Airlines you refuse to fly?

[TracyThom]

I had the misfortunate of flying on American Airlines for the first, and probably the last time this past weekend. I had problems with every leg of my trip. I was flying roundtrip from Milwaukee to Dallas. On the flight down I had a 1 hour layover in St. Louis. On the way back I had a 3 hour layover in O'Hare.

 

On Friday morning, I arrived at Mitchell around 4:30 a.m. Due to the snowstorm, the airport was closed. My flight was supposed to leave at 5:40 a.m. They opened the airport around 5:30 a.m., and I boarded my flight not too long afterwards. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Mitchell shut the runways down again. We sat on the runway for about an hour. That was not American's fault at all. I understand that. We took off around 6:40 a.m. My flight attendant was a guy named Ron or Don. He was really arrogant. I heard him say to another passenger, "I always know what I am talking about."

 

My connecting flight was supposed to leave St. Louis at 8:05 a.m. I arrived at 8:07 a.m. I was hoping that the flight would have been delayed since St. Louis got snow too. Nope, my flight was gone. I was told that American does not like to hold up flights for connecting passengers. The next flight to Dallas was an hour later. Nope, I couldn't get on that flight. I finally got on around 11:00 a.m.

 

On the way home on Sunday, my flight left at 12:35 p.m. We were late boarding due to an equipment problem. They finally boarded us 15 minutes later, but then we sat on the runway for about 45 more minutes while they fixed the faulty gauge.

 

Meanwhile, American Airlines called my wife at home to inform her that my 5:25 PM connecting flight from O'Hare to Milwaukee had been cancelled. However, they were nice enough to put me on a 9:00 a.m. flight the next morning. This phone call took place at 12:18 p.m. The customer service rep that my wife spoke to was horribly rude. She was able to get transferred to a different rep who put me on a 6:55 PM flight later that evening. Why they didn't put me on that flight in the first place is beyone me. No explanation was ever given why the 5:25 PM flight was cancelled.

 

When I arrived at O'Hare, I saw that my flight was cancelled. I also noticed that there were at least 10 other American flights that were cancelled. I was hoping to get into Madison because it is a lot closer to my home, but the flight to Madison was cancelled as well. Anyway, I was able to watch the majority of the Super Bowl at the airport. 6:00 PM rolls around, and American announced that my 6:55 PM flight was now pushed back to 8:55 pm because the crew was stuck in Pittsburgh. Our plane was at the gate, but no crew. It started snowing around 7:30 PM. 8:55 rolls around, and no flight from Pittsburgh. I then checked American's depature board. Of the 75 or so departures listed, approximately 65 were cancelled or delayed. No exaggeration. I have never seen anything like that before. The weather was not that bad because some flights were taking off without problems.

 

The Pittsburgh flight arrived around 9:25 p.m. We board the airplane around 9:45 p.m. By this point, the airplane was covered in snow. You would have think they would have deiced the plane while we were waiting for the crew. Nope. We then sat on the plane for over 45 minutes to wait for a deicing truck. They finally finished de-icing the plane around 11:05 p.m. and we took off.

 

I had the rudest flight attendant in history on the short flight from Chicago to Milwaukee. While we were on the ground waiting for the de-icing truck, we were told that we still could not use cell phones or electronic devices. She said if we do, she will report the infraction to the captain. She then stalked up and down the aisles like a Catholic schoolteacher. She reminded me a lot of the landlord in Kingpin.

 

My experience with American was horrible. Every step of the way.

[SenatorShriv]

Almost everyone I know who flies frequently (more than 10 times a year) hates Northwest. I have had so many bad experiences there it is ridiculous. I avoid them at all costs and am usually happy with other airlines.

[NeedMoreFans]

I may be flying Air Tran in March. I'd rather not and I'm kind of skeptical. I've always thought that service on Northwest was not what I'd expect. I've flown United, American, Midwest, Northwest and Delta, and of them, Northwest was probably the worst (Midwest being the best)

[DatHoser]

I've never had the "good fortune" to fly AA. I did fly UA once when I had no other choice and they put me through an experience almost as bad as TracyThom's. My return trip from Denver was measured in days, not hours.

 

One great experience during a flight delay due to snow. When flying back to MKE from New York's La Guardia, all flights were delayed a few hours. We were on Midwest, who served us all pizza as the other airlines' passengers looked on.

[berniebrewer4life]

Almost everyone I know who flies frequently (more than 10 times a year) hates Northwest. I have had so many bad experiences there it is ridiculous. I avoid them at all costs and am usually happy with other airlines.

I never fly, I might have been on 4 flights in my 24 years on this planet. However everybody i know that flys hates Northwest. If i can, i always try to book Midwest.

[bullox]

I actually have the majority of my Frequent Flier miles through Northwest. While I can understand some of the angst against them, I honestly don't think they are any worse than the rest of the airlines. They all pretty much stink.

