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I like Delta and Southwest. My daughter flys UM on Delta frequently and they give her excellent care. I will be flying United for the first time in August. I've never had any issues on American.
I want to like Southwest more than I do because they’re at least pleasant when they lie to your face. But when your home airport is one of their outstations, it’s high fares, often hundreds more than the legacies once the WGA fares sell out, inconvenient schedules that involve either buttcheeks of dawn departure tones or arrivals after midnight, and a tendency to delay evening flights to outstations in the name of keeping other heavier traffic routes in schedule.
My preferred airline these days is Delta. Generally good service and service recovery, and they have the best mainline service out of VPS. With United, it’s often an Embraer 135/145 to Houston and I hate how I can’t fully stand up in one of those. American involves flying with the Eagle, usually to the dread E concourse commuter gates in Charlotte.
I have actually learned to stop worrying and love the ATL. Yes, it’s stupidly large but it makes sense and has some pretty decent food options which are accessible to all flyers because of the common airside area. And the McNamara terminal at Detroit Metro is the best large airport in the USA. Delta has the best hubs.
I also like Delta’s ‘20 minutes or 2500 miles’ checked bag guarantee. My household has made 17.5K service recovery miles in the past year for bags in the 21-24 minutes past cabin door opening range
I used to fly JetBlue pretty often when they first started out (JFK-BUF) and thought they were great, but eventually their limited network and lack of international partners led me to look at other options when my own travel needs started to expand.
I ended up latching onto Delta, and for the most part I'm pretty happy with the service. They're almost always on time (part of it is schedule padding), the planes are kept in pretty good condition, and as someone on the status hamster wheel, I've always been able to earn qualification miles no matter where I'm traveling to... which leads to upgrades, priority service and waived fees, which are also nice.
That's a very good point, especially when you see some of those African or Russian airlines.
Yes! My husband could talk about that forever. He is a big aviation guy You almost have to work in the airline industry to really understand how it all works. All the logistics, all the details. But that's just like any job I guess.
Last edited by glass_of_merlot; 06-07-2018 at 11:14 AM..
What do you think is the best and worst airline you've flown with in the U.S. ?
I think Delta is pretty good, and not too impressed with American.
Best: Frontier
Worst: United.
American became worse once they merged with US Airways. US Airways, which had horrible customer service and late flights pre-merger, dragged AA down post-merger.
That was an anamoly, although it weirdly happened twice closely timed together. Even so, SW Airlines is actually the best but I didn't rate them as such because of the open seating, first-come first-serve approach which creates a cattle run during boarding. It works well if you luck up and get a seat in an area that you wanted but doesn't when you don't.
I haven't had too many issues with Delta. It's probably my preferred though usually I go for the cheapest anyway.
One that might be surprising is Spirit. I've flown them several times and haven't had any issues. Only one plane was a little cramped for me (5'11") but other than that, it's been just fine.
United is usually decent for me.
AA pissed me off on a trip to Miami so I'd rank them near the bottom. Other trips weren't good enough to outweigh it.
My personal worst is Alaska Airlines even though they're often rated highly. But, this was just one trip and I guess I got unlucky. Hour and a half delay leaving Philly for Seattle and then on the return a week later, another delay that was close to an hour and a half. I've never had a delay that long for any other flight and on that trip I had it both legs.
Never flown Southwest but people I know swear by them and do anything they can to take SW.
every us airline is awful, each in its own unique way.
lolz
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Also a ridiculous assertion given Delta is usually the top rated on-time airline in the US.
You almost have to work in the airline industry to really understand how it all works. All the logistics, all the details. But that's just like any job I guess.
Frontier
