Best Major Airline Phx or Tucson: Quality vs. Price

[buckeyenative01]

I prefer Southwest (I've ridden Greyhound, so what some people dislike about SWA doesn't really bother me all that much). I've flown them on numerous occasions for trips back to the Midwest and California and never longed for in-flight entertainment whenever I had an occasional crazy person sitting near me or my laptop.

I avoid United at all costs. I'm not real thrilled to see them absorb Continental. Never really had any problems with America West/US Airways.

[AZJ0SH]

Originally Posted by mceimages

Hi AZJOSH: If I fly Southwest it will be for over 7 hours so leg room matters for me. Unfortunately Allegiant does not fly out of my area.

Sorry, I read it as PHX to Tucson, not or.

I have never really found a preferred airline, except for Southwest since they have awesome deals to fly to CA or Vegas.

I always had problems with Northwest airlines, thats the only airline I refuse to fly now.

[azriverfan.]

My rule when choosing airlines are 3 things

1. Direct Flights - always go direct versus connecting.

2. Their Hub - I avoid American Airlines because they fly through DFW which is one of the worst airports I've ever flown through with long delays on the tarmac (hours at a time) and flight delays in general due to the airports size, location and weather (frequent tornados, winds causes delays). I like Continental because they fly through Houston Intercontinental. Good Hubs are Chicago, Phoenix and Houston. Bad Hubs are Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Minneapolis. By good hubs, I'm not interested in the quality of the airport but rather time delays, efficiency (do you wait on the tarmac) and weather.

3. Customer Service: Although ALL of them have decreasing quality of customer service each year (unless you fly first class), Southwest Airlines has by far the best customer service overall and I am faithful to them. The worst airline is American Airlines. I've had consistently bad service with them...everything from failing to notify that boarding is occuring to long waits on tarmacs, to failing to compensate for delays or missed flights due to their fault.

U.S. Airways also has poor customer service. They used to be America West Airlines and they were horrible. We are talking....changing gates without notifying passengers, delays, nickel and diming everything, having a horrible miles program and failing to honor miles. The only reason I fly them is they have direct flights out of Phoenix but if I have a choice I would never fly them.

Good Airlines in my experience are
Southwest, Continental, United and JetBlue

Ones to avoid
American Airlines, Delta Airlines, U.S. Airways

[Stokes172]

I've never had a problem with US Airways. I fly them or WestJet to PHX, their pricing is consistent and so is their service. I would like to try Southwest but they don't fly out of Calgary.