JAMMIE DODGER

i think i can guess!!

bcworld

I think you already know!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...t=Airline+poll
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...t=Airline+poll

Never heard of Quantas though?

moneypenny20

I'll get a SuperMod to edit the poll and correct QANTAS and Cathay.

bigAPE

Whoever voted for BA must work for them I wouldn't fly BA against if you paid me in strippers and beer cake.

DadAgain

On the other hand I've had only good experiences with the BA fleet and have no issue with the conduct of cabin crew. I *prefer* their ticketing (online check in and seat allocation 24hours prior) to QA (seat allocation at booking - so effectively random unless you book REALLY early), the food is acceptable, I can use and accrue QFF points with them.

AND

They are the **only** airline that enable you to use T5 which is a gazillion times nicer than T4!

Therefore - if airport terminal choices figure strongly in your criteria for what makes a journey less unbearable, BA is probably the best choice for you.

spartacus

Stop talking such complete and utter sense!

bigAPE

I guess it's each to their own. I have flown BA hundreds of times now, a lot of them long haul. I personally would rather boil my head than suffer the painful in-cabin service and the apparent disgust they treat their customers with.

QANTAS are in my view even worse. Any airline who won't allow you to determine the seat you fly in when you book is in my opinion lacking in the very basics of customer service.

Specifically an airline that thinks that they can automatically allocate passengers to seats based on some magic powder they flick over a mainframe bookings server which results in me, a 6'3" adult male, being stuck in a middle seat between two 6'4" adult 20 stone American males in sweaty stinking tank tops and sweaty dripping arms for 15 stinking grotesque hours while every other aisle on the flight has a tiny 4' tall 15 year old girl, after I booked the flight four months in advance stating an aisle would be required due to my height.

Both of those airlines treat you like they are doing you a favour by charging you a fortune to fly in their poorly maintained tin cans and treating you like a cow being taken to market in the back of a van.

None of the airlines are particularly great, but those two are ranked slightly higher than Al Qaeda Air in my view.

Al

Pollyana

Done

JAMMIE DODGER

OOps

harrip

My favourite is generally known as "The Cheapest" - are they really that different?

bigAPE

I dunno, I guess if you're short, don't care what you eat or if you eat at all, don't care were you sit, don't care if people treat you like crap or care if the wings fall off half way then.. no, they are probably all the same.

If you want to go uber-cheap Tiger are now flying to the UK. Imagine flying Ryan Air ultra-economy for 24 hours...They will likely charge you for oxygen per litre within the next couple of years.

Hebe

If there was more leg room and everyone could chose their own seats and it was really comfortable etc etc then the price would go up. You pay for what you get. If you want more then pay the difference and fly business.

and like another poster my favourite airline out of all those is whoever is offering the best price at the time I want to go!

quoll

Well having the advantage of being under 6'3" (almost under 5'3") I never did have a good word to say about BA (cf the flight from hell with a baby and toddler aeons ago) but we flew code share back to UK with them 10 days ago and I have to say they were great. We had an 18 month baby with us and they could not have been better. The plane was a 777, it was neat, clean, the loos were checked almost every 5 minutes and cleaned more regularly than I have seen before. The food was actually quite nice although my son and DIL's request for a special meal didnt find its way to BA (we booked Qantas) but they made sure that the special meal was included in our return flight - it wasnt that much of a problem, there was still a lot of stuff they would eat. They had the baby stuff all set to go when we got on and made periodic trips to ask how we were going. I dont know if they still had the little red star beside my name suggesting that, as a passenger, I bite (I complained to billy-oh the last time!) but whatever it was they could not be faulted.

I've tried many of the others over the years and still come back to Qantas - they have been unfailingly good IMHO including travelling with kids. It doesnt hurt that my credit card happily racks up the FF points so I only pay for 3 out of 4 trips home, if that. I have always got an aisle or window when I have asked for it and they have usually been good enough to tell me well in advance which seats I had been allocated.

Damson

Me neither - I think they are a useless bunch of no-hopers. We have flown with them 8 times now and they seem to get worse. The first being the snooty cabin staff; on our last trip to Oz we wanted to walk around to get exercise when stuck in Premier Plus but this meant walking through Business Class. The response was, we would rather you didn't as it will disturb the passengers (righty ho, we'll just get DVT's then). Kids slept through 3 meal times and we asked for their food to be kept to one side until they awoke and were promised each time they would; three times they didn't. They had explained that they couldn't keep the hot stuff because of elf and safety which I accepted, but they didn't keep any of it. No matter though as we were offered crisps and shortbread - yum. The entertainment systems broke down on two of the legs (the longest) and the pilot apologised profusely and encouraged passengers to complain as 'it was always happening'. I complained to the Cabin Manager who said that the system had been sold to other airlines, who had mad similar complaints. The 3 and 6 year olds didn't mind though - err much. We were late arriving and missed our connection from Sydney to Melbourne. BA to the rescue though as they had contacted Sydney to organise another flight for us. Phew. However, it would appear that there must be another Sydney on the planet as they certainly didn't speak to the one in Oz. At check in though the check in woman said they had not been contacted but not to worry and she booked us on to another flight thank God. The crowing glory was when we got back to Heathrow and there was a security 'issue' with police waiting as we were to disembark (not BA's fault, although I personally think they should have arrested the up-themselves, overpainted cabin crew). They insisted that we all wait in our seats until the upper classes were unloaded before us plebs could leave (well what do you expect after paying over £10,000 I guess). One of the cabin crew shouted over the PA "we've asked you to stay seated and lots of you aren't, so do this now". We all just stared at each other. Bloody good job there hadn't been an emergency as I wouldn't have liked to rely on any of them to get us out. I flew BA when I was younger and they were the dogs, but now I think they've gone to the dogs. One flight I could accept, but all of them?

Damson

Bugger, I nearly forgot the lost luggage when we got back to Heathrow - how we laughed. We queued for ages to be met by theeeee grumpiest worker ever, who basically said that they couldn't do anything and to take a ticket. Our explanation that all our kids' Xmas pressies were in them, he shrugged his shoulders. We were fortunate though and they turned up - 4 days later with not a hint of apology. When we complained, we were eventually fobbed off with a photocopied signature from Willy (W@&ker) Walsh and £600 of vouchers. Still in a desk as we wouldn't use them to go back to Oz, I'd rather put in extra work and save to fly with another company.