I'd call heathrow easily the worst airport I have ever been too: And I have been to a lot of them...

Asian airlines are by far the best...I haven't had the opp to go on Lufthansa but heard they are good...

I mean on asian airlines you get food on almost every flight, individual tv screens that actually work...service is friendly, lines are pretty short at airports, and they haven't lost my luggage yet...

One time my friend and I were flying back from Paris...she was PMSing and in a really foul mood (I won't go into all the details but because of her behaviour and attitude I was not very happy with her at all). So we're waiting and waiting to board the plane (there were delays) and when we finally are able to get on 2 men in front of me get surprise upgrades. I board the plane before her, find my seat and keep waitng for her to board (she was supposed to sit behind me). I see a woman sitting in business class that from the nose up looks just like my friend. I think, 'the lucky bitch got an upgrade.' The whole flight I'm thinking that she's nice and cosy up front and not coming back to even say hello. it wasn't until I landed that I found out she was still in Paris. When she checked in the ticketing agent only gave her her reciept and not her actual boarding pass. The boarding agent was too pissed or tired to check it out. It wasn't until the plane was taxing down the runway that they found her ticket. All she had was her overnight bag with her dirty laundry. She wasn't very happy at all. Karma's a bitch.

US Airways is probably the crappiest american based airline (in my experience).

Just to comment on a few other things, airlines (us airlines at least) are not required to accomidate for hotels or the like if the delay is weather related.

Also, the pilot really can't do anything if they go illegal, it's FAA requirement, they're prohibited from working more than xxx amount of hours. In my experience, most pilots would prefer to take off before going illegal.

quote:

I'd call heathrow easily the worst airport I have ever been too: And I have been to a lot of them...

We have a whole topic about worst airports. I've never gotten why people hate Heathrow so much. I've been through there more than any other airport (not including my home airport), and I've never found them to be anything better or worse than average.

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Originally posted by Continental Op:
Nonsense. Alitalia is America's Worst Airline. And while I realize that Alitalia is, rather technically, an Italian airline, it is so horrible that its "worstness" crosses all territorial bounds. All international borders, secured and unsecured, and disputed regions crumble before the awesome might of its horridosity.

ABSOLUTELY Alitalia! I have a story that could make you cry!

quote:

Originally posted by Meghs:
ABSOLUTELY Alitalia! I have a story that could make you cry!

Alitalia prides itself on providing such stories.

quote:

Originally posted by Continental Op:

quote:

Originally posted by Meghs:
ABSOLUTELY Alitalia! I have a story that could make you cry!

Alitalia prides itself on providing such stories.

And there I was thinking that the Italians, airlines I mean not the people in general, would be more laid back then flat out lazy. Guess I shouldn't base my thought patterns on a 1994 Marisa Tomei movie.

quote:

Originally posted by Meghs:
And there I was thinking that the Italians, airlines I mean not the people in general, would be more laid back then flat out lazy.

Oh, no. When part of a union, as with Alitalia, Italians are stereotypically...Italian about the way they work.

What's your Alitalia story and how did make Marisa Tomei into a liar?

Ok Continental Op...You asked for it!

I have a friend and her sister who flew from JFK to CAI on Alitalia. They were in line to board their flight to CAI when their computers "shut off" and they couldn't board anyone for almost 3 hours until they decided to hand write boarding passes. They were somehow able to make their connecting flight, but their bags didn't arrive until the next day. They were told they couldn't locate them. Then made them go to the airport to try to identify their bags at 3am to low and behold find their luggage tags with all their information on them perfectly intact and attached to their "unidentifiable" bags.

So 3 weeks go by and they get dropped off at the airport at some ungodly hour of the morning to find out their reservations were cancelled. This is due to their computers being down in JFK which had them as no-shows for their first flight which then cancelled their return flights. They secured them on another flight home, begrudingly might I add, 3 hours after their original flight took off.

They were almost to JFK when they and 3 other rows were missed while serving breakfast. They finally got a flight attendants attention to let them know they were missed and would like breakfast. They told them they were out of food and wouldn't be able to serve them. I think once 8 hungry jet lagged pax started arguing with them they found some food and brought it to them as they were collecting everyone elses trays. Here's the good part....they waited almost an hour after they finished eating, all the while trying to get the flight attendants, to have their trays collect when the pilot comes on telling the flight attendants to prepare for landing. My friend finally gets up, collects everyones trays and brings them back to the galley. The flight attendant yells at her to go and sit back down since they were about to land. She said she just wanted to give them the trays when they said again she needed to go sit down and she repeated she was just trying to get rid of the trays. They said they couldn't take them and she needed to sit back down. She finally shoved past them into the galley and threw them on the counter and pushed passed them back to her seat just in time to buckle up and land. She said it shouldn't have suprised her to find that her bags were somewhere in Milan for 3 days.

So the moral of the story is planes really can land with tray tables down. The mystery of why the shades need to be up has still eluded me though.

And I was referencing the Marisa Tomei movie Only You when the ramp agents in Italy worked hard and fast to stop the plane so she could board to see her man. Amore!

ALITALIA!!! Yes! I flew with them 2 or 3 times- there was always a problem. One time I was stuck on a plane for about 3 hours- going absolutely mad. Every half an hour they'd announce a reason why we weren't taking off. At some point they told us that pilot didn't get to the airport yet beause he was stuck in traffick.
The best airline that I flew with so far was definelty Etihad.

I don't have any really horrible airline stories, just the usual annoying stuff. But my ex-husband told me that a few years ago on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow to LAX, he was sleeping during the landing. The flight attendant actually kicked his leg to wake him up! She thought he was russian (apparantly russians treat fellow russians poorly) and when she realized he was american, apologized profusely!

quote:

Originally posted by static:
I do hate US Air though.

Another vote from me for US Airways.

Though American might have the rudest staff. Delta's also close.

Hell, they're all bad.

quote:

Originally posted by disaster:
ALITALIA!!! Yes! I flew with them 2 or 3 times- there was always a problem. .

Phew. I'm glad the two times I've flown them - from Newark to Rome, and Rome back to Newark - everything went without a hitch. In fact, I was gleeful that I had my own personal entertainment center..I'm used to old Northwest planes that only have the big screens, so you can't pick what you want to watch.

[Now, the Newark airport ...that's a different topic.]

Shall I count myself lucky?? ;-)

I've never really had problems other than smelly awful horrible Northwest. And they're just horrible in general, not specifically evil.

But what's the BEST airline? For me, it's a not-spectacular but quite oka airline: Aer Lingus. Nobody else has bumped me to first class when I miss a flight (by a whole day) out of my own forgetfulness. They hold a special place in my heart for getting me home that day.

northwest sucks. their entertainment on overseas flights is horrible. they have three movies and thats it...and of course one of the movies is a lame kids movie and then some cheesy chick flick and maybe a somewhat decent action movie. at least united and american have individual entertainment sets on the headrests so you can choose between an almost-as-shittily-limited selection. oh, and whats with nasty hag flight attendants in the us flights? eek.