To clarify, I have no idea why I'm making this post. Honestly, I think I'm still riding off this high from my most recent trip. Absolutely unreal experience, fuckin' loved it.
Wanted to get WSO's opinion on their favorite airline or airline group, and if they had any best-experience or worst-experiences on 'em. Whether it's personal or business travel, private-first or economy, anything in between. Figured I'd drop my own experience below:
Yesterday I got back from my London trip, I guess it was half-business. Gotta say - planning impromptu vacations around business events is the absolute way to go. Can really save big on some parts, and while you're not gonna get an all-expenses-paid stay for everything you do, it's nice to rack up some of the stuff that's covered regardless. I'm not at the position in my firm to say FUCK EVERYTHING WE GOING BIG ON THE COMPANY CARD without getting screamed at by Accounting and HR, but I definitely try to push some stuff in there when I can. Highly recommend.
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Anyways, I'll give a brief spiel: Delta Premium Select, round trip from DCA - LHR. Wasn't able to get a direct flight due to booking late, but only had a one-hour layover in Boston on the way out, 90-min on JFK for return flight. I'm not an 'aviation geek' but I've always thought airports are cool as hell so I was good w/ it. PreCheck paired w/ Global Entry makes everything worth it - GET BOTH OF THOSE. Cannot recommend it enough, even if you use them like once every ten years it's so damn worth it. Strolled right through customs both times, zero line & nothin' involved. Pairing that w/ PreCheck is phenomenal. I pulled up to Heathrow about 30 min before boarding and the time from shutting my Uber door to sitting in my plane seat was about 20 min max. For an airport the size of LHR or DCA, that's unreal.
"Premium Select" is basically just business class for Delta, so that's what I was offered. I'll be honest - I probably could have gotten a Delta One suite (first-class, they just make up names at this point) without catching any flack from my superiors, but didn't want to start anything and I am PERFECTLY okay with business class. Due to the lovely nature of booking literally 24 hours prior to my flight taking off, I think that ran me $6,900-ish round trip, while first would have been $11,500-ish. Oof, but hey - shout out business expenses.
Side note - unless your firm doesn't allow this (which I have recently discovered is quite frequent), I got no idea why you wouldn't chargeback instead of using company card. Yes, company card is great for no hassle and whatnot, but I earned 39,000 miles on my personal account which I can put to great use in the future. I got an Amex Plat so all the lounge and 5x miles is also just fuckin' great, and Platinum offers you a 10% return on their own airfare purchases. WHOLE LOTTA SAVINGS.
Flying experience was great. Killer service, seats were comfy as hell, and it just seemed like all they wanted to do was make those hours I was in the air as good as possible. Pilot cracked some joke about slamming an 'airplane' bottle before takeoff and I was loving it. Plane was brand new (A330 I think? Avgeeks help me out here please) and clean as it could possibly be. Really thought they went above and beyond to make sure my experience was amazing. Free meals and as much booze as I wanted as long as I pretended to act sober. I think by midway over the Atlantic I felt like I was back in college after the amount of vodka I had in me. Met some old dude next to me, guy was a career consulting dude who recently retired and was now an EMT full-time because he wanted to help people - how fucking sick is that?
Overall, best flying experience I've ever had, both departure and arrival. I've always flown Sky Alliance (which I believe is Delta, KLM, Air Frane, & Virgin) w/ rare exceptions, but really understood why people I meet are so loyal to their airlines now. Would love to hear some stories from the rest of the community if they had a similar experience.
Seconded
Thirded. Delta through and through. The delta one suites are mostly great (that tri point seatbelt is annoying, but first world problems eh?)
The six seater Buissness class cabin they use for Smaller international is super cozy as well. Flight attendants are great! And the sundaes are superb.
Biscoff & ginger ale are my personal heaven and only available 30,000ft in the air
Did you rip this off the oatmeal
Does anyone actually drink ginger ale anywhere else other than airplanes?
The only commodity trading I partake in, I offer the person next to me the Biscoff and as soon as they reach for it, I take the armrest.
Delta is easily the best coach experience I've ever had. While all other airlines were restricting alcohol to us lowly coach patrons, Delta let me crush fat tires while watching the ALCS live on their TV's. Won me for life.
