European carriers

If you want to know layout of aircraft on each carrier, what are considered good and bad seats, amenities at the seats, etc., go to:

Seat Guru

If you're not loyal to any one airline or group for miles....why not just look for the least expensive or most convenient. It's only a few hours in each direction.....I usually don't pay much attention. I just want to get where I'm going, safely.

Swiss Air has a better reputation than Air France ... plus I'm guessing that with Air France you have to transfer at CDG and that is one of my least favorite airports. For me, it is worse than Heathrow for transfers. I've flown Swiss Air (although not recently) and connected in Zurich with no issues. I've also flown to and from Geneva. Both are better airports than CDG.

I've flown most of the European and U.S. airlines and unfortunately have found things can be hit or miss with any of them. The best flight is the one with the best connection where I arrive on time and my bag arrives on the same flight. I've had great flights on United and bad flights on United. I had a very disappointing flight on Virgin (and everyone raves about them). I've had bags lost (delayed) by Air France, SAS, Lufthansa, and Alitalia. Austrian cancelled a flight on me once because of equipment failure ... I guess my point is there don't seem to be too many guarantees these days. I'd base my choice on timing and layover airport.

Swiss Air has a good reputation, and they're a bit more stable since being bought by Lufthansa.

My husband and I flew Swiss Air in 2006 and it was one of the best airline experiences we've ever had. Even though we were seated in Economy Class, it felt like what I imagine First Class to be. Just about every hour or two the flight attendants were coming around offering something, whether it was a Swiss chocolate, hot towel, ice cream cup, beverage, reading material, or meal. Every airline employee we encountered was cheerful and seemed to be mindful that customer service should be a priority.

All in all, it was the gold standard of flights. I hope nothing has changed.

Hi Brian,
We've flown Swiss Air, Air France, Lufthansa, SAS and Air Canada to/from Germany in the last few years. As none really "stand out" to me, I'd go with the lowest price and best route. I will say that as someone else mentioned, we hated having to get through CDG, so I'd make Air France my last choice.

Paul

find the best fare going and take an ambien! I always eat before the flight and sleep on it because I have appointments when I arrive.

Late reply to your post. We've flown Swiss Air, KLM, Northwest (KLM) and BA to Zurich (and then to Venice), Amsterdam and London, respectively.

We really liked Swiss Air the best of any carrier, foerign or domestic. At the time we lived in Boston and it was nice to fly directly to Zurich (and on another trip to Venice via Zurich). They served us a fairly good meal on the plane, along with plenty of snacks. Wine (decent, but nothing to write home about) and desserts. We were comfortable. Compared to a US carrier, it was superior. We also liked them much better that BA. BA wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The flight attendents were courteous on BA. The food was not particularly good.

KLM from Florida to Detroit to Amsterdam (and back the same way) actually consisted of all Northwest planes from the US to Europe and only a KLM plane from Amsterdam to Detroit. It was fine. Nothing great to say about the experience and nothing bad, either. The price was right (at the time for those trips it was the cheapest non-US carrier). It was similarly priced to USAir, but based on our friends' experiences we don't want to fly transoceanic flights on US carriers unless we have to- even though it turned out to be a Northwest flight...

BA: I didn't realize that their workers strike. I feel lucky that we were able to get to London (from Boston) without any troubles. Of course, last summer when we went to London, the Tube workers were on strike and we had difficulty getting around the city... Oh well...

Haven't flown Lufthansa, but my best friend is from Munich, originally, and he prefers this airline to all others. Unfortunately, he doesn't use them very often to fly home (from our city) as their flights tend to cost quite a bit more than some other airlines. In honesty, he says he probably prefers them b/c they make announcements in English and German and they give him German newspapers. Nostalgia.

Hope this helps.

Well, British Airways is not a European carrier. The Brits don't want to be part of Europe, don't want to adopt the European currency etc. They don't have to, they still run the rest of the world (or so they think). Anyway: SWISS is a great airline. It's actually much better than Lufthansa. They're the Premium carrier within the Lufthansa family (the Lexus compared to a Toyota, the Audi compared to a VW etc.)... Air France is a good and reliable airline as well - but KLM/Air France are members of SkyTeam, SWISS is member of Star Alliance. Are you sure you don't want to consolidate all your flights to one alliance for miles reason?

I flew with Swiss a few weeks back and thought it the most pleasant of any transatlantic I’ve taken. The A330 on the way over was new and had more legroom than the A340 on the return. Planes were quite clean. The FAs were extremely professional and attentive. All were multi-lingual. Every announcement was in German, French, and English, which gets you pumped for your vacation while you’re still sitting at the gate in the US (even though we were headed to Spain….they added Spanish to the announcements for our connection). Food was okay…nothing noteworthy and not unlike any other airline food in economy. Even the short-hauls in Europe, however, offered lighter meals at no extra charge. Swiss chocolates were handed out frequently and were available anytime upon request…a nice touch. The in-seat screens seemed larger than others I’ve used on other carriers, and the entertainment system had a big assortment of on-demand movies, shows, music, and games. Sort of a cool piece of technology was the “view from under the aircraft” and “view from the cockpit” live video…interesting during take-off. For connections, it’s hard to beat Zurich…airport is small, efficient, new-feeling, and not busy. Even in economy, the overall feel is a step-up from the competition, both US and European-based IMO. I almost forgot the hot towels! As others have alluded to already, BA doesn’t offer a pleasant experience IMO. On our last flight with that carrier aboard one of their 777s, one of the video screens was out of order, one of the tray tables was coming apart, a piece of rubber seal was hanging down from the overhead bin, the FAs were borderline rude to just about everyone (appeared to be overworked), interiors were shabby, and the food was rot-gut. Don’t mean to be so negative about BA, but Swiss is 180 degrees opposite. I don’t know where McCoy is located, but Icelandair is another very professional and great airline. They used to seve SFO...not sure if they still do.

I haven't used either of those, but check out Austrian Air. We love them. The service is excellent.