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tquai

Just a general comment on airlines:

With US-based carriers, expect low prices, inflating awards points/miles, and bottom-level service.

With non-US based carriers, expect higher prices, no awards programs, and excellent service.

This is my experience flying in N. America, Europe, and Asia.

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You must not be flying the low-cost airlines in Europe. I have never seen any US-based airline that rivals the combination of low-price and bottom-level service provided by Ryanair. Unfortunately, the low-end airlines are so popular within Europe that it's increasingly hard to avoid them, even if you want to pay more, because they have many of the direct flights (especially to vacation destinations).

Unless your destination is as low-budget as the airlines, it's pretty easy to avoid them. They're mostly the equivalent of a cheap holiday bus.

Also, although I will avoid the EasyJets and Ryanairs as much as possible, for a direct flight the duration of a bus ride it doesn't really make that much difference.

I don't think this is true at all. Europe's low cost airline business is major. Easyjet, Ryanair, Flybe and Jet2 just to name a few. Obviously the service on these carriers is awful but flying between European cities for $50 a flight isn't uncommon. Personally my most consistent good service experiences have been with Air Canada. BA was good too as was Aer Lingus. I've only had two flights with them but I wasn't fond of AA.

Singapore Air is amazing, has a great rewards program, and is affordable.

  | Personally my most consistent good service
  | experiences have been with Air Canada.

I recently saw a headline that Air Canada is the third worst international airline for arriving on time. That said, I had no complaints about my only Air Canada trip (3 connecting flights).

This was my only issue with Air Canada: my first and only (to date) flight with them was several hours late. It wasn't a problem for me so I think of them as being one of my preferred airlines because of how good everything else was. If the lateness had been a problem I might have seen it differently, though I didn't think the delay was their fault.

As a Canadian I've used AC and other regional carriers quite a bit. Have to give a shout-out to Porter, if you're flying to the few cities in North America they service, they're top notch. Especially flying into Toronto, they exclusively use the Toronto Island Airport (YTZ), which is much more pleasant and better situated than Pearson (YYZ).

I think AC has gotten better, at least on domestic flights, since they've had more competition.

I've flown from Ireland to the US and Canada with them several times now and the service has been excellent. Now that you mention it though most of the flights arrived slightly late (no more than 30 mins). As they were trans-atlantic flights and I wasn't in a hurry it didn't bother me.

Even the US-based "legacy" carriers find themselves directly competing with Southwest, which has forced them to gravitate towards the low-cost model. The only thing that differentiates them in such an environment is their award systems. Except Southwest which (ironically?) has the best service and perks now.

It's admittedly been a few years since I flew a US low cost airline. But at least then they where pure luxury compared to Ryanair or Easyjet in Europe.

Thats not always the case.

I've been badly screwed over by Leftouthansa many times, their response: "Nope, we don't care. We look forward to seeing you onboard." [After 2 support tickets, one to complain and then the other to report the unanswered first ticket after 2 months]

I have been treated well by KLM.

They're German. They have a procedure for every imaginable circumstance. And as long as they're following the procedure, there is no problem.

Huh... Explain how Southwest has done so well then? They are cheap, profitable, and have the best service.

I compared US-based carriers with non-US based carriers. Southwest, a US-based carrier, competes with other US-based carriers. You're right, Southwest is a great choice if you're flying in the US, but that's not what my post is about. You can't compare Southwest with Cathay Pacific or EVA Airlines because they operate totally different routes.

Same thing regarding EasyJet comments, which is another "niche" airline. Try flying EasyJet from LAX to NRT, for example.

Alaska is pretty decent also, but I usually fly in the west coast market. Southwest prices are often not that great, actually, but their service is always good.

Southwest markets as being cheap. Go compare their prices with the legacy carriers and you will often find they are priced about the same.

> With non-US based carriers, expect higher prices, no awards programs, and excellent service.

Cough...China Eastern Airlines...cough. And oh my god, Air China. You guys have nothing on inconveniences when compared to the good ole PRC.

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