I flew on United round-trip to LA and they still had Biscoff. I asked for 5 packets and they didn't give a shit.
Delta in the US (spirit sucks). Emirates internationally.
Emirates might as well be the among the few airlines where travelling economy isn't ass
Stuck to United before moving to a city that's an American hub. Curious to hear if anyone has switched from one to the other...
Ironically, neither of the airports in my area (DMV) are a "Delta Hub" officially. IAD is United & DCA (Reagan) is American, IIRC. I lived in North LA briefly a while back & LAX is technically a Delta 'Hub' but it's a nightmare anyway, LOL. I think my only quarrel with not being native to a Delta Hub is the lack of direct flights. As I mentioned, it's definitely possible to get international flights nonstop out of DCA or IAD, but there's usually only 1-2 per day from IAD and DCA offers zero nonstop international connections in Europe. It's not an issue for me, but first world problems I suppose!
I'm getting a cheap United flight to Chicago from DCA, but have generally flown with American from there since Dulles is a hassle to get to. Fuck BWI.
Tbh I've never had any issues with American domestically, and from experience not much of a hassle with Delta and United either. I've never flown on JetBlue, nor Southwest which never seems to have cheap enough flights to entice me and mostly flies to BWI which I hate going to. I liked Alaska the few times I've flown on them. I've heard a lot of mixed things about Hawaiian but am interested. Obligatory fuck Spirit.
Following, would love to hear more about domestic U.S. experiences
Best airlines for experience are the Asian ones hands down. Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Singapore, Cathay Pacific. I get you will never use these unless travelling eastwards but regardless the service they all offer is beyond amazing. Food, entertainment, alcohol etc. A flying experience I recommend everyone try is going Emirates business/first class on the A380. Going to the bar and sitting on sofas mid-flight is something out of this world, along with having a shower in the air if flying first. Literally not many better feelings of 'I've made it' than that haha.
First three aren’t Asian
Middle East is considered to be West Asia, was going on that assumption. I know what you mean though
Right, I totally forgot about the continent of Middle East.
Yeah but most have great miles programs that you can use to upgrade, like that guy you mentioned I guess. AMEX works well because you can convert those points into air miles for most, if not all of those airlines
Emirates is the only stupid expensive one on that list. Never been myself but read that their first class customers get a private room with shower. Have also heard great things about the Dubai airport.
I know that the logo looks equally fancy but Etihad is much worse than Emirates/Qatar and the Abu Dhabi airport is nothing to write home about.
Cathay Pacific has the best foods hands down, although in terms of entertainment I found the Hong Kong airport to be rather bland.
Hmmmm really? I haven't flown Etihad in years but last time I did, it was pretty much the same as Emirates.
And yeah I get what you mean about AD airport. It's very old at this point, needs a fresh lick of paint
+1 on Singapore Airlines, consistent quality service with state of the art amenities and features.
For domestic, you're realistically stuck with whichever one is the hub airline in your city, unless you're in a place like NYC/LA where I think all the Big 3 carriers are serving it heavily. The Big 3 are more or less the same, so you have to be absolutely insane IMO to take a connecting flight just to fly Delta or something like that (and yes, I do know people who are like this).
For me, I like flying Delta the best, but I'm based in Chicago now, so it's either United or American. I actually kind of like their programs better because they're all based on actual spend versus bullshit "seat miles" + spend criteria that I believe Delta still retains. It used to piss me off no end when I'd pay enough money to an airline, between my corporate and personal spend, to get to gold/platinum level tiers but still be stuck with silver status because my business routes were short haul, especially since I'm a much more profitable customer for them by virtue of spending so much but not flying so many miles.
All that aside, I like American a bit better than United because their fleet is usually newer and they have better routes to LATAM, partnerships with Alaska (I'm from the west coast and fly them often), and connect through LHR vs Frankfurt in Europe. These are all minor concerns vs fare price and timings. I think it's silly, unless you can reach pretty high levels of status, to be super loyal to an airline these days. Even as an elite flyer with Delta, I didn't get much help when my flights got delayed, etc. and you can get some of the secondary benefits, like checked bags/priority boarding via a credit card
Definitely a valid point, one that I didn't really think about that much. Truth be told, I just kind of assumed that I was all out of options for nonstop flights, but I can't lie to ya - didn't even check United or American offerings. I just booked thru Delta's website, as the Plat has better rewards when booked thru the airline rather than something like Priceline. But in context, it doesn't make any sense for me to avoid the nonstop just to be loyal to a specific airline. My guess is if I end up out there again, I'll just try to plan a tiny bit in advance and not 24 hours... LOL.
