[Hayek]

Trying to think through all the international airlines I have flown and what the experiences have been. All my business related travel (barring my first two trips abroad - in 1999 to Australia via Singapore and in 2000 to Singapore) has been in Business Class - so I must say I am quite pampered and my experiences may not be reflective of those who fly economy on trans-continental routes

Exceptional

Singapore Airlines; Emirates; Virgin Atlantic; Jet Airways (Long Haul, Wide Body routes)

SQ never ever disappoints, EK has great physical assets and great veg food, even if overrated service, I love the herringbone seats in VS and 9W, and 9W of course upgraded my to first almost 30% of the time on London flights.

Good

Cathay Pacific, Swiss, Lufthansa, British, KLM, Qatar (only one trip), Finn (only one trip), Qantas (esp the A380s).

Mediocre

South African, United (terrible crew, no food on a 16 hour flight, but comfortable beds and nothing beats being able to make a 10 am meeting in New York and return the same evening), Delta (only one experience), Korean (but not flown it in a decade - so dated), ANA (not travelled on the wide body though - only the 737 Business Jet), Malaysian, Thai, Air India (the most erratic experiences ever - but let’s see how they shape up in the next 24 months)

Avoid Like Plague

American, Turkish (but not flown in last decade), Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and the worst airline in the world - combined with the worst airport in the world by a million miles - Air France.

There is no airline I detest more than Air France, and no airport anywhere worse the Charles De Gaulle. Have avoided some of the notorious terrible airlines such as Aeroflot (flew Air France on my only trip to Moscow) and Alitalia of course.

Am also not counting airlines like Southwest, SAS, Dragon Air, US Air, EasyJet, Air Asia Indonesia, Iberia, SpanAir etc which I have flown only on narrow body domestic equivalent routes. But my worst airline experience was on one of these flights. Was on a domestic trip within Spain (heading to a mid size city from Madrid after connecting via Frankfurt from Bombay) using SpanAir. Had a normal size hand bag with my overcoat, sweater, and a pouch with cash and travellers cheques (this was in the days before international credit cards).

As I boarded the plane, the air hostess told me that there was no storage space in the bins, and asked me to check the bag in at the gate. Locked it, handed it over and took my seat - fortunately after taking my laptop out. The bag never arrived. How you can lose a bag between the steps of a small 40 seater plane and its hold boggles my mind. I was left with just the EUR 200 I had in my purse for a week in that town. Luckily, my client was kind and picked up the tab.

Returned to Bombay a week later - Still no sign of the bag. Another week later, Lufthansa told me the bag had been found dumped in a corner of Madrid airport, with the lock broken. The cash was all gone - about EUR 300 iirc. Luckily, the larger sum was in TCs and I got that back. Got about USD 200 compensation for my troubles - less than what I had lost. Could not even claim it from my employer since leaving cash in a bag that was being checked in was my fault. Yes, one should not have left cash in the bag while handing it in - but who thinks of that at the gate of the plane. The only explanation is that either the cabin crew or their baggage handler who picked the bag at the gate stole the bag, took the cash out and then dumped it. Incredible this can happen on the Tarmac next to a flight as opposed to in an anonymous terminal. Anyway a lesson learnt. Of course with International Credit Cards, life is easier - have not bought a travellers cheque in a decade, and carry only minimal cash while flying.

[mmxylorider]

Have flown British the maximum number of time and it has been a great experience each time. Next is Cathay for a great mix of hospitality and hard product.

As an anecdote, this happened on my first every International trip (and on BA). This is year 2000 and so there I was, flying Mumbai-London-NY, at the check-in counter. The agent did all the stuff with the bags, weights etc (A lot was different pre 9-11) and was in the process of putting the stickers on the bags. Now you know, the looped sticker has the transit airport also mentioned on it in addition to the destination. So I had LHR and JFK on it. I was genuinely confused why my bags were being routed through LaHoRe, PK and I asked the agent the same thing. Now it was her turn to be confused and it took a minute for her to understand and with a laugh she clarified what LHR meant. So yeah, first trip and a learning there. The trip more than made up. The LHR-JFK 747 was one of the few which had the upper deck configured for economy and a cozy space at that.

