There's been a bit of talk about airline quality the last few days so I started this poll.

What is your current sweetheart airline? Why is this so?

Which airline do you hate? What terrible crime did they commit to earn your wrath?

I've done my best to include all of the carriers but there's a choice limit in the poll. Also, as I fly regularly to and from Europe, that is the route I'm interested in.

Personally, I've only recently started using Thai air after years of long haul flights with other airlines. My first impression was favourable. Economy class has plenty of legroom although I'll fly business class next time. Bit dissapointed there were no TV's in the back of the seats though. Sexy little air hostesses however but a bit dizzy. Landing was as 'Smooth as silk'.

I loved Cathay Pacific when I lived in Hong Kong.

Sri Lankan used to be great when I bobbed between HK and BKK but now I think they've gone downhill.

Air New Zealand....F**kin' crap, Cabin crew had appauling attitude. Will never fly with them again.

Do you fly direct with the businessmen or penny pinch on the stopover routes with all the lager louts from England. As far as I can tell, there are only 3 or 4 airlines that fly direct to/from LHR (crap airport)....

....comments about Thai Air are particularly welcome.

I fly between Bangkok and Sydney four times a year and prefer Singapore Airlines for the following reasons:

Its inflight entertainment system is second to none

I get to stop in Changi airport and buy all sorts of discouted crap

It was surprisingly the cheapest (compared to Thai Airways and Qantas/BA which is a bullshit airline anyway).

sing air

on time

comfortable enough

good cabin staff

You forgot Northwest, significant as one of the only two US carriers to service Bangkok. Not that many people will pick them as the best.

My personal favorite is Cathay Pacific. It might be SQ, but that adds too much time to the trip. CX and SQ are neck and neck in terms of quality, but, in addition to the time factor, when flying business class, the Cathay lounge at HKG is hard to beat.

I was a Frequent Flyer with SWISS, ( still got a goldcard), i used to do the Asia Europe trips regular, now i am in Japan and have used United, North West, Cathay Pacific, Jal, and Thai Airways for Japan to Bkk trips.

Cathay is probably the best of the bunch for Japan, although i do have to stop in Hong Kong, but its no big deal as i have a Goldcard with Swiss which can be used with Cathay as well, so i get air miles with Cathay also.

Last month Flew SWISS from Bangkok to Singapore, used air miles to upgrade to Business class, new airplanes on that route, very nice.

So if i was going to Europe, i would certainly use SWISS.

Had to vote null... My favorite from North America would be ANA. From Europe... whichever has a direct flight for not too much money. EVA I suppose.

Cheers,

Chanchao

On long hauls to Europe I stick to Cathay Pacific. But the general offers have been reduced, so I downgraded myself from Gold card to silver and use for short hauls the TG-card, more often than not actually fly on SAS or Lufthansa, crediting the mileage to TG.

Surprised you included Aeroflot (LOL). Used them once, business Saigon-Moscow-Saigon (via Mumbai). New airbus flown Russian style. Service? Don't complain, there was none.

Hands down, Singapore Airlines followed closely by Thai International. There's no better service between BKK and Europe or the states. Have to admit I've been taking NWA the last few times though 'cause they're cheaper...and you pay the price for cheapness...

What do you like about TG? I mean, the stewardesses are pretty enough. But the seats, entertainment, and food are all third rate. The biz class is like the biz class in other airlines 15 years ago.

Eye Candy, I guess. The flight attendants (pooying) are so sweet...

I'm a miles whore.

I will go out of my way to make sure I get my AA miles (which means mostly flying on American or any other Oneworld Alliance airline). Flying out of Dallas the best route to BKK is via Japan anyways and AA has a non-stop flight DFW-NRT (I'll be on it -yet again - on July 3rd), but they don't continue on to BKK so it's their Oneworld partner JAL taking me NRT-BKK.

This next trip will put me at close to 900k miles accumulated in 4.5 years of living in the US (AA gives you a Gold-for-life card if you reach a Million miles...)

