Airlines

If you are involuntary downgraded you should get compensation.

Delta/United allows free seat selection transatlantic (except basic economy), this is normally a pay item for European airlines. I expect there’s an option to pay for a bag and seat selection at purchase,

That has happened to us on short flights in Europe booked on Delta. Once from Zagreb to AMS (Croatia Air) and last year Sevilla to London on Easy Jet.

I’ll throw in my two cents, but I’m not sure it really applies as you’re referring to first or business, and we’re more premium economy (most of the time). We’ve love British Air (flying from Seattle), but trying to avoid Heathrow on our way to Rome, we decided to try Delta Comfort Plus, thinking it would be comparable to BA premium economy. Squished in a Delta seat with next to no amenities yesterday (and it’s a long flight to Amsterdam), we will be sheepishly returning to BA. And I have to say BA’s business class is excellent as well.

Another vote for British Airways.

I know it is hard to switch networks when you have a lot of miles accumulated, but we really really like One World. I was with Star Alliance until SAS left Seattle in 2007; we started flying BA and have never looked back.

You could join the Alaska Airlines mileage plan and get their credit card. You will have 40,000 bonus miles after a relatively small spend, plus a Companion ticket for a $99 companion fare with one paid fare, anyplace Alaska flies ( including Hawaii). And you get free checked bags on Alaska flights booked with the card.

For partners, you have access to BA, American, FinnAir, Aer Lingus, Condor (they will get you to Germany), Qantas, Japan Airlines, Singapore, Cathy Pacific, and more. We flew to Australia in first class on Qantas with our Alaska miles, and will be flying home from Tokyo, also in first, with more Alaska miles. And we have two flights to Europe in business class on British Airways next year, again with Alaska miles.

Note that British Airways applies a large surcharge on miles redemption seats, whether with their own Avios, or Alaska or AA miles. It is not worth paying for Economy tix, but we feel the $500 or so each way is worth it to fly business class on this airline.

Delta Comfort Plus, thinking it would be comparable to BA premium economy.

These are different classes. The Delta class ‘premium select’ (offered on A350, 767, 777 but not A330) is the same class as BA premium economy.

“And they (Southwest) don’t charge for the peanuts,”

Well, there’s a heckuva good reason for flying with a particular airline. Free peanuts! Be still my heart.

Aside: southwest stopped serving peanuts 13 months ago.

They stopped serving peanuts? Oh, nooooo......

I vote for British Air.
And-
we have found that using Avios for hotel rooms is a better deal than using Avios for flights.
Safe travels!*

Once from Zagreb to AMS (Croatia Air) and last year Sevilla to London on Easy Jet

I don’t understand this post. Croatia Air and easyjet offer first and business class on intra-Europe flights? Also I don’t think either airline can be booked on Delta.com.

Since I live in the San Francisco area. United has the best overall domestic and international flight routes for me. Unfortunately I don’t have status on UA. About 2 or 3 years ago I was trying to book flights to London. I noticed that they really increased the seat fees for their economy plus extra legroom seats. I also noticed that total economy ticket and seat fees were within $150 or so of the price for premium economy on Virgin Atlantic.

I much prefer Virgin Atlantic over the domestic airlines. Better service and better hard product (seats, IFE, etc.). Also unlike BA ,Virgin does not charge for advance seat selection . They have become my preferred airline for flights to Europe.

The Delta of 2019 has made some significant improvements in terms of reliability and customer service compared to the Delta of 5-10 years ago. They've got good IT functionality and you can actually rebook simple likely misconnects from your smartphone app when you're on a plane sitting on the tarmac during a delay. They give their employees a lot of power to fix problems beyond the minimum the contract of carriage requires and a lot of employees use that power for good. Plus they've managed to mainline a lot of formerly outsourced routes and inflict the remains of ASA (Satan's Commuter/Regional Airline) on United and American.