[vattyboy]

We had booked our flight tickets 1.5 months before our departure with Vietjet Airlines from New Delhi to Ngu Rai Airport( BALI) which cost around Rs 60k per person including return tickets also. The flight was scheduled at 11.50 pm from T3 IGI Airport, New Delhi to reach Bali the next day at 2.30 pm with a 3hr 30 mins layover at Ho chi mind city, Vietnam.

Glimpse of Bali just before Landing




Experience with Vietjet Airlines - Pathetic experience, I will not travel with them again in my life.
1. 2 hr delay in Departure of the plane.

2. 95% of passengers were Indians and the behavior of the cabin crew with the Indians was not good at all.

3. After landing at Bali Airport, we got our luggage after 3 FREAKING hours. Can you believe this? So what happened was - due to a 2 hr delay in the take-off from Delhi, the plane landed in Ho chi Minh city late. So what Vietjet did very cleverly was they transferred all the passengers on the connecting flight to Bali without their luggage so that connecting flights don't get delayed too( because the transfer of luggage will take more time). They did this without telling passengers and sent our luggage on their next flight which landed after 3 hours. Due to this, we got our luggage at 6 pm when almost the day was over.

4. Condition of the plane was very bad. It was making very weird noises and the Model was Airbus A320.

Ngu Rai Airport Bali

[SoumenD]

These are the ones I have flown over the years. Majorly from 2013-2018.

Starting with the worst here:

Malaysian Airline : By far the worst food options and service. Heck they canceled one side of my return ticket (Bangalore to Adelaide) without even informing me. Got to know only once I reached airport to board(didn’t do webcheckin, my bad). Even Kuala Lumpur airport I had a bad experience. A whole terminal had only one functional washroom. Never ever booked/boarded the airline in those two years(while I lived in Adelaide) even though they were the cheapest (now I know why) even during Dec peak season. This was 2015.

Cathay Pacific : Again food wasn’t great but rest was fine. This was booked because Malaysian airlines screwed me up(as mentioned in above paragraph). Hongkong airport was huge but boring. Was a long 7hr layover and it felt like an eternity. Year was 2015.

Emirates: You just can’t go wrong with them. Good food, likeable service and awesome fleet of A380s. Have been lucky to board the A380s multiple times while travelling to Amsterdam and the experience has been great. Dubai airport is also great. And if you have a long-ish layover they provide you with hotel stay. But be very careful not to carry your duty free liquor to the hotel as they won’t let you enter the airport back with that. I lost 2 litres of Glenlivet(~150$) this way

Singapore airlines : By far my favourite airlines. This is my default choice since 2015/16. Even for Phuket/Krabi trip I booked Singapore airlines, so you can imagine how much I like them. Everything about them is great be it food or service. And Changi airport is amazing. Another great thing about Singapore airlines is, if you have return tickets with them, they give you 40$ worth vouchers for shopping/lounge and free city tour if you have more than 4 hours layover.

[tiagoatrix]

I'll share my good and bad flight experience.
All flights were in economy class.

Good.

1. My first ever flight was a Singapore Airlines flight from Chennai to Singapore. Hot refreshing towels, choice of menu (Remember having puliyogare) , toiletry kit, all in economy class, never flew with them again and never experienced the hospitality like that again.

2.Flew from Benin to India by Ethiopian Airlines, many empty seats meant extra attention from cabin crew, well attended, neat aircraft, probably the best African flight operator.

3.All Major Asian airlines like, ANA, Asianana, Cathy has limited to no food choice for vegetarian, but their service and cabin experience is always good.

4.Vistara is the only domestic airline which reminds me of good experience, good food, decent leg room, clean cabin.

5.Flew srilankan twice and it was okay.

Bad.

1. British Airways, Heathrow to Chennai, horrible 10 hours, bad food, old aircraft, just waited for that flight to land.

2. Biman Bangladesh - Old, leased aircrafts.

3. All Indian Airlines - crew wants to get to their hotel /home soon and so do you.


If you don't get your preferred food choice in long haul flights, the entire flight becomes sore. Pre boarding, travel, arrival takes more than 12 hours, if your belly isn't happy, you won't be either.

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Starting a new thread on experiences, good and not so good, on international flights.

