All airlines have their benefits and detriments, and even with the additional qualifier of “for me” it is pretty contextual.
That said, isn’t a specific airline that would make my “worst” list, but rather a class of airline.
I cannot risk flying a low-cost charter airline. What I mean by this is an airline with semi-regular scheduled service and very few airplanes to service that route.
If something goes wrong with the aircraft, weather, airport – anything on one of these airlines, you can be stuck for an inordinate amount of time waiting to be rebooked. Additionally, they normally do not have Interline agreeements (as they are charter airlines, not commercial) to book you on another carrier, and are not bound to the same contract of carriage with traveler’s rights.
So, for me to fly on an airline it needs to be a major airline (or under agreement with one, like the regional carriers) with hub and spoke service, multiple aircraft servicing my chosen route and options for rerouting in case of irregular operations.
(Case in point: recently I was flying to Oakland from my home in Las Vegas when I got notice that my nonstop flight leaving at 6:30 PM was suddenly not scheduled to depart until 12:30AM. I was already at the airport – 5:25PM – so I looked at the schedule and got rerouted onto a 6:50 flight through Burbank to San Jose that got me on the ground around 9PM, putting me in the Oakland area at 10PM. That is simply not possible with an airline that doesn’t have a wide network of flights.)
As for best airline – well, I’m pretty small (5’5″, 130lbs). I can fit in even the tiniest economy seat without any problem, so the lack of legroom doesn’t bother me.
What I do like is service. I like airlines that have reliable internet, charging ports in the seats, Seatback IFE (while “getting to use my own equipment for entertainment” is cute and all, I’d rather not have to drain two batteries at once. And it gets awkward), a good selection of food and beverages (whether or not you have to pay for them doesn’t bother me – I just want to know that if I want something, and didn’t have time to pick something up, it’s there), and clean lavatories.
As far as US carriers go, the closest is Virgin America.
I am more a fan of international carriers though, with Turkish and Emirates being up there for me.
Originally Posted: https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-best-and-worst-airline-for-you-and-why
Originally Posted On: 2015-11-08