What airline will you never fly again and why?

[AZ4WDW]

I was just checking fares again for our trip in November to WDW and started wondering what people's opinions were on different airlines?

While both my husband and I swear we will never fly AW (America West) anymore we also end up on AW due to the convience. We don't have to make layovers, my husband has lots of frequent flier miles on AW etc.

What airline will you never fly again? Or wish you wouldn't fly again?


Sorry meant to post this on CB and I can't get it to delete!

 

[DaveKr]

NorthWORST (aka Northwest)

on one trip to WDW (about 6+ years ago) I was on a northwest flight MKE to MCO, with a transfer in Indianapolis (sp?). Well, they kept us AT the gate IN the plane for like 2 hours...wouldn't let us get up, or wouldn't give us anything to drink during that time. Fortunately, they held my Indianapolis - MCO leg.


HTH


Dave

 

[wdwguide]

TunisAir was extremely scary, but chances are very small that you will have to take one of their planes to WDW.

 

[GoldenOldie]

Following wdwguide's lead...

I know I'll never again fly Eastern, New York Air, People's Express, ValueJet, MGM Grand, Air Florida, Branniff International, Southern, Air Cal, Kiwi, Reno Air, Republic, Western, or PSA.

Seriously, I can honestly say that in all my years of flying I have never encountered an airline I refused to fly a second time. Sure I had bad flights but most were weather related.

 

[ShuisFan584]

Well I don't really like Continental.

When we went to Disney in 97, we obviously had plane tickets and the plane was supposed to leave early in the morning, like 8 or 9 o'clock (I don't really remember). When we got there, they told us something about how they had no room for us on the plane because they had some kind of problem with our tickets so we would have to take a flight about 6 hours later.

We obviously didn't want to wait 6 hours for a flight so my parents had to talk with them. They finally got my grandparents on, but they had to sit by the emergency door. Then they finally got 4 open seats, but my father had to sit all the way at the front of the plane, my mother all the way in the back, and my sister and i in the middle. We both had the middle seats but we got the people sitting in the aisle to switch with us so we could at least sit next to each other.

 

[nutz4wdw]

Well. I used to travel when I was growing up, because of my father's profession. I lived in the middle east and then in the far east. We flew airlines like Singapore Airlines and United, which Singapore Airlines was WONDERFUL! However, the middle east was very different. Let me just say this...if ever you have a choice, don't fly Turkish Air. Or Saudia Airlines. Rather than launch into the reasons why...just trust me!

 

[B'rer Karen]

In case you're not aware, Air Tran used to be Value Jet. That in and of itself should be enough not to fly it, but the two times I flew them were disasters. One trip was to Pittsburgh, connecting in Atlanta. The other was to Tampa, connecting in Atlanta. Each and every leg of my trip was delayed at least an hour and it took an hour for my baggage to reach the claim area. Never again!!!

As a side note from someone who travels a lot, airlines regularly oversell their flights. This is why you always want to check in an hour before hand. You want to get that boarding pass in your hands before they start asking for volunteers to go to a later flight. You don't want to get bumped!

 

[Dragon0525]

We had reservations on Frontier for our Jan. trip. They cancelled our Sat. flight to WDW and wanted us to wait until Wed to fly out!! After arguing they finally agreed to try to get us out Sunday. This was after we'd been at the airport previously to get seat assignments and the ticket agent was extremely rude to us, lied to us and wouldn't even give us her name. We ended up going out to Frontiers hdq on one of the terminals and talking to the manager on duty. So-when the fiasco with the flights started we finally got our money back. But would you believe-we didn't get our money credited back until May????

 

[Beverly Lynn]

I would never fly Northworst again nor would I fly spirit airlines ever.

 

[Disnydad]

I do not know about "ever again", but I try to avoid US Air. They dominate the Albany County Airport and I try to avoid doing business with companies that have a monopoly in a certain area. If I can.

To be fair to AirTran. Yes, they merged with ValuJet and became AirTran. But, ValuJet was cleared of wrong doing in the Everglades crash.

There is a thread on ValuJet/AirTran over on the debate board with links to CNNFN.com explaining the merger and investigation.

 

[Uncle Mikey]

I found my two most frightening experiences with the Turkish airline (THY) and the Greek airline (Olympic). I still shudder thinking about my last experiences. How ever of the airlines serving Orlando, I don't think there is any that I would never fly but American is one I would prefer not to fly. Strangely enough at one time they gave me one of my best flying experiences. But a while back they gave me deifinitely one of my worst experiences. It involved getting bumped not once but twice and being put back a day. In addition they had promised to upgrade me to First Class for my inconvenience and then reneged. The next time I was forced by circumstances to fly American, they cancelled my flight and put me on another that really messed up the rest of my travel plans. So they are definitely not at the top of my list. By the way (and I hope Beverly Lynn can confirm this), I believe that there is a rule called 240 that requires an airline to switch you to the first available airline that is servicing your destination if they are unable to get you to that destination in a reasonable period of time. The airlines sometimes forget that a happy passenger will share his (or her) experience with 7 people while an unhappy passenger will share his (or her) experience with 13 people.