Thanks for starting this thread hopefully will informative for all members

Worst Airline I have flown is probably Kuwait Airways, I flew on a almost 20 year old 777 from Mumbai to NYC with broken seats, rude flight attendants and a very unpleasant stopover in Kuwait City.



United Airlines would be a close 2nd, apart from the rude flight attendants and tight seats they forgot to serve me dinner on a long haul business class flight after taking my order and I had to a sleep hungry!

If your company is paying or you have too much $ then Emirates is best for business class. The chauffeur to the airport, range of destinations, A380 experience, inflight Bar and stopover in Dubai is unbeatable.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Back in May 1996 I was on a United Airlines flight from Paris to Washington DC. As a younger more struggling professional I was in economy. It was a Boeing 767 with a 2+3+2 seating. I was in window seat 'A' and a European {probably French} passenger in seat 'B'. Soon after take off my neighbour spoke to the air hostess in French and said something to the effect of ‘please change my seat, I don’t want to sit next to this black bum’. I understand enough of French {though I can’t speak the language} to know what he said and looked at the air hostess and said in English, ‘please oblige him’. And she changed his seat. The air hostess was a French lady and I got the impression that back in the day she felt the request made by that passenger was perfectly reasonable. :-(

This reminds me of an experience I had back in 1992 when my age was still in the single digits. My family was flying from New Delhi to New York (or back) via some stopover in London or Frankfurt. We missed our connecting flight so we were sent to another airport on short haul flight and somehow I ended up in a business class seat on British Airways( I didn't realise it was Business class until about 20 years later) I saw for the first time cold meats served on porcelain plates, huge sofa seats on a plane and a very inquisitive passenger next to me. They had a unending list of questions of where I was from, where I was going and why I was there? I thought they were just curious but it seems there was probably a more sinister reason to this.

On a related side note:
V.Narayan, Skanchan and I are all collectors of scale models of aircraft and we all have many airlines discussed in this thread.

[rpunwani]

Originally Posted by Hayek

American, Turkish (but not flown in last decade), Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and the worst airline in the world - combined with the worst airport in the world by a million miles - Air France.

There is no airline I detest more than Air France, and no airport anywhere worse the Charles De Gaulle. Have avoided some of the notorious terrible airlines such as Aeroflot (flew Air France on my only trip to Moscow) and Alitalia of course.

Haha - +1 on this. On a family trip in 2002 we flew to Zurich via Charles De Gaulle with 2 small kids in tow. Was a harrowing experience navigating through the airport. My experience with Air France has been stated in my earlier post

[SR-71]

Some interesting observations based on the responses so far...

• Singapore stands out universally as one of the best airlines to fly. Many BHPians vouch for it, including your truly. Plus, Changi is the best transit airport in my humble opinion.
• Emirates is not what it once was. They have decent planes but that’s about it these days. The crew are not what they used to be; they seem to be politely haughty (if that’s even a term)
• Qatar definitely is the new ME prince. I travelled Qatar for the first time this year and have flown her 3 times so far. Every single journey was pleasant despite all of them being Y class. Interestingly I did not have to go through security at Hammad on 2 of the 3 occasions in the return leg. The one time I did, they randomly pulled a few of us to do that before boarding. When I asked why, the staff who spoke my native tongue said incoming flights are chosen randomly and all passengers from that are screened. That day my return from LA was chosen. However, security was always done during the onward trip before transfer. Another interesting observation I have, unlike other airlines which serve special meals first, Qatar crew do it as part of regular service. Perhaps others do too, I probably noticed it the first time here. I typically try to avoid the meal and just sleep through the flight.
• Most European and American carriers seem to be in frequent flyers avoid list. The one exception probably is Lufthansa. IMHO, if not for its Star Alliance membership, I would avoid that too.
• Air India simply doesn’t seem to get it right. I personally have both poles of the experience. Once on being voluntarily bumped from Lufthansa, I had a fantastic experience on their brand-new Dreamliner, maybe because it was Business class, I don’t know. On another occasion, one of our co-passengers was a dead rodent and we were forced to turn back midway. Thanks to the delay, I had to face a seriously irate customer. Let’s see where the new owners take them.
• Cathay has completely lost it. Someone rightly pointed out it was the aspirational brand once, not anymore.
• Surprised to see a few top-class airlines missing from the list. No one has mentioned Garuda, JAL, Asiana. Of that I flew Asiana once thanks to meeting break in Seoul. I was probably the only non-Korean brown skinned passenger on board from Incheon to SFO.

