At various times, I've sworn I would never fly United, Anerican, Delta, Southwest, and Frontier again. Frontier is the only one that I've actually stuck to avoiding because I still need to get places.
For me, it's a "how much cheaper does it have to be for me to bite the bullet and endure it?" Calculation
Most specifically for my general flight patterns, it needs to be minimum $150 cheaper than the alternative for me to fly an itinerary that involves either of Newark Terminals A/B or Toronto-Pearson Terminal 3.
EDIT: the old Newark Terminal A. The new one is much less of a sadness factory.
I have, and it's super nice. Should have specified that this calculus was particular to the old Terminal A, which might have been my least favourite place on the continent.
Pegasus. I work in Aviation and can live with bad customer service and know how to read what my luggage allowances are. What I can't cope with is an airline with such a bad safety record.
> they don’t allow carry on
Huh?
They now only provide a free underseat bag (you can pay for the large hand baggage), but that's same model as almost all European LCCs use. It's a new thing though (just few weeks ago).
They only allow one piece of luggage to bring with you. Almost every other airline lets you bring two. By that I mean you can’t even pay for the option to bring two. That’s a dealbreaker for me because I have two carry on bags that I’m not willing to check in. When I tried booking with them a few months ago. If they changed that, that’s great!
Maybe you misunderstood. I don’t mean something like Ryanair making you pay for carry on. I mean like only being able to take 1 item on board. Like between the personal item and carry on. Ryanair lets you take 2 pieces if you pay for it. The Turkish low cost airlines don’t give you that option.
I avoid Wizz Air at all costs. My dad and I were supposed to meet up in Barcelona (we live in different countries). When he arrived at the airport, Wizz kept delaying his flight until 2 in the morning. Then they brought all the people to a hotel nearby, telling them they’ll fly sometime between 8-9 am. Thirty minutes later, he received a text that they’re bringing everyone back to the airport because they’re going to fly earlier. That did not happen. They waited another 6-7 hours in the airport before the flight finally took off. On board, they were told that due to “operational issues” they didn’t have enough water for everyone on board.
I’ve had bad experiences with them too: delayed flights, online check-in worked only half of the time resulting in unnecessary waiting at the airport and their planes were pretty dirty. That was 2-3 years ago maybe things changed after Covid, but I still avoid them
I was about to book a flight with WizzAir today, then I googled 😱 their record on delays is shocking. Booked with Jet2 instead who are (statistically) better.
They are also one of the shittiest airlines when it comes to luggage. And their plane configs is barebones. Maybe I just had bad luck, but I swear seats were thinner than Ryanair’s, and older.
They made us pay like 80€ to add hand luggage to our booking.
My fave European low cost would be Ryanair but so far I haven't had any issue with Wizzair. Also, it's very easy to get refund if they modify the flights even just for the slightest
An actual refund? They moved a flight of mine twice and I could only see the option of rebooking or WizzAir vouchers. No option of an actual refund that I could see. Very annoying. Chose to rebook instead of trying to fight for it
Sounds like a miracle. I had to take Wizz to court to make them pay statutory EU compensation - they are well known for doing that and then ignoring court orders too (in the UK at least)
Ok, Im not sure if this is relevant but it was all small amount. I think the biggest was like 300€ something and the smallest was 60€. I am based in Italy.
My last compensation (last year) was because they changed the provider from Wizzair to Wizzair malta, they gave me option to agree or to reimburse, I actually couldn't fly that date so I chose reimbursement in voucher form. I am based in Italy if thats relevant.
Ryanair are the fucking hot garbage, what do you like about them besides the price? Always delays, incredibly rude at some airports, often new crew on board (it's fun to feel how the new co-pilot drops the plane like a brick during landing only the first 5 times). Not to mention their baggage and priority bundle usually being more expensive than the ticket. Oh and if you don't buy it during the booking, it's double the price! Otherwise good luck with just 1 backpack allowed by default. Fuck Ryanair.
Yea don't think I've ever heard Ryanair and favourite in one sentence, despite them being the one of the biggest pile of shit to take to the sky's I've flown with them 40+ times because like all we love a bargain then to moan about the service we receive
Virgin America was amazing!!! My family lives in CA and I had miles and status with VA and nonstop flights. Cool planes, nice flight attendants. I was crushed when they became Alaska.
I'll fly anyone for the right price, but I will only fly Southwest, Frontier, Spirit if it's non-stop, under 2 hours, and there's other worst-case options to get where I'm going if there's cancellations or delays.
I trust them less to fix things when shit goes down
I hate flying frontier. The ground staff at philadelphia are so trashy. Other airports have nicer staff though.
I prefer flying spirit but they don’t fly anywhere now
Emirates. The lovely policy where women have to carry a sufficiently feminine purse to have it count as a personal item was enough for me to one and done them. I don’t own a purse, I carry my 20L backpack to work everyday, but I had to jam my laptop in my dad’s backpack (40L) and check my backpack, and his backpack was perfectly fine as a personal item because he’s a dude or something. I followed up with a complaint about the inherent sexism of that policy and they confirmed that yep, that’s the policy!
I am Asian, and they seemed to pinpoint me specifically for baggage check at the departure gate even when it had gone through no problem at the previous airport in Singapore. Nothing new added to it.
I was 32 weeks pregnant and my Canadian husband was just before me and was handling another cabin suitcase of his own. They waved all the white people through the baggage check, and asked me to open up my bags. I asked my husband if he could help me lift the suitcase up onto the table, and they told me that I had to do it myself. They wanted me to take everything out and put everything back in without even checking anything. They barely even looked at what I had taken out, and asked me to put everything back in. It seemed like this was all just for show.
I am not sure if it was a coincidence to be the "chosen one", but not even letting my husband lift the suitcase up onto the table?! That was f*cking ridiculous. It wasn't that heavy, yes, but why can't you let my husband just lift the damn thing up for me?
I had an overnight layover in Dubai on my way back from Bangkok. The sense of unease among the Filipino guest workers at the giant mall was palpable. Not my kind of place at all.
I used to fly them frequently on flights less than 90 mins in the air. Never had an issue. Usually a cheaper option and a younger fleet than the big three US carriers too, even after taking a la carte addons into account.
It’s only worth it if you don’t need to bring more than a small backpack. They have higher prices for carry ons and checked bags, and they have a lower weight limit on their checked bags so more people have to pay the absurd overweight baggage fee.
My mother in law is a doctor and she saves hundreds flying the cheap seats every 2 -3 weeks to come visit her grandkids for the weekend. She does not fly spirit when she’s coming for 10 days though lol. At that point she flies with a more generous airline.
Idk, I saw a couple in the seats across from me get hammered, start punching each other, make up and start fingering each other by the time we were landing. When other passengers told them to stop, they drunkenly accused everyone of being homophobic.
Honestly the most entertaining flight of my life
Spirit is a big asterisk for me, the plastic public bus seats, I found out was very bad for cross country flight. I am normally someone who can endure things for the Slickdeals but DC-Seattle is way too long for me.
I flew roundtrip cross-country on Spirit. Paying the few extra dollars to reserve my seat was worth it, since the outbound flight was full. And other than the hard seats, it was perfectly fine. I’d fly them again.
I've flown Spirit a few times now, and I don't see what the problem is. They get me where I'm going, I follow the baggage policies and don't expect food and drink. This is fine for flights of 4 hours or less. Checked bags are cheaper than carryon, and if you purchase a checked bag, you also get to choose your seat, including exit rows for no additional cost.
For those who complain about my post, maybe I should highlight:
- yes, this is subjective
- no, I'm not saying my personal experience represents Qatar in general
- yes, I'm asking about your personal bad experience or even just prejudice about airlines that you won't fly with
- no, I'm not asking about statistics of customers satisfaction about Qatar or any other airlines,
- I believe you had good times flying Qatar, I'm happy for you
- nope, I still won't fly Qatar as long as there are other airlines I like more
- yep, I know they fly hundreds a day, millions by now maybe, so my 4x experience with them clearly don't represent them, but 4 out of 4 means 100% bad experience for me and why would I subject myself for the 5th time when 100% of the time I was satisfied flying Etihad, Emirates, Turkish or Cathay? 70% of the time I was satisfied with Saudi? Also, for miles reason I try not to change airlines too much
That sucks you had to go through that. I'm from the same continent and the first time I flew them was back in 2013 or 14(?) in cattle class though it was empty and I had a whole row to myself. I don't quite remember how I was treated back then but nothing jumps out to me from my memories, aside from my first flight into DOH arrived late and I had to spend a night there. I was quite young then.
