I will NEVER fly this airline again...
 

Well, I'm read more and more this sort of statements on fodors.com, so I'll try to put them together. Feel free to comment. And try to keep it lighthearted. Hopefully, this won't become a screaming match...

Here are a few to start.

laurieco (Asia board) - Air Asia. For changing schedules without contacting her, for refusing to give her a refund, and for rigging the scales.

Lyndie (Asia board) - Singapore. For losing her luggage and refusing to do anything about it in Sri Lanka.

mistyjean and her husband (Airline board) - Air France. For cramped seats, I presume.

I will never fly TWA again.

Ditto for Pan Am and Eastern.

After trip to Wyoming this summer I swore I would never fly United again. Of 4 flights, 3 had delays over 2 hours with no explanation (weather was fine). Pre-selected seats had been voided when we checked in - even though equipment had not changed and we had printed receipt so we sat in 4 middle seat scattered thruout plane.

Because of delays we had to race to try to make also delayed connection and no one on plane or at gate could tell us new gate number for connection.

So, you think I learned my lesson - wrong - daughter and I are booked on UA for February trip to Florida using some of the FF miles we acculated on the horrible summer trip.

Braniff (who else remembers that one? my first trip to Europe)

and Peoples (isn't that the one where they sold you the tickets on board?)

I'll never fly Sabena, Eastern, Pan Am, Piedmont, Fying Tigers, Citybird, Monmouth or Allegheny airlines again. Of those, I will only miss Piedmont, they had excellent service. Definitely won't miss Agony Airlines (Allegheny). Sabena wasn't as bad as everyone said, in fact, I got excellent deals from them and they had a bunch of new planes before they went bankrupt. Fying Tigers really annoyed me because even though I was the VERY first person to check in for my flight and requested a window seat, they gave me the ONE seat on the plane that didn't actually have a window!

Of the airlines still around, I would be happy if I never had to fly Air Canada or Northwest again. Air Canada staff were incompetent and had the most hostile FAs I've ever accounted. NW is just too much of a crap shoot...a mishap on every flight I've had with them, delays, mechanical problems, cancelations, lost luggage.

Braniff lives on, but only in the end credits of South Park.

FYI, it's still possible to fly Pan Am

<b>http://www.flypanam.com/</b>

Yes - PeoplExpress sold the tickets onboard, after upteen announcements on the ground about what credit cards or what identification would be needed if paying by personal check. They used a cheap little Epson conputer to print receipts.

They also charged extra if you wished to check bags, and used a &quot;robot&quot; machine to make reservations on the phone where you gave them a unique number (they suggested the serial # from some money) instead of your name to hold a reservation .... IF YOU COULD GET THRU.

I was surprised they didn't have pay-toilets.

Now I wish some airline would charge extra if you want to carry bags aboard.

Seriously, British Airways.

They knew at least 9 hours before our flight that it was cancelled but waited until 3 hours before to notify us. Too late to cancel hotel reservations for which I was charged but couldn't use. Gave me a phone number to call for compensation; phone number says, don't call us write. Write but no answer. Food on return flight was covered with MOLD!

This airline makes me miss the service on Pan Am which I used to think was as low as an airline could sink. Think again.

How about Muse? Anyone else remember Muse? That's the only airline where I actually bought a first class ticket without using upgrades. I was going to Las Vegas and they told me coach was sold out, but first class was only $20 more. :-)

And PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) which took me from San Francisco to Disneyland as a child in the 50's.

I will never fly any airline which doesn't fly in/out of SFO or OAK for as long as I live in San Francisco!

Just read another one.

frankdaddy (US board) - UA. He says he probably won't ever fly UA because <b>HE</b> booked the wrong date and UA has to charge him $900 for a last minute fare.

Tks rkkwan for starting this thread. I gotta admit I've never even noticed this category of fodors. Too busy clicking my mouse from E-trade to travel websites &amp; back again.

I'll nver fly Turkish Airlines-the rudest FA's and the dirtiest aircraft I've ever encountered. Ditto Aerolineas Argentinas. Singapore Airlines for losing our luggage. They may redeem themselves. We'll see. Awaiting compensation.

I swore off Gulf Air for the toilet door that would not close and then locked me in and the toilets overflowing then found a super cheap fare for Dec 2005 so I'm trying them again. Taking a bucket with me this time. Tks again!

lyndie; 'taking a bucket with me', lol

My votes for worst airline include Aeroflot, Air Nigeria and Cubana. The rest so far I can deal with. Have had no major complaints with UA, Cathay, JAL, and Lufthanza recently.

north west airlines for me.

mjs and fiona: there must be some good stories about how bad it was. Do tell.

Some years ago,my Belgian friends said that the ongoing joke about SABENA was that it stood for,&quot; Such A Bad Experience Never Again!&quot; They lost my luggage and when my Belgian friends called to ask if they could hurry and deliver it to their house after it had been located, their response was,&quot;Do you think that your friend's luggage is the only lost luggage we're dealing with? There's lots of lost luggage here&quot;. So, I ended up missing the Easter dinner that my friends and I were to attend since we had to wait all day to sign for the luggage. They refused to leave it in a secure place at my friend's house. Happy Travels!

Thanks for the memories

Ansett in Australia and I lost 250,000 FF points :(
I also flew with Peoples in the '80s. Brought our own picnic and wine when we flew Newark - London.
Ah Muse, remember seeing their livery at LAX &amp; thinking How California!
Canadian Pacific tho technically I think it's been rolled into Air Canada

Aitran Airways.. worst gate/ticket agents.