The United of 2019 seems to be improving compared to where they were 2-3 years ago and has finally managed to resolve the friction and problems that the merger seemed to be causing in the operations and customer service realm. They also have a very good IT backbone.

American in 2019 is frequently a hot mess whose labor and schedule problems go beyond just the well-publicized issues with the mechanics union. The seem to have hit the intangibles part of full integration after the merger and are dealing with a lot of the same sorts of things below the surface that plagued United Continental for a couple of years.

I am not a big fan of Southwest. Their in-flight product is a perfectly adequate experience. But they treat their outstations as afterthoughts- About 2/3rds of the time I've flown them, I've had an hour+ delay in getting home because 'my plane' kept getting reassigned for a higher priority flight in their network. Their hard rule about no connections over something like 3.5 hours ever means I'll often got a message about 'you can't get there from here' for what should be a simple route between Pensacola and San Francisco. And their 'no change fees' rules for day of departure or close to it obscure how you sill pay a fare difference, which can be $400 or more if the Wanna Get Away fare bucket is full and all that's left is Business Select. Which makes the $75 same day change fee that the legacy carriers charge for flight day look like a bargain.

My experiences with BA have generally been good but their tendency toward poor service recovery compared to US Legacy carriers makes me s bit nervous

I fly Air NZ on the Star Alliance network. I cannot select seats on other airlines from the Air NZ website but normally can if I log onto the partner airline website and enter my booking number. I do this all the time when I do a connecting flight on United.

From my location United canceled my first flight on a European trip 3 times out of 5. I won't book with them any longer. Not worth the headache. Otherwise, I don't care. I choose based on connection times and cost. In January it was Turkish Air to Budapest. May it was BA to Budapest. In two weeks Lufthansa to Budapest.

I actually like United out of SFO -- even though DH always comments that the flight attendants are 100 years old. His favorite is Lufthansa (also in the United alliance.) Will be returning on Swiss Air from a December trip using United miles.

We primarily fly Delta and Skyteam partner Air France. Occasionally we fly American or United.
Delta has take good care of us. We fly overseas about twice a year and within the US 2-3 times a year.

I would rate the US airlines ranked as follows:

1) Delta
2) United
3) American

I still have a credit card tied to American, which we occasionally use when places won't take AmEx (for sky miles) and the last time that I used it for an flight award, we could not book any good seats until we checked in. Not so on Delta. Also, we have run into so many people that had a bad experience on American.

I used to fly Southwest when my Mom was living, since she lived in Texas. Price was always good, but I dislike their checkin policy regarding seating.

Where I live there are 7 daily SkyTeam nonstops to Europe and 4 discount airline nonstops. I’ve always taken one of these flights.

It would be nice to have Star Alliance or One World options without having to go first to Toronto, O’Hare, Philly, Newark or JFK. But since it’s never been cheaper to add this leg I haven’t flown them to Europe.

I like Southwest a lot, especially the rewards program, the 32-33” legroom (vs 31” on domestic Delta/United/American) on Southwest’s larger plane, the 737-800, the single class of service, the lack of endless priority boarding group calls that aren’t you (now boarding gold Leos and Sagittariuses), the free checked bag and the lack of seat assignments which means a quicker boarding process (at least 10 minutes). I always leave Southwest saying to myself, “good product.” My major gripe about Southwest is the prattling “humor” of the flight attendants. Please just SHUT UP!

Because of the Manila-based call center for flight issues I’d rate United last domestically:

1. Delta (seatback screens on domestic flights!)
2. Southwest
3. American
4. United

I recently booked flights to Europe on Lufthansa that involves a connecting flight in Frankfurt. We are returning on United. We fly Premium Economy, but the connecting flight does not have that class (too short a flight); I was allowed to select seats on all flights. We have flown Lufthansa the past four years or so, and have always had a good experience.

