In June, 2007, on my way home to Canada from Dallas via Seattle, one of the flight attendants on American Airlines was a French woman somewhat older than the rest of of her peers, was a real flirt with any of the men on board. That's not my gripe though.

Honestly, I am a nice person, and when I mentioned the ice cubes she and her peer had to hack with a weapon, was scattered in the aisle way, she was haughty and cranky. So what. We've all had bad days and I'm 20 years older than her. She corrected my slang English. After that I couldn't stand to even look at the bitch.
She could probably do and say what she wanted as she was near her retirement and had the union by their shorts. Okay, I feel better now :)

Posted By J. Fox on September 5, 2007, 7:54 PM

Air France - Closed the counter at the gate at DeGaule 15 minutes ahead of posted departure. She saw me coming and I was about 3 meters away from the counter. She turned and walked through a door never to be seen again. This was a connecting flight and I had to get from one terminal to another on their bus. The flight was Paris to Venice and I was being met by a driver who came to Venice from Udine.
On the way back again at DeGaule I was to get a flight on Continental to the USA but Air France did not provide a boarding pass at Venice for the Continental flight to Newark. I stopped at three different desks and people said that they didn't have the computer connection to provide it. I had to go out through security and stand in line at the ticket counter to get my boarding pass. I missed that plane also. Everything they say about the French being rude is true. Never again on Air France.

Posted By Greg McLean on September 5, 2007, 8:51 PM

American Airlines - About 15 years ago I had multiple problems making connections in Dallas for Lawton, OK. It was clear there were systemic problems, that AA refused t resolve. The last straw was when I got one bag that had been significantly looted. AA handled it very poorly, but one honest baggage agent admitted privately that there was a theft ring that used the X-ray machines to identify stuff to steal.

Since then I've flown nearly 1m miles, and I've been on AA flights maybe 4 times, 3 times when rebooked from a UAL flight, and only once as a paying customer, when I had no other choice.

When I have been rerouted on AA, each time the ticket has been tagged with the dreaded indicator that additional security screening was required. To AA, I was a last-minute customer on a one-way ticket, and getting treated that way certainly has not changed my view of AA since the original set of problems.

This is not to say that other airlines (including UAL, where most of my miles are) have treated uniformly well. It's the systemic nature of the problems with AA, and not just the lack of customer service, that makes me avoid that airline. (Your mileage may vary, I've had good luck with America West, an airline I know a lot of people despise...)

dave

Posted By David Emery on September 6, 2007, 1:10 PM

Northwest- Never, ever agian. I don't care how on sale it is! Not as bad as others here, but midway through an overnight transatlantic flight I got up to go to the service area to request some water to take my medicine. I asked very politely, and even used a quiet voice so as not to disturb other passengers who were sleeping close by. I stood directly in front of the flight attendants for about 2 minutes while they were chatting and saying some very nasty things about co-workers before they even bothered to notice me, then a male flight attendant held up his hand to me and gestured to hold on, so they could finish their story. I asked for some water and the response was "Couldn't you have just gotten a sip from the bathroom?"
Then he roughly dug through compartments to find a small bottle of water. Look I know I am flying coach, and it was even a sale fare, but I just asked for some water...
Sorry NW YOu LOSE.

Posted By BeeBee Vavoom on September 6, 2007, 1:13 PM

American Airlines. after having my luggage pilfered 3 times in 3 months I have had it with AA. there response was, its the TSA fault not ours, even when we shown AA the luggage and the malicous damage done to our clothes and the theft, they offered us $111 for damages, I told them to stuff it and will NEVER fly AA ever again

Posted By Aline Del'Ve on September 6, 2007, 1:16 PM

Dear BeeBee and Andi,
Sorry to hear you had such a nutty experience on Northwest.
As you can see from a prior comment, another reader likes to call them Northworst. (http://current.newsweek.com/budgettravel/2007/08/your_personal_nofly_list.html)
By getting the word out on the Internet,
you're helping to pressure the airlines to offer better service.
Regards,
Sean
Blog editor

Posted By Blog Editor on September 6, 2007, 1:18 PM

I will walk rather than use AirTran again. My nieces and I were returning from Disney and four hours after our scheduled departure, we still had no information as to why we were delayed. Finally after a plane arrived, they put us on the plane, requested that 3 people in specific seats take another flight -- saw why after we took off and water was just pouring out of the air conditioner vents on to those seats. The plane went to Atlanta (rather than our scheduled destination of Philadelphia) where we were moved off that plane to another plane -- which had not been cleaned. It reeked of beer and was full of trash. We finally landed at 2 in the morning. My dad -- who was in his early 80's at the time -- called AirTran to find out when we were landing and they asked him to wait while they got a supervisor. He almost had a coronary, thinking the plane had crashed. My brother was picking his daughters up and had been at the airport since 10 pm -- the time that AirTran told him we were landing. AirTran said they would give us free one ways for our "inconvenience" but never did (like I would ever use them). The employees at the gate in Orlando spent most of the time chatting on the phone and refused to put us on a USAIRWAYS flight that left on time. One woman with a family was so upset at the lack of communication she got a little loud and AirTran had her arrested. Her children followed her out in tears. NEVER AGAIN!!

