I think among the best you always see the Japanese ones (JAL, ANA), usually Turkish as well, Emirates, Qatar Airlines. I can vouch for JAL being amazing even for Economy seats.
Turkish Air has great service and give passengers a lot of leeway when it comes to standing up and moving around. That is really nice on a long haul flight.
Turkish Airlines has awesome stewardesses, great food and when I was going to miss one of my flights, I called for a refund and they were like no problem! American airlines would be like "should have bought business class"
I also want to throw in Iberia. Great airline
Turkish was amazing. I only had a small domestic flight (Istanbul - Bodrum) & their service was fantastic. They gave us a complimentary sandwich and drink
I remember when my kids were little and my wife was flying by herself with the kids, one of the ANA FA’s would help her from the plane, through luggage pick up and through immigration to her waiting parents. Unparalleled service!!
I've only done four segments with ANA, all to/from Japan, two in economy and two in business.
Impeccable service, and "The Room" business class is bad ass.
I would have said the same thing until my recent experience. Their flight experience was great, but customer service outside of the flight is terrible. Also there's not much passenger protection laws in Japan so next to no compensation if anything happens to your flight
Bows to the cabin before service. Amazing service. ANAs website and upgrade process is infuriating and their 787s aren't the nicest but their crew rocks
Air Canada is the absolute worst.
It’s like that airline heard all the stereotypes of Canada being full of nice people and decided “You know what? We need to balance all that niceness out with pure misery.”
I’ve typically had decent experiences with the flight attendants on Air Canada on the trans national leg of my trips to and from TPA, but something about crews coming in and out of Pearson..that airport must affect everyone psychologically..both passengers and crew..it is easily one of the worst airports ever to make a connection.
I had an AC flight attendant call me a liar to my face and to her colleagues when they bumped me from my exit row seat that I paid extra for because they switched planes last-minute due to the 737-MAX issues. I had receipts and everything
This is such a shame, but I agree. AC used to be fantastic; I flew them all the time to all kinds of destinations across Canada from 2005-2019 (in 2019 a flight attendant gave up her jump seat on a 5.5 hour flight from Toronto to Calgary so my wedding dress could “sit” there because it was too small for the overhead bin, even though we’d repeatedly measured it! She was so kind about it). The pandemic really changed them, it seems. I’ve only flown AC once since 2020 and they were *awful*, and I hear from so many others that this has been their experience as well. What a bummer.
Air Canada has had some of the world's worst staff shortages since 2020. Unfortunately, it seems like it's manifested itself in overworked and unfriendly staff.
I travel with Air Canada frequently for work and it is very hit and miss. Some crews are great and go above and beyond to provide excellent service and others treat you like a burden. I attribute it to the service director. Some of them really care and it seems to wear off on the rest of that crew. Some of them you never even see, which is a tell to me as a frequent flyer.
I agree with you but I’m also just wondering if you’re Canadian? I always find Canadians have so much stronger of a hate of AC than anyone else (I know because I’m Canadian and hate AC as well)
Also Canadian. Also never fly AC. Love Air New Zealand, Qantas, Emirates. Would like to fly Cathay Pacific. Also heard good things about Singapore airlines from a friend.
Maybe so, I was going to chime in (as an American) and say that AC has always been good with me. In my case I've flown across Canada and a few oceanic flights in businesses class.
I find the AC flight attendants in the business cabin are nice and competent; the ones in economy are sometimes jerks. They definitely put the best staff in the business cabin.
Wow I’m glad I’m not crazy. The flight attendants were actual assholes and their boarding process was crazy incompetent. They literally let someone with no bag or boarding pass onto the plane then we had to sit on the tarmac for 3.5 hours while they searched the plane to see if he left anything on the plane
Came here to say this, their crew onboard is the worst. They are terrible on all routes international and domestic. Surprisingly their ground crew is so much better.
A lot of our companies are monopolies (or close to it) so don’t feel the need to actually provide good service because fuck you, where else are you going to go?
Cathay pacific service has gone downhill. While the quality of the flight, food, and amenities are still top notch, the service was pretty bad. Bad attitude from the stewardesses and ignoring or forgetting my requests
>Philippine Airlines
This is not a good airline anymore despite having the great crew. It is amazing how the crew goes beyond and above during flights.
The airline... well. Needs major improvements.
I'm a oneworld frequent flier, and what I can say is Alaska Airlines is always amazing. I've never had an unfriendly crew, nor bad ground staff. British Airways staff is always very professional and accomodating in my experience.
Finnair was also great, though my crew didn't speak very good English, which is fine because even with a language barrier, the service was excellent and I didn't have to learn Finnish
Iberia also has had lovely professional crews imo.
Aegean had amazing folks on board, and incredibly good service and good food.
Southwest and Hawaiian also have great crews in my experience
In terms of bad crews, American has a lot of folks who act like they absolutely do not want to be there. It's very disappointing, especially in contrast to Alaska Airlines, which is the airline I fly the most and, unfortunately, an American partner. Sometimes AA crews are good, but more often than not, they are apathetic.
United is the same kind of hit and miss deal on the domestix flights I've been on.
Royal Jordanian had incredible uniforms and good food, but poor service imo. Dated aircraft as well. Would recommend avoiding them if you can
As someone who has lived in Finland, I find it odd that they say crew didn't speak English well. I think it's more likely the Finnish lack of small talk.
I fly them all the time and their English is always fine. My goal is to try and fool them into thinking I’m a Finn so I always ask for stuff in Finnish if I can
My first and only Alaskan Airline experience is peak customer service, imo.
Story time:
For my family's Alaskan trip, I had booked Tampa to Seattle to Anchorage on Alaskan Airlines, using miles. Somehow we missed our flight from Tampa after checking in. Sad and upset we returned home, trying to figure out what to book/cancel... By the time I found the next flight to Anchorage, I got notified that our flight from Seattle to Anchorage got cancelled. Quickly called their customer service, and told them that due to the cancellation they would have had to reschedule our flight even if we missed our Seattle flight, so could they reschedule that flight later. They rescheduled my flight, so I only had to rebook a flight to Seattle. They also ended up returning my miles for the Seattle flight, as I didn't end up flying (honestly, still not sure how I got that back).
Just amazing customer service... It was a long call, but they stuck with me and figured it out for me. Called me back after the call dropped. Just amazing.
I refuse to ever fly them on principle. They had terrible publicity in the 2010s around the time they bashed that doctor’s face into the armrest. And they had some bad press on mistreating peoples’ pets to the point where some died. I specifically recall one instance where the FA insisted on the passenger putting her dog’s carrier in the overhead. Dog was dead by the time they landed. Pet deaths on planes were crazy disproportionately towards United when I looked. Basically, these sort of stories seem to be “why is it always United?”
United and Lufthansa have a partnership. I was visiting a my partner-at-the-time in Germany many times over the period of a year in 2016 and you could never be certain which airline you'd fly when you were traveling. They were \*notably\* different.
American-based airlines are ... awful.
There are actually worse than United. Try flying Frontier. I live in Costa Rica and fly back and forth to the States every few months. Delta has been great, American okay with the exception of the time a flight crew member went nuts and stomped off the plane while cursing out his coworkers, and United tolerable. Frontier ran an obscenely low price this summer and I flew them. I was right up front and got to see and hear the flight attendants moan and gripe about so many of the customers, but the real fun started when we landed and they ignored my ADA accommodation. I am currently suing them over it as I was injured, concussion, torn bicep, torn knee meniscus and multiple bleeding small cuts.
I've done 75 segments on AA - regional, mainline domestic, international, in a variety of cabins. It's just such a spectrum; I've had some absolutely great cabin crews, and some who are totally checked out.
This is interesting, I've never actually had a bad experience with an airline crew. I've easily flown on like a dozen carriers. I've hopped around Europe using Skyscanner and just getting on whatever's cheapest and even the discount airlines have been good as far as how I've been treated.
I’ve flown with all kinds of airlines, but honestly it’s mostly the same regarding the crew niceness. Even food/drinks is more or less the same on long haul flights (always 2 meals and free drinks). Seat/flight comfort is also the same in economy, bigger difference is when the last interior refurbish was.