The one flight I missed to mention in my earlier post and probably my most memorable one so far; was with Trans Maldivian. A seaplane ride from Male to one of the distant atolls. After 3 stops I reached my destination only to be dropped on a floating wooden plank in the middle of the ocean. The plane took off for its next stop, and we were left standing on drifting piece of wood until the hotel’s speed boat came to fetch us!

The sea plane at Male seaport


The hotel airport

[charanreddy]

I have limited experiences compared to the folks that posted before me. But sharing my 2 cents.

International : Travelled Economy only as my company has a strict expense policy (Any one lower than a VP level travels economy, and we have < 60 VPs in a company of 12K people for size ).

1. BLR to SFO / OHR : Travelled by Emirates twice and Etihad once. No complaints. Food was good, inflight entertainment was good as well. Only hiccup was that Etihad had overbooked their flights on my first visit and I was supposed to be visiting for 1 week. If I took a later flight, it would have reduced my trip from 5 days to 2 days. Finally they realized they had a few spare seats and I could travel per my original plan. The good thing about travelling to US via Etihad is that there are immigration counters in Abu Dhabi and this saves a ton of time when you land in the US.

2. BLR to Male : Travelled by Air India as they have the cheapest round trip fare by far. Costed me less than INR 18K return. The flights were absolutely pathetic. I had a window seat and the sound from the engine had my ears ringing for a 3 hr flight. What was more funny was the service. I had asked for a veg meal and the old uncle who doubled up as a air hostess confidently tells me that it is available. some 15 mins later he comes back and says, the folks in the front of the plane all ordered veg meals and hence its no longer available. Given the lack of choices, I took the non veg pasta, removed the chicken pieces and 'adjusted'.

3. BLR to Berlin Via Frankfurt: It was via Lufthansa both times in premium economy. the seats werent bad and the food was passable. The inflight entertainment system though sucks and pales in comparison to the Emirates. What's funny is that the German airhostess are perfectly hospitable when we lift off from BLR but become increasingly snobbish as we get closer to Germany. The less said about the Frankfurt airport the better. Its huuuge ! and hence a transfer takes 1.5 hrs for sure. Anything less and you can be sure that you will miss the flight. The immigration / passport control desk is one more such embarrassment. There would be a 1 km long queue but still you will find only one or two posts manned by the passport control officers. Its like they couldn't care less if you missed your flight. Compare that to Bangalore where almost all desks are manned all the time.

4. Domestic : Travelled in go air, indigo, spice jet, Vistara, jet airways, kingfisher and more. There is not a whole lot to distinguish, but i found Indigo to be more predictable and on time and connects more tier 2 cities Vs the other networks. Spice Jet keeps cancelling flights at last moment ..

[Dieseltuned]

A few bits from my experience so far ::

All of these are in economy , have not been priviliged enough to take up the 'elite' classes till date.

1. 2010 : Air India BOM-DEL-JFK : Fantastic food and that's it. Almost non existent IFE. Service -what's that ? All the crew never showed up other than the time they gave us the meals as if jailors giving out ration to their prisoners. I sincerely hope TATAs do turn them around.

2. 2010 : AA : EWR-LAX and LAX-EWR : A long 5.5 hours non stop across the American continent. Surprisingly the crew in both the sectors were very friendly. Though only OJ was given once in both the sectors.

3. 2011 : Jet : BOM-LHR : 9W had some fantastic food and really good ground crew. On the morning of the flight I got stuck in some really horrible traffic on the western express highway and reached the counters just 5 mins before closing. I was probably the last one to be given a boarding pass that day. Had a very pleasant and comfortable flight. T5 on LHR was not too crowded and breezed through the process.

4. 2018 : (after 7 long years of international travel hiatus) : SQ on 2 routes BOM-SIN-SYD and ADL-SIN-BOM. Both the sectors had absolute decent and polite crew and good food. The crew also gave a set of coloring book and a small toy to keep my 3 year old daughter engaged. Changi airport never disappoints, a fantastic place to unwind. On landing in SYD this was the first time I experienced no stamping at immigration and actually went back to the immigration officer to confirm whether stamping on passport is required or not. (I know I am stupid). India should also look at this no stamping policy.

