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Original poster

Best, and worst, airlines.

74 replies

Pipbin · 05/04/2016 23:08

I've just come back from holiday and flew Virgin for the first time.
We were flown out by Delta, who were brilliant.
We were flown back by Virgin, who were dreadful - I had been lead to think they were better than most.

So, who do you recommend and who should we avoid?

OP posts:
TweenageAngst · 13/04/2016 17:20

Best long haul

  1. Singapore
  2. Emirates
  3. Malaysian

Worst long haul

  1. Air India
  2. QANTAS
  3. BA

Best Budget
Norwegian
Worst Budget
Ryan air -although they are rarely delayed they suck all the joy out of flying

n0ne · 13/04/2016 17:42

I love Virgin Atlantic, have flown to the Caribbean several times with them and have no complaints about the food, service or entertainment. OTOH, DH and I flew with BA for our honeymoon to St Lucia thinking it would be a treat and they were terrible! Cr@p food, limited entertainment, even the seats were uncomfortable. Won't bother with them again. Worst I ever flew with was Monarch, we had to beg them for a blanket (it was longhaul overnight), the dinner was a dry sarnie, and if you wanted a drink, you had to go up the back and get it yourself!

Sidge · 13/04/2016 17:42

I loved flying with Singapore Airlines and Emirates. Flew both to Australia and had no problems, food on Emirates was variable but I was flying with my DD who was 13 months at the time and they were very helpful.

And to be fair to BA I flew recently (Easter) with them to JFK and it was great - good food, plentiful booze and fab inflight entertainment. Can't fault it - outbound and return flights were on time and the whole journey was easy.

Funnily enough I had a flight with Thomas Cook to Greece alone with my 3 girls, one of whom has significant special needs and I couldn't fault them. They were incredibly helpful and really looked after us and were very kind to DD with SN and made a big fuss of all 3 girls. They helped me with my luggage and fast-tracked us through immigration and baggage reclaim.

ReturnofSaturn · 13/04/2016 17:46

Best by far was Singapore Airlines.

Air NZ also very good, was very impressed with them recently, also noticed that the majority of the cabin crew (on our section anyway) were a little older than what you find most cabin crew, which I found very refreshing.

Also quite liked Malaysian Airways when I flew with them a few years back,

Wasn't too impressed with Emirates tbh.

Worst for me was Air India

ScarlettDarling · 13/04/2016 17:46

I'm a bit scared after reading this thread...flying with American Airlines to New York for the first time in May. Will it be really bad? I'm a bit of a nervous flyer at the best of times Sad

PirateSmile · 13/04/2016 17:47

Jet2 is like travelling on a coach.
Like BA. I think their cabin crew are brilliant.
EasyJet are fine.

Stevie77 · 13/04/2016 18:10

So much is down to individual experiences, that I don't think there're clear and cut answers about most airlines.

Singapore Airlines were fab when I flew with them. Lufthansa, I've flown with loads and they're ok too. BA fine but ran out of Christmas dinner on a Christmas Day flight! My DH was not amused. Virgin were fine. ALL the American Airlines are pretty rubbish.

I will never ever EVER fly again with Turkish Airlines (even when I did it was because we were transferred from the original airline). Worst customer service ever, non existent. Lost our luggage as well as pram and car seats. Took months to get some of the money back. The food is excellent though, but doesn't make up for being dumped at Ata Turk with a child and baby for 7 hours and getting no food, drink or hotels. It is the airport from hell.

Never had a problem with Easy Jet, you get what it says on the tin. In fact, I find them better than most low cost airlines. Jet2 are chaotic. Thomas Cook premium class was brilliant.

HarryDresdensLeatherDuster · 16/04/2016 21:51

We have recently flown to and from Kuala Lumpur with BA and have to say that they were good flights. Food going out was better than coming home and they REALLY need to rethink their breakfasts! Entertainment was great and the wine was free flowing.

My favourite long haul ever has to be Thai Air - food, service, comfort, everything made the flights painless. DS really rates Emirates though and he lives in the far east so his opinion has to count for something!

Short haul - Monarch are ok, Thomas Cook slightly less so, but tbh, my favourites are EasyJet - they are, quite simply, easy!

I would agree about Turkish Airlines, worst delays I have ever had. And don't get me started on Onur Air, if they even exist any more...

RaeSkywalker · 16/04/2016 21:55

I have never not been delayed with Easyjet.

Ryanair are fine.

BA were awful when we flew with them over the summer.

I liked Virgin. Swissair were very good!

RaeSkywalker · 16/04/2016 21:56

Thomas Cook were good but I haven't flown with them for about 7 years so I'm not sure what they're like now.

pinkerpeony · 16/04/2016 22:05

We normally fly BA for the Avios but last summer went LH with Thomas Cook, utterly dire. We had a 2 hour delay at LGW waiting for baggage because they couldn't open the hold, they charge you for coffee and do endless fundraising and trying to flog stuff every 29 mins.

I like Easyjet for SH, I've never been delayed with them.

EssentialHummus · 16/04/2016 22:11

I boycott BA after being treated like absolute scum by their ground staff, followed by an indifferent response from their customer support team.

I usually choose easyJet for shorthaul, had a less pleasant experience with RyanAir the one time I flew with them.

