I've had multiple bad experiences with Northwest Airlines, so I only fly with them as a last resort.

Unfortunately, they're the only airline that has direct flights from Indianapolis to the city where my daughter lives, so sometimes I still fly with them.

I agree with jdraper. Thet are all bad--they are all good--it depends on the time of year, the crew, the weather, and the load factor. It is merely an endurance contest to be tolerated.

All arilines have problems at times - from ghastly food to miserable service, losing luggage, canceling flights etc. You usually can;t judge by any single experience. And even if you have one disastrous experience (I had one with Delta - not ordinarily bad - but of the FAA/NTSB variety) it's still possible for the ariline to recover eventualy. (And yes, I still do fly them - once I was reassured the serious problems had been fixed.)

What drives me nuts is the continual attitude of complete disrespect for the passenger, rudeness, incompetence, demonstrated by everyone from management on down by AA - and I avoid flying them unless I absolutely must. This is not to have an effect on them - because they have demonstrated that nothing will effect their behavior - but just to save my own sanity.

Since no one has yet mentioned this, I will say that I just wrote in another thread that I will never fly Alitalia again because of their frequent strikes. I don't think this is exactly in the same category as bad service, or lost luggage, which can happen on any airline. I won't repeat myself in detail, but read the recent thread with Alitalia in the subject line for my reasons.

There's only one airline that I won't fly anymore--BA. And that's only because I had 3 or 4 completely miserable flights with them and horrific custom service on the ground. That was topped off by their strike last summer. So now I just ignore any BA sales I see floating around.

And I fly a lot--in the past 12 months, I've flown between the US and Europe 26 times. Almost always with United, but I did fly with Air France once and Virgin another time because I found some great deals.

Yes, they all screw up from time to time, but there are also consistent
variations - especially in food and friendliness of service. There are therefore some airlines I favour and some (not many) I avoid.

Rex - I tried following your directions to make the word "consistent' bold, but it didn't work. Such is life.

I'll never fly Thai Airways again. Their staff are snobbish, irresponsible, and intolerably rude. Been flying Thai like thirty times until alternative carriers - like Bangkok Airways to Samui - came to exist.

I'm impressed in Virgin, Singapore Airline, and British Airways.

<b> Thank you, </b> <i> Rex </i>,
<u> Kappa </u>

Scarlett, how do you do it to write in different colors?

I would like to hear from the airlines about problem passengers! I have yet to be on a flight when all the passengers followed the rules. Airlines have shed services to reduce costs. Passengers in Tourist/Economy expecting First Class service should expect to be disappointed. Years on I read that luggage contents sometimes get wet. How much trouble is it to enclose inner contents in plastic bag or bags? Over weight luggage? Learn the limits. Pack accordingly. Don't like the food? Bring your own. There may be a market for a plastic seat/space guard. I like to see young people stretched out sleeping on the floor! Don't like the flight? Write the airline Customer Service.

I think its important not to have high expectations for any airline. If they get one to their destination safely, that's all I worry about.

The only airline I'm weary of flying again is Alitalia due to their strikes. They cancelled my flight this past spring. I wrote a letter to one of their corporate offices in New York and, not only did they refund me, I also received a $100.00 voucher for my next trip.

Rather than avoiding a particular airline, I go out of my way to fly Continental. Lufthansa, for instance, often has cheaper fares, but I am loyal to Continental.

Every time I have had a &quot;situation&quot; they have been incredibly accommodating. Earlier this month, I came down with a light case of food poisoning mid-Atlantic (note to self: don't eat the Caeser chicken salad in the Corpus Christi airport before your flight), and the attendants were very helpful and accommodating. Not much they could do, but they did their best.

In Continental's case, I think the management style from the top down is reflected in their ticket and gate crew as well as the flight attendants. They have also upgraded me a couple of times without my asking.

I don't think I've ever had consistantly bad service from any one airline, not in domestic business travel or for leisure. And I don't see a lot of point in complaining about individual flights as on flight isn't indicative of an ongoing problem.

I can't help I though, over a period of time, I have developed a mental list of those airlines that I consistantly enjoyed most and those I overall found more unpleasant - &quot;well, I guess if Delta is the <i>only</i> one with a reasonable return time...&quot; as opposed to - &quot;AA has a similar route for only $20 more? I'll take it&quot;. But then, my priority is economy comfort, not service.

I'd also rather keep my business within a single partnership for FF reasons, whenever possible.

StephenG:

Frequent travelers have all had bad experiences. My wife and I are francophiles so that Delta/AirFrance are important to us. Even though AF lost our four bags one year, recovering three after three days, they made a good faith gesture: free ticket and reimbursed me for things lost. It taught us to pack smarter and doublecheck at embarkation point where luggage was being sent. Always check the tags before the luggage goes to the flight. It is not foolproof but worth doing anyway.

I think the biggest problem facing the airlines is general bankruptcy because of the price of oil and lost passengers due to 9/11.

Until, if ever,the business again gets robust, the hope for better service, wider leg room, certainty of scheduling, etc. are just chimeras in the desert.

Anthony

Oh boy, now I am a bit nervous. We are going to Italy, leaving from Detroit. I was told not to take AlItalia, too many strikes. Do not take Iberia..not a good airlines. NOW I see the complaints about Northwest airlines. I have never had a complaint about an airline before and I fly a couple times per year.
Is Northwest arriving in Rome usually on time?

Easyjet lost my luggage. They couldn't tell me where it was. Finally after 8 days I managed to track it down via the Internet. I will never fly Easyjet again.

more important to me is not how they screw up -- all do once in a while -- but how they deal with it.

To me, it boils down a hierarchy of carriers, ordered according to the price/performance I have experienced on each. If a given carrier gets me to where I want to go without hassle at a competitive price, it bubbles towards the top of the list. If another airline often messes up and fails to make amends, it tends to slump more towards the bottom.

So I start at the top of my list and work my way downwards looking for the accommodation I want. I tend to fly Singapore and America West more than Northwest and British.

I haven't flown American since 1982.

p.s. To turn codes on and off, just enclose them in pairs of &lt;command&gt; and &lt;/command&gt;, for example

&lt;BLUE&gt;<font color="blue">This text is blue</font>&lt;/BLUE&gt;

I've been traveling a lot for about 50 years now, so I've had good and bad experiences with just about every airline. Korean Airlines is the only one that I ended up actually refusing to fly on for a number of years after a bad experience.

Three bad experiences out of three flights with Alitalia. In all three cases it was an in flight crew issue.

I agree that any airline can have an off flight, but my candidate is Air France for 3 reasons.
1. Ground personnel from hell.
2. Strike prone [CDG if not the airline]
3. They lose baggage regularly. [Once they even lost 4 of my students for 2 hours!]

Only way I would fly AF again would be in high tourist season [less strikes] with carryon and without students.