I would rate the US airlines ranked as follows:

1) Delta
2) United
3) American

That's my assessment too. I'm surprised to learn that someone had a bad experience with Delta's Comfort Plus. They have always delivered what they promised for us but we do know that people have had their overhead bin space taken by emergency equipment in the 767. Comfort Plus is especially pleasant in the A350 flagship but we have always had 3-4" extra leg room in every model. The seats aren't wider than economy but we're both on the slender side so that doesn't matter. It's worth the extra cost to us to board early, to have dedicated overhead bins, and to keep the seat in front of us farther away. I would complain if they don't deliver as promised here: Delta Comfort Plus

If your looking for a US or European carrier where everyone loves them and no one complains you won’t be leaving home.

I am pretty loyal to Delta because I live in Atlanta and nonstops are worth it to me.

I used to think SW was good for domestic but over the past few years they have fallen in my estimation and their handling of bad weather and the max8 mess hasn’t been impressive imho

If your looking for a US or European carrier where everyone loves them and no one complains you won’t be leaving home.

Very much so. Even a small LCC is a very complex organism with a lot of moving parts and like any other company, no airline is going to hit it out of the park 100% when it comes to selecting the right employees or developing policies that keep everyone happy.

I have zero brand loyalty. I shop for price each time I fly and don't worry about accumulating or using miles.

IMO all carriers cram people into big aluminum tubes with engines and, hopefully, deliver them safely to an airport after relatively minor torture. I don't enjoy flying (not because of fear) and consider it the worst part of any trip.

Neither First Class or Business Class are worth (really any) money for me. I can't imagine spending 25 percent of a vacation budget on 15, still uncomfortable, hours. I much prefer direct flights, but only to minimize the torture (on the plane and in airports). On the way, I only want to sleep - no food, no drinks, no entertainment. I don't check bags, my bag is small enough to fit under the seat, I don't want to board first and my ego is fine without special boarding lines or a marginally larger uncomfortable seat.

Lately I've been flying United to visit my daughter's family here in the U.S. They have a basic fare that doesn't give you any perks - which is fine for me. They send me multiple emails about seat selection and online check in - only to tell you it's not included in your fare. Instead I have to go to a kiosk at the airport, have an employee look at my bag (to confirm it's small enough to fit under the seat), get a boarding pass that only gets me through security, then check in again at the gate to get a seat. As an MBA, I think it's crazy they require so much interaction with personnel for the basic fare. It seems like they've made it as inefficient as possible to motivate me to upgrade - when it really just makes me want to use another airline.

British Airways is one of the best, but I must say their partner American Airlines is not so great. Our domestic leg of the flight was cancelled last minute by AA so we missed our Transatlantic connecting flight but they did book us with Iberia and I must say they are great. The service was above all, the employees were great, return flight was with British Airways which we have been using for many years and they are wonderful as well. I love Heathrow so I don't mind connecting there. For domestic leg, you should try and use JetBlue, you get to pick your seats when you book it, no extra fees.

I vote for Br Air on flying international, consistently good. I will use United also for going to Paris, London and Frankfurt.

Domestic, my first choice is Southwest but if United can beat it on price given a particular flight or dep., then I'll take United.

Delta does not have separate business and first class cabins on the same aircraft on transatlantic flights and US domestic flights.

I know United has distinct business class and first class cabins in the same aircraft on transatlantic flight. Delta does not.

It's interesting how unique random experiences can shape opinions. I've had good and bad experience on just about every airline I've flown
I just go for schedule and cost ... except for United, who in my market doesn't do too well.

Here in Canada we don't have much choice!
Usually it's Air Canada or one of their codeshares.
As I can't afford anything other than economy, now called Economy Light (?), that's it.
I agree with Brad, and I think a transatlantic flight is just one nights bad sleep.
I do order a special meal so I get served first, and be finished eating first; then I can get up and use the toilet after before the hordes have turned it into a filthy mess.
I don't find flying nearly as much fun as it used to be.
Last month on the way to Rome, a woman was painting her nails at 35,000 feet.
Who does that?!!