.</i>

How much do people actually drink on a plane? I can (and do) really tie it on from time to time, and I just don't get the obsession with free (lousy) wine and well-quality booze.

Just to be clear, Northwest provides free booze for trans-Atlantic flights. And Delta gives you wine/booze with your meal.

On many Asian airlines--notably JAL and S'pore Air--flight attendents are sometimes referred to as &quot;air hostesses&quot; and they seem to kneel down to your eye level. It's a matter of personal taste, but I think it is more suited for a cocktail lounge hostesses.

JAL B-class is extremely generous with champagne. Allegedly FAs are allowed to take home already opened bottles.

P.S. mobile/cell phone is commonly called &quot;handy&quot; in Germany.

<i>On many Asian airlines--notably JAL and S'pore Air--flight attendents are sometimes referred to as &quot;air hostesses&quot; and they seem to kneel down to your eye level. It's a matter of personal taste, but I think it is more suited for a cocktail lounge hostesses.</i>

Singapore, at least, also has requirements about weight, age, marital status, and (one would assume) beauty. Kind of creepy to think about, even if the end product is quite good. However, I do get a robotic feeling on some of the Asian carriers, which is nice in that you know what is coming, but also limits the upside. Certainly, the best and the worst service I have had has been on Western carriers.

&lt;&lt;How much do people actually drink on a plane? &gt;&gt;

Plenty. Depends how long's the flight.

<i>I never seem to have an empty water glass when flying on SIA either, regardless of class.</i>

Melnq8, how does that compare to your recent trip on UA from SIN to the U.S. ? Or did you take SQ on the trans-pac flights?

I looked in my bookmarks for the Skytraxx site and it wasn't there, which means I didn't value it enough to put it there. I was somewhat surprised because I'm not that selective about who I bookmark, and I recalled someone, possibly Geordie, pushing the site in earlier postings, frequently, I think, which indicates he either values it, or works there. I any event, I revisited the site to see if I could find why I had not valued it earlier.

It apparently is a site that has airlines and airports as clients, and issues evaluations of airlines and airports. They do have forums for people to post, but those postings are not related to the star ratings assigned by the site, which are based on data that is available only to their clients. Since I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, I was curious how their star ratings related to their list of clients; i.e, can an airline that would warrant a 3 star rating improve to a 4 star rating by becoming a client? Since the data is not available, I decided that their evaluations lacked some degree of credibility. I know that some people mistrust sites that accept advertising, but I think I prefer to trust a site, such as a publisher of guidebooks, that accepts advertising (but where the bookbuyers are the clients), more than I would trust a site where the airlines are the clients, and no data on how the ratings are assigned is available to me.

So skytrax still isn't on my bookmark list, and I won't be relying on their ratings. I could be wrong, of course; I've been wrong before, but I've also been right on occasion.

I don't really pay attention to the ratings, but i do like to read the reviews from pasengers. So in that respect i find the site useful.

Turkish Airlines &amp; China Airlines are both 4 star airlines according to Sky*** - enough said!

Isn't Jet Blue, Frontier and Midwest Airlines Four Star?

mrwunrful -

I flew UA from SIN-NRT-SFO-DEN in Economy Plus. Managed to get upgraded to Business Class (using miles) all the way back DEN-SFO-NRT-SIN. Then connected to an SQ flight from SIN-Perth (coach).

Service wasn't particularly attentive on the UA flights in either direction (had to ask for water, etc even in Business), but the connections were good, and UA came through this time.

Service on the SQ flight was good as usual.

Last time I flew UA on SIN-NRT-SFO-COS (May), I had a 24 hour delay in Singapore on the outbound flight due to plane problems and had to be completely re-routed the following day; adding a full day, a fourth flight and an extra 8 hours of layovers to an already very long couple of travel days.

The return wasn't much better - two delayed flights, missed connections on another carrier which caused an extra flight and additional expense, a lost day, a lost hotel reservation, and luggage that went missing for three days.

ClevelandBill wrote &lt;&lt;Geordie, pushing the site in earlier postings, frequently, I think, which indicates he either values it, or works there.&gt;&gt;

I certainly don't work for it and perhaps you could back up your claims that I frequently promote it with some examples.

People who are interested in aviation know the website, whether its positive or negative, the fact that you know nothing about it, shows a degree of ignorance

Geordie

&lt;&lt;ClevelandBill wrote &gt;&gt; I meant clevelandbrown

(Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, same thing)

Geordie