Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

even if you have the best avionics, best aircraft…but still the same maintanence policy, even best a/c can become flying coffins. Aeroflot is very poor in maintanence specially with there IL 86 and IL 62 varients.

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Well, things have changed in Aeroflot quite a lot, being a regular airline now at least in international service. I have the pleasure of making a study about them a year ago and I was impressed. Old Tupolev and Ilyushin have been fitted new engines, Honeywell avionics, and western trainning for crews. The patterns of cabin service has been taken from european airlines and the management is taken by an american agency…so no more shabby Aeroflot. Safety standards are quite good and comparable to other airlines.

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

I made once apledge to myself: NEVER FLY AEROFLOT ……NEVER

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Of course price isn’t the only means of comparison. I addressed the legroom/teabag/security issue in my very long last post as well.

GD1

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

lol – good job those AN-24 tyres weren’t needed in the rain or snow – Aqua”plane” literally!

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

I heard a funny anecdote about Aeroflot. Some passengers were waiting at Moscow about 16 hours for their delayed flight to LHR. Finally, they boarded the aircraft.

After some more delay, the Captain announced that the cabin crew would be having a collection in the cabin. They needed a spare part, but they didn’t have any money.

Not sure if it was just urban myth or reality!

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Well, you can usually fly LHR-JFK for about GBP 200-ish, which is a reasonably long flight.

I’m not trying to insinuate anything about domestic US travel, its just that I am having a hard time figuring out how comparable services really are.

Prices probably are lower in the US, at least by comparison to the UK. I used to have to pay GBP 300 return from the Isle of Man to LHR, which is a 50 minute-ish sector in a BAE 146. On a lot of routes here we have a monopoly though. But is price the only basis for comparison?

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Easy. In spite of competition from Northworst, it has to be Aeroflop.
Flew aTupolev 154 fron Moscow t Volgograd. No meal service, so bring picnic bag with one of those cardboard juice boxes. Trying to use my folding knife to punch open the damn thing when the plane did a bounce worse than usual. Opened up my hand instead of the juice box. That meant a trip to Volgograd municipal hospital after arrival. 🙁 Leaving Volgograd, we took an Antonov 24 to Kursk. I liked the idea of twin props until I got off the plane at Kursk, and saw the tires were about as bald as Gorbachev.

Georgii

Being paranoid is never having to say you’re sorry.

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

U.S. domestic trunk routes, like LAX-JFK for example, are typically not all that expensive. You’re talking about a 5-5 1/2 hour flight costing right around $300US, or roughly 210 British pounds. Competition on that route is pretty good so that makes a difference. Where in Europe can you fly for 5 hours for that little? Last summer I flew from LHR to ATH via VIE and it cost me around $330. That flight was only 3 hours, not counting ground time in VIE. Conversely, if you fly from LAX to some remote destination on the east coast that only USAirways serves, and you may dish out $500-$600. As far as extra security goes, that’s in the eye of the beholder. Security here has been pretty tight after 9/11. As far as old planes go, I totally disagree with that. True, every big carrier in the U.S. either has or recently had 727’s in their fleet, but most of those weren’t all that old. The majority of those 727’s were from the late 70’s/early to mid 80’s, which are not old aircraft. Thoee were only a portion of the short haul fleet for those carriers. Northwest had quite a few DC-9’s at one stage, but I have only flown them once, and that wasn’t by choice. TWA also had a few DC-9’s but those were parked even before AA took over. Otherwise you have modern 737’s, A320 family, and MD80/90’s throughout the industy. There’s no real difference in legroom. Economy class legroom sucks no matter who you fly. I’m usually in the Economy Plus section on UA, and that’s just fine. Finally TEA BAGS? LOLOL I don’t know a damn thing about tea so I can’t help you there. United does have Johnnie Walker Black label as their whiskey, so that is more than adequate for me!

GD1

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

I don’t know how comparable US and European domestic flights are.

Honestly, I have no idea what the price comparison is like. Do you think US domestic flights are cheap, expensive…what? And European flights by comparison? Exactly which currency and which rate of exchange would you use?

How about extra services provided by Euro carriers such as better security and newer aeroplanes (no nasty old 727’s or DC-9’s) – all at the risk of generalising of course. Is there any difference in legroom or in the quality of tea bags they use?

As we have seen with the launch of the Euro, price comparisons across borders are very difficult to do.

