Some years ago,my Belgian friends said that the ongoing joke about SABENA was that it stood for," Such A Bad Experience Never Again!" 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,"Do you think that your friend's luggage is the only lost luggage we're dealing with? There's lots of lost luggage here". 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 & 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 - & 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.

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

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.

"A classic deceitful Bill Clinton approach to he truth"

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 "I'll never fly a budget airline again"

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.