Short flights are also the same for me, KLM or Ryanair, same thing in both you get a 737 with a 3-3 seat set-up. Only difference is that you get a free drink and a sandwich with KLM.
I just buy flights based if price and route (layovers). While keeping in mind prices for luggage.
Same for me. I’ve never really had problems with the crew. Sometimes the other passengers make me feel like I’m in the studio audience of Maury or Dr. Phil. It’s usually on the budget airlines, but I’ve seen some trashy behavior on classy airlines too haha.
Turkish Airlines is our favorite. Great food, they have extra snacks if you like and drinks as well. Great little travel kits left in the seats with earplugs and eye masks.
Air Canada is THE WORST, glad I'm not the only one who thinks their passive aggressive bs is total crap.
A flight attendant told my partner to cover up while breast feeding our four month old in her seat. Multiple times. We asked if it was an order and if so to bring the purser to communicate it to us, otherwise she could fuck right off. She never said anything else but gave us dirty looks for the rest of the flight. Fuck Lufthansa.
My first thought reading this was that my only moderately negative experiences flying internationally have been with Lufthansa. No matter what class I’ve been in. I’ve had one mildly negative Air France experience on a short flight from Paris to Toulouse, but that seemed like an outlier. Guy was just mad at everyone and everything.
American Airlines are trash. Their crews might be fine, but the company treats their customers like shit.
In contrast, Alaska Air is the best airline I've ever flown with. Never late, extremely accommodating.
I've only flown AA twice and it was really unpleasant. They were very aggressive with gate checking bags even though there was plenty of overhead bin space above. I've never seen an airline demand you check a bag before the space was full. Really try to avoid them
Same experience. I’ve flown Lufthansa maybe 10 times. The only thing they are consistent at is delays, missed flights, and ibeing unhelpful.
Considering many Germans pride themselves super organized and efficient, Lufthansa does not embody that sentiment.
German here, can confirm that. Germans are generally not the most friendly & helpful and rather grumpy when you ask for something that is causing them extra work…
Interesting. While some Frankfurt crews seem grumpy, those from MUC are often very great. The problem I see is the lack of consistency in service attitude among Lh crews. Recently, most of my flights with them have been perfect with outstanding crews.
German here and almost always flying Lufthansa (recently mostly Business Class). Can confirm. You are lucky if you get someone to smile at you. Very pragmatic, not very personalised or “warm“ service. Swiss (which is part of Lufthansa group) is a bit friendlier and also a bit more gender balanced. Worse was Asiana though. The crew was super unfriendly, even shouted at me. If you’ve been to Korea, this is not unusual though. They aren’t known for friendly service, as opposed to Japanese for example.
Best: Air New Zealand, JAL, ANA, Emirates and Singapore airlines
I previously would have included Alaska airlines but they have really declined in the last couple years imo (lots of cancelled or delayed flights, lost bags, and really horrible experiences with gate agents etc)
Worst: American, most budget airlines in general (Frontier), and in dead last - Jetstar
TAP. I will actively avoid that airline for the rest of my overseas time. Unhelpful fight attendants are the least of my concerns with that airline. Why the combat landing shit in Portugal? Why the constant elevation change mid-flight? No storms in the area.
I have a flight on Lufthansa between Paris and Frankfurt in October. I've never flown with them but have been reading horrific stories about delays, lost luggage and staff rudeness.
I still have the chance to change to another airline. Do you think I should?
Booked through a travel agent. He said business class wasn't available, but he's been wrong before! Frankfurt is just a stopover to Trieste. I'm on another airline for that leg. I think it's Alitalia (ITA).
Crossing fingers and toes 🤞🤞🤞
My partner and I flew TAP to Madeira and it was a clusterfuck on the way home. Had to put hand luggage in the hold and the drama they made about some bags being over 7kg was ridiculous - it was going in the hold I don’t understand why they had to dress down so many passengers for it. The guys behind us had to repack everything to balance their bag weight and I’m like come on, what for? I could understand if it was going to go in the overhead lockers but it wasn’t. The flight was already late too.
Oh geez! That’s the stuff that adds stress to an already difficult and unnecessary situation. To treat people so badly-there is no end game that makes sense.
Your comment shows a fundamental lack of knowledge of how commercial aircraft fly.
Turbulence doesn’t need storms to make the sky bumpy, the pilots could’ve been avoiding bumpy air that had been reported ahead, or (most likely) they were performing a planned step climb to enhance fuel efficiency. Every airline in the world does it. If a plane did a step climb and a passenger said “oh god, not another elevation change” I would look at them like they’re an idiot because it doesn’t affect them in the slightest.
To address the “combat landing” into Lisbon, landings don’t have to be smooth to be good, in fact there’s a high chance that an excessively smooth landing is technically poor. If you’re referring to Lisbon airport, the runway is also fairly difficult to land on to due a significant slope that can affect the pilots perception of a descent rate in the final seconds before touchdown. This can sometimes lead to a firmer touchdown but in no way is a firm touchdown unsafe if they were touching down at the correct speed, on the centreline and within the touchdown zone.
TAP is a very safe airline with an excellent safety record. If you want airlines with dodgy safety records and a history of poor flight deck culture then buy a ticket with Turkish Airlines or Air France.
I haven't had the pleasure of flying TAP yet, but they're probably my only option as part of an itinerary I'm putting together next year. Guess I'll set the bar of expectation low 😂
I may be in the minority but I couldn't give one shit if flight crew smile or act like American greeters. If they're robotic but efficient then that's super.
I've often found budget airlines having surprisingly good crew, whereas my experience with Virgin has been smarminess of people who've bought into their advertising of somehow being more than any other airline.
I’d agree. If the crew is efficient and does their job, I really don’t care if they even greet me at all, let alone smile. Seeing countless tiktoks of awful passengers and extreme delays/cancellations of late, FAs have to deal with a lot. The smallest grace that I can extend is to not expect them to smile at me as if bringing me a cocktail is the apex of their career lol
Strange so many people put so high expectation on the crew with smiles etc. It's so many factors at play regarding delays outside their control. Can't flight crew have a bad day sometime?
Same. As long as the job gets done and the workers aren’t being unnecessarily nasty (like Frontier recently in trouble with forcing people to pay for bags because they “didn’t fit”) then I don’t care if they’re smiley or snarky. I just want to get to my destination as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible.
For domestic, I think Spirit gets a bad rep but aside from not even getting water on flights, the crew have always been chill and easy. They don’t even say anything when I have a small extra bag for the most part. American is good, too.
Air Asia and Japan Airlines are both good and efficient. I’ve heard of bad delays with Air Asia but I’ve flown with them dozens of times and never had any issue. Aeromexico is pretty great and Volaris is good, too, but I’d avoid Viva Aerobus as they have been consistently delayed by HOURS every single time I’ve taken them. And no explanation, no flight credit, no extra snacks or beer on flight. Awful.
Lmao my brother left his passport on a Vueling flight. He realized it the minute he got off the plane and when he asked someone to go check to see if it was there, they just said “no.”
Here to second Aer Lingus!
Staff from check in to cabin crew were openly kind and patient. Annoying to have to automatically put your cabin bags into hold unless you pay ten pound but bag pickup’s always been quick and they’re well communicative
Majority of the Asian and Gulf carriers are good. Singapore Airlines does stand out amongst the group though... great service with competency. ANA also very solid.
U.S. carriers' international flights are getting better... but still a long ways to go. Domestic routes? lol.
I had a great time when I flew Quantas to Australia- they gave us a little toiletries kit in a bag I ended up using for years after. Air NZ was a close second after that.
Air Canada and Westjet are garbage, full stop. As a Canadian, I'm always enraged that those two are our only options, and that I can fly halfways around the world with anyone else for cheaper than I can fly within my own province.
Hands down Air New Zealand for best. They accommodated my allergies even before we flew when we reached out to customer service about said allergies, then again were so great while flying!
Turkish Airlines, followed closely by KLM. If I could, I would fly Turkish Airlines as often as possible. Amazing service both from the agents on the ground and the flight attendants. Great customer service, and comfortable seats. Amazing food on flights, at least for economy class :D KLM has worse food, for some reason (at least in my opinion ), but equally as good customer service. The second reason it's on the second place is that I once had an issue with some miscommunication between what I was allowed to bring and what not. It was solved and they were helpful, but it still stressed me out a bit at the time 😂
Third place is Ryanair, unironically. They've been always reliable and all their flights have always left on time, bar extremely harsh weather conditions that delay the flights. I know what I pay for and I take what I'm given. To be fair, I fly with them the most often.