Posted By Marlene Patrick on September 6, 2007, 1:18 PM

Air Canada. I was supposed to be flying from Vancouver to Winnipeg on an early morning flight, so I arrived 2 hours early. Three people were in line ahead of me at that time, and no one was working at the check-in counter. I waited until about 40 minutes before my flight before trying to flag someone down to check me into my flight. Someone eventually showed up, checked in the other 3 people in the remaining 30 minutes, and I missed my flight. When I asked why no one was there to check me in earlier, she told me it was my fault for not being there earlier (??!!) and that it didn't matter now because she'd put me on tomorrow's flight. (it did matter, I had a job to go to...)
Even as a Canadian, I always choose them dead last if I have to fly. WAY too messed up, illogical & expensive.

Posted By Ange on September 6, 2007, 1:20 PM

I will NOT FLY United Airlines! I had an experience with a flight attendant who refused, on an 8 hour flight, to offer me the meal being served, to give me water, or to clear trash after I did eat (thanks to the kindness of another attendant who my husband flagged down!) When he refused to take the trash after several passes (and other passengers were long attended to), I finally put the trash neatly on the floor at my feet. At that, he ran over to me, screaming about causing a safety problem. I was non-confrontational of him as his behavior appeared irrational, but the passengers in the seats around me were so distressed by his behavior that THEY confronted him; he then accused me of a conspiracy against him! His response was to run (NOT walk, run!) to the front of the plane, threatening to ground the flight and take me and the other passengers off! This appeared to be near-psychotic, paranoid behavior. When I reported his odd and troubled behavior to the head flight attendant, he defended the attendant's behavior ("you must have provoked him"), and refused to give me the attendant's name so that I could file a report. After finally getting his name, I wrote United about the incident---and of course never received a response. Never again with United.

Posted By Marie Sergent on September 6, 2007, 1:26 PM

Continental: May of 1991 I was 'bumped' because the ground crew claimed I wasn't at the Miami gate earlier enough. Every time I tried to show someone my ticket and boarding pass, I was ignored by the male agent. He was too busy selling last minute tickets to two very flashily dressed (read; 'cheap)women. I was then physically barred from boarding! I had to wait 4 hours for another flight.

While waiting, I saw numerous passengers run up to the gate at the last possible moment, and be okayed to board! My luggage was lying out in the middle of the terminal when I finally arrived in NYC. I found out where Continental was based and typed a detailed, two-page letter to the VP of Customer Relations. I detailed exactly what transpired, including a copy of my advanced boarding pass. I was refunding my entire round-trip fare. Never again.

Posted By Therese Camillone on September 6, 2007, 1:29 PM

These comments are all very well, but only tell the story from the passenger perspective. To be a realistic picture, it must include the numerous and factual instances of abusive, selfish, aggressive, rude, deceptive, drunk, and ignorant passengers. Employees of airlines or other persons cannot be expected to tolerate an unlimited amount of such behavior, and I suspect that in the majority of comments to this thread the old saying applies, "It takes two to tango."
Note: I am not an employee of any airline or the airline industry. I am strictly retired, and do a lot of flying. I have had NO trouble with ANY airline employee. I have a brother who works as a TSA agent, and he confirms what I have said from their perspective.

Posted By rico567 on September 6, 2007, 1:34 PM

All in all, Delta is my airline of choice. Service boils down to the individual, and I have seen flight attendants go above and beyond the call of duty. The attendants on the regional planes work hard and have more responsibility than mainline. I commend them for handling it all.

Posted By Josie Marston on September 6, 2007, 1:34 PM

As a former airline employee I have some understanding of the industry. The general public is only concerned with one thing and that is their own needs. Let me put forth a suppostion and see if these same people can at least be honest with themselves. Let's suppose you work for a company who seems always on the verge of bankruptcy, always blaming you and your salaries as the reason. When in reality it is the inept running of the company that is the problem. But in the meantime those same top executives of your company manage to give themselves big fat golden parachutes.

