Bkonner, I have already said this once, but I’m going to say it again. Welcome to the forum. It’s great to have another American point of view in here, especially if they know what they are talking about, which you definitely do. Everything you say is valid.

I especially agree with the point about all the ethnics flying their “home-country’s” carrier. That is also true of people in Australia. The problem they have down there, however, is that all but 2 Euro (BA and Lauda remain) airlines have pulled out of there 1 by 1 the last 4 years. In the U.S. we still have a plethora of Euro airlines to choose from if we want to go to Europe.

I live in the L.A. area where we have a fair share of Greeks. Olympic has never flown to these parts. My travel agent, who does tickets for quite a few Greeks in the greater L.A. area, has told me if Olympic did a ATH-ORD-LAX service (Chicago has a boatload of Greeks too), it would undoubtedly be full all the time. My old man goes back to Greece 2-3 times per year.

Who is the only U.S. carrier to fly to ATH nowadays (TWA and Pan Am both used to)? Delta, so my dad has been very loyal to them the last 10 years, despite their recent cutback in service (they no longer offer free booze on Intl flights, which I think is absolutely pathetic!). He could very easily fly Skyteam partners Air France and more recently KLM (Alitalia no longer serves LAX), but the real reason my dad flies Delta, is the schedule. They arrive in ATH at 10 a.m. If you fly one of the Euro carriers from LAX and catch the connection from their hub, they typically get into ATH after 3 p.m. He likes getting there early. We used to fly TWA in the 70’s and 80’s, not only because of their schedule, but because every Tuesday, the cabin crew was ATH based so all the non-English speaking Greeks (which included my parents back then, not now) could actually communicate with the crew!

To close out this very long post, like bkonner points out about 99% of Americans will choose the cheapest, and most direct airline. I however, do not fall into that category. I fly to Vegas about 4-6 times per year. I could fly Southwest directly from my neighboring airport, ONT, and pay less than $100US if I get the tickets in a timely fashion. This is a 45 minute flight. With the exception of 3 times the last 8 years, I choose not to do this, however. I will pay double to fly United, which means I have to connect via LAX, and basically triple my travel time, when you factor in the layover. Why do I do this? Frequent Flyer mileage (which includes bonuses, plus upgrades prior to the LAX-LAS route being transfered to TED), elite status points, UA’s Red Carpet Club in LAX, etc. I basically will pay more to fly on Star Alliance carriers if possible. But that’s just me.