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Comment by airstrike | Hacker News Reader

Before reading TFA, I'd like to bet $50 that if the article includes the rankings, Delta will be at the very top and American Airlines will be at the very bottom

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Airline Water Safety Scores At-a-Glance (5.00 = highest rating, 0.00 = lowest):

Major Airlines

Delta Air Lines: 5.00 (Grade A)

Frontier Airlines: 4.80 (Grade A)

Alaska Airlines: 3.85 (Grade B)

Allegiant Air: 3.65 (Grade B)

Southwest Airlines: 3.30 (Grade C)

Hawaiian Airlines: 3.15 (Grade C)

United Airlines: 2.70 (Grade C)

Spirit Airlines: 2.05 (Grade D)

JetBlue: 1.80 (Grade D)

American Airlines: 1.75 (Grade D)

Regional Airlines

GoJet Airlines: 3.85 (Grade B)

Piedmont Airlines: 3.05 (Grade C)

Sun Country Airlines: 3.00 (Grade C)

Endeavor Air: 2.95 (Grade C)

SkyWest Airlines: 2.40 (Grade D)

Envoy Air: 2.30 (Grade D)

PSA Airlines: 2.25 (Grade D)

Air Wisconsin Airlines: 2.15 (Grade D)

Republic Airways: 2.05 (Grade D)

CommuteAir: 1.60 (Grade D)

Mesa Airlines: 1.35 (Grade F)

[edit: formatting]

Nice. Is this from experience?

Yes, it's night and day. From purchase to lounge to flight and even airport terminal, it's a completely different experience. American Airlines is not only bad overall but it's so f dirty everywhere.

And also every time there's a report, they rank this way

The advantage of American, anecdotally, is most of their planes in the routes I've been flying have the sideway bag bins that don't fill up, so I don't have to play the standing-in-line and boarding group game.

As for bag space...

I always take my suitcase and my backpack to the airplane and then I check my suitcase at the gate. Three reasons. First, there are no baggage fees at the gate. Second, I can roll backpack on my suitcase. Third, I get to board early for "helping out". Why wouldn't you do this?

I do only check it if someone else in my party is already checking bags but that turns out to be most of the time for me.

Note: I'm actually replying to a reply that's too deep.

> Why wouldn't you do this?

Normally gate checking is the better option, but you can't do it when flying with stuff that can't go into a carryon: bottles of wine, firearms, and so on.

Gotcha, good to keep in mind. I can't /stand/ dirty fart tubes (though, recently I used Delta and it was fine), but otherwise haven't flown much in the past 5 years.

If you want to go the extra mile (no pun intended), when flying out of an airport that is a major airline hub, avoid that airline at all costs i.e. don't fly United out of EWR, American out of MIA, etc. They tend to be ridiculously busy and crowded.

YMMV, just my $0.02

Yes, but I'd generally rank Alaska above Delta.

Maybe, but Alaska is about 1:4 the size of Delta

"Among major airlines, American Airlines has the lowest score of 1.75 (Grade D)."

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