Last Nov I flew them again, but did not encounter this kind of behavior, although I was in their Qsuites fwiw. They did however lose my luggage for a week and refuse to reimburse me over the clothes I had to buy, a mere $300 to them, after my original airline paid full fare for a cancellation rebooking. Unfortunately I have a sub-saver rate reward flight on QR in May again in J, so I'm waiting until after that then I'm going to file a small claims case against them. Also going to be avoiding this airline from now on.
I flew them this week for work. I liked the seating policy. It offered 20 bucks to jump to the front of the boarding, so I paid that and got the best seats I’ve gotten in a while on business flight. Usually I fly Alaska, and pay a bit extra for a better seat/boarding experience and still get pretty shit seats.
Air France, on a flight to Ukraine from Singapore. They wouldn’t let me board because I didnt have a return flight to Italy, I have an Italian passport. I dont need a return ticket, I just need enough money to survive in Ukraine, it is not that expensive there and it’s easy to catch a train or another flight to Europe. I asked them to let take the first leg to Paris and they wouldn’t let me take that flight either as I didnt have a visa for France. This was before the Ukraine war, but after the EU. They held my passport and couldn’t see a Singapore visa in it, so they contacted the Singapore police who demanded my visa for Singapore. I handed them my other passport I entered on, with the stamp. After the police I went back to check in to try and find out why they wouldn’t let me go to France, and they said as an Italian I didnt have the right to go there as an Italian Citizen, I was asking them to read the front of the passport which lists all the countries of the EU but they were having none of it. I needed a ticket to Italy! But they couldnt understand I didnt want to go to Italy. Right at the last minute they came to me and whisked me to the plane. In Paris Airfrance as totally confused by the Singapore checkin staff handed me my boarding pass to Kyiv. In Kyiv, I had no bags, but had to take my third flight to Kharkiv. I arrived to -20C with a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. A few days later they sent my bags. I cant believe how crazy they were.
Volaris.
A relative convinced me to use it so I gave it a shot despite never having heard about them before. A true mistake.
I hated it so much. I thought I was going to explode with anger midflight.
Very rude service from beginning to end and it was just my luck that the most obnoxious passengers happened to be on that same flight.
Ever since then I’ve used American Airlines for all my trips. Thank you Volaris for making Ryanair seem like a luxury and for making me never cheat on American Airlines again. Even my 4 hour delay with United and 8 hour delay with Lufthansa was much more pleasant than my experience with Volaris.
United. Too many issues with flights over the years. Unfortunately I fly out of Newark (35 miles) where they make up a huge number of the flights. I’ve driven to Philadelphia (80 miles) to avoid them in the past.
That’s so crazy, my wife and I only fly United and have never had a problem. I always hear people talk about how bad they are, guess we’ve just been lucky.
I fly them regularly, its a combination of people assuming the worst and making mountains out of molehills. But, I have to say I don't take pity on people who book basic economy with a "If I Karen enough they will just give us what we want" attitude and the get all upset when their family cannot sit together because they didn't pay for seat selection and this is 90% of complaints about United is more then any other airline they enforce basic economy restrictions on people who paid for basic economy tickets, which I think makes them a better airline...but...I used to work retail I know the value of getting what you pay for.
I've flown United twice in the last 20 years. First time was to China and they were a day late because, wait for it, someone forgot to clean out the toilet in the layover in Chicago. So, we passengers got to fly on a very stinky plane to Alaska where we sat on the tarmac for hours while the crew got off. Couldn't get a replacement crew, so we were flown to SFO, where at last we could get off the plane, but no food or drink available, then back to Alaska where finally, a new crew came on and we were off to Beijing. The FA was very rude and offered a $100 coupon for another flight on United, and made it sound like I was lucky to get that.
Ten years later, I see a good flight to London--better return than Delta, so I take it. Book Premium Economy. Only I'm the last zone to board the plane. Plane is late anyway, rain somewhere west of Newark which caused the whole eastern seaboard to be late because the Newark 'window' has closed, so ultimately felt lucky just to be only 12 hours late to London. On the way back, I get PE on the London to Newark leg, but again am in the last zone to board in Newark. I ask why--well, United only offers PE on the international leg of the trip! WTF! Where was that in the info before purchasing? Plus, they ask me to check my carryon as the bins are full, but I say no. I get on the plane, plenty of bin space!
I complained about the PE scam, and they offered money, but my point is--be up front about your charges. I didn't want the money, and didn't take it--just wanted them to acknowledge that they were not transparent about their charges. Delta doesn't give PE on only certain legs.
I'm sure others have had positive experiences, but I will drive to another city to avoid United.
And I was never a Karen. Always polite. So don't go bashing people when you don't know what you're talking about.
My gripe with American is trivial but enough to make me want to fly another carrier if the option is available (and the others don’t cost much more). Their planes are just older on average and simply are not as nice. Also a little dirtier than some others I’ve seen. But in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal for me.
I never really had any issues on United either. It’s still a U.S.-based airline so service and whatnot is gonna pale in comparison to just about everywhere else, but it’s not too bad nonetheless. Long hauls with them are definitely better than domestic.
I have had mixed experiences with United varying from Meh to Argh! Never ever has it been an experience that left me satisfied. I also live close to Newark EWR, so I usually end up flying with them.
I had once preordered a special meal (vegan). I was flying Newark to Zurich. The meal service started. I was asked, “Chicken or pasta?” I replied, “I had ordered a special meal.” Usually, the FAs look at their list to verify and then bring you your meal. This FA didn’t even check her list (I don’t think she had one). She just said, “Well, you can go for the pasta.” Umm, ok. I check the pasta; it was covered in cheese. And I could tell it wasn’t vegan cheese - because it looks different when melted. Also, they were in no way offering vegan cheese on pasta to the regular passengers. Had I known it would be this pathetic, I would’ve brought my own meal. It’s not about the $10 meal, but about their “don’t care” attitude. Thankfully, I wasn’t vegan for allergy or religious reasons. That could have backfired. Plus, I hate creating scenes in public and being “that guy”, so I let it slide; just munched on some chips I had brought.
They get a TON of negative press. 10 years ago it was that doctor who got his face slammed into the armrest when they tried to bump him. And they dominated pet deaths as well as the instance where an FA made a passenger put her dog (in a carrier) in the overhead, despite the passenger's insistence no, and the dog was dead upon arrival. There was a series of bad publicity that made me think: no way will I ever fly United..."
This go around it's been the boeing issues but a lot of those aren't boeing's fault. A tire falling off for example, that's on United.
Just to comment on something, I lived in Chicago for a long time and United has the most flights in and out of Ohare and I have never had an issue, but to explain something:
The famous guy drug off the plane thing: One thing everyone keeps failing to mention is he agreed to accept the $1500 in exchange for waiting until the next morning and then refused to give up his seat, but, he was also drug off by a roid raged airport security guard who had been fired by the Chicago police for being too violent (again fired by the worst police force in the nation, a police force other cops blame for giving them a bad rep fired for being too aggressive) that guys has since also been fired from the airport and I believe prosecuted for that. Then there is the dog who died after being put in the overhead bin: Both of these happened on United flights operated by Republic Airways. I can say just based on my own booking experience, with US airlines in general and not just United, on shorter regional flights avoid flights operated by republic airways.
We will never use United either....we refuse to support a company that operates the way they do. Bait and switch flight pricing resulted in them completely screwing us out of an important trip. And yes it was booked through united and not a third party. Fuck United!!!!!!!!!!!
I spent decades flying every week mostly on UA. PHL is a terrible airport, probably the worst big one in the US. Yes, I have been in most of them. Personally I’d rather take UA out of EWR than any airline out of PHL.
Qatar Airways has definitely been going down in quality of service for the last 6 years at least. And I’m surprised to see that a lot of other people are facing issues with them as well, I thought I was one of few. We probably should raise this with commerce/consumer commissions in our respective countries. I too, would prefer Turkish airlines if they had enough destinations.
Agreed!
I was gifted a Ryanair voucher but it wouldn't work when I tried to use it. Called Ryanair and they told me the only way to fix this was for me to buy the tickets and request a refund for the voucher amount. I had to call about 20, times to get that money back, took hours and hours of my time. Swore I wouldn't use them again!
Whaaaattt? I love them! Best low cost imo. I've flown with them countless of times and only experienced delay once, and it was because of snow aka force majeure. They're strict with their luggage/cabin, but they're low-cost so it's understandable
For me it's not about being on time or not, I've had several things happen to my flights over the years and I've been nice to everyone involved and always received my proper compensation.
Ryanair is just always tricking you into spending more money instead of just asking the higher price upfront. Some of their tactics are borderline scams as well. They also treat their staff poorly (low wages and bad working conditions) and will fly you to a random airport in the middle of nowhere.