Their service though is questionable. It definitely slided south after 9/11. Now you even have to pay for drinks while flying international ($5/ea) and they've laid off so many flight attendants that the only ones left are geriatric sourpusses...

Still, their milage program is great and keeps pulling me back in...whattodo?

/// DFW

Royal Jordanian Airways, because I lack the monetry fortitude to expediate my successes in any such AA mileage scheme.

(me no have baht).

Only 19 votes as of this post, which surprises me, as I would have thought that most members would have jumped at the chance to laud their favourite carrier, and roast the others that have delivered poor service.

I voted for SQ which I have used frequently over the years, although I must admit, I have been using TG more recently. An adequate carrier, but as a previous post pointed out, their business class really lacks the frills. Very average food, and the only plus was that they seemed to have a bottomless bottle of vintage port

BA, QF.....not even in the race.

Had to vote null because I haven't been thrilled with too many of my choices so far. Perhaps that is because I haven't flown Singapore Airlines yet

Eva is ok, service is good, but food is not. Same with China Airlines. Plus, you often have to put up with huge groups of chattering Taiwanese tour groups on the return leg to Bangkok. Flew JAL, which was great, but that was many years ago. Flew Sri Lankan quite a few years ago and hated it (might have something to do with the woman behind me not securing the overhead compartment and her suitcase fell out during the flight and hit me on the head. Not even an apology out of her! ). Flew United this year. Food is not bad but the service is so so. None of these have the in-flight entertainment of Singapore. Unfortunately for me, Singapore Airlines just doesn't go where I need to go (as easily as other carriers).

I haven't used all that many different airlines. Between SFO and BKK I have been

using JAL for the past 3 or 4 years. I have used China Airlines and Korean Air. Of those three I like JAL the best and have stuck with them. Korean Air is the worst of the three mainly because the stop over in Soeul was so long, 10 hours. The stop

over in Tokyo is an hour and a half. Japanese air hostesses are really attentive and friendly as well. Some of the air hostesses on JAL are Thai from Tokyo to Bangkok.

I was very impressed with ANA, Dulles IAD to NRT to BKK. Really good food. Somehow I lucked into a ticket on Expedia that was half-priced compared to what they are charging now. If I could get them again I'd grab ANA.

Next trip is already booked for September with Delta - but the flight is actually operated by Korean Airlines. The connection is through Seoul. Booking the Korean Airlines flight with Delta means the miles go on my Delta frequent-flyer plan and can be used domestically.

And I say again, food on ANA was great by a simple man's taste for Asian food.

kenk3z

Living 2 miles from the largest NorthWest Airlines hub in the US leaves few options. Detroit was voted the worst airport in the world a few years ago. It's improved a lot since then with a whole new terminal. I get to enjoy that on my international trips. Northwest itself still sucks.

Still, even at its worst NWA was still better than the Flying Tigers, the charter military flights to and from the Philippines via Narita (and Anchorage).

Do I have the longest distance to get to Thailand? A bit over 13 hours to Narita, nonstop, then about 7 hours to BKK. At least Detroit is positioned well for the northern route over Alaska to Japan. I don't eveh have to change my watch, the time is 12 hours off. The jet lag is killer, your body doesn't know which way to shift!

I am a great fan of THAI, but this airline does't always get me to where I need to go. Thus, I tend to hop on Cathy as I have been doing for over 35 years. The business class seats these days convert into beds and HKG is a good airport to tranfer in.

The Cathy stewardesses are clean and very polite but IMHO not as sexy as those on THAI or SQ. But, the truth is I have never tried to date a Cathy girl as I have successfully THAI and SQ ladies.

I've been flying in and out of Thailand since the early 1990s, at times I fly every other week, at others I don't fly for several months.

Recently I'm flying Bangkok to Singapore return every week and I use Signapore airlines: Good service, well trained staff and new aircraft.

Flying to Europe I ALWAYS use BA/Quantas, the best trained staff, the best schedules and the best safest record.