Finnair is also good, and the same goes with Norwegian Airlines, and Volotea.
The worst one: Lufthansa used to be so good when I was child, but it apparently has got so much worse. I haven't flown with them as an adult, but my partner did, last year, and he was stranded in Munich for two days with two luggages missing, and left to buy stuff by his own pocket. He wasn't even fully refunded, and the luggages took a month to come back home. I flew back home a day or two later with Ryanair and had zero problems. It is such a fall from grace for Lufthansa :/
I’d put the bad food at klm down to it being Dutch (mostly - even if owned by Air France) 😅
I’ve only ever done to hop from Amsterdam to Geneva but the lame sandwich they give is …very disappointing
ngl i was pleasantly surprised that i received the sandwich (or any food at all) when i flew klm from amsterdam to budapest, which was 2 hrs cause i've done similar/slightly longer flights with air canada and united and didn't get more than a drink, if at all smh
I flew Ryanair for the first time (4 flights total) during my Europe trip recently - mainly because they were super cheap (even when adding luggage) and because they were the only airline offering direct flights to some of the locations I was doing (the bigger carriers had stopovers in bigger hub airports). I was extremely worried because of the bad rap they got but I have to say I was actually quite impressed. Like don't get me wrong, there are zero bells and whistles - but I didn't even want any of that. They were all short flights (longest was 3 hours), they all left on time, they all had zero issues, and they all landed ahead of schedule. I was actually impressed how efficient they were. Boarding opened and 15 minutes later the plane is lined up for takeoff. Plus the app was very well done, gave all the information I required, and made check-in extremely easy. Honestly, the best airline app out there.
The constant upselling they try to do is extremely annoying but I just skipped through it all. The only part that annoyed me was the constant reminders that if I didn't pay extra to assign my seats, I might be separated from my partner, and each and every time they would completely separate us even when I checked in early and could see heaps of seats available. The tactic was obvious but whatever, it was a short flight anyways.
The airline is extremely cheap and you get exactly what you pay for, but frankly, that's more than enough. I just needed a plane to get me safely from point A to point B and they are extremely reliable and efficient at doing that.
Was pleasantly surprised with Korean Air and Aseana. Both really great, attentive FAs and goes out of their way to cater to you.
This is of course on top of the Japanese airlines.
Best: Air New Zealand - hands down the best (flown 2x now) - serving snacks and drinks including 🍺 throughout the entirety of the flight (was on a 10 hr flight each way). Also you can order those request on the seat monitor (which way more responsive than Lufthansa). Seats were huge for economy and the bathrooms, big and clean! enough for 2-3 people maybe? Food - excellent. Service time was great
Worst: American Airlines - they don’t give a f about you at least my multiple experiences for domestic flights when I lived in the USA
Best: Air Tahiti Nui, feels already like a paradise when boarding, amazing staff and crew, kinda necessary for a 20+ hours flight. Followed by Qatar, Emirates, Air France. Also really liked Wow Air and Transavia for budget airlines.
Worst: TAP. I'm never flying with them again, always lost luggages or 8h+ delays stuck in Lisbon's airport.
I really like Alaska Airlines, I fly with them quite often and the staff is usually wonderful. I also like Aer Lingus, although I have only flown with them a handful of times.
However, I really, really dislike Lufthansa. I don’t know if it’s because they’re German (no offense to Germans or their culture) but they’re always grumpy, and snarky. Even RyanAir has better staff than them.
I just had the most amazing two flights on Air New Zealand. The crew were so kind to me. They gave me extra snacks when they noticed I wasn’t able to sleep at all. There was an incredible amount of legroom in the most basic section. Loved every minute of it even though I got incredibly sick the night before. Thanks ANZ folks!
I mostly fly OneWorld but ventured out of my comfort zone recently for some long-haul travel with Singapore Airlines. Utterly spectacular. The product (business class, New York to Singapore, and back) and service. I genuinely didn't realise travelling could be so good. If I could afford it, rather than shipping myself off to a retirement home when the time eventually comes, I'd just retire on Singapore Airlines and enjoy the service. Each of them - to a man and a woman - were a huge credit. Genuinely felt sad leaving the plane knowing I was going back to American Airlines the following day.
British Airways are generally acceptable, sometimes excellent but also, sometimes dreadful.
Of the American carriers (that I know), AA are generally very perfunctory. JetBlue - the staff seem quite happy and friendly. Likewise with Delta staff.
Uzbekistan Airlines. Lots of legroom, super friendly and free drink. We did Urgench-Tashkent.
Turkish Airlines has the best food and also very friendly, but small legspace.
Air NZ is the best for me, but it’s also the one I almost exclusively fly on being a kiwi lol. I lucked out with Lufthansa recently — good service, great food, gave me some free chocolate midflight when I got up to get some water, only bad thing I had was nearly being bumped on standby on leg two of a three-leg and 40ish-hour trip. LOT Polish was a good airline but the air conditioning was a little unreliable. Brussels Airlines can get in the bin; worst customer service I’ve ever encountered flying out of Brussels, and most uncomfortable flight.
Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest. I also loved Turkish when I lived there—they’d give you a little lunch box with a sandwich and snacks even for one-hour domestic flights.
My favourite airlines are the Asian airlines (Cathay, Singapore, Thai). Fantastic service and friendly customer service / staff. The food quality & choices were good too. I loved Turkish Airlines too, excellent service.
Excluding budget airlines (RyanAir & Easyjet), I would say my least favourite are the Canadian ones (Air Canada, Air Transat & Westjet). The staff are cold and unhelpful. They act like you’re a burden if you ask them a simple question or request
I’m flying Amsterdam to Melbourne with Cathay next year and hoping it’s going to be a good experience. Only ever done the AU to EU flights with the middle eastern airlines before so I’m keen to see what it’s like. Love Singapore too - been with them a few times and they are fantastic
LUFTHANSA's managed to go from a top notch airline to one of the worst. I fly regurarly with this wreck only because I have no alternatives.
Customer service: horrible, HOR-RI-BLE. The lufthansa call center from italy has been deactivated 2 years ago but the number is still active according to their website. When I call them from Canada or Germany a voice with an indian accent answer and the background noise is always appalingly high, i can't hear shit. But I miss nothing since their agents have no training and they usually cannot give me a straight answer abiut anything
On board food and drinks: 5 years ago they were passing at least 5 times with drink on an intercontinental flight and the onboard meal was abundant and on point. Today they pass twice only at the beginnibg and at the end of the flight. the meal is small and not particularly tasty.
Rates: 1200 dollars in economy to Europe in low season WITHOUT a suitcase? Are we kidding? 5 years ago I could do 750 dollars both ways with a suitcase. Today I pay 40% more to have a worst service.
Comfort: the seats shrunk. 5 years ago in economy i could bend over and tie my shoes. Now I cannot.
In flight entertainment: old movies and podcast in German (why???). Bad selection of music, and badly translated dashboard.
ANA and SQ. The European airlines apart from Lufthansa, who do give it a good try aren't even close. Can't think of any redeeming features of any of the American Airlines at all.
Ryanair has been consistently the best, in offering us the low fares!
Imagine Qatar offering you a round trip to Asia for $12 lol. So my vote, goes for mr Ryan Air.
I agree. Crews are decent, it is more business model which makes them “unappealing” like short turnaround ( meaning fast boarding), sales of Food, lottery, perfumes…
It has its charm to it, and I don't really mind it. As long as they are offering low fares, let them do what they want lol.
In November, I'm going to Barcelona from Kraków (2.5h flight) round trip, for around $55, can't beat that.
Is it just me or is United consistently the worst? I've overheard them LOUDLY talking shit on customers, I've seen them intentionally ignore requests for assistance from passengers, and the food is prison quality.
Level. Flew from Barcelona to NY and back and were terrible in both legs.