I thoroughly enjoy flying so the connection wasn't a huge deal. Still, if it came down to the option of UAL/AAL nonstop vs. DAL connection, ain't no way I'm siding w/ Delta on that one. Just nice to see that the overall experience was enjoyable!
Amex Platinum is the nuts for travel. You get $200 towards travel fees (baggage, drinks, etc) on one airline and free Clear & Pre. Every one of their lounges is top notch and using your points with ANA (who offer ridiculous redemption value) can let you fly for free quite a bit. I flew to Hawaii last year and kicked off my trip by getting tipsy in the Centurion Lounge - good times!
Yes, of course it's free. I'm assuming you're not one of those hard-os that says, "well the $700 yearly is too much so its not free!!!" I think it's a wonderful benefit, all the Amex lounges that I've been in have been top notch and you can eat and drink as much as you want. Plus I also book some of my travel with Amex and they give a lot of good benefits, upgrades and top service when you do that. Depending on what you book, you also get $200 back. It really is a good charge card.
What're the sweet spots for the using ANA miles? I've heard multiple sites say they're a hack, but I never found availability with them whenever I tried to book dates I wanted to multiple locations. I ended up closing my platinum because I found Chase's rewards were better and the Platinum was starting to feel like a glorified coupon book with all their "monthly" credits and restrictions on how to use their credits. Chase at least has Hyatt, which I know 100% will give me some solid value and hasn't completely butchered their award program like all the companies are nowadays. I don't think Amex even lets you cash out their rewards at 1 cent as a last resort, which is ridiculous.
The around the world ANA promo is the one that sticks out to me
Obviously I love the Amex Platinum but it is hard to disagree with you.
Maybe the Platinum will "lose its luster" for me after a few years. But there's enough of the other perks (uber, streaming credits, etc) that will probably keep me hooked into it.
Finally, love your user name, I'm a HUGE fan!
Holy shit after flying all the major US airlines I have to say Delta is still my favorite by far.
Now I’m a little biased because I grew up in Atlanta and it’s the Delta Hub so I flew them almost exclusively growing up especially bc my parents traveled for work and had miles with. However, through dozens of experiences of either going on trips with my cheap friends where we flew together or on trips for interviews / work where the company bought my ticket through one of the other airlines, Delta is superior.
Customer service is way better, they have good first class and Comfort seats. Lots of direct flights. Also Delta One has the lay-flat seats for certain flights cross coast or international. Can’t be Delta IMO
Also just took a detour instead of flying directly so that I can fly on Delta’s route from ATL to ICN. I believe the airplane OP was flying on is an A350, which is Delta’s flagship. Highly recommend flying Premium Comfort on Delta’s A350s, definitely best value for money you can get.
I'm a bit pissed off at United and the CEO Kirby.
The only domestic airline I have ever heard anyone actually “like”, is Delta. Everyone else is just loyal to one because it’s their city’s airline hub and you just have to pick a horse and ride with it.
I would agree, Delta is the best of the big 3 by far. But ultimately I still prioritize direct routing and price, so if Delta is more expensive by more than the greater of $200 or 33%, I go with someone cheaper.
I find Sky Clubs to be much more of a zoo than either Polaris (United) or Flagship (American) lounges. Shame Delta is the only airline that hasn't really created a separate more premium ground experience for premium ticketholders away from all the cardholder / lounge members that are out there these days.
ANA/Delta. I miss Virgin tho
I’m somewhat convinced people saying Delta have only flown on Delta and nothing else or I’ve just gotten really unlucky. 100% of the trips I’ve been in through Delta have resulted in delays which often meant I missed the next flight (was doing connecting) and the Delta people had to reschedule.
Also Charles De Gaulle sucks as an airport if you’re doing EU (SkyTeam EU hub). Lufthansa (Frankfurt) is a much better hub and have never experienced delays.
