Favourite Airlines

[Dave4468]

Well, while we like to spend our time bashing airlines lets have a discussion on our favourite airlines!

In my limited experience I have to say mine has to be Emirates, solely because I flew on them to NZ and their service and facilities were great. Although the only things I have to compare them to are Jetstar and Thomas Cook, both very good LCCs and Alitalia which I remember being quite terrible service. And BA but I was 7 and all I really remember is that I flew a 747! *pines for pre 9/11 days when you could get on the flightdeck*

[slither360]

Best airline I've ever flown was IT (Kingfisher Airlines)

[castelino009]

Best airline I've ever flown was IT (Kingfisher Airlines)

BOB is that because of the mini skirt they wear 

for me its CX- service is simply outstanding (well at least when I flew them more than 5-6 yrs ago)

[slither360]

Best airline I've ever flown was IT (Kingfisher Airlines)

BOB is that because of the mini skirt they wear  

xD

And the amazing IFE and food.

[filipebravo]

Best airlines I've flown with and reasons:

TAP - I like it because I am portuguese
Lufthansa - Great customer service, very professional approach
Air Baltic - The most beautiful flight attendants

[RushmoreAir]

My favorites:

United - Out of the four airlines serving RAP (Allegiant, Delta, and American), United seems to be the friendliest and the most on-time.  Doesn't hurt that I know the Skywest/United Express airport manager.

Qantas - Great Service!  Was on a 747 LAX-MEL and a 3 week old A380 on SYD-LAX.

Mesaba Props - Even though they're now part of Delta, I love their SF340s.  They're so fun to fly.

[ArcherII]

I don't know why but AA checks all the boxes. Maybe I'm looking it from a pilot standpoint.

[EYguy]

Well... Ater dating a few f/as (they give you quite a good insight of their respective employers) I can say there are various categories:
-LH: best customer service and business class/first class concept. Also best fidelity program.
-EK: wonderful crews and aswome food. They also fly almost everywhere in the world.
-EY: best business class seat, best value for money airline, exceptional on board service and IFE.
-SQ: best looking f/a, wonderful seats in all the classes, they're just the bellweather for the whole industry.
-AZ: food, when you're on a flight leaving Italy. A few years ago I got fresh mozzarella on a flight from Italy to the USA...

Edo

[Dave4468]

-EK: wonderful crews and aswome food. They also fly almost everywhere in the world.

Yes, I was amazed at the food I got on EK, it was awesome, even better was that my girlfriend didn't want most of the puddings, the cheese and the bread.  And the big factor in flying to NZ with EK was that Singapore, Qantas and ANZ all wanted not that much to get to Auckland and wanted a ton more to get to Christchurch whereas Emirates didn't. Staff seemed variable, some were really nice and helpful, a few were useless. The staff on my flight back from DXB to LHR were pretty terrible, didn't take any notice of the orange light for service and when we did get their attention they never actually brought back what we asked for. On the other flights I even got told off by one f/a for daring to use my little call button and another just walked passed and turned it off, didn't actually ask why it was on!

[Ilyushin]

I never flew with foreign airlines... I've flown KLM (MD-11), Arkefly (737-900ER), transavia.com (737-800) and Martinair (A320 & 767-300ER)

transavia.com sometimes has pretty flight attendants

On Arkefly there was one cool steward which I had spent an hour with talking about planes, lol (I was also totally excited that day as I saw the An-225 at Schiphol ).

KLM has oooold flight attendants... but the aircraft was awesome, first flights with a PTV. Also the food is crappy.

Martinair once had one pretty lady too, but I don't remember that well. I do remember I loved their bread topped with cheese.

[alexgv1]

And BA but I was 7 and all I really remember is that I flew a 747! *pines for pre 9/11 days when you could get on the flightdeck*

Yeah I managed to do that on a Transatlantic flight in a BA 747-400 too. Also flown with Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines, nothing really stood out from any of these on the transatlantic flights. There was something special about catching a Mad Dog out of ORD though. Just a pity I was too young to appreciate these things as I would now.

