tonyh29 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 For long haul I have to defend my beloved Air France. I've flown short haul with them but by and large I do my best to avoid them whenever I can , not just as they are French , just for the fact that the last few major crashes (least the ones that stick in memory) , Concorde and Flight 447 were both with them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Flight 447 and the pito system. Totally fooled the inexperienced co-pilot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 Flight 447 and the pito system. Totally fooled the inexperienced co-pilot. the pitot tubes gave a false reading but the crew never understood that they were stalling and consequently never applied a recovery maneuver .. I'm not sure he was inexperienced as such , it' just that pilots are not trained to manually fly aircraft anymore and rely on their instruments too much .... saying that the tubes have failed on dozens of other flights but the pilots have always retrieved the situation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdabush Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Best Qatar and then Emirates. Worst long haul I've flown with are American who still run B757s between Manchester and JFK without personal screens in the back of seats and on demand TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djdabush Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Flight 447 and the pito system. Totally fooled the inexperienced co-pilot. the pitot tubes gave a false reading but the crew never understood that they were stalling and consequently never applied a recovery maneuver .. I'm not sure he was inexperienced as such , it' just that pilots are not trained to manually fly aircraft anymore and rely on their instruments too much .... saying that the tubes have failed on dozens of other flights but the pilots have always retrieved the situation There was also the Toronto crash which was pretty much solely down to the co-pilot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Haven't been on a plane in more than 2 years now. Flying off to study in July, can't wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 If im flying long haul, then i'll always try and aim for one of Singapore Airlines, Emirates or Etihad. However, that doesnt happen very often anymore since my little boy was born. So im limited to Europe currently, and for what you get, for the price you pay, you cannot beat Ryanair. Yes its not very comfortable. Yes, the baggage process is a bit ridiculous. Yes, I too, hate the scrum like method of getting on the plane, and yes, I do not like paying £5 for a beer on the flight. But, if they continue to do fares as cheap as they currently are, then I will take all those negatives and more. For example, my son, girlfriend and I are flying into Madrid this summer so spend a month in Andalucia and Southern Portgual. The flights were £178 for the three of us. All in. Ryanair open up travel to people that would'nt ordinarily be able to afford it, and although they seem to try darn hard to mess it up, you cant knock the prices. (The hottie air hostess calender is kinda cool too!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Virgin Upper Class deserves a mention, good service. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 If im flying long haul, then i'll always try and aim for one of Singapore Airlines, Emirates or Etihad. However, that doesnt happen very often anymore since my little boy was born. So im limited to Europe currently, and for what you get, for the price you pay, you cannot beat Ryanair. Yes its not very comfortable. Yes, the baggage process is a bit ridiculous. Yes, I too, hate the scrum like method of getting on the plane, and yes, I do not like paying £5 for a beer on the flight. But, if they continue to do fares as cheap as they currently are, then I will take all those negatives and more. For example, my son, girlfriend and I are flying into Madrid this summer so spend a month in Andalucia and Southern Portgual. The flights were £178 for the three of us. All in. Ryanair open up travel to people that would'nt ordinarily be able to afford it, and although they seem to try darn hard to mess it up, you cant knock the prices. (The hottie air hostess calender is kinda cool too!) totally agree, i really dont get the gripe people have with ryanair "the bastards charged me £80 to print off my ticket"? they send you 2 email reminders, one of which 24 hours before your flight leaves telling you you need to print them off, its your own fault if you fail to do so. yes the baggage charges are a little to much, but as you say for the price of the flight, last year me and my misses flew from birmingham to barcelona (girona airport) for £65 return. the year before it cost us £80 in petrol to drive to cornwall to sit in the pissing down rain in england, or 30 degree heat of barca for less than that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knoppy1987 Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Usually travel Thai Airways when flying over to Asia from here. Quite decent. Air Asia has also been alright the one time I flew with them. Awol is right, Kingfisher seemed to employ only gorgeous women. Don't know how they got away with that. Thai Airways are great especially for a nice story in the mid-90's when an MD-11 jumped it's engines and ran into an A300 in maintenance. MD-11 was fine but the A300 was scrapped. (I'm not an Airbus fan) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usvilla Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 After using BA or American to fly home from Chicago many times, I have now started using Aer Lingus (last 2 flights) newer equipment and i fly into BHX through Dublin for same price or cheaper AA still using old 767s - 1 tv every 10 rows and headphones dont work properly BA 777 was decent but landing at BHX makes Aer Lingus worth it for me In states Southwest are probably my fave cheap airline ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.I.C.O. Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 I've never had a really bad experience on a flight, as its not really a major part of our holidays. However I can pick out a few of the best and worst. The best journeys I've had were on Oman Air from Heathrow to Muscat and then on to Dubai; they really look after you and its not a dry airline! The service was top class and the food was delicious. They simply dump loads of free stuff on you, travel/record bags, blankets, etc. Air Canada from Heathrow to Montreal was also a good journey; they have LOADS of films and the staff are pretty friendly. Lastly, true to the rather stereotypical view of their nations, Swiss and Lufthansa are always very efficient and run like clockwork! They give you lots of free stuff too! The worst journeys are pretty easy to remember but they were'nt disasterous, just inconvient. A United flight from Heathrow to Chicago was woefully late, operating a poor old knackered 747 with no in-flight entertainment. On an aside, Iberia seem to have really gone downhill recently; apart from free baggage they are just a budget airline