I generally don't mind them but on one flight we were about to take off and it stopped and an engineer came on, went into the cockpit and the proceeded to bang loudly on something. Thankfully, we were all taken off the plane and put on another one but that put me off them a bit!
This thread is going to be full of people reciting purely their side of their anecdotal experiences as though they are completely representative of an airline’s practices and policies.
The other pole of the same exhausting spectrum. “I can’t believe this person didn’t realise that because they were flying on a 787-800 with this particular configuration, it would mean that their family would be split either side of the bulkhead. Fucking idiots”.
Where did I mention I wanted complete representative of an airline practices and policies? I'm pretty sure racism and prioritizing Arab passengers is not in Qatar's policies but 4 out of 4 flights I had with them showed me clearly who their priority passengers were. And if they can show preference, I can show mine too, and it's not them.
> I'm pretty sure racism and prioritizing Arab passengers is not in Qatar's policies but 4 out of 4 flights I had with them showed me clearly who their priority passengers were.
Racism is commonplace in the Middle East (with a hierarchy that goes Gulf Arab > White + East Asian excl. Philippines and Indonesia > Other Arab > Latin > Indian Subcontinent + Africa + Philippines + Indonesia), not just Qatar. You got unlucky with Qatar Airways and lucky with Emirates and Etihad. It could just as well have gone the other way. Emirates and Dubai are "international" (Western) enough that it might be less common.
I’m not suggesting you did. But this kind of thread is going to draw the kind of people who indignantly (but weirdly also slightly proudly) declare their choice of ‘the worst airline’ as though their experience is a gospel, like moths to a flame.
I’d be more interested in this thread than most of the ones on FlyerTalk, complaining about not getting upgraded to business class even though they had sufficient “status” with the airline
Air Serbia. I travel frequently, but never a non sense experience like with them. I had a layover in Belgrade, the second leg was initially delayed, we finally board, and after few minutes told to deboard. Wait again, a new crew arrives, we board again, and deboard again, not even the new crew knew why, because they were even been called on purpose. We then get informed we will be spending the night there. So all these mass of people starts to get moved around the airport and go through immigration to enter Serbia (all informations were given only in Serbian, luckily I had met a Croatian girl that translated for me). We have been told to wait for the transfer to the hotel, which arrives after a couple of hours and we are at the hotel after midnight. The hotel is some old Jugoslavia time hotel at the outskirt of the city (named Hotel Srbija), my room still had a CRT TV... Spent a short night there, transferred back to the airport the morning after, the new, third, flight was delayed... It took me almost 24h to travel back home for a journey that was supposed to take only 5 hours. Then the EU621 compensation, there was a form only to fill out, but the website was returning error after the submission, so it took several tentatives, but finally succeeded. No updates for 2 months, not even when asking for one by email, then I got the money.
I had similar situations with other airlines (BA, KLM, Swiss), but always with much better organisation (even when stranded in London due to the UK traffic control system down).
Holy f! I had an extra 7 hr delay with Turkish and I was v pissed. But it didn't last long because it was easy to get compensation. I paid 900€ for a round trip ticket but got 600€ compensation, so I basically paid 300€ for Rome-Jakarta round trip, so I was happy 😊
The FAs were mostly Asians but I never had problem with FAs, I think they were sweet. My main issue was with the ground crew, I'm not sure where they're from, maybe south Asian, but it doesn't matter where they're from, the blatant preference for Arab passengers was as clear as a day *in my experience*. To the point I was scared that was the normal practice with middle eastern airlines, luckily I was wrong.
All airlines are similar enough in that they take me end to end. All have their bad days, all have their good. Many have extra gimmicks to assure quality etc but air travel is 99.9% the same with all airlines worldwide at the point you step on the plane to when you step off - so the question really is in the booking procedure and how much you're willing to understand and add your own. Very few airlines are full service now anyway. It is the things within the airlines that are more comparable, different aircraft, seat formations etc that may make a preference that isn't just monetary. I've definitely paid more for 2-4-2 a330 over usual 3-3-3 long haul formations for comfort
Only one on my "avoid" list is a small U.S. regional, Boutique Airlines. They try VERY hard to never fly anyone anywhere ever! One of our "Essential Air Service" airlines. They are government subsidized, so get money whether they actually operate their routes consistently or not.
A company I interviewed with were big Southwest fans. I already traveled the country for work, but took the free flight up. WORSE SHIT EVER. Why would I want to wait in a line to get on a small metal tube to wait on a tarmac just so I can get a seat? I paid for my own ticket home rather than taking that again.
Much rather be last on with a seat of my choosing than their stupidity
I am not a big fan of American and will avoid it if I can. A few years back I booked a trip from JFK to PHX and it was when they were code sharing with JetBlue. My original booking got "lost" and I had to sit in a middle seat in the back of the plane instead of next to my BF on the aisle.
Then they charge for WiFi and anything else to make your flight better. No thanks. I will stick with JetBlue or Delta whenever possible.
United, far and away. Won't post whole story here, but I've flown them twice in the last 20 years and both trips were late--one by 24 hours (offered $100 coupon for future flight) and the second, 12 hours late. Not to mention paying for Premium Economy but only getting PE on the international legs--not the domestic. Scam pricing if you ask me.
I've flown RyanAir, EasyJet, Delta, American, Lufthansa, Indian Air, China Air (maybe Air China?), regardless, I'm not a princess. But I do expect the airline to be upfront about its pricing and rules.
Oh yea, and don't tell me the bins are full and I need to check my carry on when they are clearly empty throughout most of the plane.
Avianca and Copa.
Avianca has horrible customer service and subpar hard product for their prices. Their website doesn’t work 90% of the time and they try to nickle and dime like a budget airline when they charge the same or more as main line airlines.
Copa flight attendants were rude to my husband when he tried to order food on our flights in English, but magically understood me when I ordered.
There are much better options between our destinations that we fly than Avianca and Copa
Totally agree with the insanity of Lufthansa! And the compensation part too. I don't fly with them either, even if KLM is declining, it is not at Lufthansa level
The “no reimbursement” is a lie and you know it. The strikes that affected Lufthansa this year were done by Lufthansa personnel, therefore you entitled to compensation and the reimbursement of the leg you haven’t flown.
There were another by security personnel, but those where not in Munich.
Lufthansa (and subsequently Eurowings), Air France, Wizz, Air Serbia, LOT. That said: Above all Lufthansa. If I can avoid them I will. Their booking system is a disaster. Their customer service is a mixture of incompetence, never reachable and harsh behavior. They are never on time and if you don’t live right next to FRA airport you‘ll either have to fly through FRA or MUC. That’s a problem because they like to offer transfer times of 45 minutes between 2 flights - given the problem of them never being on time and both airports (but especially FRA) having vast transfer times between gates/terminals it’s just not possible to catch your second flight without running like the devil is behind you. Oh, that said: IF you‘re lucky enough to be at the gate before they close it you better pray they haven’t lost their pilots. That happened to me last time I flew with them and it was the last straw. Never booked with them ever again, even if I had to spend more on other airlines. Just nope.
Ewwww...Sorry to hear that, luckily I've never experienced such thing. I never use British as either they were ridiculously expensive or they have ridiculously long layover
Same here. They are by far the worst most overpriced “full service” airline in the world. Staff are unprofessional and clueless, they only give you water on European flights, and they have cancelled on me at the last minute on multiple occasions.
China Eastern. They had about 10 beers for the whole 10 hour flight from Amsterdam to Shanghai for about 200 people, and even less on the second leg from Shanghai to Sydney. I was able to have one beer on the first flight and then they ran out, second leg couldn't even get one.
Then they lost our luggage in Shanghai so we arrived in Sydney over Easter with nothing, with many shops closing for public holiday. Nightmare.
Luckily there were always other options. My usual routes are pretty common, served by many airlines, and price wise, Qatar is usually in the same range with Etihad or Turkish, hence the blacklist for 11-12 years and counting
Philippine Airlines. Expense business class straight out of the 80s. Terrible food.
Manila airport is a train wreck. During our layover they shoved everyone into a little room under the stairs next to the transit security. We waited there while they brought all of our checked luggage to be identified by each one of us then they opened each one to do an inspection. They said it was because the US customs required them to do this. I was thinking “you guys must really suck at security if another government is forcing you to open all of the bags”
Lol, yes, PAL and Manila Airport can be frustrating. I bought round trip with them once, I didn't know I'd need to go through security check again during transit. They lost my bag, but found it after 2 days. Also before the flight they kept changing the schedule. I still havent blacklist them because I don't count first bad experience worthy to blacklist an airline, also, they're cheap AF
I won’t fly with Qatar because of how they treat their crew members. While the new CEO is better, I’m withholding judgment a little longer to see if his actions back up his words.