For domestic I’ve done American Airlines, United, Southwest, and Delta. Nothing uniquely great or bad about the first 3 but Delta is uniquely the worst from the pack.
This was some years back so maybe they finally got their act together. There was a time when Delta was always the cheapest option and the quality was what you paid for.
For international with Australia/New Zealand: Qantas is awesome best flight I’ve ever taken was LAX-Auckland Emirates is also great I’ve never flown Singapore but only heard good things
My favorite is Virgin Atlantic if you are in upper class, KLM and Swiss are also good. I live in Denver so am closing in on 1 million miles with United…status goes a long way.
Worst I’ve ever dealt with is Frontier. That company needs to go out of business. Also, Southwest is ok, but I hate their boarding process.
Second the comment on Frontier, absolute trash scheduling, didn't refund me and gave me a useless flight credit after I cancelled a trip due to being sick
I miss living in NYC and actually having a choice between 3 carriers. And I agree with the above posters, Delta is the best although I heard United gets really good if you're in the top tier (and aren't based in Houston).
In London you're pretty much stuck with BA and they're trash - terrible customer service, terrible miles programs and terrible planes. Heathrow is nice af though.
Southwest - relatively cheap, free 2 bags, and reliable too
I've still never flown with them, do they go to major airports? They have a hub that's at a fairly large airport in my area but isn't the main one and is a bitch to get to, so I was wondering if they generally fly to slightly smaller airports.
They do go to major airports. I live near an airport which is very popular for southwest, so that's why I have always flown through there. They do fly to some small airports, but they aren't like Delta where they have smaller airlines contracted as connections for smaller airports.
I think this is a common sentiment and was maybe more true in the past than it is now - what's a "small" airport any more, anyways? LAX uses Burbank, which was never a small airport (at least not for a few decades now) and very much still in the LA sprawl. DFW uses DAL which is arguably in a more central location and super, super easy car rental return. DC area uses DCA which is older but you can't beat the Metro convenience and uber pickup is literally a few feet from the exit.
So, yeah, they use the "side" airports, but I think they're probably more convenient than most people realize.
+SB for Southwest. Highly underrated IMO, I've never had a bad experience with them. The only time I've ever been delayed with them was when Karen decided she didn't want to wear a mask and the police had to come. But that's not the airlines fault - they've been good to me and it helps that I am near one of their hubs.
Do they still have that companion pass deal? That seems like a great perk.
Delta overall, but lately their NYC flights (outbound & return) have been bruuuuutal
EVA and ANA have been by far the two best I've flown. US airlines suck. On both these the flight attendants are super nice, the bathrooms are super clean (even had flowers in it, normal bathroom not biz). Give out complementary slippers, eye masks etc. Just a significantly better experience.
Spirit all the way. How else can you fly and KNOW you're going to get fucked consistently? Plus I love the natural forward incline of the seats, it feels like you're hunched over doing crunches to build a six pack. And why would you want any sort of food on a five hour flight when you can get a bag of preztels that could easily feed one 80 pound anorexic chick? The experience is consistently 10/10, would recommend to anyone without a job.
For me, it depends on the mission.
Most important part of this comment by far!
Delta for sure, consistently solid experiences, its only major airline I can say that about. I also enjoyed JetBlue but is usually more expensive than Delta so not worth it.
Premium select is premium economy if I’m not wrong, Delta phased out first class a long time ago and Delta One is basically their business class
Delta, though I may be biased. Always flew Delta growing up, either one or both of my parents were million milers on Delta, flying internationally 4-6 times / year or more each for work / family / vacations.
United is great for super long international flights. Interestingly enough I've traveled less domestically in the USA than internationally. Curious to hear domestic favorite as I really want to explore as many states as I can now that I've hit adulthood and the international vacations on my parents are much fewer and far between.
Haven’t noticed any differences between the US Big 3 and I fly a lot. Always confused when people say Delta is the best because literally none stand out to me (they all suck for one reason or another).
Southwest has noticeably better service but I hate the way they board and not having an assigned seat.
American Airlines LAX-JFK business class flight has lie-flat seats (and you don't fly into EWR). You also get Flagship Lounge access included in this flight which is normally $150 per visit (so $300 value).