I will never fly on a wooden broom ever again! Only on a lightweight aluminum one!

Mine must be a Thunderbolt.

v gd faina
Can i switch to an electric broom?

TAA and Ansett in Australia - used to fly them a lot when they were the only game in town for domestic flights (Qantas was only allowed to do overseas flights). I know I'll never fly them again, nor will anyone else...

WK

Sarvo, is there such a thing as a GPS broom? Or what is that device on cars which tells you where you are?

Faina
This IS the 21st century - get with it - of course it has GPS - &amp; a DVD player.

Western Airlines....the only way to fly
Mahalo Airlines
AA - they lost my luggage...twice :(
Aloha!

Air Florida had some rough landings.

Isn't Air Florida the one that landed on the bridge in Washington DC?

Pam - It didn't land on the bridge, but crashed into it (killing 4 motorists) and fell into the icy Potomac, killing 74 onboard.

&quot; Air Canada staff were incompetent and had the most hostile FAs I've ever accounted.&quot;

Boy, you got that right. But don't stop at the FA's. The check-in and phone people are even worse. I used to make a weekly connection from another airline to Air Canada. Every time I had to go up to the Air Canada counter to check in, it was like a slap in the face - going from a reasonably friendly set of people to Air Canada's hostile and dour staff.

If that isn't enough reason to hate them, they are a viciously pedatory company that does its best to put the competition out of business. They also lied through their teeth when they given the right to essentially become a monopoly. They said that they wouldn't raise fares. They didn't. They just eliminated many of the better discount discount fares, effectively raising ticket prices for most travellers. A classic deceitful Bill Clinton approach to he truth. At least they couldn't get away with that for long, as discount Airlines like WestJet forced them to compete again.

&quot;A classic deceitful Bill Clinton approach to he truth&quot;

And if Air Canada were a Bush lie, they would tell you the airfare of $1 trillion was necessary because of national security, and then they'd take all of the money and put it into the airline executives' pockets while the passengers' children were sent out to die for no apparent reason.

Sorry I didn't see this before I posted mine. Thank rkkwan for this tread. here is what I posted and mine is like &quot;I'll never fly a budget airline again&quot;

corendon.com

I booked a oneway ticket from Brusells to Istanbul for nov 7th. and provided contact info. Called them (with difficulties, they don't really take calls) on 5th of nov to reconfirm and found out that my flight had been rescheduled for the 5th. without contacting me. If I couldn't take that flight I had to go on the 9th. That messed up everything. They never called or emailed me and wouldn't help me with anything. So I was stranded in Brussels for 2 days because I couldn't make the flight the reassigned to me.

On the 9th they postponed the flight from 6pm to 10pm. No one at the counter. Once someone was there we were sent to check in counters. And were told we all had to pay extra 15 euros for fuel.

From talking to very upset people around me, Corendon has done this to them several times and it was the same situation. You go to their website and get a lot of available dates and time, then they would reschedule you to 2 days before or after the date you originally booked.

They also go to the new airport (SAW) which is very far from European side where I wanted to go. They emailed me that there is a shuttle going to 2 hotels, one is Aya sophia hotel in sultanahmet area and to another hotel in Taksim area.

What happened was they went to every other hotels where passengers arranged in tour package with them but kicked a few people out in the middle of the streets somewhere at about 4 am in the morning.

I was kicked out on the side of some street along with another couple. No Aya Sophia hotel anywhere (I tried to contact this hotel before my trip and got info for my hotel to go pick me up there). They told me they were supposed to fly the day after the next day but got a call to fly that day at 6pm. and the flight was delayed to 10pm. They didn't have a hotel so I was lucky to have them walk with me to my hotel which at that time we didn't know where. It was dark and we didn't know the way.

My cheap flight with a budget airline ended up costing me more money (than just going with US I originally planned) and time and aggrevation. I just wanted to forwarn anyone about this so that if they still want to fly they are prepared for all these

I LOVE American Airlines and try only to fly with them, great customer service and more leg room.

HATE United. AWFUL customer service (IMO), rude attendents, etc.

STRONGLY DISLIKE Northwest. They constantly delay, cancel, bump, etc.

...lose luggage, fib about weather delays, go bankrupt, drag their regional partners down with them...

Guenmai, I must come to Sabena's defense. During its last few years of existence (when it was flying with Swissair money), it upgraded its fleet and service improved greatly as well. Some of my most pleasant transatlantic trips were on Sabena (and cheapest too...in 2001 I got mid-summer, high season round trip transatlantic business class for $1200). I was sorry to see them go under just when they were starting to show such improvement. Sic transit gloria mundi.

In the town of Zaventem (where Brussels airport is located), there is a little bar decorated with an aircraft theme. Has models of all kinds of planes from a variety of airlines, all of them now defunct. The locals (most of whom work in the airline industry) jokingly call it the Kiss of Death bar because as soon as the owner puts up an airline's model plane, the airline goes bankrupt.

Qantas, I gotta say. Their IFE is great, but man, what a surly bunch of gate and ticket agents.

Maybe I got unlucky and drew the most rude of 'em all, but one wouldn't let me finish any sentences; the next one repeated the same phrases over and over while making me repack my bags in the middle of the terminal...Never again.