 

[Lilly]

Beverly Lynn, Can you tell me what you do not like about Northwest Airlines? I just won a Priceline bid with them in December. The flight is from Des Moines to New Orleans, with layovers in Detroit [on the way there] and Minneapolis[on the way back]. The connections are not too bad and the price was certainly right. $145.00 round trip including priceline fees and taxes. Hopefully, your concerns are not safety related... thanks for your reply. Lilly

 

[travelcoupons]

I wouldn't worry about flying on Northwest...their maintenance is as good as any of the major airlines. Even their oldest DC-9's look like new on the inside.

They have gotten a bad rap (which they deserve) from bad customer service in the past. While I have never experienced the bad service from them, I have been on flights where other passengers were treated poorly by flight attendants. I have also had really good service, especially in the last couple years from Northwest.

I guess I don't have an airline that I absolutely wouldn't fly, I really don't like Southwest's boarding process, but it isn't enough of a reason that I wouldn't fly them.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

Its not so much the airline but we will NEVER have a connecting flight again. I will pay much more if needed to have direct flight. In 1996 we had connecting flight in Newark and had to run like heck with 4yr old because once we landed late in Newark the next plane was already loading. It was not fun.

 

[JandD Mom]

I will not fly American again. On a flight to Grand Cayman last year they refused to let me board my flight because my passport expired. HELLO, it only took a call to immigration to prove to them that American Citizens only need a passport that is expired less than 5 years to enter the CI. Mine had only expired a couple of months earlier. I checked this out ahead of time and knew I was ok. Took me going home, with angry DH and frightened kids in tow, to arrange a conference call between the American manager in Philadelphia and the immigration officer in the Cayman islands to get them to agree to put me on the flight. However, I did not arrive until the next day. The American staff was rude, handled it badly (should have made the call from the airport) and worst of all, they were WRONG!!

As a side note, some other people going with us flew USAir the same day. They tried to page me at the airport because USAir had the right info and were going to let me board THEIR plane to the Caymans. Unfortunately, I already left the airport. That's my rant. Now I am forever loyal to USAir.

 

[mickey1010]

I fly one or twice a month out of Detroit for the last couple years on Northwest (obviously) and have never had a bad experience with the airline (outside of weather related problems, of course). There is the occasional grouchy gate attendant, but from what I've experienced, that happens with all airlines. For the most part, the personnel seem to be friendly and helpful and have been good at handling the occasional conflict. The planes seem to be as safe as any other of the major carriers, although I'm definitely no expert on that!!

 

[FergieTCat]

I will try my hardest never to fly US Air again.

The plane was uncomfortable (it was called an AirBus, and it felt like one). Small seats, no leg room, no any room. We each received one small plastic cup with a soft drink for the entire 3 hour flight. I absolutely despised it.

Donna

 

[Chuck S]

I try not to fly America West...every flight I've had with them has had at least a 4 hour delay somewhere for maintenance...not weather. They finally switched the whole flight over to Southwest onetime...of course, every seat was full.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

Customer svc is the worst on northworst and they do not have the best maintenance. in fact they have had quite a few fines for shoddy maintenance. the only reason I am aware of this is airline insider info. when you work for a carrier you find out all kinds of stuff. they have an old fleet too but if the maintenance is kept up then an older aircraft is good to fly. but when maintenance is not the best.........
but of course I know someone who will jump on this and say something as usual.

Now that the mechanics have their new contract maybe things will improve but I'm not holding my breath on it. Some people love northworst and swear by them and other people do not. I am one of those people. knowing what I have learned in the past 15 yrs there are some carriers you couldn't pay me to fly. I did fly them once into hattiesburg, miss.(No other choice) and it was without a doubt the worst experience I have ever had flying any carrier. I ended up being stuck in detroit airport for 13 hrs 5 mths pregnant and out of the 11 flights they could have gotten us on every single one of them was a mechanical delay. I couldn't even get a flight back into pittsburgh on usair they were completely sold out due to NW and they had 50 people per flight trying to go standby. I even tried to get rerouted via 7 different cities by both NW and 2 other carriers to no avail. their big compensation was 500 extra frequent traveler miles for losing the entire first day of my trip and being stuck in DTW airport and then finally getting out to memphis at 1 am and spending the night in a rat hole holiday inn. then on the return flight home got stuck in memphis on 5 mechanical delays finally getting them to put me on usair via lousiville and then NW didn't send my bags on with me and they were never found. they lost all of my brand new maternity clothes and all the new clothes we had bought on a shopping spree in jackson miss. Thankfully I had my receipts so they paid me for everything but I would have rather had my stuff than to have to go out and buy all new stuff again.

 

[gm]

no leg space at all. if someone in front of you reclines you are like an inch from their seat. It is so cramped in there espcially if you have little children trying to color on the trays or have food on the trays. American airlines which we just traveled on is much roomier but they had long delays during our travel and oh my god their little proppeler planes NEVER AGAIN!!.