Then to add insult to injury your company unilaterally cuts your wages, benefits, and closes your pension. Takes that money and goes on a buying spree of new aquisitions having nothing to do with the company. Then takes and laysoff people resulting in you doing twice the work. Longer working hours, shorter time to rest between shifts.

Add to that a public who has no sense of what your job is all about complaining when all they want are cheap products and don't care what happens to you. You are under literal threat by customers in a rage. The company won't back you if you wish to file charges for an assault (and that does happen). You are asked to sell a cheap product for a lot of money. Your experience and advice ignored. Even the government inept to protect your working enviroment.

Want to know what the problem is? Reagan's deregulation is the problem. What was supposed to foster competition has instead cut airlines by 90 percent. Those airlines have basically divided the country and set up "hubs" to control those markets. Yet when that "hub" has weather or other problems, your entire system is blown. Look at the old system where no hubs existed. Delays even during the worst of weather and storms was minimal. Airlines claim they did so to save on maintenance. But no one will say how much in cost when massive delays are caused by ONE hub going down. Wonder why the airlines fight so hard against the "passenger" bill of rights? Because they know their inane operational system of doing business and the fact they have consolidated into 3 or 4 majors instead of 10-15 is the reason and the only reason for the current mess.

Let's blame who is responsible for the mess. I don't condone in any respect being rude, but am willing to understand the nexus of such angst of employees. Try waging daily battle to keep your what little you have, get no appreciation for anything you do, work long hours and on a log-in to log-out number of hours worked are making very little wages (does the public know that many flight attendants are eligible for food stamps?) and then tell me you will be all smiles. At least be honest with yourself if you can't be honest with these questions. Walk a mile in their shoes then complain. After all you do GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. This is no differnt.

Posted By James Sumpter on September 6, 2007, 1:37 PM

Dear Josie,
Thanks for bringing a positive word to this debate.
Delta deserves kudos in this example.
Regards,
Sean
Blog editor

Posted By Blog Editor on September 6, 2007, 1:45 PM

I understand that it only takes one rude employee to ruin an otherwise good experience for passengers. I am a flight attendant for a major airline. I try to treat customers the way I would want my family treated. I have experienced those rude airline employees as well. The only way to get rid of those people is for costumers to get the name of the employee (even just the first name will help), flight number, date of flight, departure and arrival cities and send a report of the incident to the airlines. The airline magazine should have the address listed inside. I would also like to comment on the fact that many passengers think we lie to them about delays: I have never known anyone on a flight that I have worked to purposely lie to passengers. Whatever information we give them is the information we have received. It serves no purpose for passengers to get angry at the flight attendants when we have NO CONTROL or INFORMATION on the situation. And believe me, many passengers in that situation treat flight attendants abysmally. However, I also have a gripe about the airline industry: Something should be done NOW about passengers forced to remain on a plane on the runway for hours because of weather and/or ATC delays. It is disgraceful and must change!

Posted By J. Redierk on September 6, 2007, 1:49 PM

I guess that Northwest flight from Newark to Amsterdam is more famous than I thought. My mother and I on our way to start a tour of Israel were also told the flight would be just a bit late. We ended up arriving in Tel Aviv at 2am, when we should have arrived at 2pm. Our tour started that day at 8am. This was bad for both of us, but especially my poor mother, who was 72 at the time. The worst part is that several people on this flight had had the same experience with this airline/plane/flight in the past! I would never take another Northwest flight unless there was absolutely no other available!

Posted By Libby on September 6, 2007, 1:49 PM

Northwest Airlines had very rude attendants when we were flying from Thailand to California. We had been away from home for over two years and received a gift of business class for this long journey. When we were settling in for a rest, the overhead asked for health personnel to help with two passengers. One was not serious, but the other one could not breath. After working on these two passengers for over three hours with no break, I went back to the business class area to rest. The attendant looked at me and said, "how could you afford business class if you are just a health worker?" No thank you for helping out, nothing. Just "How could you afford to be up here." I rolled my eyes at her and went to sleep. NWA must get nicer attendants with more manners

Posted By L Mell on September 6, 2007, 1:50 PM

Dear J. Reierk and rico567,
Thanks for bringing some balance to the debate with your comments as current and former airline employees. A couple of other airline and former airline employees are also chiming in, and I thank them, too, for being part of the solution, not the problem.
Regards,
Sean

Posted By Blog Editor on September 6, 2007, 1:52 PM

USAir -- 98% of my travel is done on continental, an airline which i think provides great service (although not always the best airfares). USAir has a lot of routes to the caribbean, where i tend to vacation in the winter, but poor customer service . . . including being stranded in philadelphia on a flight home from st. martin last february despite being told the connecting plane on to La Guardia was being held for us. 15 stranded passengers later, we were told they couldn't even guarantee us a flight out the next morning. numerous calls to customer service ended in being yelled at, disconected, or redirected to a dead end. the icing on the cake was the travel insurance i bought through the USAir website which told me i would be covered for a rental car and later, after filing my claim, refused to reimburse me. And now i'm stuck with three travel vouchers for an airline i hate.