5. 2018 : Jetstar : SYD-MEL and MEL-ADL : Jetstar was worse than cattle class. Totally non existent service. Never saw any crew member in either of these sectors.
An interesting episode also happened at either SYD or MEL airport I don't remember which now. We were a group of 7 people (family and friends) and all 7 of us (including my 3 year old daughter) were stopped at security for a follow up 2nd scan. They collected some samples from our clothes which we were wearing and from our bags and put the swabs through some scanner machine. We were given all clear after some 5-10 minutes. Till date I have no idea what they scanned us for ? May be drugs/explosives, god knows what ? I personally think that this was a clear case of racial profiling as a lot of 'fair skinned' people were simply allowed to walk away without a second glance. Does anybody know what such scans are for ? I also don't know whether this scan was by the local law enforcement agencies OR the airline staff !

6. 2022 : Post Covid : BOM-SIN and SIN-BOM again on SQ. I redeemed a few points and saved 6K bucks on tickets. Again SQ does not disappoint with good food and gem of a crew. The crew especially on our return leg was particularly very jovial. One of the passengers couple of rows ahead of us seemed to have forgotten where he put his passport and the crew were pulling his leg that they will have to take him back to Singapore now as his passport is no where to be found

Domestic : I was a stickler for Indigo till I experienced Vistara. Now my first choice is always Vistara. Also in the erstwhile 9W days, I really liked the nicely cushioned seats on their 737s over the buckets given by Indigo.

P.S : Does anyone remember and miss the nice Imli (tamarind) toffee that Air India used to give with their meals ? I absolutely loved those.

So to summarize I have had a fair share of travelling with some good and some not so good experiences. We learn from them and move on to the next one!

Regards
Diesel

[Imran.Syed]

Two days back was my first time flying both Lufthansa and Air Canada, from RUH to YYZ in Economy. LH was in a A330 and AC was a quite weary looking B777.
I was impressed with LH but maybe it was because my expectations were really REALLY low due to all the bad press about European Airlines.
Good legroom (I am 6ft 3in), decent meal, metal cutlery surprisingly and a very very clean aircraft. The flight attendants were fantastic as well.

AC feels like a very typical North American carrier, plus the amazing crew attitude which most NA carriers are not known for in Economy. Decent experience but will avoid in the future if better alternatives come about.

I want to however share a bit of my extensive experience flying Saudia, also known as Saudi Airlines, the Govt-owned flag carrier of Saudi Arabia with primary hubs in Jeddah, Dammam & Riyadh. This airline's image is two faced; on one side it is the largest transporter of pilgrims to and fro Asian countries and on the other, it is the only Saudi Airline that takes rich Saudi tourists P2P to European and NA destinations.
The experience you get will completely be different based on what part of the world you are traveling from but one thing will remain consistent and that's the amazing legroom and very, very competitive pricing compared to ME3 and other Gulf carriers.
It's imperfect in many ways and the typical racist attitude towards Indians/Asians is real though.

On the LCC front the country has Flynas, Flyadeal and SaudiGulf. Flynas particularly is FAR better than any LCC I have flown ever. They really have their strategies dialed down to perfection.

A few fun facts:
- Saudi Arabia being a staunch ally of the US, you'd expect their fleet to be completely Boeing based, but that is not the case. Saudia operates a good amount of Airbus aircraft as well.

-Dammam's King Fahd Airport is the largest in the world by land area.

- Riyadh, the country's capital has just announced a new airport that will literally engulf the current, already massive airport called King Khalid International Airport. Saudi Arabia is going to be a big aviation player in the future for sure. Successful or not, remains to be seen.

-To complement the new airport and to bring in more tourist dollars, a new airline is also being established but this isn't officially confirmed yet. It will be headed by Tony Douglas, ex-CEO of Etihad, responsible for turning things around for the financial mess James Hogan left the airline with.

Retired Saudia 747 in CSIA, Mumbai:

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by Hayek

The only explanation is that either the cabin crew or their baggage handler who picked the bag at the gate stole the bag, took the cash out and then dumped it. Incredible this can happen on the Tarmac next to a flight as opposed to in an anonymous terminal. Anyway a lesson learnt. Of course with International Credit Cards, life is easier - have not bought a travellers cheque in a decade, and carry only minimal cash while flying.