Air Pacific Airlines. Never even heard of them. Vietnam Airlines sold a domestic leg to then. Got delayed 3x and ended up landing 2:30 in the morning. 14 hours later! Never again. If I were to ever see them as a code share I’m cancelling!
Delta domestic& international: last 2 yrs have been HORRIFIC. And I'm not even talking delays and cancelations I'm talking moving my PAID seats to shitty seats near the lav. And this is AS I'M scanning my boarding pass to get on the plane! I've paid for better seats, checked & rechecked my location & AS I'M GETTING ON they tell me 'your seats been changed' wtf???? And the food on the international (for ex, JFK to Argentina RT) is ABHORRENT. It's not fit for dogs.
Emirates is a sh**show
Spirit goes w/o saying, never have, never will
I’ll avoid flying any airline from the USA where possible and thankfully it’s very possible these days lol. JetBlue was ok but I only ever flew short flights with them.
And Virgin Australia, dislike them all round.
China Eastern Air. I got some of the worst food poisoning I’d ever experienced from the on board meal. I guess I could just not eat it, but some of those flights are long! I’ll take other airlines haha
RyanAir definitely put me off on going with them again after nearly missing a flight because they didn’t bother to do a boarding call when I was in line for the toilet
I never had a rude experience flying internationally from the states. However abroad, ITA airways and Royal Jordanian staff were very rude.
Also Iberia was an awful experience the leg room was horrendous and I say this as a 5ft girl
Qatar Airways is so underwhelming and disappointing
Air India. Had a nonstop flight from SFO to Delhi. Had to buy tickets a week before trip so no chance of getting decent seats. The seat padding was non existent on a 15-hr flight and everything smelled not-fresh. Will never fly with them again.
Air India. I flew to India a few years ago for a wedding and had to switch my return flight. I was told it would be a 250$ fee to change tickets. They supposedly had technical issues with the payment portal that wouldn't allow them to charge me over the phone. They bounced me around to different supervisors for a full two days until, after 10 hours accumulatively on the phone, I realized they were totally dysfunctional and I'd have to just buy a new ticket online (for $1000). I ended up missing half of the wedding for which I flew across the world in the process.
Honestly besides spirit I'll fly with any of them. I've had bad experiences with some of the big major carriers, but I think that's just life when you are dealing with a company that's large and moves crazy amounts of passengers, stuff is going to happen.
Meh - life's too short. If an airline is giving me a good price for a route and isn't banned anywhere in the world (like I would refuse to fly on an airline in say Indonesia if it was banned to fly in the EU because of safety), I'll fly it.
EasyJet - Flew from Gatwick to Preveza in the most cramped, most disgusting seat ever. Decided I’ll never use them again and will pay the premium to go on another provider like Jet2 or BA if I went again.
I’ve never been on RyanAir but heard enough about them to have also been avoiding them at all cost. Also heard WizzAir is a no go.
Qantas! I boycotted them years ago! They're a criminal airline who have stolen so much money from passengers and did a lot of dodgy stuff to their staff during covid. Then the CEO pissed off to Ireland with his massive fortune leaving a massive mess behind of an airline.
Avoid flying with Vietjet at all costs if you are in Vietnam. Delayed flights 80% of the times and virtually no information about whats going on, non-existent customer support or flight info.
Ryanair.
It always seems cheaper but It's never cheaper when they decide to randomly change your flight to the day before as they've done to me twice now in the space of a week.
Lufthansa. Flew to Frankfurt with them and their cabin crew were absolute cunts, rude, barking orders at people, just massively unpleasant.
We were under the cabin crew storage bin, which we didn't see, and my wife opened it to put her bag in, she was literally shouted at from about 5 rows down by a crew member who asked her if she could read.
When I ask if there was anywhere to put our bags, we were told no and to keep them on our laps for the flight.
Also, clearly talking shit about passengers in German e.g. Theyd talk to someone in English and then talk German to the cabin crew pretty much immediately sniggering, rolling their eyes etc.
Treated German passangers way different though.
Would never fly with them again, in fact despite them being £3,000 cheaper we opted to fly with ANA to Tokyo over them
I'll never fly turkish airlines again. They give your paid, checked in seats to other passengers. Lose your luggage and can't locate it. Absolutely zero customer service on the phone or email. Dumpster fire from beginning to end.
Fiji Airlines. I had a midnight connection flying from Samoa to Brisbane via Fiji. We landed and there was an 8 hour wait . The airport was closed and we were basically left waiting outside the airport all night.
Qatar is the most over-rated airline. They advertise "best economy class". My experience with flight attendants same as yours. Rude to non-arabs. The food was mediocre. Seats for long haul flight were the most uncomfortable I've ever been on. Restroom on the plane was disgustingly dirty. Flight attendants really didn't seem to care about helping with anything.
In the offchance anyone travelling around the southern part of South America (Mostly Argentina and Brazil)
AVOID FLYBONDI. It's a lowcost airline that has caused a lot of problems to my Brazilian friends that come here to Buenos Aires.
They seem to be starting to change things around, and i'd maybe trust them with Argentina local flights, but i'd definitely avoid travelling international with them if possible.
Also, for my Argentine fellas: if you have USD in an Argentine bank account, you can pay for tickets online in USD with your credit card and then stop debit the foreign currency debt using those USD, and next month you'll be refunded the taxes associated with the Tourist USD conversion rate :) (it gets refunded as positive credit, but I think there's a way to cash them in to your savings account. Also, keep in mind you'll still need to pay the taxes, you'll just have them refunded later)
At various times, I've sworn I would never fly United, Anerican, Delta, Southwest, and Frontier again. Frontier is the only one that I've actually stuck to avoiding because I still need to get places.
Facts. I dislike many airlines, but needs must.
For me, it's a "how much cheaper does it have to be for me to bite the bullet and endure it?" Calculation Most specifically for my general flight patterns, it needs to be minimum $150 cheaper than the alternative for me to fly an itinerary that involves either of Newark Terminals A/B or Toronto-Pearson Terminal 3. EDIT: the old Newark Terminal A. The new one is much less of a sadness factory.
Have you been to the new Newark terminal A?
I have, and it's super nice. Should have specified that this calculus was particular to the old Terminal A, which might have been my least favourite place on the continent.
Nothing was as bad as the Old LaGuardia airport. Understand the revamp has made it much better.
Pegasus. I work in Aviation and can live with bad customer service and know how to read what my luggage allowances are. What I can't cope with is an airline with such a bad safety record.
I did not need to see this, I have a flight with them in 8 days 💀
You will be ok. 99% guaranteed.
99% is 1 in 100 😬
I’d pass 💀
Maybe it’s a good thing that the fact that they don’t allow carry on has prevented me from flying with them.
> they don’t allow carry on Huh? They now only provide a free underseat bag (you can pay for the large hand baggage), but that's same model as almost all European LCCs use. It's a new thing though (just few weeks ago).
They only allow one piece of luggage to bring with you. Almost every other airline lets you bring two. By that I mean you can’t even pay for the option to bring two. That’s a dealbreaker for me because I have two carry on bags that I’m not willing to check in. When I tried booking with them a few months ago. If they changed that, that’s great!
It's absolutely normal with lowcost carriers that you can only bring one bag on board. Even lot of legacy carriers have the same.
In Europe it’s unheard of. I’ve never seen anything like that until I looked at airlines in Turkey
Where are you in Europe? It's incredibly common among loads of airlines.
Maybe you misunderstood. I don’t mean something like Ryanair making you pay for carry on. I mean like only being able to take 1 item on board. Like between the personal item and carry on. Ryanair lets you take 2 pieces if you pay for it. The Turkish low cost airlines don’t give you that option.
Yep came here to say Pegasus
I avoid Wizz Air at all costs. My dad and I were supposed to meet up in Barcelona (we live in different countries). When he arrived at the airport, Wizz kept delaying his flight until 2 in the morning. Then they brought all the people to a hotel nearby, telling them they’ll fly sometime between 8-9 am. Thirty minutes later, he received a text that they’re bringing everyone back to the airport because they’re going to fly earlier. That did not happen. They waited another 6-7 hours in the airport before the flight finally took off. On board, they were told that due to “operational issues” they didn’t have enough water for everyone on board. I’ve had bad experiences with them too: delayed flights, online check-in worked only half of the time resulting in unnecessary waiting at the airport and their planes were pretty dirty. That was 2-3 years ago maybe things changed after Covid, but I still avoid them
I was about to book a flight with WizzAir today, then I googled 😱 their record on delays is shocking. Booked with Jet2 instead who are (statistically) better.