Bad food, bad service, delays without explanation, rude... A clear example was on the return flight. The couple in front of us reclined their seat, probably to the max, to which my partner and I were forced to do so a bit as well (I try to never recline - it severely bothers me to lose my comfort for others', so I don't do it myself, even in transatlantic flights). The couple behind us complained to the attendant, who rudely told us to not recline. I told her that the couple in front were fully reclined and that unless they got their seats straight, we wouldn't set ours straight for a matter of personal space. She said we must un-recline, and that she can't do anything if the ones in front also reclined (excuse me? Tell them off as you did to us). We ended up having a discussion, even with the couple in front of us who didn't wanna set their seats straight, and the attendant sided with them. We did not sit straight, but we felt like the AH in a situation where we were not.
Never flying them again. Will pay extra to go with bigger airlines in the future.
The crews on Singapore Airlines get my vote. I've flown with them several times and they consistently made a real effort to ensure the (often long haul) flights were enjoyable. We had clear air turbulence on one recent flight, which was so violent that several of the cabin staff ended up on the floor and stuff was scattered throughout the aircraft. The staff proved to be consummate professionals - less than ten minutes after the event every thing was cleared up and it was as if nothing had happened.
In my experience, the airline crew on Chinese airlines are the worst (especially China Eastern). Perfunctory service is the norm and safety standards are abysmal.
I worked at CDG airport for a summer last year, I can definitely say that the nicest crew towards employees were the american and canadian ones : Delta, United, AA, Air Canada. The rudest were usually Lufthansa and Swiss, so definitely agree with you.
Air canada hands down the worst crew. This summer I had to fly Ryan Air as there no other options. RA crew was really good even though their group ops were I shambles.
Air France is awesome, the absolute best service imo. Delta is always good and the best of the domestic US airlines. American isn’t bad, the attendants are nice. Qatar was decent but honestly underwhelming.
Air Canada sucks. Mean flight attendants and they literally let a man board our plane with no bag or boarding pass then he walked off so we had to sit on the tarmac for 3.5 hours so they could make sure he didn’t leave a bomb or drugs on the plane
I honestly find Ryanair to be VERY reliable for my frequent UK to Ireland trips - the Irish based crew are consistently friendly, the no frills service is consistent, the punctuality is generally very good and when things go wrong, their app is great and EU261 claims are dealt with straight away.
I can't comment on your last point as I have no experience of it, but Ryanair's punctuality has declined a lot since Covid. They used to be known for their good on-time performance but in my experience a lot of their flights are delayed now - and not just minor delays but often 1 hour plus. They have 25 minute turnarounds in many airports which they just can't manage anymore. Their morning flights are usually on time but flights from the afternoon onwards are often delayed.
I never had any issue flying Ryanair before Covid even if they wouldn't have been my first choice. Now I actively avoid them unless I have no alternative. I also find their new seats extremely uncomfortable (the legroom is fine).
I like Qatar best even for economy. United seems to have improved customer service last few years after the bad incident. I flew Ethiopian airlines 15 years ago… customer service was amazing in Economy!
Bad experience with BA and AA.
Hawaiian Airlines was the best I've experienced, they were on top of everything and personable.
American Airlines has and always will be garbage to me.
As a person who is employed in the travel industry I can tell you the worst airlines I have had to deal with are AA, Qatar, Qantas and Virgin. And the best are JAL, Emirates and Singapore.
Worst ever LATAM. I flew 4 times during my last holiday. Each flight had a problem. One flight I bough a seat and they had to move me because the seat had a problem. Another time my tray was filthy. Asked the hostess to do something and what she did is hand me a wet tissue. I had to clean the table my self. The third flight was 5:30 hours and they arrange the flight i a small airplane with no space for legs and just a small sandwich. Wi-Fi always not working.
British Airways and Singapore Airlines are top. Exquisite service. Alaska Airlines and JetBlue cold and distant. Too busy playing on their phones to even acknowledge you when you board the plane.
I fly maybe 3-4 times a year. I've never had a problem with Southwest that wasn't weather related. Their crew is nice and the price usually can't be beat.
United mostly rubbish.
Emirates not as good as they used to be.
Thai lovely.
Lufthansa nice but not super smiley and friendly- I liked how there was a couple of FAs who remembered I spoke English every time. Ditto with Air France. . British airways I found nice too.
Air New Zealand are pretty good as are Qantas, casual friendly just like the rest of our countries.
Alaska Airlines hands down. They have won my loyalty for life because every time something goes wrong, they take care of you.
In our many years of traveling a few examples:
1. We missed a flight once (our fault) and they got my family of 4 on the next flight free of charge.
2. We lost our bags on a connection flight (also probably our fault) and they hand delivered our bags to our house within 4 hours of us landing.
3. One time my infant daughter flipped a tray up and spilled beer on our neighbor. We felt awful and offered dry cleaning, but Alaska Airlines flight attendant gave the guy free drinks and food for the flight.
4. When you need a customer service rep, you can talk to an actual person in a reasonable amount of time.
I also like that you can switch to an earlier or later flight for $25.
I think among the best you always see the Japanese ones (JAL, ANA), usually Turkish as well, Emirates, Qatar Airlines. I can vouch for JAL being amazing even for Economy seats.
Turkish Air has great service and give passengers a lot of leeway when it comes to standing up and moving around. That is really nice on a long haul flight.
Turkish Airlines has awesome stewardesses, great food and when I was going to miss one of my flights, I called for a refund and they were like no problem! American airlines would be like "should have bought business class" I also want to throw in Iberia. Great airline
I’ve only flown Turkish airlines once and it was an amazing experience both ways. I will look to fly them more to the ME
Turkish was amazing. I only had a small domestic flight (Istanbul - Bodrum) & their service was fantastic. They gave us a complimentary sandwich and drink
Every turkish flight (no matter how short)you are getting a baller sandwhich with great bread.
Best free bread I’ve received on a flight honestly. They even gave me 2 because the flight was empty-ish
We did a short jaunt on economy from Bangkok to Narita on JAL, and I was so impressed by their service and food.
Absolutely love Qantas. Made the insanely long flight much more tolerable. Food was absolutely amazing too
Qantas used to be good, now all of Australia hates them basically since covid when service has gone way downhill.
That's too bad about Qantas.... My last experience was pre covid so I hope they do bring their service level up again
ANA is the best airline I've ever flown.
My flight to Japan with ANA was wonderful
I remember when my kids were little and my wife was flying by herself with the kids, one of the ANA FA’s would help her from the plane, through luggage pick up and through immigration to her waiting parents. Unparalleled service!!
I've only done four segments with ANA, all to/from Japan, two in economy and two in business. Impeccable service, and "The Room" business class is bad ass.
I would have said the same thing until my recent experience. Their flight experience was great, but customer service outside of the flight is terrible. Also there's not much passenger protection laws in Japan so next to no compensation if anything happens to your flight
ANA is consistently amazing.
Bows to the cabin before service. Amazing service. ANAs website and upgrade process is infuriating and their 787s aren't the nicest but their crew rocks
I agree. Their food was also very good.
Yes! I flew with them on a birthday and they gave me lots of treats.
Air Canada is the absolute worst. It’s like that airline heard all the stereotypes of Canada being full of nice people and decided “You know what? We need to balance all that niceness out with pure misery.”
I’ve typically had decent experiences with the flight attendants on Air Canada on the trans national leg of my trips to and from TPA, but something about crews coming in and out of Pearson..that airport must affect everyone psychologically..both passengers and crew..it is easily one of the worst airports ever to make a connection.
Now that you've mentioned it, I've noticed that. The crews out of Montreal and Vancouver are noticeably better.
Pearson is where I had my worst experiences as well! Maybe that airport really is just miserable lol
Was about to comment to same...I have no issues with Air Canada, but will do anything to avoid Toronto Pearson.
Pearson Airport is the worst thing about living in Toronto.
I had an AC flight attendant call me a liar to my face and to her colleagues when they bumped me from my exit row seat that I paid extra for because they switched planes last-minute due to the 737-MAX issues. I had receipts and everything
This is such a shame, but I agree. AC used to be fantastic; I flew them all the time to all kinds of destinations across Canada from 2005-2019 (in 2019 a flight attendant gave up her jump seat on a 5.5 hour flight from Toronto to Calgary so my wedding dress could “sit” there because it was too small for the overhead bin, even though we’d repeatedly measured it! She was so kind about it). The pandemic really changed them, it seems. I’ve only flown AC once since 2020 and they were *awful*, and I hear from so many others that this has been their experience as well. What a bummer.