Posted By erin on September 6, 2007, 1:54 PM

hate your job? feel like a victim? FIND ANOTHER JOB!!! its that easy, ive done it. but DO NOT justify unprofessional, rude, stupid, uncaring behavior on the government and think we the traveling public buy it. ive had no bags rifled, crushed, torn, lost, been bashed in the head by people who carry on thier entire wordly belongings even tho it is against posted rules, had drinks dumped on me, and been told to "step away from the counter" after recieving rude studi treatment by airline employees. writing letters to customer service...riiiiight, like that works. so, hate your job with an airline? dont take it out on me, get another job!!

Posted By roberto manzana on September 6, 2007, 1:54 PM

I've had occasional problems with airlines (including connecting flights so late a long intercontinental itinerary was disrupted in both directions); but I've had endless problems with Amtrak running so late my plans were ruined and I missed events I'd planned on. To give them credit most of their employees were polite, with a few memorable exceptions.

One airline problem: my AA AAdvantage miles evaporated. That's right they reset to all 0s. I was furious.

I've also had many problems with rude airport, customs or border officials enforcing stupid rules like mandatory onward tickets or hotel reservations.
Roger Williams, Boulder, Colorado USA.

Posted By Roger AC Williams on September 6, 2007, 1:56 PM

I had a flight scheduled with United for a Hawaii vacation. The flight down to San Diego from San Francisco was cancelled for fog. The attendant in San Diego suggested I go to LA and fly standby from there This was 5 am. He said he booked me on the 7 pm flight in first class for my inconvenience in case the three of us didn't get an earlier flight.

Every flight was booked that day (I tried at least 5). At 7 pm the agent said she would call me if any seats should become avilable. I stopped her and said we had booking for first class. She handed me 3 scattered economy seats. I refused them and asked for first class. I asked for a supervisor, she said she was one. I refused to move until she solved my problem so she called security.

After I explained to him he confirmed that she was a supervisor. I asked him to at least get us seats together. He did. I wound up with the flu half way through the vacation due to the long delay in the terminal.

I wrote two letters to United. The first reply contained first class upgrades which I returned as I felt my fair should have been compensated.

I haven't flown UAL in ten years and never will again. Aren't they the peoples airline?

Posted By William Clapp on September 6, 2007, 1:59 PM

Many people have problems with airline delays and cancellations. Although I have flown more than 20 different airlines, I have to commend Southwest Airlines and their excellent staff who frequently pass on information to delayed passengers. In the many times that I have been delayed on a Southwest Flight, for various reasons, the gate attendant frequently gave updates on the P.A. - good and bad. I may have been frustrated at the delays, but I was informed. Some people resent the lack of assigned seating, but there is no cheerier, more helpful, and understanding group of employees than those at the "LUV" airline.

Posted By L. Palm on September 6, 2007, 2:03 PM

Deregulation was done during the Carter administration, not the Reagan administration!

Posted By Captmsy on September 6, 2007, 2:10 PM

Worst air experience: AirTran - their planes are cramped and noisy. Not good when just getting off a flight from Sydney to LAX!

Best air experience: Air Pacific. Very clean and nice personnel.

My domestic favorite is Southwest. Over and over I've had good experiences with them. Most especially when I recently was travelling from Chicago to Tampa. After a week away from home, all I wanted was to get back. At crowded Midway where every flight was delayed, we were told first our flight would be delayed 1 hour, then 2 hours, getting us home after midnight. Not 10 minutes after the last announcement did a Southwest employee get on the loudspeaker and tell us to line up - they'd found a plane for us! We actually arrived BEFORE our initial arrival time. Not only is Southwest cheaper, they've more than once gone out of their way to improve the flight experience.