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

I believe that’s that “tourist-attracting” clock in central London! 🙂 LOL!

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Good Good ….. ‘BigBen’???

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Other than the occassional sounds from the flightdeck, I never listen to the onboard audio, anyhow. I always bring my own form of entertainment(magazine, CD player, tetris, etc.). Even on 14 hour flights to Sydney, I’ll watch only 1 out of the 4 movies, sometimes 2(or a fraction thereof). As long as the Johnny Blacklabel is free, I’m good to go! I was merely making a comparative point. It’s all good BigBen!

GD1

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Greekdude….you’ll have to learn to amuse yourself! lol (or take a personal stereo!) Those flights sounded a bit skimpy!

Ben

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

UA’s domestic service is just as good as their international service. A recent UK travel publication that I read, voted United as the best airline for international business travel, whatever that means. I’ve flown on a couple of European airlines(not to mention any names or anything) within Europe, where the aircraft didn’t even have audio! And these weren’t classics, I’m talking about A319/320/321’s. One thing about United, is if you’re not getting video, you’re at least getting audio on every flight, and they’re the only airline in the U.S. that offers audio from the flight deck. The only exception to this was their 737-200’s, and they’ve pretty much been phased out by now, I believe. Those were pretty much in use on the east coast, so I never flew on them. The food is just as good on domestic as it is on international. Furthermore, I once flew Mexicana from CUN to LAX, roughly a 5 hour flight on an A320, and there was no audio there, either.

GD1

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Well I’ve heard a few very bad things from Tranjet recently and I would not fly on them, ever. Like said above, I always know which airline / aircraft I’m flying on.

MyTravel (well, Airtours) have caused a few problems (many hours of delays) but I’d probably give them a third chance!

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

I’m not a huge fan of the B737…Its the way it looks (as someone has already mentioned), but i would still fly on it.

I don’t like the CSA colour scheme…red and blue doesnt do it for me. But ofcourse…our flag looks great!

Regards

Ben

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

I use to fly UA from CDG to LAX or SFO and the service is quite good.
The food matches the standards. Regardless one bad crew on last year I can say that most of them are kind, smiling and professional. I have experienced much worst with AF when I wasn’t boycotting them.

Domestic flights in the US are an other story. I flew AA UA DL and it’s really a shame. Bad service , plane dirty etc….

I hate to say it but southwest is ok since you get the service you pay for: just tranportation. With other airlines it’s the same … but you pay extra’s services which are not always delivered such as entertaitment or catering.

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 12-06-02 AT 06:07 AM (GMT)]talking about rude crew, SAS has the worst on long haul. I met with an SAS official and he said most SAS air hostesses are well over 45 and SAS also cant remove them because of there powerful union. Anyway i agree on the American crew bit. Although i have only been on UA, and that wasent that bad, maybe because there were only 24 passengers on the B767. I was travelling from HK to Delhi.

RE: Hate particular Airline/ Aircraft?

Keltic, you didn’t disturb me at all, don’t worry. I was just kidding. I agree that on board service on most U.S. carriers isn’t up to par with certain other carriers in the industry, per se. As far as what customers in the U.S. expect when they fly, I do believe that it differs than what say, Europeans expect when they do. Southwest Airlines is a very successful company, and they haven’t served a meal on board one of their flights in over 25 years, or however long they have been around. When people purchase a ticket on Southwest, they know what they are getting, basically nothing, other than transportation from point A to point B. I’ll be the first to admit that on segments lasting around 2-3 hours on European carriers, you get more than you would on segments lasting 2-3 on most american carriers. I’ve flown on Lufthansa, KLM, and Austrian Airlines within Europe, no flight lasting more than 2 1/2 hours. Most recently I few on Austrian and LH shortly before that, and I was very pleased with the service, especially on Austrian which I have touted as being the best airline I’ve flown to date. I’ve flown on numerous U.S. carriers but for the most part, I fly United as I am a Premier Executive member with them. Believe it or not, contrary to popular believe, UA’s service is actually pretty good. They even serve above-average meals in Economy class. I can’t say much about Continental, as I’ve never flown them, but I’ve flown business class on United, the service was tremendous, and the food was outstanding. As far as the crews not smiling, I’ve run into good ones, and a few bad ones, mostly good. That will happen on most any airline, I think.

GD1