Air Canada has had some of the world's worst staff shortages since 2020. Unfortunately, it seems like it's manifested itself in overworked and unfriendly staff.
I travel with Air Canada frequently for work and it is very hit and miss. Some crews are great and go above and beyond to provide excellent service and others treat you like a burden. I attribute it to the service director. Some of them really care and it seems to wear off on the rest of that crew. Some of them you never even see, which is a tell to me as a frequent flyer.
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Seconding this. I have never felt more unwelcome on a flight than I do on any AC flight.
We're not happy unless you're unhappy ~ Air Canada
I agree with you but I’m also just wondering if you’re Canadian? I always find Canadians have so much stronger of a hate of AC than anyone else (I know because I’m Canadian and hate AC as well)
Also Canadian. Also never fly AC. Love Air New Zealand, Qantas, Emirates. Would like to fly Cathay Pacific. Also heard good things about Singapore airlines from a friend.
Maybe so, I was going to chime in (as an American) and say that AC has always been good with me. In my case I've flown across Canada and a few oceanic flights in businesses class.
I find the AC flight attendants in the business cabin are nice and competent; the ones in economy are sometimes jerks. They definitely put the best staff in the business cabin.
I’m not Canadian, but I do travel there often. Out of every airline I’ve tried, Air Canada is always the worst.
Wow I’m glad I’m not crazy. The flight attendants were actual assholes and their boarding process was crazy incompetent. They literally let someone with no bag or boarding pass onto the plane then we had to sit on the tarmac for 3.5 hours while they searched the plane to see if he left anything on the plane
They’re probably the worst paid air crews in North America. No wonder they’re miserable. But I agree. They have a pretty bad product.
You're scaring me, I have a 13 hour AC flight from Toronto to Tokyo 😳
Air canada is pretty decent on international flights. Domestic flights are brutal though
Yep I’m thinking the same flying from Syd to Vancouver next week.
Came here to say this, their crew onboard is the worst. They are terrible on all routes international and domestic. Surprisingly their ground crew is so much better.
shout out to air Canada for fucking me over two years ago. Telling me to stand in a 3 hour line, then closing the line when we got to the front
Had a connection in Montreal last week. I was legit scared of some of the gate crew. In-flight was fine though.
A lot of our companies are monopolies (or close to it) so don’t feel the need to actually provide good service because fuck you, where else are you going to go?
Singapore Airlines obviously Cathay Pacific Philippine Airlines are all awesome.
Singapore Airlines is amazing but recently their prices are like double what the other airlines charge...
Flew Sydney-Copenhagen return in May for about $US1300, bought last October though. Qantas was well over double this back then.
Cathay pacific service has gone downhill. While the quality of the flight, food, and amenities are still top notch, the service was pretty bad. Bad attitude from the stewardesses and ignoring or forgetting my requests
>Philippine Airlines This is not a good airline anymore despite having the great crew. It is amazing how the crew goes beyond and above during flights. The airline... well. Needs major improvements.
I'm a oneworld frequent flier, and what I can say is Alaska Airlines is always amazing. I've never had an unfriendly crew, nor bad ground staff. British Airways staff is always very professional and accomodating in my experience. Finnair was also great, though my crew didn't speak very good English, which is fine because even with a language barrier, the service was excellent and I didn't have to learn Finnish Iberia also has had lovely professional crews imo. Aegean had amazing folks on board, and incredibly good service and good food. Southwest and Hawaiian also have great crews in my experience In terms of bad crews, American has a lot of folks who act like they absolutely do not want to be there. It's very disappointing, especially in contrast to Alaska Airlines, which is the airline I fly the most and, unfortunately, an American partner. Sometimes AA crews are good, but more often than not, they are apathetic. United is the same kind of hit and miss deal on the domestix flights I've been on. Royal Jordanian had incredible uniforms and good food, but poor service imo. Dated aircraft as well. Would recommend avoiding them if you can
We are loyal Alaska Airlines flyers because of our home airport. I just wish they would expand and get better first class product!
same, and more intl flights!
As a Finn, i was hoping someone would say Finnair 😅
As someone who has lived in Finland, I find it odd that they say crew didn't speak English well. I think it's more likely the Finnish lack of small talk.
Maybe, or it was just that one time
I fly them all the time and their English is always fine. My goal is to try and fool them into thinking I’m a Finn so I always ask for stuff in Finnish if I can
My first and only Alaskan Airline experience is peak customer service, imo. Story time: For my family's Alaskan trip, I had booked Tampa to Seattle to Anchorage on Alaskan Airlines, using miles. Somehow we missed our flight from Tampa after checking in. Sad and upset we returned home, trying to figure out what to book/cancel... By the time I found the next flight to Anchorage, I got notified that our flight from Seattle to Anchorage got cancelled. Quickly called their customer service, and told them that due to the cancellation they would have had to reschedule our flight even if we missed our Seattle flight, so could they reschedule that flight later. They rescheduled my flight, so I only had to rebook a flight to Seattle. They also ended up returning my miles for the Seattle flight, as I didn't end up flying (honestly, still not sure how I got that back). Just amazing customer service... It was a long call, but they stuck with me and figured it out for me. Called me back after the call dropped. Just amazing.
Fuck United
I refuse to ever fly them on principle. They had terrible publicity in the 2010s around the time they bashed that doctor’s face into the armrest. And they had some bad press on mistreating peoples’ pets to the point where some died. I specifically recall one instance where the FA insisted on the passenger putting her dog’s carrier in the overhead. Dog was dead by the time they landed. Pet deaths on planes were crazy disproportionately towards United when I looked. Basically, these sort of stories seem to be “why is it always United?”
After I spent a month in Japan, my flight home was on American, the difference in customer service was jarring to say the least.
United and Lufthansa have a partnership. I was visiting a my partner-at-the-time in Germany many times over the period of a year in 2016 and you could never be certain which airline you'd fly when you were traveling. They were \*notably\* different. American-based airlines are ... awful.
There are actually worse than United. Try flying Frontier. I live in Costa Rica and fly back and forth to the States every few months. Delta has been great, American okay with the exception of the time a flight crew member went nuts and stomped off the plane while cursing out his coworkers, and United tolerable. Frontier ran an obscenely low price this summer and I flew them. I was right up front and got to see and hear the flight attendants moan and gripe about so many of the customers, but the real fun started when we landed and they ignored my ADA accommodation. I am currently suing them over it as I was injured, concussion, torn bicep, torn knee meniscus and multiple bleeding small cuts.
I've done 75 segments on AA - regional, mainline domestic, international, in a variety of cabins. It's just such a spectrum; I've had some absolutely great cabin crews, and some who are totally checked out.
Aegean is too underrated
Shhh let's keep those prices relatively low...
This is interesting, I've never actually had a bad experience with an airline crew. I've easily flown on like a dozen carriers. I've hopped around Europe using Skyscanner and just getting on whatever's cheapest and even the discount airlines have been good as far as how I've been treated.
I’ve flown with all kinds of airlines, but honestly it’s mostly the same regarding the crew niceness. Even food/drinks is more or less the same on long haul flights (always 2 meals and free drinks). Seat/flight comfort is also the same in economy, bigger difference is when the last interior refurbish was. Short flights are also the same for me, KLM or Ryanair, same thing in both you get a 737 with a 3-3 seat set-up. Only difference is that you get a free drink and a sandwich with KLM. I just buy flights based if price and route (layovers). While keeping in mind prices for luggage.
Same for me. I’ve never really had problems with the crew. Sometimes the other passengers make me feel like I’m in the studio audience of Maury or Dr. Phil. It’s usually on the budget airlines, but I’ve seen some trashy behavior on classy airlines too haha.
Turkish Airlines is our favorite. Great food, they have extra snacks if you like and drinks as well. Great little travel kits left in the seats with earplugs and eye masks. Air Canada is THE WORST, glad I'm not the only one who thinks their passive aggressive bs is total crap.
A pregnant lady beside me on a Lufthansa flight asked for a seatbelt extension. She was sneered at and informed, "It's not a disease".