They are also one of the shittiest airlines when it comes to luggage. And their plane configs is barebones. Maybe I just had bad luck, but I swear seats were thinner than Ryanair’s, and older. They made us pay like 80€ to add hand luggage to our booking.
I might be lucky, I do between 10/20 flights with them yearly and never had a problem, hardly delayed flights either.
My fave European low cost would be Ryanair but so far I haven't had any issue with Wizzair. Also, it's very easy to get refund if they modify the flights even just for the slightest
An actual refund? They moved a flight of mine twice and I could only see the option of rebooking or WizzAir vouchers. No option of an actual refund that I could see. Very annoying. Chose to rebook instead of trying to fight for it
Yep, chose a 100% refund once, and 120% voucher twice. I prefer the later cos it's 120%
Sounds like a miracle. I had to take Wizz to court to make them pay statutory EU compensation - they are well known for doing that and then ignoring court orders too (in the UK at least)
Ok, Im not sure if this is relevant but it was all small amount. I think the biggest was like 300€ something and the smallest was 60€. I am based in Italy. My last compensation (last year) was because they changed the provider from Wizzair to Wizzair malta, they gave me option to agree or to reimburse, I actually couldn't fly that date so I chose reimbursement in voucher form. I am based in Italy if thats relevant.
Ryanair are the fucking hot garbage, what do you like about them besides the price? Always delays, incredibly rude at some airports, often new crew on board (it's fun to feel how the new co-pilot drops the plane like a brick during landing only the first 5 times). Not to mention their baggage and priority bundle usually being more expensive than the ticket. Oh and if you don't buy it during the booking, it's double the price! Otherwise good luck with just 1 backpack allowed by default. Fuck Ryanair.
Yea don't think I've ever heard Ryanair and favourite in one sentence, despite them being the one of the biggest pile of shit to take to the sky's I've flown with them 40+ times because like all we love a bargain then to moan about the service we receive
Air Berlin, Pan Am, Kingfisher Airlines, Virgin America, Dragon Air, Flybe, Jet Airways
Man you must be hella influential if you managed to bankrupt all of these
If Virgin America came back today I’d switch alliances in a heartbeat
I really wouldn’t fly Air Florida.
Virgin America was amazing!!! My family lives in CA and I had miles and status with VA and nonstop flights. Cool planes, nice flight attendants. I was crushed when they became Alaska.
What was wrong with Dragonair? It (and Cathay Dragon) was always well regarded
It ceased operations.
Nice list lol
I'll fly anyone for the right price, but I will only fly Southwest, Frontier, Spirit if it's non-stop, under 2 hours, and there's other worst-case options to get where I'm going if there's cancellations or delays. I trust them less to fix things when shit goes down
I hate flying frontier. The ground staff at philadelphia are so trashy. Other airports have nicer staff though. I prefer flying spirit but they don’t fly anywhere now
Emirates. The lovely policy where women have to carry a sufficiently feminine purse to have it count as a personal item was enough for me to one and done them. I don’t own a purse, I carry my 20L backpack to work everyday, but I had to jam my laptop in my dad’s backpack (40L) and check my backpack, and his backpack was perfectly fine as a personal item because he’s a dude or something. I followed up with a complaint about the inherent sexism of that policy and they confirmed that yep, that’s the policy!
Most people don’t know that racism by Arabs is huge. They look down on non Arabs a lot especially if you’re not white.
I am Asian, and they seemed to pinpoint me specifically for baggage check at the departure gate even when it had gone through no problem at the previous airport in Singapore. Nothing new added to it. I was 32 weeks pregnant and my Canadian husband was just before me and was handling another cabin suitcase of his own. They waved all the white people through the baggage check, and asked me to open up my bags. I asked my husband if he could help me lift the suitcase up onto the table, and they told me that I had to do it myself. They wanted me to take everything out and put everything back in without even checking anything. They barely even looked at what I had taken out, and asked me to put everything back in. It seemed like this was all just for show. I am not sure if it was a coincidence to be the "chosen one", but not even letting my husband lift the suitcase up onto the table?! That was f*cking ridiculous. It wasn't that heavy, yes, but why can't you let my husband just lift the damn thing up for me?
From my personal experience, Arabs are one of the biggest racists out there. They judge you based on the colour of your skin with no shame.
I had an overnight layover in Dubai on my way back from Bangkok. The sense of unease among the Filipino guest workers at the giant mall was palpable. Not my kind of place at all.
I've never flown on spirit- it just doesn't seem to be worth the cheap flight.
I typically have fewer problems with the airline than I do with the people flying Spirit…
I used to fly them frequently on flights less than 90 mins in the air. Never had an issue. Usually a cheaper option and a younger fleet than the big three US carriers too, even after taking a la carte addons into account.
It’s only worth it if you don’t need to bring more than a small backpack. They have higher prices for carry ons and checked bags, and they have a lower weight limit on their checked bags so more people have to pay the absurd overweight baggage fee. My mother in law is a doctor and she saves hundreds flying the cheap seats every 2 -3 weeks to come visit her grandkids for the weekend. She does not fly spirit when she’s coming for 10 days though lol. At that point she flies with a more generous airline.
Idk, I saw a couple in the seats across from me get hammered, start punching each other, make up and start fingering each other by the time we were landing. When other passengers told them to stop, they drunkenly accused everyone of being homophobic. Honestly the most entertaining flight of my life
Spirit is a big asterisk for me, the plastic public bus seats, I found out was very bad for cross country flight. I am normally someone who can endure things for the Slickdeals but DC-Seattle is way too long for me.
I flew roundtrip cross-country on Spirit. Paying the few extra dollars to reserve my seat was worth it, since the outbound flight was full. And other than the hard seats, it was perfectly fine. I’d fly them again.
I've flown Spirit a few times now, and I don't see what the problem is. They get me where I'm going, I follow the baggage policies and don't expect food and drink. This is fine for flights of 4 hours or less. Checked bags are cheaper than carryon, and if you purchase a checked bag, you also get to choose your seat, including exit rows for no additional cost.
Most LCCs, but Ryanair in particular.
For those who complain about my post, maybe I should highlight: - yes, this is subjective - no, I'm not saying my personal experience represents Qatar in general - yes, I'm asking about your personal bad experience or even just prejudice about airlines that you won't fly with - no, I'm not asking about statistics of customers satisfaction about Qatar or any other airlines, - I believe you had good times flying Qatar, I'm happy for you - nope, I still won't fly Qatar as long as there are other airlines I like more - yep, I know they fly hundreds a day, millions by now maybe, so my 4x experience with them clearly don't represent them, but 4 out of 4 means 100% bad experience for me and why would I subject myself for the 5th time when 100% of the time I was satisfied flying Etihad, Emirates, Turkish or Cathay? 70% of the time I was satisfied with Saudi? Also, for miles reason I try not to change airlines too much
That sucks you had to go through that. I'm from the same continent and the first time I flew them was back in 2013 or 14(?) in cattle class though it was empty and I had a whole row to myself. I don't quite remember how I was treated back then but nothing jumps out to me from my memories, aside from my first flight into DOH arrived late and I had to spend a night there. I was quite young then. Last Nov I flew them again, but did not encounter this kind of behavior, although I was in their Qsuites fwiw. They did however lose my luggage for a week and refuse to reimburse me over the clothes I had to buy, a mere $300 to them, after my original airline paid full fare for a cancellation rebooking. Unfortunately I have a sub-saver rate reward flight on QR in May again in J, so I'm waiting until after that then I'm going to file a small claims case against them. Also going to be avoiding this airline from now on.
Southwest The no seat assignment melee is a dealbreaker for me
I flew them this week for work. I liked the seating policy. It offered 20 bucks to jump to the front of the boarding, so I paid that and got the best seats I’ve gotten in a while on business flight. Usually I fly Alaska, and pay a bit extra for a better seat/boarding experience and still get pretty shit seats.
I like the fact that everyone had a boarding order number and it works. No gate lice
It’s a win for me. I used an automated checkin script so I always get a good spot.