A favorite airline of mine would have to be Emirates. The best passenger experience I've ever had was on EK001 flying home to LHR from DXB on an A380. The seats are so spacious, great on demand widescreen IFE, great food, friendly and motivated cabin crew. Plus the pilots let us see the A380 flight deck and were really relaxed about talking to us for a while (in fact the airport held back an extra shuttle bus just for my friend and I that we were talking so long). Their 777-300ERs were also a great experience. Their A330s were a bit dated and weren't as great.

I also love flying Turkish Airlines, whenever I fly over to Turkey I have a great experience. Even though it's usually on an A320/321 you can enjoy the 4 hour flight in comfort and there is great food and plenty of drink. I think they won a SkyTrax award for their catering last year. Nothing beats crossing Eastern Europe in the emergency exit row of A321 with some nice izgara kofte and an Efes. I've yet to catch their 777-300ER out of LHR, or use them to fly further afield. Plus I've got my Miles&Smiles card to build air miles within Star Alliance.

For my final mention I will say that I've had a nice experience with CityJet. I usually fly to Ireland with Ryanair from Luton or Stansted to Dublin or Knock. However, it turned out that I could fly with CityJet for the same price, at the time I was booking. This was great for me because I got to use London City airport, where you can get from the entrance to your plane in under 15 minutes, so cut out some hassle (and let me tell you, flying the steep approach was spectacular). It was nice to get snacks and drinks even on such a short flight. Plus for all of those who really know me on these forums, they fly Avro RJs so you will know why I was so excited. Plus the crews were very friendly and I got a flight deck visit on both legs, chatting with them for a good while. The BAe 146 proved to be a very capable aircraft. So not one of my favorite airlines (yet) but definitely thought they were worth a mention as it was something special to me.

[MRFREAK]

My Favourite airline is Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS for short)

They got good service, kind and helpful staff, especially the flight attendants and a nice aircraft livery. Unfortunately the in flight entertainment on their longhauls and their seats are outdated in their economy class. But they got new Business Class seats 1 or 2 years ago. But haven't tried those out yet   their food is absolutely fantastic, once on a flight back home from Tokyo i got some kind of bread, dunno what it's called on english, with moose meat. Absolutely fantastic and sometimes you get ICE CREAM! 

But i mostly like them because of their extrordinary service.

[MRFREAK]

transavia.com (737-800)

transavia.com sometimes has pretty flight attendants

Not to be bitchy, but i don't like Transavia.com not after they suddenly shut down their operations in Copenhagen and tried to "butt f***" alot of danish people who had booked flights that never would have left copenhagen. Then they wouldn't return the tickets or move them to another airlines except for Norwegian, but there was something about either Norwegian or Transavia who wanted a fee for that.

[Tujue]

I also love flying Turkish Airlines, whenever I fly over to Turkey I have a great experience. Even though it's usually on an A320/321 you can enjoy the 4 hour flight in comfort and there is great food and plenty of drink. I think they won a SkyTrax award for their catering last year. Nothing beats crossing Eastern Europe in the emergency exit row of A321 with some nice izgara kofte and an Efes. I've yet to catch their 777-300ER out of LHR, or use them to fly further afield. Plus I've got my Miles&Smiles card to build air miles within Star Alliance.

Until now, Turkish Airlines has offered the best service for me. Good price and service, great meal for a 45 minute flight (domestic BJV-IST). From 2000, I have flown different Dutch and Turkish charter companies and most recently (last 4 years) flown on KL, HV, LH, TK, XQ and KK flights. KL (AMS-IST v.v.) and LH (AMS-FRA v.v, FRA-IST v.v.) were a bit basic compared to what TK offered.

Not to be bitchy, but i don't like Transavia.com not after they suddenly shut down their operations in Copenhagen and tried to "butt f***" alot of danish people who had booked flights that never would have left copenhagen. Then they wouldn't return the tickets or move them to another airlines except for Norwegian, but there was something about either Norwegian or Transavia who wanted a fee for that.

