US airlines suck like a 747's jet intakes

[ForrestGump]

Really. I've always thought so, in comparison with overseas airlines. Of course, I never had the dubious pleasure of flying the USSR's or PRC's national proletariat airlines.

The whole charging for movie headsets, for a start, is a piece of penny-pinchery that's an alien concept to many/most of the world's other flag carriers. At least now the headsets can be taken for the next time, for a price. Paying a premium price for a tiny screen, with terrible image quality and even worse sound (and you know people will stand right in front of the screen), was never an option for me. Free on overseas carriers, by the way.

Then there's the food, long below the standards of other carriers (and here I include third-world airlines that I've flown, including British Air :D ). Over the past decade's worth of flying I watched food become steadily more scarce on US airlines, including meals being scheduled outside of normal meal times to the point that it's possible to travel all day with them providing a couple of quarter-ounce portions of pretzels (and I don't even like %$#@ pretzels). I even flew international legs on US airlines without being fed, a real departure from the way things used to be. That was a bad sign. But the real shock came with my most recent flight inside the US (from an overseas connection), when I discovered that the airline had switched to a policy of not providing ANY food. To be more precise, food was available, from a limited menu, but -- still reeling from this revelation and starving from my long day's flying and transits -- I wasn't about to pay $10 for some stupid sandwich. If I'd known about this unbelievable piece of cheapness I could at least have brought food with me, but as it was I flew from New York to Los Angeles with my stomach running below empty. No way was I going to pay for that. The upside, of course, was that by the time I arrived in LA I was 30 pounds lighter and had an eating disorder, and was thus ready for Hollywood. Build the ten-dollar sandwich into the ticket price, you pigs...kind of an insult to pay hundreds or thousands of dolalrs for a flight and be charged extra for headphones; a total bit of tackiness to charge (overcharge) for food, too.

And let's not get into the whole seating thing, wherein greed has packed American travelers into an ever-diminishing space. I'm 6'5", so this is a very painful subject for me, literally. Of course, some other nations' domestic airlines (e.g., Australia) have also gone for the sardine motif in at least some of their smaller jets, and some US airlines are at last providing a bit more legroom by taking out seats.

And, as one who travels overseas with hundreds of pounds of equipment, I was chagrined at the reduction of excess-baggage thresholds to a paltry 50 lbs. It's previously been 70 lbs apiece. Excess fees are the bane of my air-travel life, and so I am rather distressed by this recent greed-based reduction. On most airlines, so far (as I understand it), the 70-lb limit is still in place for legs beginning or ending at an international destination. Not that I'd choose to travel a US flag carrier overseas if another was available at a decent price -- the US airlines I've flown overseas have not compared well with other countries' airlines that travel the same routes, including their code-sharers.

In short, US airlines have long been below the standards of other nations; carriers (even less acceptable when you consider that expenses for some of these airlines overseas are relatively far higher than those of US companies) and it seems to just be getting worse. If some of my favorite overseas airlines flew the Los Angeles-to-Kalamazoo route, and the like, I'd be much happier.

And don't get me started on the TSA.... :mad:

[wickerwoman]

1. Yup, I'll never forget the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris.

It's a one and a half hour flight and they served us smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and bagels for breakfast in economy class. The meal practically lasted longer than the flight.

Virgin Atlantic has TV screens built into the back of every seat (even in economy)with free headphones. You could choose from about ten current movies or play Nintendo games. They had a menu that let you choose from three or four decent sized meals and they gave you sleeping masks.

And as long as the US Government keeps underwriting them, things will only get worse. Substandard companies need to be allowed to sink into the quicksand of their own making. I thought Republicans were supposed to favor the free market. Here's a great opportunity to try it out.

[Kellanved]

2. wow

Well, I usually fly Lufthansa, occasionaly Air France. In neither of them there is any legroom; in domestic flights I usually have more legroom in the airport bus, on international flights it is still *very* uncomfortable.
Granted, headsets are free, but who want's to see Steve Martin movies? (The older ones are great, but the newer :shrug:) That stupid meditation /wake-up video ("love")? nobody.
The only thing I really like is that they show recorded Euronews news- nothing says "home" like watching Euronews.

At least Qantas has really fresh food :evilgrin: :
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4895146/
"
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - An airline passenger was given a nasty fright when a frog with a taste for adventure stowed away in her in-flight salad, New Zealand authorities said on Tuesday.
"

[ForrestGump]

3. I've never flown Old Europe's airlines

:P

Does Air France have frogs in their salads, too?