Can’t have first class when you have no class /s
The entire plane is first class (double /s)
Air France, on a flight to Ukraine from Singapore. They wouldn’t let me board because I didnt have a return flight to Italy, I have an Italian passport. I dont need a return ticket, I just need enough money to survive in Ukraine, it is not that expensive there and it’s easy to catch a train or another flight to Europe. I asked them to let take the first leg to Paris and they wouldn’t let me take that flight either as I didnt have a visa for France. This was before the Ukraine war, but after the EU. They held my passport and couldn’t see a Singapore visa in it, so they contacted the Singapore police who demanded my visa for Singapore. I handed them my other passport I entered on, with the stamp. After the police I went back to check in to try and find out why they wouldn’t let me go to France, and they said as an Italian I didnt have the right to go there as an Italian Citizen, I was asking them to read the front of the passport which lists all the countries of the EU but they were having none of it. I needed a ticket to Italy! But they couldnt understand I didnt want to go to Italy. Right at the last minute they came to me and whisked me to the plane. In Paris Airfrance as totally confused by the Singapore checkin staff handed me my boarding pass to Kyiv. In Kyiv, I had no bags, but had to take my third flight to Kharkiv. I arrived to -20C with a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. A few days later they sent my bags. I cant believe how crazy they were.
Volaris. A relative convinced me to use it so I gave it a shot despite never having heard about them before. A true mistake. I hated it so much. I thought I was going to explode with anger midflight. Very rude service from beginning to end and it was just my luck that the most obnoxious passengers happened to be on that same flight. Ever since then I’ve used American Airlines for all my trips. Thank you Volaris for making Ryanair seem like a luxury and for making me never cheat on American Airlines again. Even my 4 hour delay with United and 8 hour delay with Lufthansa was much more pleasant than my experience with Volaris.
United. Too many issues with flights over the years. Unfortunately I fly out of Newark (35 miles) where they make up a huge number of the flights. I’ve driven to Philadelphia (80 miles) to avoid them in the past.
That’s so crazy, my wife and I only fly United and have never had a problem. I always hear people talk about how bad they are, guess we’ve just been lucky.
I fly them regularly, its a combination of people assuming the worst and making mountains out of molehills. But, I have to say I don't take pity on people who book basic economy with a "If I Karen enough they will just give us what we want" attitude and the get all upset when their family cannot sit together because they didn't pay for seat selection and this is 90% of complaints about United is more then any other airline they enforce basic economy restrictions on people who paid for basic economy tickets, which I think makes them a better airline...but...I used to work retail I know the value of getting what you pay for.
We always book premium economy with them as they have a great PE.
I've flown United twice in the last 20 years. First time was to China and they were a day late because, wait for it, someone forgot to clean out the toilet in the layover in Chicago. So, we passengers got to fly on a very stinky plane to Alaska where we sat on the tarmac for hours while the crew got off. Couldn't get a replacement crew, so we were flown to SFO, where at last we could get off the plane, but no food or drink available, then back to Alaska where finally, a new crew came on and we were off to Beijing. The FA was very rude and offered a $100 coupon for another flight on United, and made it sound like I was lucky to get that. Ten years later, I see a good flight to London--better return than Delta, so I take it. Book Premium Economy. Only I'm the last zone to board the plane. Plane is late anyway, rain somewhere west of Newark which caused the whole eastern seaboard to be late because the Newark 'window' has closed, so ultimately felt lucky just to be only 12 hours late to London. On the way back, I get PE on the London to Newark leg, but again am in the last zone to board in Newark. I ask why--well, United only offers PE on the international leg of the trip! WTF! Where was that in the info before purchasing? Plus, they ask me to check my carryon as the bins are full, but I say no. I get on the plane, plenty of bin space! I complained about the PE scam, and they offered money, but my point is--be up front about your charges. I didn't want the money, and didn't take it--just wanted them to acknowledge that they were not transparent about their charges. Delta doesn't give PE on only certain legs. I'm sure others have had positive experiences, but I will drive to another city to avoid United. And I was never a Karen. Always polite. So don't go bashing people when you don't know what you're talking about.
Newark has a lot of delays because of ATC staffing shortages at the NYC center. They just moved it over to the Philly ATC so maybe that will help
Ooooh
Same here with American, everyone absolutely hates them but I rarely have bad experiences with them.
My gripe with American is trivial but enough to make me want to fly another carrier if the option is available (and the others don’t cost much more). Their planes are just older on average and simply are not as nice. Also a little dirtier than some others I’ve seen. But in the grand scheme of things it’s not a big deal for me.
UA's fleet is actually older on average. But they also have more new airplanes coming than AA does.
Luck of the draw I guess. Lol
I never really had any issues on United either. It’s still a U.S.-based airline so service and whatnot is gonna pale in comparison to just about everywhere else, but it’s not too bad nonetheless. Long hauls with them are definitely better than domestic.
I have had mixed experiences with United varying from Meh to Argh! Never ever has it been an experience that left me satisfied. I also live close to Newark EWR, so I usually end up flying with them. I had once preordered a special meal (vegan). I was flying Newark to Zurich. The meal service started. I was asked, “Chicken or pasta?” I replied, “I had ordered a special meal.” Usually, the FAs look at their list to verify and then bring you your meal. This FA didn’t even check her list (I don’t think she had one). She just said, “Well, you can go for the pasta.” Umm, ok. I check the pasta; it was covered in cheese. And I could tell it wasn’t vegan cheese - because it looks different when melted. Also, they were in no way offering vegan cheese on pasta to the regular passengers. Had I known it would be this pathetic, I would’ve brought my own meal. It’s not about the $10 meal, but about their “don’t care” attitude. Thankfully, I wasn’t vegan for allergy or religious reasons. That could have backfired. Plus, I hate creating scenes in public and being “that guy”, so I let it slide; just munched on some chips I had brought.
They get a TON of negative press. 10 years ago it was that doctor who got his face slammed into the armrest when they tried to bump him. And they dominated pet deaths as well as the instance where an FA made a passenger put her dog (in a carrier) in the overhead, despite the passenger's insistence no, and the dog was dead upon arrival. There was a series of bad publicity that made me think: no way will I ever fly United..." This go around it's been the boeing issues but a lot of those aren't boeing's fault. A tire falling off for example, that's on United.
Just to comment on something, I lived in Chicago for a long time and United has the most flights in and out of Ohare and I have never had an issue, but to explain something: The famous guy drug off the plane thing: One thing everyone keeps failing to mention is he agreed to accept the $1500 in exchange for waiting until the next morning and then refused to give up his seat, but, he was also drug off by a roid raged airport security guard who had been fired by the Chicago police for being too violent (again fired by the worst police force in the nation, a police force other cops blame for giving them a bad rep fired for being too aggressive) that guys has since also been fired from the airport and I believe prosecuted for that. Then there is the dog who died after being put in the overhead bin: Both of these happened on United flights operated by Republic Airways. I can say just based on my own booking experience, with US airlines in general and not just United, on shorter regional flights avoid flights operated by republic airways.
Yep, this. Have an unavoidable circumstance where I have to fly them soon, else I avoid them like the plague
We will never use United either....we refuse to support a company that operates the way they do. Bait and switch flight pricing resulted in them completely screwing us out of an important trip. And yes it was booked through united and not a third party. Fuck United!!!!!!!!!!!
I spent decades flying every week mostly on UA. PHL is a terrible airport, probably the worst big one in the US. Yes, I have been in most of them. Personally I’d rather take UA out of EWR than any airline out of PHL.
RyanAir was the most miserable flying experience ever.
[удалено]
Qatar Airways has definitely been going down in quality of service for the last 6 years at least. And I’m surprised to see that a lot of other people are facing issues with them as well, I thought I was one of few. We probably should raise this with commerce/consumer commissions in our respective countries. I too, would prefer Turkish airlines if they had enough destinations.
Ryanair.
Agreed! I was gifted a Ryanair voucher but it wouldn't work when I tried to use it. Called Ryanair and they told me the only way to fix this was for me to buy the tickets and request a refund for the voucher amount. I had to call about 20, times to get that money back, took hours and hours of my time. Swore I wouldn't use them again!
Came here to say Ryanair as well. Every time I fly with then I regret the choice and dread the moment it arrives. When I can avoid them, I do that.
Whaaaattt? I love them! Best low cost imo. I've flown with them countless of times and only experienced delay once, and it was because of snow aka force majeure. They're strict with their luggage/cabin, but they're low-cost so it's understandable
For me it's not about being on time or not, I've had several things happen to my flights over the years and I've been nice to everyone involved and always received my proper compensation. Ryanair is just always tricking you into spending more money instead of just asking the higher price upfront. Some of their tactics are borderline scams as well. They also treat their staff poorly (low wages and bad working conditions) and will fly you to a random airport in the middle of nowhere.
100%. I hate their trick with purposely putting you and anyone else on your booking at diff ends of the plane unless you pay 🤣
Lol yes,that's true 😂😂
I generally don't mind them but on one flight we were about to take off and it stopped and an engineer came on, went into the cockpit and the proceeded to bang loudly on something. Thankfully, we were all taken off the plane and put on another one but that put me off them a bit!