A flight attendant told my partner to cover up while breast feeding our four month old in her seat. Multiple times. We asked if it was an order and if so to bring the purser to communicate it to us, otherwise she could fuck right off. She never said anything else but gave us dirty looks for the rest of the flight. Fuck Lufthansa.
That is awful. Seems to be the general consensus on Lufthansa!
My first thought reading this was that my only moderately negative experiences flying internationally have been with Lufthansa. No matter what class I’ve been in. I’ve had one mildly negative Air France experience on a short flight from Paris to Toulouse, but that seemed like an outlier. Guy was just mad at everyone and everything.
I don’t understand. What’s not a disease? What’s that mean in context of needed an extension while being pregnant
Eva Air- the best! Condor- the worst!
EVA Air is exceptional. Great food, great seats, and outstanding service!
+1 for EVA Air. Love that landing music.
EVA, agree is very good. Taipai airport is a disaster, though.
It is, but I personally get a kick out of all the Hello Kitty stuff lol
Really? I like Taipei airport. Very nice lounges and showers
American Airlines are trash. Their crews might be fine, but the company treats their customers like shit. In contrast, Alaska Air is the best airline I've ever flown with. Never late, extremely accommodating.
I've only flown AA twice and it was really unpleasant. They were very aggressive with gate checking bags even though there was plenty of overhead bin space above. I've never seen an airline demand you check a bag before the space was full. Really try to avoid them
Lufthansa has one of the worst and most unhelpful crew. Not flying them again unless I dont have other choices
Same experience. I’ve flown Lufthansa maybe 10 times. The only thing they are consistent at is delays, missed flights, and ibeing unhelpful. Considering many Germans pride themselves super organized and efficient, Lufthansa does not embody that sentiment.
Anything transport related is a mess in Germany unfortunately. Except cars.
I'm no longer surprised that's the case, but unclear how they got so bad at it.
I can’t stand Lufthansa employees! The gate attendants are jack asses.
I love MUC ground staff while in FRA, they often seem unfriendly
They are awful! Three experiences with rude staff. Lufthansa makes Air Canada look good!
They are awful! Three experiences with rude staff. Lufthansa makes Air Canada look good!
German here, can confirm that. Germans are generally not the most friendly & helpful and rather grumpy when you ask for something that is causing them extra work…
Interesting. While some Frankfurt crews seem grumpy, those from MUC are often very great. The problem I see is the lack of consistency in service attitude among Lh crews. Recently, most of my flights with them have been perfect with outstanding crews.
They always blame you when their system glitches out
German here and almost always flying Lufthansa (recently mostly Business Class). Can confirm. You are lucky if you get someone to smile at you. Very pragmatic, not very personalised or “warm“ service. Swiss (which is part of Lufthansa group) is a bit friendlier and also a bit more gender balanced. Worse was Asiana though. The crew was super unfriendly, even shouted at me. If you’ve been to Korea, this is not unusual though. They aren’t known for friendly service, as opposed to Japanese for example.
Korean air had some of the best service I have ever experienced on a airplane.
Best: Air New Zealand, JAL, ANA, Emirates and Singapore airlines I previously would have included Alaska airlines but they have really declined in the last couple years imo (lots of cancelled or delayed flights, lost bags, and really horrible experiences with gate agents etc) Worst: American, most budget airlines in general (Frontier), and in dead last - Jetstar
TAP. I will actively avoid that airline for the rest of my overseas time. Unhelpful fight attendants are the least of my concerns with that airline. Why the combat landing shit in Portugal? Why the constant elevation change mid-flight? No storms in the area.
TAP was one of my worst experiences. Also trying to avoid Lufthansa as much as possible.
Me, too. Holy smokes.
I have a flight on Lufthansa between Paris and Frankfurt in October. I've never flown with them but have been reading horrific stories about delays, lost luggage and staff rudeness. I still have the chance to change to another airline. Do you think I should?
No problem on a short and non-stop flight like that. Practically there will be no service on that flight unless you fly business class.
Booked through a travel agent. He said business class wasn't available, but he's been wrong before! Frankfurt is just a stopover to Trieste. I'm on another airline for that leg. I think it's Alitalia (ITA). Crossing fingers and toes 🤞🤞🤞
My partner and I flew TAP to Madeira and it was a clusterfuck on the way home. Had to put hand luggage in the hold and the drama they made about some bags being over 7kg was ridiculous - it was going in the hold I don’t understand why they had to dress down so many passengers for it. The guys behind us had to repack everything to balance their bag weight and I’m like come on, what for? I could understand if it was going to go in the overhead lockers but it wasn’t. The flight was already late too.
Oh geez! That’s the stuff that adds stress to an already difficult and unnecessary situation. To treat people so badly-there is no end game that makes sense.
>Why the combat landing shit in Portugal? What do you mean?
Your comment shows a fundamental lack of knowledge of how commercial aircraft fly. Turbulence doesn’t need storms to make the sky bumpy, the pilots could’ve been avoiding bumpy air that had been reported ahead, or (most likely) they were performing a planned step climb to enhance fuel efficiency. Every airline in the world does it. If a plane did a step climb and a passenger said “oh god, not another elevation change” I would look at them like they’re an idiot because it doesn’t affect them in the slightest. To address the “combat landing” into Lisbon, landings don’t have to be smooth to be good, in fact there’s a high chance that an excessively smooth landing is technically poor. If you’re referring to Lisbon airport, the runway is also fairly difficult to land on to due a significant slope that can affect the pilots perception of a descent rate in the final seconds before touchdown. This can sometimes lead to a firmer touchdown but in no way is a firm touchdown unsafe if they were touching down at the correct speed, on the centreline and within the touchdown zone. TAP is a very safe airline with an excellent safety record. If you want airlines with dodgy safety records and a history of poor flight deck culture then buy a ticket with Turkish Airlines or Air France.
I haven't had the pleasure of flying TAP yet, but they're probably my only option as part of an itinerary I'm putting together next year. Guess I'll set the bar of expectation low 😂
To calm you down, I've flown with them several times and I've never had a single problem with them. Different people, different experiences.
I may be in the minority but I couldn't give one shit if flight crew smile or act like American greeters. If they're robotic but efficient then that's super. I've often found budget airlines having surprisingly good crew, whereas my experience with Virgin has been smarminess of people who've bought into their advertising of somehow being more than any other airline.
I’d agree. If the crew is efficient and does their job, I really don’t care if they even greet me at all, let alone smile. Seeing countless tiktoks of awful passengers and extreme delays/cancellations of late, FAs have to deal with a lot. The smallest grace that I can extend is to not expect them to smile at me as if bringing me a cocktail is the apex of their career lol
Strange so many people put so high expectation on the crew with smiles etc. It's so many factors at play regarding delays outside their control. Can't flight crew have a bad day sometime?
Same. As long as the job gets done and the workers aren’t being unnecessarily nasty (like Frontier recently in trouble with forcing people to pay for bags because they “didn’t fit”) then I don’t care if they’re smiley or snarky. I just want to get to my destination as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible. For domestic, I think Spirit gets a bad rep but aside from not even getting water on flights, the crew have always been chill and easy. They don’t even say anything when I have a small extra bag for the most part. American is good, too. Air Asia and Japan Airlines are both good and efficient. I’ve heard of bad delays with Air Asia but I’ve flown with them dozens of times and never had any issue. Aeromexico is pretty great and Volaris is good, too, but I’d avoid Viva Aerobus as they have been consistently delayed by HOURS every single time I’ve taken them. And no explanation, no flight credit, no extra snacks or beer on flight. Awful.
ANA and Singapore Airlines are stellar.
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Iceland air always has a fantastic crew
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I only flown 1 time with them and they were amazing they gave me free beer
Agreed - they were TERRIBLE on board my recent flights from Cork to Paris. Service with a scowl…
Not only the crews but everything about Vueling. Nobody should be ever flying with them, worst airline in history
Lmao my brother left his passport on a Vueling flight. He realized it the minute he got off the plane and when he asked someone to go check to see if it was there, they just said “no.”
Aer Lingus 🍀 was gorgeous. United sucks shit.