I only fly Delta, collect all my SkyMiles on there and the service is great.
Domestics:
JetBlue lie flats transcon
Delta
Southwest - for companion pass, customer service and easy+free last min changes
United is getting better
American economy is hardly better than Spirit
AA for domestic, Emirates then Qatar for International.
For domestic travel, Jet Blue is my preferred airline. You can't go wrong with the Asian carriers like Singapore or Cathay Pacific. Have flown Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar too, and I would say Qatar is a tier above the other two. All talking economy.
I've never flown international first, but I've anecdotally heard that Air France, Singapore Airlines, and Emirates would win. Etihad too before they got rid of their huge "residence suite" that had a private bedroom and bathroom w shower.
Not too sure about business class. Qatar is probably the highest rated. Until recently, the US Carriers American/Delta/United beat out its Euro counterparts BA/AF/LH until they upgraded their hard products recently. Not fleet-wide yet though.
For the majority of people just flying occasionally in economy, AA/DL/UA are all pretty much identical. Maybe DL has a slight edge on inflight soft product imo. Delta and United are also a bit more comfortable for East Coast to Europe flights in economy than AA is because they use the Boeing 767 which has a very nice economy layout where only 6/7 of the seats are window or isle.
Of the big 3 alliances, I'd say SkyTeam is the worst. Redemptions have been devalued to hell and are dynamic (extremely so). One World and Star Alliance (AA & UL respectively) still have fixed redemptions with some high - low season variation. Their redemptions are actually pretty generous. You could get a British Airways first class ticket for less than 100k AA miles. Delta meanwhile regularly charges 350k+ for business class. One World and Star Alliance also just have some nicer member airlines while Sky Team is lacking imo.
Want to 2nd getting TSA Pre & Global Entry. TSA Pre is probably the best decision you could make when it comes to traveling. Have been in situations where the regular security line was easily 20+ min while TSA pre got me through in like 2 min.
I fly between the US and France pretty often. Always have a pleasant experience with Air France - friendly hostesses, great food, expansive movie selection. And they fly mostly Airbus planes so you don't CRASH!
Aer Lingus is also pretty good for cheap US-Europe flights on a budget.
Delta for sure. I find they have the best lounges and have always been generous with the service in first-class or delta comfort. Easy airline.
Delta definitely has the best in-seat entertainment. Great movie selections between new releases, oldies but goodies, and the modern standard repertoire, plus they usually have good screens. American is not bad, all things considered. United is shit, they force you to watch they movies on your own devices. That means either dragging my laptop out and awkwardly balancing it on the food tray or playing it on my phone, killing the battery, and having to either hold it up the entire time or find some way to balance it on my wallet. Absolute trash.
Delta is great for medallion members. The free upgrades, priority boarding/security line, etc is nice. Although the last two delta flights I've been on have been pretty subpar.
JetBlue lowkey is solid. Took out their first class cabin so everyone gets more legroom - feels like a main cabin seat is the equivalent to a delta comfort. Flew from JFK-LAS in row like 20 and had a great experience.
United for the international flights 100%.
Delta easily #1 for major US, Alaska is a close #2 for me (west coast based). My firms "preferred" airline is AA which is too bad, shit show of an airline but at least it isn't united
Premium Select is considered a stronger international premium economy product and competes with other airlines' premium economy. Delta One is their business class product and competes with other airlines' business class. A good comparison would be to look at an AA 4-class 777. You can see in that link and compare it to this Delta plane. to see the difference. Now you could make an argument that Delta One is better than both American's business AND Flagship First class (American's first doesn't have a great on-board reputation), but it is still marketed as a business class product and priced as such and doesn't really deliver the personalized service a proper first product would.
That being said, Premium Select is probably equal to domestic first on Delta.
Cool insight - thanks for the reply. Really interesting to see how they market these things now, for better or worse. When I was growing up, it was just first, business, and coach. The first time someone said "economy" I was so confused on what they were talking about - hasn't gotten better. Before you know it, my plane ticket is gonna say Economy Pro Plus Sport Business Level 2 Edition Added Legroom (Paid Option) Hybrid Sub-First
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