Few years ago, I flew with Transavia (before they re-branded to transavia.com) between BJV and AMS. My mom forgot her handbag at the terminal and the ground crew were kind to search it and bring it to the aircraft, which had to wait for a military helicopter (Sikorsky S-70 IIRC). While I waited for the handbag, the captain started asking questions and we started to have a conversation until a F/A came and pulled me away from the cockpit door. The co-pilot shouted angrily 'what are you doing?', and the F/A simply replied that he had to do it because he wasn't sure if I was a terrorist or not (>_<')
Transavia ends second last on my list, right after Fly Air (BK'ed) with their horrible A300s.

[LemonButt]

I've only flown on 3 airlines my whole life: American (and subsidiaries), Delta (and subsidiaries), and Allegiant (LCC).  My step-father worked for American and Delta so we of course flew for free nearly my entire life.  Now that I don't have airline benefits and actually have to pay for flights (gasp), I've only flown once on Allegiant from GSP to PIE (Greenville/Spartanburg to St Peterburg/Clearwater) for the low price of $70 roundtrip.

I've been in first/business class on both American/Delta and considering the difference in price from coach, it's not worth it in my opinion unless you're 300+ pounds or 7 foot tall and can't fit into a coach seat comfortably.  Allegiant flies 20 year old MD-80's and I was very satisfied with the value.  All the frills were extra (checked bags, food, drinks, etc) and since it was less than a 2 hour flight it didn't matter.

My first flight ever was when I was a kid from CVG to DCA on a 747-400 back in 1988 and it was awesome.  Back then they gave you free decks of playing cards and let you sit in the cockpit and get your picture taken.  Oh how times have changed

I'm taking a transatlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Rome and it will probably be another cheap flight on Allegiant to get to FLL, but flying home we'll probably be flying FCO-JFK with a stop in Dublin with Aer Lingus and another cheap flight on jetBlue from JFK to CLT to get home, so I'll hopefully be able to add to the list then

[slither360]

My favorite domestic airline here in the US is United, because of Channel 9

[heromscom]

Well, I'm a big guy and so the most important thing onboard an aircraft for me is spacious seating.
I don't care about IFE, meals, etc. so much. Best thing to do during cruise is to take a nap :-)

So these are my preferred airlines:

Germany/Europe: Air Berlin (AB): Great service. Spacious seating on their A320-family. Never flown long-haul with AB. Really prefer them over LH & co.
Transatlantic: Lufthansa (LH) has been my longtime favorite. But since flights from my hometown (Stuttgart, EDDS) to the USA via Atlanta are much cheaper and more convenient, I prefer these nearly empty 767-Delta-flights. Since United/Continental started a direct flight from Stuttgart to Newark this year, I'll check out their product ;-)
South America: Well, I've only flown on TACA (TA) there. But they seem to have the most laid-back (but professional at the same time) cabin crews, that I've ever met. Additionally they used quite new Airbus narrowbodies with spacious seating.

[cht7520]

My favourite: Eva Air (BR) - nice flight attendants in every way possible, great flight entertainment as well. They let you watch films until the plane reaches the gates (I'm looking at you CI). Occasional TPE-BKK-LHR.

Second favourite: Cathay Pacific (CX) - fly them all the time for the TPE-HKG leg. Very friendly flight attendants considering the amount of the time they spend running up and down the aisles trying to feed about 400 passengers proper hot food in 40 minutes.

Least favourite: China Airlines (CI) - who on earth hires flight attendants that are old enough to be my granny?!? It's the first time ever I've seen anyone serve congee in 2 clear "layers". Water on top, rice on the bottom. But I have to fly with them...the only airline that does TPE-LHR non-stop.

[MRFREAK]

My favorite domestic airline here in the US is United, because of Channel 9

That's the ATC channel right? or is it the latin channel?

[ArcherII]

That's the ATC channel right? or is it the latin channel?

I believe it's the ATC (when it is turned on).