now - you get nothing on your flight. I always resent having to get an Easyjet flight anywhere if there is no alternative as they treat their passengers like shit; you can add Monarch to that list too. I flatly refuse to give Ryanair any of my money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Can't say enough good things about Etihad. Have done 4 flights (2 connecting journeys) with them recently and each one was fantastic. The food they serve is the best airline food I've ever enjoyed, by a distance. The chairs are comfortable and the entertainment is out of this world. Recent films that I've watched on their planes include: Django Unchained, Lincoln, Argo, Silverlinings Playbook, Life of Pi, and the list goes on. That said, Dubai Airport is a state: Flying into Dubai Airport from Birmingham required us to circle the area for half an hour before landing due to some unforseen delays. Our flight out from Dubai was then delayed by half an hour due to congestion in the taxiing area. Our return flight back to Dubai required us to circle around over Dubai for an extra hour because one of the runways was closed. We very nearly missed our connecting flight, and would have done were it not for a private golf buggy waiting on hand to transport us to the next terminal. Even after all that, the departing flight was again delayed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Can't say enough good things about Etihad. Have done 4 flights (2 connecting journeys) with them recently and each one was fantastic. The food they serve is the best airline food I've ever enjoyed, by a distance. The chairs are comfortable and the entertainment is out of this world. Recent films that I've watched on their planes include: Django Unchained, Lincoln, Argo, Silverlinings Playbook, Life of Pi, and the list goes on. That said, Dubai Airport is a state: Flying into Dubai Airport from Birmingham required us to circle the area for half an hour before landing due to some unforseen delays. Our flight out from Dubai was then delayed by half an hour due to congestion in the taxiing area. Our return flight back to Dubai required us to circle around over Dubai for an extra hour because one of the runways was closed. We very nearly missed our connecting flight, and would have done were it not for a private golf buggy waiting on hand to transport us to the next terminal. Even after all that, the departing flight was again delayed. probably the extra capacity of all those Qantas flights following the Code Share thingy , might take them a while to sort it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Can't say enough good things about Etihad. Have done 4 flights (2 connecting journeys) with them recently and each one was fantastic. The food they serve is the best airline food I've ever enjoyed, by a distance. The chairs are comfortable and the entertainment is out of this world. Recent films that I've watched on their planes include: Django Unchained, Lincoln, Argo, Silverlinings Playbook, Life of Pi, and the list goes on. That said, Dubai Airport is a state: Flying into Dubai Airport from Birmingham required us to circle the area for half an hour before landing due to some unforseen delays. Our flight out from Dubai was then delayed by half an hour due to congestion in the taxiing area. Our return flight back to Dubai required us to circle around over Dubai for an extra hour because one of the runways was closed. We very nearly missed our connecting flight, and would have done were it not for a private golf buggy waiting on hand to transport us to the next terminal. Even after all that, the departing flight was again delayed. probably the extra capacity of all those Qantas flights following the Code Share thingy , might take them a while to sort it out I hope they get it sorted for this time next year. I'm flying with them to Bangkok and coming back from Christchurch NZ using them, and the possibility of missing a connecting flight would be a massive spanner in my plans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted April 9, 2013 Author Share Posted April 9, 2013 (edited) Can't say enough good things about Etihad. Have done 4 flights (2 connecting journeys) with them recently and each one was fantastic. The food they serve is the best airline food I've ever enjoyed, by a distance. The chairs are comfortable and the entertainment is out of this world. Recent films that I've watched on their planes include: Django Unchained, Lincoln, Argo, Silverlinings Playbook, Life of Pi, and the list goes on. That said, Dubai Airport is a state: Flying into Dubai Airport from Birmingham required us to circle the area for half an hour before landing due to some unforseen delays. Our flight out from Dubai was then delayed by half an hour due to congestion in the taxiing area. Our return flight back to Dubai required us to circle around over Dubai for an extra hour because one of the runways was closed. We very nearly missed our connecting flight, and would have done were it not for a private golf buggy waiting on hand to transport us to the next terminal. Even after all that, the departing flight was again delayed. Etihad? Or Emirates :-) If Emirates, then fully agree. Edited April 9, 2013 by Xela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 (edited) Can't say enough good things about Etihad. Have done 4 flights (2 connecting journeys) with them recently and each one was fantastic. The food they serve is the best airline food I've ever enjoyed, by a distance. The chairs are comfortable and the entertainment is out of this world. Recent films that I've watched on their planes include: Django Unchained, Lincoln, Argo, Silverlinings Playbook, Life of Pi, and the list goes on. That said, Dubai Airport is a state: Flying into Dubai Airport from Birmingham required us to circle the area for half an hour before landing due to some unforseen delays. Our flight out from Dubai was then delayed by half an hour due to congestion in the taxiing area. Our return flight back to Dubai required us to circle around over Dubai for an extra hour because one of the runways was closed. We very nearly missed our connecting flight, and would have done were it not for a private golf buggy waiting on hand to transport us to the next terminal. Even after all that, the departing flight was again delayed. Etihad? Or Emirates :-) If Emirates, then fully agree. Oops, yes I meant to say Emirates. So pleased with them was I that I've just booked an around the world tour for next year using them. Edited April 10, 2013 by Shillzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 Opinion on Qantas? Anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimzk5 Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Opinion on Qantas? Anyone? It stands for Queensland and northern territory's ariel service. That's as much as I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Opinion on Qantas? Anyone? It stands for Queensland and northern territory's ariel service. That's as much as I know. Didn't realise they offered a clothes washing service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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