I agree with you on this, when I travelled via Qatar they asked me to hand my baggage at the Gate, as the flight was full, they wrapped it in a polyethene bag sealed it and then checked it in .

Went in Cathay Pacific to US, last leg was American, they asked me to hand over the bags at the gate as the flight was full. When it was returned back lost my Play station, External Hard drive.

From that day, I try to choose seats so that I can enter first and this problem of Checkin at the gate doesn't happen.

[SafeDrive]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

An interesting episode also happened at either SYD or MEL airport I don't remember which now. We were a group of 7 people (family and friends) and all 7 of us (including my 3 year old daughter) were stopped at security for a follow up 2nd scan. They collected some samples from our clothes which we were wearing and from our bags and put the swabs through some scanner machine. We were given all clear after some 5-10 minutes. Till date I have no idea what they scanned us for ? May be drugs/explosives, god knows what ? I personally think that this was a clear case of racial profiling as a lot of 'fair skinned' people were simply allowed to walk away without a second glance. Does anybody know what such scans are for ?

They're checking for traces of explosives and its a test conducted by security. The premise behind it is that if you've handled explosives, there's bound to be traces of it on you and that's what they're testing you for.

It's also been my opinion that racial profiling does happen at Sydney, I've been picked on for the extra tests multiple times there. But it's also been pointed out to me that I behave differently (it may br cultural) and that's a possible trigger for this.

Cheers

[dragracer567]

Being brought up and currently working in the Gulf, studied in India and Europe (still doing a PhD there), I rake up about 25,000 kms to 40,000 kms every year according to my Kayak tracker. A modest amount compared to most business travellers but enough to give a fair assessment of many airlines. Please note that being a 27-year-old, my experiences are almost always economy class with two rare exceptions when I got upgraded.

My favourite top three airlines are in descending order:

1) KLM

Sectors flown (all two way):

Brussels to Amsterdam - Embraer E195 (for further connections)
Amsterdam to Quito to Guayaquil - Boeing 777-200
Dubai to Amsterdam - Boeing 787-10
Amsterdam to Dammam to Muscat - Airbus A330

What I like:
1) Cute little Dutch houses as gifts if you are in Business class.
2) Very nice and polite flight attendants.
3) Option for air-rail ticket with Thalys trains.
4) Amsterdam airport is the best in Europe for transit. Not huge and complicated like London Heathrow or Paris Chales De Gaulle (the worst).

2) British airways:

Sectors flown (all two way):
Brussels to London - Airbus A319
London to Newcastle - Airbus A320
London to Muscat - Boeing 787-9 (now terminated)
Jeddah to London - Boeing 777-200
London to Chennai - Boeing 787-9

What I like:

1) Courteous flight attendants.
2) Well-connected to Indian and Middle Eastern airports.
3) Terminal 5 is nice albeit too big.

An anecdote: I was flying from London to Muscat, this was back in 2017. The seats were all empty so, I slept across the three seats like many others on the flight. I was really exhausted that day and was in a deep state of slumber. Suddenly, there was a bad turbulence and the pilot turned on the seat-belt sign, so, the flight attendants went around asking everyone to put their seatbelts when one of them saw me sleeping across the seats. She tapped me once, but before I could wake up, she took the seat belt sections from the first seat and the third seat and secured me in place! I woke up after a while and when the seat belt sign was turned off, I thanked her profusely (which seemed to mean a lot for her). This experience alone single-handedly made me like this airline more. In Gulf airlines, for example, such treatment is limited to business class passengers only.

3) Turkish airlines

Sectors flown (all two-way):
Barcelona to Istanbul-Sabiha: Boeing 787-800
Istanbul-Sabiha to Dubai: Boeing 787-800
Dubai to Istanbul-Ataturk: Boeing 777-300ER
Istanbul-Ataturk to Brussels: Airbus A321

What I like:

1) Best economy class seats in any airline I've been in. Boeing 777 has only 9 seats abreast, very spacious. The Turkish airlines 737 seats are more spacious than the Emirates 777 seats.
2) The second best economy class food. The best is the budget Pegasus airlines (but that's paid).
3) Heard that the new Istanbul airport is really good. Haven't been there though. The Sabiha and old Ataturk airports are terrible.