At least it wasn't a saltwater crocodile.

Don't like Qantas much, either, actually...lots of it because of the nature of my baggage and business when I'm Down Under. Traveling divers and underwater photographers know that 'Qantas' is an acronym for 'Quick And Nasty Typical Australian Service.' :D

[Kellanved]

4. I never had a frog,

but who knows?
Check http://www.airlinemeals.net/indexMeals.html ;-) .

[SheilaT]

5. I had the good fortune

to be an airline employee from 1969 to 1979. We got to fly for free (usually only a small service charge, sometimes totally free) on most other airlines, and were usually boarded in first class. Back then the in-flight service, even on U.S. carriers was quite good, sometimes amazingly so. And international carriers could be astonishing in their level of service.

However, in those days the flag carriers of other countries were heavily subsidized by their governments. So no wonder they had more flight attendants per flight, better food, more pampering.

But back then flying was something of a luxury, and not so many people flew anywhere. Then deregulation happened, at back then we airline employees knew what would happen: airlines would become flying Greyhound buses. And guess what? That's exactly what happened.

So many things have happened to lead into the conditions we have now, not the least of which is a squeeze on profits encouraging the airlines to downgrade service, meals, and so on.

I used to have as a goal to be rich enough to afford to fly first class all the time. Now my goal is to be rich enough to afford to charter planes everywhere. It won't happen, of course, but I can dream. Instead, I often drive distances I formerly would have flown, especially since 9/11 and the nonsense of "security".

added on edit: I have a very nice collection of first class menues, that I will probably someday donate to the airline museum in Kansas City.

[mobuto]

6. Foreign carriers suck too

At least European and Western Hemisphere airlines.

Air France used to be great, now its terrible. Lufthansa, KLM, British Air? Terrible. SAS? Are they still in business? I could go through a whole roster of European airlines, and they pretty much all suck. I haven't had much experience with airlines in the former Soviet Union, but my understanding is that they're worse.

El Al may be safe, but it is hardly pleasant. Egypt Air? Even if they don't fly you into the Atlantic, its still pretty bad. The Mexican airlines suck, but Aerolineas Argentinas is pretty close to the worst anywhere - the last time I flew them, practically every seat on the plane was BROKEN. Try a ten-hour flight with sharp metal sticking into your back.

East Asian airlines are supposedly the best, but even they have gone down in recent years.

[ForrestGump]

10. My experience is mainly Pacific-Rim

I've flown British Air a few times and haven't been impressed.

I've heard a ton of good things about service and appointments on other, smaller national airlines from colleagues who work in Central America and elsewhere (we're talking about airlines from places like El Salvador and Nicaragua).

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. I have no complaint form Brazilian airlines

I find their service to be on par with European ones.

The worst service, in my experience, is from American DOMESTIC flights.

[Mandate My Ass]

8. USAir is the worst of the US airlines IMHO

Almost a year ago today my sis and I flew to Puerto Rico. Despite it being just a 3 1/2 hour flight, we packed all kinds of sandwiches and snacks as a precaution. Our flight was leaving from a gate in a new part of Philly Int'l that was just being built and had no snack bars or restaurants nearby. Our flight was delayed (of COURSE!) and they kept coming over the loudspeaker and saying "It'll only be 15 more minutes to boarding, do NOT leave the gate area or we will leave without you." This went on for hours.

We finally took off about 1:30 PM -- more than 6 hours later than the scheduled take off time -- and they served us a bagel and some dried fruit. The flight was over 5 1/2 hours long and although we had planned to be on the beach by noon, we didn't land until after sunset and didn't get to our hotel until after 8:00 PM, and I feel we were cheated out of an entire vacation day.

Anyway, during the flight from hell, a young mom with a starving 3-year-old went back to the galley to ask if they had anything besides a bagel for her starving and screaming toddler since it was now late afternoon and we'd been at the airport since the crack of dawn. To my great shock, the attendant began berating her very loudly so that half of coach class could hear him yelling at her. "What do you think this is? A restaurant? Our job is to get you from point A to point B and nothing else. You should have planned better. It's not my problem, it's yours."

My sister and I looked at each other and the mom who was now practically in tears and we laid into the attendant about his attitude. We gave the mom our bagels plus some of the food we had packed and not eaten. The worst part was, we could smell something hot and delicious coming from first class and we all knew there was extra up there but they wouldn't give this woman the time of day let alone a first class meal. We gave her our names, addresses and phone numbers and told her to call the airlines when she got to her destination to complain about the ignorant and rude attendant and that we would back her up 100% and we made sure he heard us.

