I avoid at all costs, meaning if I have to go with them, I just wont go. US Airways, and now because of the merger (plus I am not fond of them) American Airlines. US Airways are the biggest babies of companies of all time. Years ago my dad complained to US Airways as they had changed their flight from landing at 3PM to one landing around midnight. Normally the change would be no issue but as he was with my Grandma who had, had cancer the last arrival was not possible, so when he talked to them about it they refused to change their flight even though there were plenty of flights available. It ended up going to a manager then the next level above that and then they said that they can get them there earlier, but it meant they would have a journey around the US. It was something like Las Vegas, NY, LA. That meant travel times of 17 hours due to the stop over on the exact opposite side of the country. After a few more talks with them, they finally budged and put them on an earlier flight. When they showed up to the airport and collected their ticket they found SSSS written on their tickets. SSSS stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection. It turned out that as they complained US airways put them on a personal Black list for people to go through higher end security, this is normally saved for people who have had their names supplied to them by the government or are selected completely at random, but those chosen are the decision of the airline. A few years past and then we flew US airways again. as soon as we got the tickets we had the SSSS again, This time it even went for me and yet I had nothing to do with the complaint before. This also happened on the second flight on that same trip. Since then we will never fly with them again, as they are treating us as if we are criminals and need to have a special security screening.
With American Airlines we were faced with rude staff. We flew Air Canada from Toronto to LA, everything was nice until you looked out the window and it looked as though the wing was being held together by masking tape. I know it would of been purpose made tape and wouldn't of been for holding the plane together (I hope anyway) but it was a little unnerving.
For those of you who want to fly to Australia, I wouldn't recommend QANTAS. Within the last decade their standards have collapsed, both in safety and comfort. Ever since the company started they had done their maintenance in Australia, but around 10 years ago they started sending the planes to Asia to get the work done for cheap. It may sound like a generalisation, but ever since that has happened they have had a poor safety record, lucky no one has been killed or anything major has happened, but all these failures in their planes has been linked to poor servicing. However they are still safe just not as safe as their reputation makes them sound. If you want to fly out to Australia and you want direct flights, fly with Virgin Australia (formally called V Australia, until they merged with Virgins domestic airline Virgin Blue). Don't be put off by the poor standards I have been hearing about Virgin America, as Virgin Australia is basically a different company altogether, only owned by the one company. They rival QANTAS levels of quality from the past and are much cheaper. And the best part was they have food that actually tastes really nice. They also have the added benefit that all their planes are new.
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I avoid at all costs, meaning if I have to go with them, I just wont go. US Airways, and now because of the merger (plus I am not fond of them) American Airlines. US Airways are the biggest babies of companies of all time. Years ago my dad complained to US Airways as they had changed their flight from landing at 3PM to one landing around midnight. Normally the change would be no issue but as he was with my Grandma who had, had cancer the last arrival was not possible, so when he talked to them about it they refused to change their flight even though there were plenty of flights available. It ended up going to a manager then the next level above that and then they said that they can get them there earlier, but it meant they would have a journey around the US. It was something like Las Vegas, NY, LA. That meant travel times of 17 hours due to the stop over on the exact opposite side of the country. After a few more talks with them, they finally budged and put them on an earlier flight. When they showed up to the airport and collected their ticket they found SSSS written on their tickets. SSSS stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection. It turned out that as they complained US airways put them on a personal Black list for people to go through higher end security, this is normally saved for people who have had their names supplied to them by the government or are selected completely at random, but those chosen are the decision of the airline. A few years past and then we flew US airways again. as soon as we got the tickets we had the SSSS again, This time it even went for me and yet I had nothing to do with the complaint before. This also happened on the second flight on that same trip. Since then we will never fly with them again, as they are treating us as if we are criminals and need to have a special security screening.
With American Airlines we were faced with rude staff. We flew Air Canada from Toronto to LA, everything was nice until you looked out the window and it looked as though the wing was being held together by masking tape. I know it would of been purpose made tape and wouldn't of been for holding the plane together (I hope anyway) but it was a little unnerving.
For those of you who want to fly to Australia, I wouldn't recommend QANTAS. Within the last decade their standards have collapsed, both in safety and comfort. Ever since the company started they had done their maintenance in Australia, but around 10 years ago they started sending the planes to Asia to get the work done for cheap. It may sound like a generalisation, but ever since that has happened they have had a poor safety record, lucky no one has been killed or anything major has happened, but all these failures in their planes has been linked to poor servicing. However they are still safe just not as safe as their reputation makes them sound. If you want to fly out to Australia and you want direct flights, fly with Virgin Australia (formally called V Australia, until they merged with Virgins domestic airline Virgin Blue). Don't be put off by the poor standards I have been hearing about Virgin America, as Virgin Australia is basically a different company altogether, only owned by the one company. They rival QANTAS levels of quality from the past and are much cheaper. And the best part was they have food that actually tastes really nice. They also have the added benefit that all their planes are new.
Nasty turbulence, lost luggage, hassel checking in amongst other things. I've heard good things about Virgin America. I'm thinking of traveling with them when I take a trip to DLR in the near future.