The Gulf airlines - Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways are actually really nice but I hate that they always treat Indians like second-class passengers as compared to European passengers - especially when the flight attendants are desi/Filipino while in BA, KLM and Lufthansa, they generally treat all passengers equally. Also, there is a lot more emphasis on first and business class passengers than economy class passengers. Air France offcourse, treats all its passengers equally bad . The best (and most underrated) Gulf-based airline IMHO is Oman air - great food, nice staff, nice airport.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I haven’t flown some bloopers such as Aeroflot, Olympic {Greece}, Ryan Air, Air Canada. American carriers usually break the scales on terrible service.

Great thread Sir, you haven't experienced aviation at its finest if you haven't flown Ryan air. The cabin beats Emirates airlines' first class cabin by a fair margin by providing a unique experience of a crossover between an airline and the worst Indian bus transport corporation vehicle you can think of. The seats are specially designed by chiropractors to provide the least lumbar support possible while the legroom was decided in consultation with J. R. R. Tolkien to emulate the kneeroom required for a hobbit. There are no seat pockets and the safety cards are stuck onto the seat in front, you know, so you don't have to go through the hassle of taking the safety cards out of the pockets, does Emirates, Qatar Airways or Qantas provide this luxury? Also, the B737s come with built in stair cases (more like ladders) so that they can serve the worst possible airports or airport terminals in European cities.

All in all, a wholesome experience. Hope everyone got the sarcasm here.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Thanks for starting this thread hopefully will informative for all members

Worst Airline I have flown is probably Kuwait Airways, I flew on a almost 20 year old 777 from Mumbai to NYC with broken seats, rude flight attendants and a very unpleasant stopover in Kuwait City.

Used to lived in Kuwait when I was a kid and have flown Kuwait airways multiple times in the Kuwait to Trivandrum sector in the early 2000s in what was then an already dilapilated A300. Glad to know they haven't changed one bit They seem to emulate their country of origin, Kuwait is easily the worst Gulf country (or second worst in many aspects after Saudi) to live in for expats.

An anecdote about Kuwait airways: I was about 10 when my mother and I were returning from our vacation in India (Trivandrum to Kuwait sector). I was fast asleep when apparently the plane started flying really low, very close to Omani mountains (instead of 33,000 feet). The pilots gave no explanation and the flight attendants were nowhere. My mother really thought we were going to die and decided not to wake me up (I was asleep the whole time). After about 45 mins, the pilot announced that were will be having an emergency landing in Muscat airport. As soon as we landed, the flight attendants literally chased us out and we got out leaving behind our passports in my mother's handbag which was in the overhead bins. When we came out, we were surrounded by fire trucks, it was a scary experience. We finally spend about 4.5 hours in Muscat airport (and provided light food) before we could board the plane again and fly to Kuwait on the same plane.

Meanwhile, my dad who was in Kuwait was worried sick because the board in the airport literally read 'no information'. When he contacted the airport authorities, they all said there was no information (you can imagine how scary it would have been). This was before flight tracking or international roaming. Finally, my uncle checked with Trivandrum airport who informed him that the flight had conducted an emergency landing in Muscat and that the passengers are safe.

Lessons:

1) Always keep your passport on hand.
2) Avoid Kuwait Airways like a plague unless you live in Kuwait and need a direct flight.

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive

They're checking for traces of explosives and its a test conducted by security. The premise behind it is that if you've handled explosives, there's bound to be traces of it on you and that's what they're testing you for.

It's also been my opinion that racial profiling does happen at Sydney, I've been picked on for the extra tests multiple times there. But it's also been pointed out to me that I behave differently (it may br cultural) and that's a possible trigger for this.

Cheers

Terrible isn't it when you experience racial bias ! I was especially torn when they insisted to do the test on my 3 year old daughter as well. :(

Other than this one experience my trip to aussie land was a nice one. We even got some good public bus drivers in Adelaide and Sydney who guided us pleasantly to the right bus stops and bus numbers. Generally in public I did not see any racial bias, may be the airport security folks are trained/instructed to be extra cautious.

Regards
Diesel