Best, and worst, airlines.

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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?

Be wary of Emirates. They split up my family both ways on a return long haul flight. Left me at one end of the plane with two kids under 4 years. My husband was seated at the back on his own. They refused to help seat us together stating their policy is that only one parent needs to be sat with the child. This was despite is asking to be seated together. They were very rude and unhelpful.

I fellow passenger was flying with a toddler. Half way through the flight the toddler vomited. The Emirates staff refused to help provide tissues to help the passenger clear up the mess.

Love Singapore. Fantastic airline.

Best - Singapore, Emirates and weirdly, FinnAir (to Japan - lovely food!) Qantas were amazing, but I was in Business class so not sure what they're like in economy.

Cathay pacific were OK. Malaysia were good.

BA are hit and miss. More miss than hit I've found. I found Virgin massively underwhelming.

Worst flights have been internal US flights - 6 hour flight from California to Hawaii on an easyjet/ryan air style service with Alaska Air and return with either Delta or AA (can't remember which) was a bit grim. But then again, I was going to Hawaii so I got over it!

I don't mind easyjet or ryanair - I know what I'm getting so my expectations are low compared with a naice longhaul carrier.

Delta's business class was the bomb last time I flew with them. They were incredible, the food was delicious and the attention to detail just perfect. I'm sure the lovely lady would have given me a foot massage had II asked. Plus all the champagne I could drink. Definitely pays to dress up for the airport for Delta long haul flights.

BA - fine
Virgin upper class - fine. Had booked premium economy (club class?) because of dire experience of Virgin economy was overbooked and was bumped up as premium economy was overbooked. Whoopee.
Virgin Economy - dire - no leg room and herded like cattle
American Airways - fine
Monarch - ok .
Ryanair - always avoided until last summer when I was pleasantly surprised. They've overhauled their approach. No in flight adverts and allow 2 pieces of carry on hand luggage

The BEST - South African Airways

anyone recently flown emirates out of dubai to south asia or south east asia? twice we have flown to dubai from the uk on emirates on a near perfect flight, lovely new plane, great food, service and entertainment, onto another flight once to KL and once to Mumbai, but the second leg was an ancient plane, crap entertainment system (my screen didnt work) and it didnt matter how many times you pressed the button nobody came! not helpful when i would have needed to clamber over 2 sleeping people i didnt know to get out of my seat. I would never fly emirates out of dubai again unless going onto somewhere like australia.

also singapore airlines have a huge price jump to business and their vegetarian food was terrible in economy (maybe its better to order asian veggie on them?), air france's vegetarian food was non existent ("we dont do special meals on flights under 5 hours" or something, then they forgot my booked veggie dinner on a flight from san francisco to paris so ended up with a plate of cheese after i complained a plain baguette wasn't going to satisfy my hunger) hope this has now changed as it put me off flying with them again, despite the champagne in economy!

Recently flown a few times with Etihad pashmina and exactly the same happens: lovely flight on superduper plane to and from Abu Dhabi, much crapper plane to and from Nepal (though still okay - I like Etihad).

Qatar are amazing - economy is good but also I got upgraded once to Business Doha-London and it was like being in heaven. (Normally I'm only in Economy but I don't think all business class flights are as good as that one!)

Hate Jet with a passion and boycott them. Really terrible.

Transatlantic: I also boycotted all American carriers after a series of terrible flights and flew BA and Virgin instead (who were both fine though that was a a couple of years ago now)

I fly SH a lot with BA and Swiss and they are fine.

When in doubt I go for BA and while they are not exactly luxurious or swanky, it has always been okay, both short and longhaul.

Personally my worst experience was RyanAir - just appalling customer service. Seats were uncomfortable and old cabin. Never flown with again.

Easyjet much better now than they were, but when something really does go wrong (volcanic ash) the service is beyond appalling. Unfortunately they are rarely cheaper than other airlines for summer holiday resorts once you add baggage, so 'budget' airline very misleading.

BA short haul great, though Spanish ground staff always terrible and flights always delayed home (though easyjet flights always delayed too, so think it's a fault at Malaga). BA long haul good if you get a new plane, but not if you're in economy. Cabin crew staff hit and miss. When they're good they're outstanding but I've had plenty of really rude ones. I've found Quantas to be fine and we flew Virgin Blue in Australia and that was equally okay.

In my old job I booked travel frequently. AA was considered the worst option by many and united equally less popular. Meridiana constantly misplaced bags. Cathay and Emirates always popular

Hate British Airways. Never Again. Never.

Definitely rate Ryanair over easyJet. For me the priority is to arrive on time, safely & without fuss. Ryanair deliver on that.

EasyJet were so shit & unhelpful when we were delayed by 4 hours leaving us stranded with a then 3yo and a 6mo baby.

Will never fly on a charter / package flight agsin after dire experience with Thomson. 7hr delay & treated like shit. Took 4 years to get the compensation we were legally due.

IME best
Ryanair YES REALLY
Virgin
Singapore

Worst
American
BA

I appreciate I will be in the minority.