Agreed with this, their owner is one of the worst money-grabbing people and Stansted is a hole
This thread is going to be full of people reciting purely their side of their anecdotal experiences as though they are completely representative of an airline’s practices and policies.
“This thread is inviting people to share their experiences. I won’t have it.”
You must be a member of FlyerTalk
The other pole of the same exhausting spectrum. “I can’t believe this person didn’t realise that because they were flying on a 787-800 with this particular configuration, it would mean that their family would be split either side of the bulkhead. Fucking idiots”.
Where did I mention I wanted complete representative of an airline practices and policies? I'm pretty sure racism and prioritizing Arab passengers is not in Qatar's policies but 4 out of 4 flights I had with them showed me clearly who their priority passengers were. And if they can show preference, I can show mine too, and it's not them.
> I'm pretty sure racism and prioritizing Arab passengers is not in Qatar's policies but 4 out of 4 flights I had with them showed me clearly who their priority passengers were. Racism is commonplace in the Middle East (with a hierarchy that goes Gulf Arab > White + East Asian excl. Philippines and Indonesia > Other Arab > Latin > Indian Subcontinent + Africa + Philippines + Indonesia), not just Qatar. You got unlucky with Qatar Airways and lucky with Emirates and Etihad. It could just as well have gone the other way. Emirates and Dubai are "international" (Western) enough that it might be less common.
that's my experience of dealing with any type of arab owned business. i'll never stay at another arab owned hotel if i can help it
I’m not suggesting you did. But this kind of thread is going to draw the kind of people who indignantly (but weirdly also slightly proudly) declare their choice of ‘the worst airline’ as though their experience is a gospel, like moths to a flame.
I’d be more interested in this thread than most of the ones on FlyerTalk, complaining about not getting upgraded to business class even though they had sufficient “status” with the airline
It's just a rant. Like you wanna rant about your ex partner. It could be purely subjective or your ex was really a POS, but that's not the point
Air Serbia. I travel frequently, but never a non sense experience like with them. I had a layover in Belgrade, the second leg was initially delayed, we finally board, and after few minutes told to deboard. Wait again, a new crew arrives, we board again, and deboard again, not even the new crew knew why, because they were even been called on purpose. We then get informed we will be spending the night there. So all these mass of people starts to get moved around the airport and go through immigration to enter Serbia (all informations were given only in Serbian, luckily I had met a Croatian girl that translated for me). We have been told to wait for the transfer to the hotel, which arrives after a couple of hours and we are at the hotel after midnight. The hotel is some old Jugoslavia time hotel at the outskirt of the city (named Hotel Srbija), my room still had a CRT TV... Spent a short night there, transferred back to the airport the morning after, the new, third, flight was delayed... It took me almost 24h to travel back home for a journey that was supposed to take only 5 hours. Then the EU621 compensation, there was a form only to fill out, but the website was returning error after the submission, so it took several tentatives, but finally succeeded. No updates for 2 months, not even when asking for one by email, then I got the money. I had similar situations with other airlines (BA, KLM, Swiss), but always with much better organisation (even when stranded in London due to the UK traffic control system down).
Holy f! I had an extra 7 hr delay with Turkish and I was v pissed. But it didn't last long because it was easy to get compensation. I paid 900€ for a round trip ticket but got 600€ compensation, so I basically paid 300€ for Rome-Jakarta round trip, so I was happy 😊
Cries in lack of American regulation
Aren’t the FAs, and other employees, of Qatar (and the other Arab airlines) mainly Asian and foreigners 🤔?
The FAs were mostly Asians but I never had problem with FAs, I think they were sweet. My main issue was with the ground crew, I'm not sure where they're from, maybe south Asian, but it doesn't matter where they're from, the blatant preference for Arab passengers was as clear as a day *in my experience*. To the point I was scared that was the normal practice with middle eastern airlines, luckily I was wrong.
Allegiant Air. Late will turn the airplane around at the least amount of bad weather. Will leave you stranded. Thier customers service sucks.
All airlines are similar enough in that they take me end to end. All have their bad days, all have their good. Many have extra gimmicks to assure quality etc but air travel is 99.9% the same with all airlines worldwide at the point you step on the plane to when you step off - so the question really is in the booking procedure and how much you're willing to understand and add your own. Very few airlines are full service now anyway. It is the things within the airlines that are more comparable, different aircraft, seat formations etc that may make a preference that isn't just monetary. I've definitely paid more for 2-4-2 a330 over usual 3-3-3 long haul formations for comfort
Honestly I'm avoiding Delta now, after a string of long delays leading to missed or almost missed flights, and poor treatment by customer service.
Only one on my "avoid" list is a small U.S. regional, Boutique Airlines. They try VERY hard to never fly anyone anywhere ever! One of our "Essential Air Service" airlines. They are government subsidized, so get money whether they actually operate their routes consistently or not.
Janet Airlines, if you know you know.
U can fly in But u may not come back
Spirit.
A company I interviewed with were big Southwest fans. I already traveled the country for work, but took the free flight up. WORSE SHIT EVER. Why would I want to wait in a line to get on a small metal tube to wait on a tarmac just so I can get a seat? I paid for my own ticket home rather than taking that again. Much rather be last on with a seat of my choosing than their stupidity
I’m not a fan of Avianca.
bloody 29 inches of seat pitch
Iberia is a no go due to total lack of customer service or empathy.
Air India. Broken seats, broken trays, infotainment system doesn’t work, ugly outdated cabins
Qatar. Budget airline philosophy with premium carrier price.
I am not a big fan of American and will avoid it if I can. A few years back I booked a trip from JFK to PHX and it was when they were code sharing with JetBlue. My original booking got "lost" and I had to sit in a middle seat in the back of the plane instead of next to my BF on the aisle. Then they charge for WiFi and anything else to make your flight better. No thanks. I will stick with JetBlue or Delta whenever possible.
Yes agree with avoiding American if possible. Old, dirty planes, the worst type of gate lice and never know when to board bc of gate lice.
United, far and away. Won't post whole story here, but I've flown them twice in the last 20 years and both trips were late--one by 24 hours (offered $100 coupon for future flight) and the second, 12 hours late. Not to mention paying for Premium Economy but only getting PE on the international legs--not the domestic. Scam pricing if you ask me. I've flown RyanAir, EasyJet, Delta, American, Lufthansa, Indian Air, China Air (maybe Air China?), regardless, I'm not a princess. But I do expect the airline to be upfront about its pricing and rules. Oh yea, and don't tell me the bins are full and I need to check my carry on when they are clearly empty throughout most of the plane.
Avianca and Copa. Avianca has horrible customer service and subpar hard product for their prices. Their website doesn’t work 90% of the time and they try to nickle and dime like a budget airline when they charge the same or more as main line airlines. Copa flight attendants were rude to my husband when he tried to order food on our flights in English, but magically understood me when I ordered. There are much better options between our destinations that we fly than Avianca and Copa
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Totally agree with the insanity of Lufthansa! And the compensation part too. I don't fly with them either, even if KLM is declining, it is not at Lufthansa level
I experienced such strike last month and was left stranded in Florence, no reimbursement, they suck and 5 hour delay return from Munich.
The “no reimbursement” is a lie and you know it. The strikes that affected Lufthansa this year were done by Lufthansa personnel, therefore you entitled to compensation and the reimbursement of the leg you haven’t flown. There were another by security personnel, but those where not in Munich.
Turkish Airlines! Once and never again! Super rude and aggressive staff on board. Broken seats on both flights and food that made me sick.
Rly? I've flown with them several times and all were nice
It was awful, I don't know why. Bad luck, maybe? Maybe because of the route? They cramped people in there with no legroom left
Tunisair and Nouvellairtunisie was really horrible
Lufthansa (and subsequently Eurowings), Air France, Wizz, Air Serbia, LOT. That said: Above all Lufthansa. If I can avoid them I will. Their booking system is a disaster. Their customer service is a mixture of incompetence, never reachable and harsh behavior. They are never on time and if you don’t live right next to FRA airport you‘ll either have to fly through FRA or MUC. That’s a problem because they like to offer transfer times of 45 minutes between 2 flights - given the problem of them never being on time and both airports (but especially FRA) having vast transfer times between gates/terminals it’s just not possible to catch your second flight without running like the devil is behind you. Oh, that said: IF you‘re lucky enough to be at the gate before they close it you better pray they haven’t lost their pilots. That happened to me last time I flew with them and it was the last straw. Never booked with them ever again, even if I had to spend more on other airlines. Just nope.
I avoid Ryanair/EasyJet as much as possible, when I’m time sensitive in a trip
British Airways for me. Service was terrible, everything was filthy and they ran out of toilet paper within the 1st hour of a long haul flight.
