Mine is Emirates because of the reasonably new fleet, friendly, communicative and young cabin crew, comfortable seating, superb IFE, and choices in cuisine.

1) Singapore Airlines. Nothing.. I mean, nothing comes close! Yes.. I am very biased (Favorably towards Singapore). Even in the economy section, they give you food and drinks like they do for most airlines business class. If you get a chance to fly Singapore Airlines... grab it. They know hospitality. After you fly them you would know what you have been missing. And why they run a very profitable Airline company. I flew economy and I had a 7 hr transition in Singapore and I booked a hotel right there at the airport to get some snooze. A girl met me when I got out at Singapore and she took me to the hotel and made sure I was good to go...and then she came and woke me up when it was time to take my next segment. And this was economy.

 

 

And a distant second.

 

2) Jet Airways

 

 

I once flew Emirates (Istanbul - Dubai - Mumbai) and I noticed the flight attendants were flirting with one another in front of passengers while they were working. I thought it was very unprofessional.

 

British Airways used to be real bad...but now, they have improved quite a bit. They now have "Quasi business class section" for freq flyer economy passengers. I flew economy and I was confused when I went to sit, it was not exactly Business class and not exactly economy.. it was kind of in between, NICE!

 

I have not flown, Virgin or Qantas which I hear good things about... but not had an opportunity to fly with them.

 

Flown KLM, Luththansa...these are very good... very professional.

 

American Airlines which I fly a lot.. once ran out of food in Business class. Yes people. When I flew from Narita to DFW.. A $4500 Business class tkt compared to $700 Economy fair, actually ran out of all meat, no steak, no chicken and no fish.. They offered me Japanese noodles and an attitude to boot. The sr flt attendant told the passenger before me that they were not running a restaurant... when he complained when told all he had was fish and noodles.. and I couldn't even get mad at them (They would have arrested me a terror suspect if I had...post 911). So I went to the economy class and told the flt attendant that they ran out of food in business class.. she was embarrassed and brought me whatever they had in economy.

 

Mind you, this is a 13 hr flight not counting the 3 hrs it takes you pre boarding and they only serve one good dinner (and they messed that up), the second meal was a hot breakfast and maybe some snacks in between. They often run of stuff by the time they get to you if you are sitting in the last row.. For such an expensive fair, you would think they had some redundancy in choice of food.

Air New Zealand's 747-400's. Been on them many times in over 25 years now. It will be sad to see the 747-400 retire.

 

ANZ has great service on the long haul routes and I've always had a great experience with them.

 

Cheers

Cathay Pacific is really great for long-haul, international flights. The new business class, which I had the pleasure of riding in during a flight from Hong Kong to New York, is absolutely stunning. There are so many nice features in each seating area, and the windows were also very clean (you can see parts of the flight on my YouTube channel of the same name).

 

The Taiwanese airline EVA Air is also quite good. The service is around the same quality of that of Cathay Pacific, but the entertainment services (at least for the domestic/short-haul flights) are less extensive. The B747-400s are also painfully outdated, with CRT televisions and no personal entertainment devices.

Had a tremendous experience on South African Airlnes on a very long flight to Johannesburg from Atlanta. The attendants were beyond helpful, and extremely polite. The food was first class and the Airbus A340-600 was a pleasure in which to fly.

 

Stan

American Airlines has developed the attitude of business going bankrupt. I now fly Delta and Southwest in the States. I'm betting that American will have a new owner before long. They need it.

American Airlines has developed the attitude of business going bankrupt. I now fly Delta and Southwest in the States. I'm betting that American will have a new owner before long. They need it.

 

Are Delta and Southwest long distance players?

We used to ride Delta for intercontinental flights from the United States to Asia, but the aircraft used on these routes were very inconsistent. At least a few years ago, some of them (B747-400s) were new and featured flat beds in business, while others barely had personal entertainment features. I once rode American Airlines for the same leg in business class, and that was also quite nice, although the beds were not fully flat. The Cathay Pacific international business class tops that of all the other airlines I have ridden so far.

For me is it is Qantas.

 

One time I was flying from HK to SY in economy. By the time the dinner service got to me all they had left was fish. I said I don't eat fish and the FA said ahh ok. Hang on, I will see what I can do. It took a while but he came back with a business class steak dish. Also, I really like the fact that the FA read your name on the boarding card when boarding and welcome you aboard by name. Just feels more personal.

 

Worst international flight I have ever had was on Continental back in the days when they used to fly PPT-AKL-SYD (1988). The cabin service was like it was comedy hour in the sky. Service was pathetic!!!!

 

Craig

Singapore Airlines B777-300ER. Travelled in economy class (as always) but felt like first class compared to other airlines. I'd forgotten that airline travel could be a pleasure.

Delta is a long hauler. They took over Northwest Airlines and their 747 fleet. Southwest is continental.

 

From what I can gather, we in the U.S. put up with some pretty bad service. I don't know if its because of all the bankruptcies or what, but its hard to say that flying in this nation is pleasurable. Between TSA and an attitude displayed by some flight crews, its just not much fun anymore. Sadly, passenger train experiences are usually worse.

From what I can gather, we in the U.S. put up with some pretty bad service. I don't know if its because of all the bankruptcies or what, but its hard to say that flying in this nation is pleasurable. Between TSA and an attitude displayed by some flight crews, its just not much fun anymore. Sadly, passenger train experiences are usually worse.

 

One of the differences would be. It is very very difficult to get a job at Singapore Airlines, or Cathay Pacific etc, the people there are treated very well, paid very well, and held to a higher standard of service compared to other airlines in the world. Kind of the best of the best

 

Most other airlines (not just in the USA) are not as hard to get into, not paid as much, not held to as high a standard etc etc etc. For the traveler you get what you pay for.

 

Majority of USA and EU Airlines are 3 star rated for whatever reason, I think these airlines operate more like bus companies due to the higher volumes of passengers they handle and trying to keep competitive with each other.

 

Most of us can't afford to travel on a 5-star rated airline so it is the average Joe that gets the poor treatment. It has always been that way (even before Aviation)

 

Cheers

Asia and Oceania have some pretty decent and decently priced (mainstream) airlines. While some may not be five-star quality, the flight attendants are certainly professional and rarely rude.

 

When I was on a Cathay Pacific flight from Taipei to Hong Kong and was allowed in the cockpit before the flight, the first officer (who was from Hong Kong) told me that she actually started her career at Cathay Pacific as a second officer on the B747-400. Therefore, maybe where you're from actually correlates to how easily you get employed by a certain airline. The captain, who was Canadian, started at a Canadian regional airline before moving to Cathay Pacific.

I would have said Emirates, but they abandoned me in Manila simply because i didn't have the credit card the flight was paid with. In the end i had to book a business class flight on KLM to get back.

 

I am not sure now, they are all equally bad. I was surprised by how much Aeroflot have improved, i'm going to say Aeroflot.

Have you not ridden any of the five-star airlines? You should not judge the quality of an airline based on one experience, as airlines these days are so large that it is difficult to maintain service quality consistency throughout the world. Regardless, occasional unpleasant experiences occur with all airlines.