I'm by no means a frequent flyer but of the most recent two flights I've taken, Easyjet beats British Airways!
So much more legroom (OK, this may have been due to the type of plane but I couldn't tell you what they were) and absolutely no quibbles about any of the whole flying process from start to finish.

Kirjava - my dad frequently uses FinnAir too. He travels business but reckons its fairly good value (in comparison) and an enjoyable flight. Only negative for him is the time you wait for a stopover / catching a connecting flight, which is a bit of a pain when you're trying to save holiday and dealing with lost hours on time difference.

Emirates and BA I like. I had exceptional above and beyond service from BA when I had a family emergency.

Virgin, you couldn't pay me to go with them. Seriously awful long haul flights, cabin crew with a bad attitude and chaos at the airport.

Long haul: Best flights I have had were Malaysian Airlines and surprisingly Thomas cook were great when we flew to Florida.
Short haul: Never been disappointed by monarch.

Singapore are fabulous, especially if travelling with small children.

I've also travelled long haul with Emirates, they were also good for service but food wasn't even half as good as Singapore.

I have travelled Premium Economy long haul with Virgin Atlantic; it was pretty good although I slept through one meal service and when I woke and asked for something from the flight attendant he looked at me like 'where did you come from' and insisted on finding out where I was seated before reluctantly helping. Granted we were reasonably young but we had purposely spoiled ourselves with the upgrade.

Looking at long haul for later this year and KLM are cheapest at this stage with Virgin Atlantic a close second, so not sure who I'll go with yet.

Agree EasyJet much better than BA. Fly EasyJet a few times a year and they are great. Also had surprisingly good flights with Thomson.

I find the US airlines great if club or first, but in economy they treat you like a piece of shit. Being a socialist this doesn't sit well with me

My lesson learnt is if you are flying on your own dollar fly a European carrier. If you get stuck, because flights are delayed or cancelled, they have a legal duty of care. If you are flying with another carrier then it's all down to you (and your insurance if you have any). I was stuck in the US for a week when the icelandic volcano stopped transatlantic flights a few years ago. The difference in the ways that the passengers were treated was immense.

That said the best long haul flight I've ever been on was Air Newzealand. I also like Virgin. The worst by far was American, though United wasn't much better. When I book I always check who is actually operating the flight so that I don't end up with one of them accidentally.

best - Singapore, they were luxury
worst - Garuda (Indonesia's national airline)

but in close contention come any of the central asian national airlines I have flown with at various times.

I don't mind easyjet and rayanair, I figure its very cheap and only 1 hour/1.5 hours I don't mind. The Garuda trip was 30 hours (shudders at memory)

Best has to be Turkish Airlines
Worst for me was Etihad

Best long haul:

Singapore/Cathay by a long chalk
Malaysian/Etihad/Emirates all very good
Swiss was fine
KLM not so great
BA really great staff start to finish, old product and poor food
Garuda were dire 15 years ago but looking forward to seeing how they're doing with their new skytrax 5* rating next year
Flying Qatar over the summer and expecting great things.

I don't like Emirates. Flown twice very long haul (14 hour and 16 hour) and both were terrible. Won't fly again with them unless I have to which is awkward living in the UAE

I fly Etihad all the time, although in recent years economy has gone downhill.

I quite liked Ryanair actually, for cheap and cheerful and knowing what you;re gonna get. Much better than expected, and fine for a 2 hour flight.

Tried Ryanair once - never again. The colour scheme made me feel ill, & their 'organisation' for check-in at Manchester, & boarding at Corfu, were a complete shambles.

I like easyjet very much. Great website, reasonable flight costs, cheap extra legroom seats (& I like that you get priority service along with the space!)

Tried Monarch a few times - very average. Used to love bmibaby

Lufthansa were good both shorthaul & long - flew to NYC via Dusseldorf. Return from NYC was with United direct to Manchester & not nearly so good.

Thomas Cook to NYC from Manchester were surprisingly good - my biggest gripe was that the screen was gloss & the reflections annoyed me

Hates:
US Airlines
Delta
American Airlines
Charters (I've never had a good charter flight - now fly scheduled always!)

Fine, get what you expect:
Ryanair
Aer Lingus (but prefer Ryanair as lower expectations)
Aer Arann
BMI Baby

Good:
BA
Air France
KLM (although it's 10 years ago since my last flight with them)
Swissair (oh so pleasant!)

That's over a combination of short and long haul, Ire-UK, Ire-Europe, and various translatlantic (USA, Canada and some south American countries too), over the past 17 years.

Your own expectations and preparedness make a huge difference I find (as a family party of 10 - 4 siblings, partners/spouses and children - who all flew in the same cabin on the same flight a couple of years ago - there were very different recollections afterwards about the flight and standards!! As 1 of the 2 who had DCs, I found it fine despite being economy class for 11 hours, as did the other DSib who has a lot of airmiles clocked up -pleasant staff, decent food that was actually hot and a glass of wine served with the meal - the other DSib with DCs found it awful, as did the other with no DCs but who also didn't fly a lot).