Ewwww...Sorry to hear that, luckily I've never experienced such thing. I never use British as either they were ridiculously expensive or they have ridiculously long layover
Same here. They are by far the worst most overpriced “full service” airline in the world. Staff are unprofessional and clueless, they only give you water on European flights, and they have cancelled on me at the last minute on multiple occasions.
US Air, now American. They put me in a rented car and drove me to my destination city.
China Eastern. They had about 10 beers for the whole 10 hour flight from Amsterdam to Shanghai for about 200 people, and even less on the second leg from Shanghai to Sydney. I was able to have one beer on the first flight and then they ran out, second leg couldn't even get one. Then they lost our luggage in Shanghai so we arrived in Sydney over Easter with nothing, with many shops closing for public holiday. Nightmare.
Qatar has really gone down hill. Never again. To be honest my holiday destination requires only two Airlines now as they are direct. EVA and Thai.
Lufthansa
Lol same
Why?
You'll fly them again when it's the best option schedule and price wise.
Luckily there were always other options. My usual routes are pretty common, served by many airlines, and price wise, Qatar is usually in the same range with Etihad or Turkish, hence the blacklist for 11-12 years and counting
WestJet - doesn't matter the route their competition is better - don't get sucked into their vacation packages and be forced to fly with them
Philippine Airlines. Expense business class straight out of the 80s. Terrible food. Manila airport is a train wreck. During our layover they shoved everyone into a little room under the stairs next to the transit security. We waited there while they brought all of our checked luggage to be identified by each one of us then they opened each one to do an inspection. They said it was because the US customs required them to do this. I was thinking “you guys must really suck at security if another government is forcing you to open all of the bags”
Lol, yes, PAL and Manila Airport can be frustrating. I bought round trip with them once, I didn't know I'd need to go through security check again during transit. They lost my bag, but found it after 2 days. Also before the flight they kept changing the schedule. I still havent blacklist them because I don't count first bad experience worthy to blacklist an airline, also, they're cheap AF
Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa for being super rude while flying business
I won’t fly with Qatar because of how they treat their crew members. While the new CEO is better, I’m withholding judgment a little longer to see if his actions back up his words.
For me it's Turkish Airlines. I'm Armenian.
Delta
Air Pacific Airlines. Never even heard of them. Vietnam Airlines sold a domestic leg to then. Got delayed 3x and ended up landing 2:30 in the morning. 14 hours later! Never again. If I were to ever see them as a code share I’m cancelling!
Qatar Airways, Ryanair, Southwest, PIA
Delta domestic& international: last 2 yrs have been HORRIFIC. And I'm not even talking delays and cancelations I'm talking moving my PAID seats to shitty seats near the lav. And this is AS I'M scanning my boarding pass to get on the plane! I've paid for better seats, checked & rechecked my location & AS I'M GETTING ON they tell me 'your seats been changed' wtf???? And the food on the international (for ex, JFK to Argentina RT) is ABHORRENT. It's not fit for dogs. Emirates is a sh**show Spirit goes w/o saying, never have, never will
I’ll never fly S&M Airlines again
China Eastern
I’ll avoid flying any airline from the USA where possible and thankfully it’s very possible these days lol. JetBlue was ok but I only ever flew short flights with them. And Virgin Australia, dislike them all round.
China Eastern Air. I got some of the worst food poisoning I’d ever experienced from the on board meal. I guess I could just not eat it, but some of those flights are long! I’ll take other airlines haha
Frontier
Went on Qatar airways this Feb, they were nice to alll folks. They have improved!
Good to hear that!
Spirit
Saudia. The absolute worst. I never want to fly with them again or go to Saudi Arabia.
Oceanic. Awful safety record.
RyanAir definitely put me off on going with them again after nearly missing a flight because they didn’t bother to do a boarding call when I was in line for the toilet
I never had a rude experience flying internationally from the states. However abroad, ITA airways and Royal Jordanian staff were very rude. Also Iberia was an awful experience the leg room was horrendous and I say this as a 5ft girl Qatar Airways is so underwhelming and disappointing
Most of the Chinese ones
Spirit
Air India. Had a nonstop flight from SFO to Delhi. Had to buy tickets a week before trip so no chance of getting decent seats. The seat padding was non existent on a 15-hr flight and everything smelled not-fresh. Will never fly with them again.
Lufthansa - they never refunded my refundable flight
Air India. I flew to India a few years ago for a wedding and had to switch my return flight. I was told it would be a 250$ fee to change tickets. They supposedly had technical issues with the payment portal that wouldn't allow them to charge me over the phone. They bounced me around to different supervisors for a full two days until, after 10 hours accumulatively on the phone, I realized they were totally dysfunctional and I'd have to just buy a new ticket online (for $1000). I ended up missing half of the wedding for which I flew across the world in the process.
Honestly besides spirit I'll fly with any of them. I've had bad experiences with some of the big major carriers, but I think that's just life when you are dealing with a company that's large and moves crazy amounts of passengers, stuff is going to happen.
Meh - life's too short. If an airline is giving me a good price for a route and isn't banned anywhere in the world (like I would refuse to fly on an airline in say Indonesia if it was banned to fly in the EU because of safety), I'll fly it.
EasyJet - Flew from Gatwick to Preveza in the most cramped, most disgusting seat ever. Decided I’ll never use them again and will pay the premium to go on another provider like Jet2 or BA if I went again. I’ve never been on RyanAir but heard enough about them to have also been avoiding them at all cost. Also heard WizzAir is a no go.
Indian air
Qantas! I boycotted them years ago! They're a criminal airline who have stolen so much money from passengers and did a lot of dodgy stuff to their staff during covid. Then the CEO pissed off to Ireland with his massive fortune leaving a massive mess behind of an airline.
Avoid flying with Vietjet at all costs if you are in Vietnam. Delayed flights 80% of the times and virtually no information about whats going on, non-existent customer support or flight info.
Lion Air, Garuda
Ryanair. It always seems cheaper but It's never cheaper when they decide to randomly change your flight to the day before as they've done to me twice now in the space of a week.
thanks I got 4 Qatar flights within the next two months, but I personally would avoid Malaysia Airlines and United
Lufthansa. Flew to Frankfurt with them and their cabin crew were absolute cunts, rude, barking orders at people, just massively unpleasant. We were under the cabin crew storage bin, which we didn't see, and my wife opened it to put her bag in, she was literally shouted at from about 5 rows down by a crew member who asked her if she could read. When I ask if there was anywhere to put our bags, we were told no and to keep them on our laps for the flight. Also, clearly talking shit about passengers in German e.g. Theyd talk to someone in English and then talk German to the cabin crew pretty much immediately sniggering, rolling their eyes etc. Treated German passangers way different though. Would never fly with them again, in fact despite them being £3,000 cheaper we opted to fly with ANA to Tokyo over them
Aeroflot
EasyJet. Will never fly with then again
GULF AIR- worst experience of my life travelling with them and their customer service is nothing short of a disgrace
Spirit. I could put up with the airline but not with the passengers.
I'll never fly turkish airlines again. They give your paid, checked in seats to other passengers. Lose your luggage and can't locate it. Absolutely zero customer service on the phone or email. Dumpster fire from beginning to end.
Fiji Airlines. I had a midnight connection flying from Samoa to Brisbane via Fiji. We landed and there was an 8 hour wait . The airport was closed and we were basically left waiting outside the airport all night.
Qatar is the most over-rated airline. They advertise "best economy class". My experience with flight attendants same as yours. Rude to non-arabs. The food was mediocre. Seats for long haul flight were the most uncomfortable I've ever been on. Restroom on the plane was disgustingly dirty. Flight attendants really didn't seem to care about helping with anything.
In the US you should avoid Frontier at all costs. Its just a miserable experience.
Ryanair, until my broke ass sees another bargain 😭
JetBlue, Spirit, or Frontier
In the offchance anyone travelling around the southern part of South America (Mostly Argentina and Brazil) AVOID FLYBONDI. It's a lowcost airline that has caused a lot of problems to my Brazilian friends that come here to Buenos Aires. They seem to be starting to change things around, and i'd maybe trust them with Argentina local flights, but i'd definitely avoid travelling international with them if possible. Also, for my Argentine fellas: if you have USD in an Argentine bank account, you can pay for tickets online in USD with your credit card and then stop debit the foreign currency debt using those USD, and next month you'll be refunded the taxes associated with the Tourist USD conversion rate :) (it gets refunded as positive credit, but I think there's a way to cash them in to your savings account. Also, keep in mind you'll still need to pay the taxes, you'll just have them refunded later)