 

Here's a rough estimate of my miles:

 

Northwest: 45,000

US Airways: 35,000

Delta: 30,000

Midwest: 25,000

Continental: 25,000

Airtran: they use 'credits' or something like that, not miles. My guess is around 20,000 miles.

United: 20,000

American: 15,000

Frontier: 12,000

Southwest: 5,000

Mexicana: 2,000

 

All of these were accumulated in the last 3 years. I feel that this gives me a little bit of experience with the state of air travel as it is today.

 

All said, I would still go for the cheapest flight, regardless of airline - unless Midwest or Frontier were within $20 of the cheapest flight. Midwest and Frontier are by far #1 in my book. Airtran comes right behind them, then Northwest and Continental.

 

My Mexicana miles were pretty nice actually - they gave me a FREE meal which was better than anything I've ever paid for from an American airline.

 

Trust me - having a 100% travel job is an easy way to get sick of airlines, any and all of them. One week you could be pissed off about cancellations or delays with one airline, next week it is a problem with customer service with another airline. Might as well spin the wheel with the cheapest option.

[JJHardy7]

It was a really bad weekend to fly. Everyone of the four planes I was on was delayed and several were canceled throughout the country (especially Chicago). One of the main problems is that due to weather airlines won't just put you on the next flight (in regards to a competitor). Airlines keep you on their planes and then everything gets backed up.

 

I don't know your exact personal experience, but it was an awful weekend to fly. I saw quite a few people yelling and screaming -- and security even had to be brought to the scene.

[tristarscoop]

I have to say that have never had a problem with AirTran. I went to college in New Orleans and AirTran was by far my cheapest option for flying home, which was the primary concern for a college student! I never had a delayed flight or service issue. My flying certainly doesn't reach that of someone who does it for work, but I flew home about 4 times a year and never had any issues on any of the legs.

 

With my experience, I wouldn't put them behind AA, United, Northwest or the like... I mean, you get what you pay for in terms of "amenities" but I thought it was worth it considering how much cheaper they were.

[Patrick425]

While I can understand some of the angst against them, I honestly don't think they are any worse than the rest of the airlines. They all pretty much stink.

Yeah, this is pretty much my sentiment. Not necessarily that they all stink, but that they are all pretty much the same. This is kind of along the same line as sports announcers for me. People get all up in arms about various sports announcers. I really don't get it. Not that I fly a ton (once or twice a year), but I really don't deal with the airline too much when I fly. I book my flight online. I check in (that's about 5 actual minutes at the counter) and then there are the flight attendants. My only communication with them is "Yes, I'll have a coke." So, I'm not really getting the big differences between airlines. I understand flight delays and lost luggage. However, you're going to have that with any airline you travel with.

 

I think it's like anything else. You shouldn't base your whole view of an airline on one or two bad experiences because the grass is not always greener on the other side. It's like when someone is thinking about buying a certain kind of car and they ask someone who has that same kind of car what their experience is like. Then they make their whole buying decision based on that one person's experience. I'm sure that once in a while BMW sends out a less than perfect automobile.

[LouisEly]

One of the main problems is that due to weather airlines won't just put you on the next flight (in regards to a competitor). Airlines keep you on their planes and then everything gets backed up.

 

I think I can be somewhat of an authority on this as I have about 370,000 miles on United, 70K on Northwest (half of those on Continental though), 45K on American, a half-dozen flights on JetBlue (they also do credits), and one each on Delta and Southwest. The problem with weather and getting rescheduled has mostly to do with when you fly, more specifically capacity. The problem with putting you on the next flight is that they can't put you on it if it is sold out. There are only a certain amount of seats on a plane, and if every one is sold out and everyone shows then they can't physically put you on that flight. If you fly around the holidays you will be lucky to get rescheduled on a flight the same day; I had a similar experience with American around Christmas in 2006 and I couldn't get rescheduled on another flight for 3.5 days; not their fault - there just were not any seats available on any flights until then. (Part of the problem was some obnoxious putz from Chicago who couldn't get it through his head that he couldn't get on the next flight, or any flight for 3 days, because they were FULL.) Weekends - Fridays and Sundays - and Mondays because of business travelers are pretty full flights too. Also if you are going to a smaller airport with fewer flights it can be a while before you can get rescheduled too (and yes, Milwaukee is a smaller airport). Also, there are very limited flights after 7PM.

 

On the other hand, today my flight was delayed for servicing, but if a flight before it had been canceled it wouldn't have been any problem getting on this one because it was less than half full. A Tuesday in January you won't have any problem getting rescheduled. A holiday or a Friday, Sunday, or Monday is a different story.