Flying to the US I use Cathay Pacific.

I will never set foot on Northwest or Malaysian Airlines again, the first holds my record for the most abusive aircrew and the latter has serious safety problems.

Thai air is, as someone above says, giving service that would have been the standard 15 years ago. 15 years ago most of their planes had been flying for some time too.

As expected SIA gets the majority of votes (mine too) and Air New Zealand is where it belongs (with none)

The worst that I have ever flown, has to be Royal Brunei with pretty well no service AND no alcohol.

The Indonesian airlines (Garuda, Merpati and Sempati) have to be a close second worst.

Kuwait Airways would have to be included in any listing of the "worst" airlines as well.

And when referring to airlines please note that there is no "u" in QANTAS (note: all upper case)

QANTAS = Queensland And Northern Territory Air Services

AND QANTAS has never recorded a fatality in the jet era.

And as Mr. GuestHouse wrote.....

Thai air is, as someone above says, giving service that would have been the standard 15 years ago. 15 years ago most of their planes had been flying for some time too.

It is correct that many of Thai's aircraft are "chai laew" and hand me downs from the likes of SIA etc.

I flew China Airlines once. That was before I knew about their appauling safety record. Incidentally, the flight I took from Taipei to Hong Kong, a 747, I think it was the very same aircraft that crashed a couple of weeks later in the Taiwan straights. Makes you think eh?

....not to mention the hoards of Chinese men clearing their throats and spitting loadly on the floor between the seats. Lovely.

China Airlines suck.

...oh, and who voted for Aeroflot!!!!!!!!!!

As the choices from chicago are limited to Asia I prefer United. Their rather bland

but they have'nt killed me . Also offer miles. I have flown twice for free already. Then they put you on Thai air NRT- BKK . I do wish that ANA still went to Chicago

I would fly them again in a heartbeat

Probably the vote for Aeroflot was somebody having a bit of finger trouble.

But 15 years ago, Aeroflot was my favourite from London to the Far East.

I tried them first because they were, by far, the cheapest.

All my acquaintances said they had read about them having an appalling safety record; but, when I looked into it this, they were fine on the international routes (as of then, but more about that later).

Their accidents were in Russia, having to try to land in whiteouts in Siberia (because their alternative landing place had also been shutdown by weather), and not having navigation aids or maintenance backup in remote places, etc etc.

But, on the international routes, Aeroflot were using well-maintained (though admittedly old) aircraft. I forget their designation. They were of the vintage, and looked quite similar to the VC 10, with the engines mounted on either side of the tail, like two pairs of spectacles. They were quiet for the passengers (rear engines), their landings were smooth as smooth can be; and their takeoffs showed up all the richer airlines with the later generations of commercial aircraft. Where those lumbered off and away, the Aeroflot job belted down the runway and positively zoomed up into the sky.

A thing that I particularly liked was the maturity of the Aeroflot crews.

The flight crews were grizzled veterans (like I was turning into).

This was in great contrast to BA, where you were being flown by callow youths.

BA's grizzled veterans had grabbed the early-retirement package and gone to fly for airlines like Royal Brunei.

There they flew brand new planes out of BSB in a morning to Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, and Hong Kong and flew them home later in the day. They had the bliss of being home every night . Some of them used to sweetheart their wives into making up some bacon sarnies to take with them so they could avoid the airline food!. (Whoever was rostered to Singapore might find a note asking him to pop down to the TUC Supermarket in the basement below Changi Airport to collect some packets of bacon, as it wasn't available in Brunei),

On Aeroflot , the cabin staff were mature, too. They were very motherly (except for those who were grandmotherly).

I could go on for pages nostalging over some of funny, and some heart-warming, incidents that occurred on around twenty round trips with Aeroflot.

But, as Buddha pointed out to us, all is impermanent. Those crew members retired and it all went to pot. Sure, Aeroflot got things like a few new Airbuses. But also they got pilots like that idiot who let his son sit in the left-hand seat and the situation went to pieces, and the co-pilot was young and inexperienced and useless, and there was the most shaming disaster that I have ever read about. Those veterans who had flown me a few years before must have felt awful to see such crass unprofessionality where they had had such high standards.

