I had a really great experience. I once pressed a series of buttons while at home in my underwear, giving a stranger enough cash for a nice night out or two. A few days later, I woke up at noon, drank some coffee, had a slightly fitful nap, and woke up 7000 kilometers away in the stratosphere. When I fell back down (softly), I spent a few days walking around a city whose inhabitants' ancestors had been utterly genetically and culturally decoupled from mine from 50,000 years ago until recently. Then I got bored and went home.

I'm pretty sure it was a good experience, because I keep reading books about how my trip usually takes months in transit living in your own filth, if you didn't bring your family you'd never see them again, and sometimes you'd die on the way. I had to pay $8 for a sandwich though.

I had a great experience with Brussels Airlines during the volcanic ash thing - unlike a lot of crappy airlines, they put me (and the rest of my flight) up in a hotel in Barcelona for 2 nights, then organised a coach for everyone to drive back to Brussels. The only slight quibble was the dropping us at the destination airport at 2am with no other transport connections (apart from taxis) running, but that was small potatoes against what a lot of others suffered during that period. Still, their customer service was top notch, and they were quick with getting information out.

I've had great experiences on Virgin America. It's cheap, the planes are nice, there is wifi, the terminals are better, the stewards and stewardesses are pleasant and good looking, etc.

I know where you're coming from, but when the combination of online check-in and dedicated bag-drops is in place (unfortunately, sometimes, especially when flying on budget airlines, it's not), flying is pretty painless. And painless, affordable transfer from A to B is my definition of a great airline experience.

There was an Aussie guy who ran British Airways for a while and then left to do other things. I remember an interview with him and they asked why he left the airline industry. The answer was something like: "The entire industry, from the Wright brothers until today, has made a net loss. I'd like to try something that makes a profit".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Eddington

you don't hear about it because you don't know rich enough people, or because you're tuned out from it - like weathermen constantly being wrong. they aren't, you just remember it more when they are than when they aren't.

I had a great experience with two airlines recently, bmi and airberlin, but it was probably because i was prepared to pay a little more than my usual easyjet price.

Yeah, i think that it's probably more to do with the correlation of how much you pay to how much you will enjoy airlines though