We never heard from her but I still regret not calling the airline myself and complaining on her behalf.

/end of rant.


PS: My son is 6'5" also, it's almost impossible for him to fit in a coach seat unless it's the bulkhead or he puts his knees in his mouth.

[ForrestGump]

11. Ouch. Terrible! Northwest seems to be fairly universally hated

I've never flown them, but a colleague who lives in ND rails against them -- they have a monopoly in that area, and into Minneapolis, and apparently run wild with both overcharging and general arrogance.

I used to always try to fly Delta domestically (flew Horizon once, a subsidiary of Air Alaska -- an airline long said to be a notch above -- but their routes haven't otherwise coincided with mine) but most of the big US airlines are pretty much of a muchness these days. I've had bad treatment on Delta, for sure. Ditto American and Continental, that I used to think were more decent than most...back, of course, when the pool of major carriers was somewhat larger than it is today.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I have long disliked Northwest

Wherever they have a monopoly or near-monopoly, the prices go up and the level of service goes down.

When I moved from Portland to Minneapolis, I needed a one-way ticket. The difference between the price on Northwest's non-stop and Frontier's "sit around in Denver for hours" flight was $600! For that price difference, I brought along a thick book and gladly sat around in the Denver airport for several hours.

Even back in the 1970s, Northwest offered cattle car service between Minneapolis and New York City. It wasn't until I was accommodated on a United flight via O'Hare after a cancelled flight that I learned that other, less direct airlines offered better service on that route.

Of course, that was the 1970s. United is terrible now, too. In 2002, I flew from Portland to San Francisco on United and then on ANA to Tokyo. The difference between the attitudes of the personnel was apparent from the moment I went to the ANA check-in counter.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. You are so right about the abysmal quality of U.S. airlines

So, yes, I know they're having money problems, but what genius thought up the idea of trying to recover from a slump by making the customers' lives miserable?

I am only 5'10", but by the time I've spent 3 hours in a seat with a 31" pitch, I'm ready to punch the walls out of the plane. The "meals" are absurd, the rock bottom point having been the "macaroni and cheese" that Northwest served during the month I was flying back and forth between Portland and Minneapolis: it had a sprinkling of cheesoid crumbs, but otherwise was pure noodles.

It has been my experience that the Asian airlines are better. I was delighted with ANA (All Nippon Airways), which has a 34" seat pitch even in coach, the world's sweetest flight attendants, a continual supply of non-alcoholic beverages (water, iced oolong tea, orange juice, soft drinks), free alcoholic beverages, and decent, if somewhat odd, food, although young guys might find the portions too small. I have heard that they now have individually video screens, with a selection of movies, games, and TV programs.

JAL has excellent service, although the seating is more cramped.

Even Air China had better leg room than the U.S. airlines and nicer flight attendants, and although I have no personal experience, I've heard excellent reports about the reasonably priced premium economy service of EVA Air, a Taiwanese airline, and Asiana, a Korean airline.

Northwest has a non-stop to Tokyo from Minneapolis, but I'm willing to pay a couple of hundred extra bucks to fly ANA on my next trip.

[SOteric]

12. I wish I could say I disagreed, but I don't.

Especially with regard to customer service. It may be an incredibly unkind thought, but I firmly believe given the way that US airlines treat their guests they deserved to fail even before 9-11. That they would use that tragedy as both a bail-out and a reason to provide even shoddier service has been grating in the extreme.

[ForrestGump]

13. Yeah, I can't believe that they used the atacks as a way to price-gouge

if this really is a 'War on Terror,' aren't they profiteers?

[geniph]

15. Alaska used to provide reasonably decent service

and had the best food of the U.S. domestics, but the little scrap of scripture they left with the meal always annoyed me. I imagine they've probably gone downhill as well.

Want to know something really horrid about airlines and price-gouging? I used to work for Boeing. Now, all the airlines and all the airplane manufacturers know that in the majority of, shall we say, "unplanned sudden landings" it's the seats that kill those who aren't killed by fires and such in the cabin. The seats telescope together and crush people. For years, there was a much safer seat design available; the seat was in production and could be ordered as an option. Almost none of the airlines ordered it, because it was fractionally heavier and would have cost them a few dollars more in fuel per flight. Now, I understand that they're businesses and they have to make a profit to survive, but they won't make many profits if too many passengers die, either. They were playing a kind of craps game with passenger lives. They KNEW the existing seat design was unsafe, there was a safer model available, and they didn't want it.