Best airline
 

What offers the best flight experience from US to Europe flying coach? Leg room? Meals? Service? Is it all about the price? Any carrier to avoid at all costs? Planning another trip and the lowest cost is on on an airline we have no experience with.

Which air line is it? To me, if you are flying in the "cattle" section, "Best airline" is kind of an oxymoron. I fly from the west coast, I fly coach, and I just settle in for 10 to 11 hours of hell. LOL I think if you are looking at an upgrade, then it seems to me that there have been a lot of posts that indicate there is in fact a difference in the quality of ammenities and service. So, post what airline you are considering flying and I think you will more than likely get a lot of response.

For me, it usually boils down to the carrier that provides the best combination of these:

lowest price

non-stop

aircraft I like

miles partner

--

if a connection is involved, then a connection airport I like, having connection flight times coming/going that I can live with

US air

Virgin Airlines is the best flight I've had in coach. If you're going to London, I'd try and go with them. It's still tight, but there is a bar on board...

Best airline in coach in my experience is SAS. They fly the airbus from Seattle, and it's sooo comfortable. My first priority (after price) is comfort -- i.e. legroom and those great back-of-seat tvs to help pass the time.

Worst airline I've ever flown on this route was Northwest. My own experience included teensy seats and grumpy personnel.

visit www.seatguru.com

My experience is limited to British Airways and America. BA was excellent, A,ericam was terrible.

The problem, however, is that airlines continue to cut back so much that the worst service last year, relatively speaking, could be the best service this year.

I go with the best time and a non-stop flight.

For me, that means I use British Air overnight. I believe their leg room is the worst in the skies but the seatback TV screens are great and food is more than adequate.

Cant speak for the US, but europe I have found Finair to be the best

I will report that we have had good experiences traveling American Airlines and also their affiliates British Air and Finnair. So far so good. Leg room however is often crowded.

Only problem is booking a AA frequent flier on line for a couple. You have to do one reservation at a time with your FF number and this can mess you up (because there may not be available space on a flight for 2 FF passengers) so you have to contact AA by phone after all to make reservations.

ozarksbill

I've tried to think of something good to say about British Air and the only thing I can come up with is that our bags made the connection at Heathrow with only one hour to do it.

O yes and the drinks are free.

Other than that I never want to see BA again; if an airline truly deserves to go belly up it's them. I've never had a bad experience on American; but also haven't used them excessively so maybe it's just luck.

Yes, me too, I agree that 'best airline' is an oxymoron when in cattle class. And I do agree that BA is horrible nowadays. At least I found their aircraft and service changed for the worse in 2001 as compared to 1995. The flight attendant we had was more into himself than into the passengers' needs.