But by that time I was using Royal Jordanian.

Well maintained, comfortable planes.

Mature flight crews (also holding senior military-reserve commissions, like the Aeroflot ones had done).

Really tight security.

And cheapest on the route (except for no-noes like China Airlines).

When I added up the scores, and decided who I would go with, many things, like food, TV in the seatback, eye candy, and free booze, didn't rate a single point (though absence of yoiks and yobs amongst my fellow passengers would have rated if I could have predicted it).

So my favourite always was:

whoever amongst the safe, secure, and adequately comfortable was cheapest.

But one years favourite might well drop by the wayside next year. The new carrier joining the route might undercut the others in order to get established. But then their prices would go up when they were well-enough known to get full loads.

P. S. We had some visitors recently who I think beat even the chap from Detroit for length of haul.

They had a 3-hour drive to Halifax, Nova Scotia and a flight to New York before they started heading West across the States and the Pacific.

And they are coming back next year.

I have suggested they look for a suitable bargain in the Round-The-World bucket.

im with JAL, alway use them when travel to asia

I think SQ are the best and (usually) cheapest from West Oz - the stopover at Changi is OK - TG stops at Phuket on the way to BKK so takes as long as SQ.

SQ is usually cheaper and the planes are much better than TG's. Also you can earn TG FF points on them.

Never fly QANTAS unless there is no alternative - service is rubbish, planes are old, tickets always too expensive, FF club is a joke ( nearly impossible to actually use the miles ) and staff in Oz mostly surly and unhelpful (.........but other than that they are perfect).

UAL- by far is the best/cheapest, course I go for miles and easily accumulate dbl/triple miles so this make sense to fly with them rather than any other airline. Great Service when you make it to Tokyo- Asian flight staff is far more accomodating than their Western Counter parts- I'm sure everyone has noticed that.

Only complaint with UAL is the late arrival into BKK and early departure. (11PM and 7AM respectively)

Flown Eva- which is also pretty good, but I'll stick to UAL for the time being unless the price isn't acceptable.

MH(Malaysian) & SQ(Singapore) cheapest options from Oz , the service on both airlines is great.

EK(Emirates) & CX(Cathay Pacific) are also great for service & inflight entertainment.

I dont fly QF(Qantas) service sucks , TG(Thai) business class is ancient, no PTV , jus the video walkman if you request it.

I dont fly QF(Qantas) service sucks ,

Olympic (OA) was great ( 30+Kg, plus good awards) , but the air hostess of OA was the worst example of the airlines in the world.

Qantas (QF) ...well this company is with the most unfriedly airline that travelled in my life (30+times in BKK) plus 100+ trips in Europe in the last 10years and only 3 times with QF.

Thai (TG) seems OK to me , nothing great.

Syd BKK

Definitely Sing air but hate the stopover.

I dont think much is cheap at changi anymore

Qantas/BA sux big time arrogant old matrons and queens and overpriced.

Thai nice service but very old planes ,i went biz class early this year and the fwd cabin had a plaque stating in 1978 the plane took off with the heaviest load ever for a 747

Thats one old 747

If you are looking for a good price plus a FF programme that dosent need twice round the world to get a 100km free ticket, then Gulf Air to Uk is not too bad.

New Western management has stopped all the skimming and freebies to our Middle East "friends" FF system gets silver card very quickly, bonus: 38kg baggage allowance, check in at ANY desk, yes even first class desk, use of buisness/first lounge and priority booking which I know works. The only downside is an aircraft change at Bahrain/ usually 2 to 3 hours but they have good new Duty Free shop and a bar. No reconfirmation required.

Emirates is good , also flies to Manchester, still aircraft change at Dubai (best DF shop around) A little more expensive but do have offers.

Hope this is of use to somebody.