 

Some other traveling tips to help you understand why this happened:

1) When there are delays or cancellations, they cancel or delay the shortest flights first. That is air traffic control, not the airlines decision. That's because planes coming in from further destinations may already be in the air, and it is very difficult to turn them around and go back to the airport. So why your flight from O'Hare to Milwaukee was delayed or cancelled could have been because it was so short, and shorter flights get pushed back first. All airlines do that.

 

2) Airlines will hold up flights for 10-15 minutes for passengers/baggage, but no longer. If you land after the departure time, by the time you get to the gate, get off the plane, and get to your next gate will probably take more than 10 minutes, thus why they left. They can't hold up the whole system to wait 30 minutes for a couple of people; the only exception to that is international flights and they'll give you 30 minutes tops. With all airlines, if your flight lands after the scheduled departure of your next flight they will not hold it for you. Again, that is with all airlines.

 

3) Because of limits of how many hours crew can work, crews don't just run the same route back and forth. In order to maximize their availability they have to run different routes, thus why your crew was stuck in Pittsburgh. Again, all airlines do that. Tired pilots make mistakes; thus they can only work so many hours in a day.

 

4) They don't de-ice until they take off because there could be air traffic delays - they need to wait until they have clearance to take off before de-icing. If there is a delay, it can ice over again and then they might have to do it all over again and miss their window to take off. Or you can take off and crash because of ice.

 

5) Once they push back from the gate, no cell phone use. The pilots need to communicate with air traffic control. So if they say no cell phones, how about people actually listen to them and follow the rules?

 

 

I hate to say this, but other than rude flight attendants/customer service reps, this could have happened on any airline. It's just the way the system operates. Not American's fault at all, other than a few people needing some customer sensitivity training.

[mothershipconnection]

I pretty much always fly Northwest, and have had nothing but good experiences.

[ccbrew]

I pretty much always fly Northwest, and have had nothing but good experiences.

Ditto. And I fly on them quite often too.

 

One airline that I'd avoid is Atlantic Southeast Airlines, often operated by Delta Connection. The attitude with which they were treating some of the passengers was borderline ridiculous, flight was delayed..etc. It didn't come to a surprise when I later found out that they consistently rank among the worst if not the worst in timeliness, handling baggage, and overall customer satisfaction in many surveys.

 

[jason21nl]

I have been in an airplane 1 time since 1998 and that was to AZ for spring training. I'm so scared to fly its not even funny.

[PKBadger]

5) Once they push back from the gate, no cell phone use. The pilots need to communicate with air traffic control. So if they say no cell phones, how about people actually listen to them and follow the rules?

 

I think it's ridiculous that the flight attendants have to tell people to shut off their phones after the announcement has been made over the loudspeaker. There's always a handful of nitwits that are still tapping away on their Blackberry, completely oblivious to how disrespectful they're being to both the crew and their fellow passengers. It reminds me of a bunch of 3rd graders being told by their teacher to put away their Game Boy during class. Unfortunately, you can't send airline passengers to detention (or can you?)

 

Same thing with people that walk around in the cabin while the seatbelt sign is on. It better damn well be an emergency.

 

Pathetic.

[bigredrobbo]

I'm a huge fan of Virgin and Richard Branson, so I'll never fly British Airways.

[FVBrewerFan]

I fly often for business and pleasure. All the airlines are more or less the same, their are two major factors that are more important than the airline:

 

1) Airport. If you have to connect through O'HAre on either American or United good luck. It's basically Russian roulette on whether your flights arrive or depart anywhere close to scheduled. The 3 NY airports aren't far behind.

 

2) FF Status. If you are at an Elite level with one of the airlies, they GENERALLY will be more helpful finding aternative flights if you get delayed, etc.

 

I have had horriifc experiences with all of the majors- every one of them.

[splitterpfj]

I hate United.

 

Full details in "What's Bugging You"....this isn't the first time, but it is the worst time.

[bthurley19]

I definitely wouldn't recommend Oceanic they have a bad track record.

[NeedMoreFans]

Reading Splitter's story in the "Bugging You" thread reminded me of a very similar story. Last April, a bunch of people from my wife's work attended a conference in Vegas, and most significant other tagged along. Most of her co-workers took a flight from Madison that connected in Denver, both ways. It was too expensive for me, so we didn't. On the way home, their flight left pretty much on time...maybe 5 minutes late. When they got to Denver, their connecting flight had already departed...it departed EARLY! Since they weren't there during boarding, the airline gave away their seats. For some reason, they couldn't get on a flight to Madison, Milwaukee or even O'Hare. They ended up flying to Midway...late the next day, taking a cab to O'Hare, just to miss the last Van Galder bus of the day back to Madison. They ended up renting a car, and forgetting to pull off to pay a toll at a toll booth. And this airline that left early because they weren't there 15 minutes before the flight was to depart? United.

[splitterpfj]

Now I have a wicked bad cold. Never another dime for United Airlines, even if I have to walk.