Aer Lingus wins my "biggest gap between expectation and reality" prize - I always found Irish folk to be fairly pleasant, polite types, and the air hostesses were all mardy cows.

In my past life I was an aviation finance lawyer, and I loved working with Malaysian Airlines - easygoing, friendly, professional, forever chucking model planes and t-shirts at us for a job well done. I think they're having a tougher time of it these days.

About to fly with Monarch and not sure what to expect, but it's a non-busy flight at an off-peak time with just me and a tiny backpack, so hoping for the best.

EarSlaps · 16/04/2016 22:23

We flew Delta in 2005 and swore to never use them again. The plane was old and uncomfortable, food was awful, the film was projected but we couldn't see it as they didn't dim the lights (didn't worry me as it was a crap film) and, worst of all, they charged £5 for a teeny bottle of wine. It was a code share with Air France (we booked Air France) and we felt cheated as the flight home with Air France was lovely with gorgeous food and copious free booze.

Malaysian Airlines in 2007 was much worse than expected- good service but an old, very smelly plane.

KLM was ok but very little leg room for my tall DH (despite Dutch people being the tallest in the world Hmm).

Emirates were great.

Thai Airlines and Swiss Air were both fantastic. Good food, great service, comfortable planes.

BA is variable- we've had great and awful from them. Same on EasyJet.

MozzchopsThirty · 16/04/2016 22:29

I don't think it's airline dependant but down to the crew you have on the day!

Fly business a lot on BA and service is variable, sometime amazing, sometime non existent!
Same with Emirates in business & economy

However always find easyjet pleasant

Justwondering1 · 16/04/2016 22:39

Swiss are wonderful!

CoffeeCoffeeAndLotsOfIt · 16/04/2016 23:01

Flown Air Canada and United a couple of times. Wasn't impressed. Would avoid in future.

BA, Qantas, Virgin all fine in my opinion.

Short haul - easy jet good for a budget airline.

Thomson fine for a holiday jet.

Generally I'm happy if I get there in one piece GrinWink

NicknameUsed · 17/04/2016 19:50

In my experience Jet2 are a pretty good budget airline. The flight crew are polite and helpful, especially when DD felt unwell on a flight back from Crete.

We flew American Airlines many years ago and they were excellent, but when OH flew with them recently they were absolutely dire. His flight was delayed then cancelled. He was then put on a flight the next day and downgraded from business class to economy. They wouldn't refund the difference, but offered a discount to fly with them again. As if he would want to fly with them again!

We have also had excellent flights with Thomsons. Long haul flights with Cathay Pacific were good, and when things go wrong they look after the passengers. Our flight back from Bali was delayed, which meant that we missed our connecting back to the UK. CP paid for us to stay in a hotel and meal vouchers for the next day. It meant that we had an extra 24 hours in Hong Kong to look around at no extra cost to our holiday.

We also had the misfortune to have a long flight delay from Manchester to New York with BA. They ended up flying everyone down to Heathrow and putting us on another flight, which again meant that we missed our connecting flight to Boston. BA paid for us to stay in NY before continuing our journey the next morning. As we hadn't booked hotels at all we had our first night paid for courtesy of BA, and we got to see Ray Charles walking through JFK! (It was a long time ago)

originalmavis · 17/04/2016 19:51

I do not like BA one bit. I do not like them, Sam I am.

ihatethecold · 17/04/2016 20:39

Love a bit of Dr Suess Grin

originalmavis · 17/04/2016 20:45

We had bit of a green eggs and ham session earlier.

fluffiphlox · 17/04/2016 20:48

Don't mind Easyjet as a budget.

Dire: Iberia, Air France.

NicknameUsed · 17/04/2016 21:00

I'm glad that there are a lot of Iberia detractors on here. We flew with them to Spain many years ago when smoking was still allowed on flights. When we checked in to come home we asked for seats in the non smoking part of the plane, but didn't double check our seat numbers at the time.

We realised as we got to our seats that we were in the smoking area and asked to be moved, but this wasn't possible. The girl in the seat next to us started throwing up and they managed to find somewhere else for her to sit, but still didn't move us. We had a horrible flight back sat in a cloud of smoke. We wrote to the airline to complain when we got home but never heard from them.

Thank goodness smoking is now banned on all flights now.

RTKangaMummy · 17/04/2016 23:26

The thing with Iberia with us was we were supposed to be BA to and from Barcelona

BA there but a code share flight meant Iberia back home again

Aye21 · 18/04/2016 04:20

Had best experience with Singapore Airlines 🖒🖒🖒

Andrea2301 · 19/04/2016 11:49

I have had the unfortunate experience of Easyjet breaking my baby's car seat on one flight, then his pram on the next. It was upsetting enough that they had been treated with such disrespect but then the customer service I received was appalling. They completely ignored my complaint email and although the car seat was replaced and pram fixed through a third party company, this was not without an argument and significant delay.
I'd like to say I've never used them again, but unfortunately they're the cheapest and quickest way of visiting family which we tend to do monthly.
I would definitely recommend getting a pram bag. Although this wouldn't have prevented the breakage to our pram, it wouldn't have got scraped as badly as it did.

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