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We are still in the early sketches phase of this trip. I am going to Seattle in June next year (2011) and I have never flown a plane or anything like this before.
What airline (http://www.flyrichmond.com/Load.php?Content=Airlines - broken link) have you had the best experience with? I am not looking to have the most expensive seat I just want to get there and land with all my items. Any other tips or advice anyone here might have?
Out of all the airlines I have flown, Delta is my favorite (domestic) airline in terms of customer service. I wouldnt spend too much extra for any airline though, most will be pretty similar.
All the above airline are good, all will get you there (assuming they go there from where you live). If you are not planning on flying alot, Try to find a non/stop flight. Alaska has there hub @ SEA. Look at there schedules/price and pick one. Being in Atlanta I fly AirTran alot. But when in was NY based Cont was my perfered airline.
I'd recommend the airline that flies to the place you want to go, at the best fare.
Although it could be a fun adventure to go the airport, pick a favorite airline, and just get on the next flight, that hardly ever serves a practical need.
I'd recommend the airline that flies to the place you want to go, at the best fare.
Although it could be a fun adventure to go the airport, pick a favorite airline, and just get on the next flight, that hardly ever serves a practical need.
After flying 19 hours I didn't want to take a long train ride so I said screw it and walked to the United Counter and asked how much a same day flight would be... I was hoping for something fairly reasonable, but 600 dollars was the cheapest flight.. and it was a 35 minute flight.
I gone to airport a bunch of times (in the 80's) and just picked a city and went. Few times on PeopleExpress, and on Easten's Airlines Midnight express Walk up fares were cheap. I was on a work loan assigment for 6months in Houston. And my company had 'bid' out our air travel. What we paid was based on number of miles we flew, but our tickets were written as full fare (Y class) coach tickets. I could walk up to the counter. hand them my ticket and go somewhere else (as long as it was 1620 miles or less from houston). One time my WorkMate and I went to the airport next flight was going to Portland OR, we asked to go there, the flight was full. so we picked the next city down and it was Phoenix, The check-in person look at us and said, you know they are not near each other. But we did the just go to random city (more or less) about 10x durring that assigment.
I just found this wonderful story on an airline forum, Thought you might enjoy it:
When I was around 15 or 16 years old, I lived about 100 kilometres from Memphis, Tennessee in a small Mississippi farming town. I'd tell my parents I was going out for the day and would drive to Memphis, grab one of those old paper Delta timetables and find a routing or city pair with a lot of flights so I could be sure to get out and fly home the same day.
It's a wonder I never experienced a flight cancellation or delay and would spend all day jetting around the Southeastern or Midwest United States. My parents at home would have died of shock and still don't know to this day (that was almost 20 years ago) that while they thought I was puttering around back roads of Mississippi with friends that I was jetsetting all over the country in first class (same day tickets were virtually the same price in F as Y).
One of my favourite routes for a "quickie" was Memphis to Little Rock. The flight time was only twenty to twenty five minutes with fairly short turn-around times so it wasn't over a couple of hours at the most. Back in the day the minimum Delta Frequent Flyer miles per segment was 1,000 with a 100% bonus for F class, so I could rack up 4,000 miles with a quick return flight.
I had a really good farmhand job at the time that was seasonal due to the rainy winters in Mississippi, so I had way too much money, no brains and too much time to spare for 5 months in the winter.. Although security wasn't a big issue at that time, several times customer service reps were hesitant to sell me tickets for $300 to $500 for a quick jaunt to places like Little Rock, Dallas or other cities especially when they were booking me on the return flight within 30 minutes or so of arrival.
I'd make up these lame lies about having to deliver something important by hand or whatever. In retrospect I should have just told the truth, but I was too embarrassed of being such an aviation geek. I'd sit in those bucket chairs in front of the Delta check in counters at Memphis International working up the courage to sneak up to the counter and purchase my ticket........feeling guilty as hell knowing I had lied to my parents and praying there wasn't a weather delay that would have me have to phone them from, say, Oklahoma City and try to explain how and why I was there.
Ah, those were the good ole days.........now I'm just an average nine to fiver working year round just to make ends meet. Maybe if I hadn't been such a fool back then; but it was worth it. I'm still trying to work up the courage to tell my family sometime.
For a first time flyer you will probably like Jet Blue a lot.
However I reccomend just buying the cheapest/easiest ticket.
So if Delta flys there with a stop in Atlanta for $250 but American flys there non-stop for $315 take the American flight etc..
Find the time and number of stops first. Then look at prices for first time flyers.
I love American but thats only becuase I have status with them and they fly a route I fly the most 9 times a day. Trust me if Jet Blue is a easy flight tak e them you will enjoy them
The hard thing is you may fly the best rated airline, but if your flight gets screwed up (weather, equipment problems, late arrivals, etc) its going to seem like the worst flight ever and you won;t understand why people rated it good when it was bad. No single flight is going to tell you how an airline treats passengers, so go for the most convinient, best fare, and meeting your needs.
Is there a reason Southwest Airlines isn't on the list?
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