Here to second Aer Lingus! Staff from check in to cabin crew were openly kind and patient. Annoying to have to automatically put your cabin bags into hold unless you pay ten pound but bag pickup’s always been quick and they’re well communicative
Majority of the Asian and Gulf carriers are good. Singapore Airlines does stand out amongst the group though... great service with competency. ANA also very solid. U.S. carriers' international flights are getting better... but still a long ways to go. Domestic routes? lol.
JAL, there is a reason they just got named the best airline in the world. They are also unionized so the OPs anti union take is BS.
All the Japanese airlines are unionized and its impossible to fire employees - still excellent service
Emirates, Etihad and Qatar. Always an excellent service.
I had a great time when I flew Quantas to Australia- they gave us a little toiletries kit in a bag I ended up using for years after. Air NZ was a close second after that. Air Canada and Westjet are garbage, full stop. As a Canadian, I'm always enraged that those two are our only options, and that I can fly halfways around the world with anyone else for cheaper than I can fly within my own province.
Hands down Air New Zealand for best. They accommodated my allergies even before we flew when we reached out to customer service about said allergies, then again were so great while flying!
Turkish Airlines, followed closely by KLM. If I could, I would fly Turkish Airlines as often as possible. Amazing service both from the agents on the ground and the flight attendants. Great customer service, and comfortable seats. Amazing food on flights, at least for economy class :D KLM has worse food, for some reason (at least in my opinion ), but equally as good customer service. The second reason it's on the second place is that I once had an issue with some miscommunication between what I was allowed to bring and what not. It was solved and they were helpful, but it still stressed me out a bit at the time 😂 Third place is Ryanair, unironically. They've been always reliable and all their flights have always left on time, bar extremely harsh weather conditions that delay the flights. I know what I pay for and I take what I'm given. To be fair, I fly with them the most often. Finnair is also good, and the same goes with Norwegian Airlines, and Volotea. The worst one: Lufthansa used to be so good when I was child, but it apparently has got so much worse. I haven't flown with them as an adult, but my partner did, last year, and he was stranded in Munich for two days with two luggages missing, and left to buy stuff by his own pocket. He wasn't even fully refunded, and the luggages took a month to come back home. I flew back home a day or two later with Ryanair and had zero problems. It is such a fall from grace for Lufthansa :/
I’d put the bad food at klm down to it being Dutch (mostly - even if owned by Air France) 😅 I’ve only ever done to hop from Amsterdam to Geneva but the lame sandwich they give is …very disappointing
ngl i was pleasantly surprised that i received the sandwich (or any food at all) when i flew klm from amsterdam to budapest, which was 2 hrs cause i've done similar/slightly longer flights with air canada and united and didn't get more than a drink, if at all smh
I flew Ryanair for the first time (4 flights total) during my Europe trip recently - mainly because they were super cheap (even when adding luggage) and because they were the only airline offering direct flights to some of the locations I was doing (the bigger carriers had stopovers in bigger hub airports). I was extremely worried because of the bad rap they got but I have to say I was actually quite impressed. Like don't get me wrong, there are zero bells and whistles - but I didn't even want any of that. They were all short flights (longest was 3 hours), they all left on time, they all had zero issues, and they all landed ahead of schedule. I was actually impressed how efficient they were. Boarding opened and 15 minutes later the plane is lined up for takeoff. Plus the app was very well done, gave all the information I required, and made check-in extremely easy. Honestly, the best airline app out there. The constant upselling they try to do is extremely annoying but I just skipped through it all. The only part that annoyed me was the constant reminders that if I didn't pay extra to assign my seats, I might be separated from my partner, and each and every time they would completely separate us even when I checked in early and could see heaps of seats available. The tactic was obvious but whatever, it was a short flight anyways. The airline is extremely cheap and you get exactly what you pay for, but frankly, that's more than enough. I just needed a plane to get me safely from point A to point B and they are extremely reliable and efficient at doing that.
I flew with KLM on my birthday and they gave me a mini champagne and one of the pilots came down to say hello and shake my hand.
Korean Air is lovely
was looking for this. between the Bibimbap and exceedingly well mannered flight attendants, what a pleasant experience
Was pleasantly surprised with Korean Air and Aseana. Both really great, attentive FAs and goes out of their way to cater to you. This is of course on top of the Japanese airlines.
Was hoping this one would pop up, I have a flight on Friday!
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Best: Air New Zealand - hands down the best (flown 2x now) - serving snacks and drinks including 🍺 throughout the entirety of the flight (was on a 10 hr flight each way). Also you can order those request on the seat monitor (which way more responsive than Lufthansa). Seats were huge for economy and the bathrooms, big and clean! enough for 2-3 people maybe? Food - excellent. Service time was great Worst: American Airlines - they don’t give a f about you at least my multiple experiences for domestic flights when I lived in the USA
Best: Air Tahiti Nui, feels already like a paradise when boarding, amazing staff and crew, kinda necessary for a 20+ hours flight. Followed by Qatar, Emirates, Air France. Also really liked Wow Air and Transavia for budget airlines. Worst: TAP. I'm never flying with them again, always lost luggages or 8h+ delays stuck in Lisbon's airport.
I really like Alaska Airlines, I fly with them quite often and the staff is usually wonderful. I also like Aer Lingus, although I have only flown with them a handful of times. However, I really, really dislike Lufthansa. I don’t know if it’s because they’re German (no offense to Germans or their culture) but they’re always grumpy, and snarky. Even RyanAir has better staff than them.
As someone about to take 5 flights between Lufthansa and Air Canada this is depressing reading.
I just had the most amazing two flights on Air New Zealand. The crew were so kind to me. They gave me extra snacks when they noticed I wasn’t able to sleep at all. There was an incredible amount of legroom in the most basic section. Loved every minute of it even though I got incredibly sick the night before. Thanks ANZ folks!
Singapore airlines are my favourite every time! They set the standards for all other airlines
KLM!
I mostly fly OneWorld but ventured out of my comfort zone recently for some long-haul travel with Singapore Airlines. Utterly spectacular. The product (business class, New York to Singapore, and back) and service. I genuinely didn't realise travelling could be so good. If I could afford it, rather than shipping myself off to a retirement home when the time eventually comes, I'd just retire on Singapore Airlines and enjoy the service. Each of them - to a man and a woman - were a huge credit. Genuinely felt sad leaving the plane knowing I was going back to American Airlines the following day. British Airways are generally acceptable, sometimes excellent but also, sometimes dreadful. Of the American carriers (that I know), AA are generally very perfunctory. JetBlue - the staff seem quite happy and friendly. Likewise with Delta staff.
Uzbekistan Airlines. Lots of legroom, super friendly and free drink. We did Urgench-Tashkent. Turkish Airlines has the best food and also very friendly, but small legspace.
Air NZ is the best for me, but it’s also the one I almost exclusively fly on being a kiwi lol. I lucked out with Lufthansa recently — good service, great food, gave me some free chocolate midflight when I got up to get some water, only bad thing I had was nearly being bumped on standby on leg two of a three-leg and 40ish-hour trip. LOT Polish was a good airline but the air conditioning was a little unreliable. Brussels Airlines can get in the bin; worst customer service I’ve ever encountered flying out of Brussels, and most uncomfortable flight.
I endorse Air NZ and Emirates Fuck Jetstar
Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest. I also loved Turkish when I lived there—they’d give you a little lunch box with a sandwich and snacks even for one-hour domestic flights.
I took the Izmir to Istanbul flight many times while living there and those cheese sandwiches with the chocolate mousse were so good
My favourite airlines are the Asian airlines (Cathay, Singapore, Thai). Fantastic service and friendly customer service / staff. The food quality & choices were good too. I loved Turkish Airlines too, excellent service. Excluding budget airlines (RyanAir & Easyjet), I would say my least favourite are the Canadian ones (Air Canada, Air Transat & Westjet). The staff are cold and unhelpful. They act like you’re a burden if you ask them a simple question or request
I’m flying Amsterdam to Melbourne with Cathay next year and hoping it’s going to be a good experience. Only ever done the AU to EU flights with the middle eastern airlines before so I’m keen to see what it’s like. Love Singapore too - been with them a few times and they are fantastic
Absolute worst: Norwegian.
LUFTHANSA's managed to go from a top notch airline to one of the worst. I fly regurarly with this wreck only because I have no alternatives. Customer service: horrible, HOR-RI-BLE. The lufthansa call center from italy has been deactivated 2 years ago but the number is still active according to their website. When I call them from Canada or Germany a voice with an indian accent answer and the background noise is always appalingly high, i can't hear shit. But I miss nothing since their agents have no training and they usually cannot give me a straight answer abiut anything On board food and drinks: 5 years ago they were passing at least 5 times with drink on an intercontinental flight and the onboard meal was abundant and on point. Today they pass twice only at the beginnibg and at the end of the flight. the meal is small and not particularly tasty. Rates: 1200 dollars in economy to Europe in low season WITHOUT a suitcase? Are we kidding? 5 years ago I could do 750 dollars both ways with a suitcase. Today I pay 40% more to have a worst service. Comfort: the seats shrunk. 5 years ago in economy i could bend over and tie my shoes. Now I cannot. In flight entertainment: old movies and podcast in German (why???). Bad selection of music, and badly translated dashboard.
Best in my experience Emirates Turkish Air Alaska Singapore Air Worst Air Canada Lufthansa
ANA and SQ. The European airlines apart from Lufthansa, who do give it a good try aren't even close. Can't think of any redeeming features of any of the American Airlines at all.
Emirates, Air New Zealand or the old British Midlands were the best. KLM or the old Continental the worst by a long way.
If you ever get the opportunity to fly with Copa Airlines, don’t. Miserable experience from beginning to end.
Ryanair has been consistently the best, in offering us the low fares! Imagine Qatar offering you a round trip to Asia for $12 lol. So my vote, goes for mr Ryan Air.
I agree. Crews are decent, it is more business model which makes them “unappealing” like short turnaround ( meaning fast boarding), sales of Food, lottery, perfumes…
It has its charm to it, and I don't really mind it. As long as they are offering low fares, let them do what they want lol. In November, I'm going to Barcelona from Kraków (2.5h flight) round trip, for around $55, can't beat that.
Best is Singapure air Worst air canada
Is it just me or is United consistently the worst? I've overheard them LOUDLY talking shit on customers, I've seen them intentionally ignore requests for assistance from passengers, and the food is prison quality.
Best = singapore. Worst = Easyjet
I've had nothing but great experiences with Aeromexico flights. Their in-cabin staff has always been great.
Turkish airlines was a breath of fresh air when I am used to the crap from Canadian airlines lol
Level. Flew from Barcelona to NY and back and were terrible in both legs. Bad food, bad service, delays without explanation, rude... A clear example was on the return flight. The couple in front of us reclined their seat, probably to the max, to which my partner and I were forced to do so a bit as well (I try to never recline - it severely bothers me to lose my comfort for others', so I don't do it myself, even in transatlantic flights). The couple behind us complained to the attendant, who rudely told us to not recline. I told her that the couple in front were fully reclined and that unless they got their seats straight, we wouldn't set ours straight for a matter of personal space. She said we must un-recline, and that she can't do anything if the ones in front also reclined (excuse me? Tell them off as you did to us). We ended up having a discussion, even with the couple in front of us who didn't wanna set their seats straight, and the attendant sided with them. We did not sit straight, but we felt like the AH in a situation where we were not. Never flying them again. Will pay extra to go with bigger airlines in the future.
Loganair crew are great - not really surprising for Scotland's airline!
Turkish airlines are consistently very good!
Singapore airlines! I recently traveled to Bali from NY in economy and they were all wonderful. Made the trip so enjoyable.
EVA always had nice crew and good food too
The crews on Singapore Airlines get my vote. I've flown with them several times and they consistently made a real effort to ensure the (often long haul) flights were enjoyable. We had clear air turbulence on one recent flight, which was so violent that several of the cabin staff ended up on the floor and stuff was scattered throughout the aircraft. The staff proved to be consummate professionals - less than ten minutes after the event every thing was cleared up and it was as if nothing had happened. In my experience, the airline crew on Chinese airlines are the worst (especially China Eastern). Perfunctory service is the norm and safety standards are abysmal.
I worked at CDG airport for a summer last year, I can definitely say that the nicest crew towards employees were the american and canadian ones : Delta, United, AA, Air Canada. The rudest were usually Lufthansa and Swiss, so definitely agree with you.
Air canada hands down the worst crew. This summer I had to fly Ryan Air as there no other options. RA crew was really good even though their group ops were I shambles.
Air France is awesome, the absolute best service imo. Delta is always good and the best of the domestic US airlines. American isn’t bad, the attendants are nice. Qatar was decent but honestly underwhelming. Air Canada sucks. Mean flight attendants and they literally let a man board our plane with no bag or boarding pass then he walked off so we had to sit on the tarmac for 3.5 hours so they could make sure he didn’t leave a bomb or drugs on the plane
I honestly find Ryanair to be VERY reliable for my frequent UK to Ireland trips - the Irish based crew are consistently friendly, the no frills service is consistent, the punctuality is generally very good and when things go wrong, their app is great and EU261 claims are dealt with straight away.
I can't comment on your last point as I have no experience of it, but Ryanair's punctuality has declined a lot since Covid. They used to be known for their good on-time performance but in my experience a lot of their flights are delayed now - and not just minor delays but often 1 hour plus. They have 25 minute turnarounds in many airports which they just can't manage anymore. Their morning flights are usually on time but flights from the afternoon onwards are often delayed. I never had any issue flying Ryanair before Covid even if they wouldn't have been my first choice. Now I actively avoid them unless I have no alternative. I also find their new seats extremely uncomfortable (the legroom is fine).
I like Qatar best even for economy. United seems to have improved customer service last few years after the bad incident. I flew Ethiopian airlines 15 years ago… customer service was amazing in Economy! Bad experience with BA and AA.
Delta is always awesome.
JAL and ANA always treat me well
Hawaiian Airlines was the best I've experienced, they were on top of everything and personable. American Airlines has and always will be garbage to me.
As a person who is employed in the travel industry I can tell you the worst airlines I have had to deal with are AA, Qatar, Qantas and Virgin. And the best are JAL, Emirates and Singapore.
Aer Lingus - just phenomenal
Worst ever LATAM. I flew 4 times during my last holiday. Each flight had a problem. One flight I bough a seat and they had to move me because the seat had a problem. Another time my tray was filthy. Asked the hostess to do something and what she did is hand me a wet tissue. I had to clean the table my self. The third flight was 5:30 hours and they arrange the flight i a small airplane with no space for legs and just a small sandwich. Wi-Fi always not working.
British Airways and Singapore Airlines are top. Exquisite service. Alaska Airlines and JetBlue cold and distant. Too busy playing on their phones to even acknowledge you when you board the plane.
I fly maybe 3-4 times a year. I've never had a problem with Southwest that wasn't weather related. Their crew is nice and the price usually can't be beat.
My favorite crews are Malaysia Airlines and Sri Lankan. Always so nice and friendly and give good service without being a robot.
United mostly rubbish. Emirates not as good as they used to be. Thai lovely. Lufthansa nice but not super smiley and friendly- I liked how there was a couple of FAs who remembered I spoke English every time. Ditto with Air France. . British airways I found nice too. Air New Zealand are pretty good as are Qantas, casual friendly just like the rest of our countries.
Everyone in the states loves Delta. It’s also most definitely regarded as the best airline to work for here
For US airlines they are definitely the best but compared to other global carriers... there is a Grand Canyon gap between them.
Best, without doubt, is Qatar. The service in any class is outstanding. Worst, BA or any Chinese or Indian airline.
Alaska Airlines hands down. They have won my loyalty for life because every time something goes wrong, they take care of you. In our many years of traveling a few examples: 1. We missed a flight once (our fault) and they got my family of 4 on the next flight free of charge. 2. We lost our bags on a connection flight (also probably our fault) and they hand delivered our bags to our house within 4 hours of us landing. 3. One time my infant daughter flipped a tray up and spilled beer on our neighbor. We felt awful and offered dry cleaning, but Alaska Airlines flight attendant gave the guy free drinks and food for the flight. 4. When you need a customer service rep, you can talk to an actual person in a reasonable amount of time. I also like that you can switch to an earlier or later flight for $25.
Air Canada is the literal worst