Posted By Meghan on September 6, 2007, 2:10 PM

I wish I could say I would never fly a certain airline. But I feel trapped to fly hated airlines because of limited choice on some routes. Recently, on a UAL flight from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, a flight crew of mainly Americans were extremely rude to the passengers. One attendant, explained the emergency row instructions to a gentleman. When he gave her the international sign for "I don't understand," she said very loudly and slowly, "AGH. YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF WHAT I AM SAYING DO YOU????" I couldn't believe it! Why would she expect passengers flying from Argentina to Uruguay to speak english?!

Another horrible experience was while traveling last year with my 2 year old and a 3 month old, a late American flight from SFO, missed connection to London in Chicago. We were rebooked on an Air France flight leaving 12 hours later and given hotel vouchers. Got to the hotel only to discover they sent us to the wrong hotel. When we returned to Air France that evening, Air France refused to issue boarding passes b/c American didn't charge us properly for our infant. As if it was our fault they put the wrong code in the computer! It took me breaking down in tears and finding a sympathetic employee to get the ticket fixed. And to top it off, it was Mother's Day!

I know that airline employees have horrible working conditions and inadequate pay. It amazes me that airline management try to cut costs on eliminating small items, like food service, failing to realize that customers will actually pay MORE for sincere treatment from the employees. And maybe if they treated their employees better, those employees would in turn treat customers better, who would be willing ot pay more and complain less. Customers wouldn't complain so much if we, the passengers, were treated with "the golden rule." I welcome Virgin American and other new, much-needed competitors. I hope they shake-up the industry.

Posted By Jennifer Lo Prete on September 6, 2007, 2:18 PM

I recently traveled on Continental Airlines while on a BP medication containing a diuretic which dictated "when ya gotta go, ya gotta go". I went to the rest room which was in use. I was standing next to a flight attendant who was seated reading a book. She was very aware that I was in pain and really really needed to go. She said nothing to me, actually acted if I wasn't there. I waited 20 min. by my watch and guess who was in the restroom!! The other flight attendant came out with her make up bag and a newly made up face--20 minutes. She simply walked around me as if I wasn't there. Never again will I be that polite in a situation as rude as that. By the way, I was traveling first class. I travel well dressed and am considered a quite attractive female. Wonder if that had anything to do with the way I was treated by those two women??

Posted By I McDonald on September 6, 2007, 2:20 PM

Scrolling through these comments, I have noticed most of the major airlines listed; United, AirTran, Air Canada, Northwest, American, Air France, Alitalia, Continental, and Delta. That is just it! Every airline has problems!

We have to remember that these airplanes are almost constantly in the air, meaning that there are going to be maintenence issues. Do you drive your car for hundreds of thousands of miles a day and never have to get it checked out?

Plus, we all know what a pain waiting can be, but would you rather be dead? Wouldn't you rather be bothered with sitting in an airport for a couple of hours with restaurants and tv, while somebody checks and double checks that you will be safe?

As for the rude employees, yes they are out there...but they are also in every other industry as well. As a former gate agent, who in general is very good-natured, it is hard not to get defensive when somebody (and sometimes a large group) is yelling at you. Everybody has a breaking point.

There were a few bad apples in the bunch, but all in all, my co-workers and I were empathetic will stranded travellers and willing to help. I wish people would realize that you get more help with honey, rather than vinegar (to paraphrase!).

Posted By Karla on September 6, 2007, 2:24 PM

I think that Disney should be training other big companies, such as airlines, how to treat people with respect and dignity, they have it down. It all boils down to attitude. Look at all the overpayed underrworked government employees who do next to nothing and have a bad attitude and no customer service abilities. It has nothing to do with your hours or pay, it's all about attitude, proper training and in the case of Disney, firing rude employees before they breed discontent and more rudeness.

Posted By E. Alexander on September 6, 2007, 2:28 PM

Amen Roberto! Just because
you are not happy in your
job, it is not ok to be rude to customers. My husband works @ Delta, so I know firsthand about all the pensions cuts and golden
parachutes. No, it wasn't fair
to the rank and file employees how management
handled situations, but
alienating our customers by
being rude does not help
the situation.
More customers mean (hopefully) a return to better benefits and working
conditions. Less customers
mean even worse working conditions..

Posted By Rhonda Spruill on September 6, 2007, 2:45 PM

To all airline employees who have posted here with complaints about their employers:

STOP COMPLAINING and get another job if you (rightly) feel that your company is treating you like crap and rewarding its executives rather lavishly!

Posted By Joe on September 6, 2007, 2:47 PM

Me again! I forgot a real looser if you are going to the Bahamas. Don't go on Bahama Aire!!!! Even the locals will tell you. Well I didn't listen and tried to book a last minute flight with them. We were all waiting to board and no one was at the counter to start the boarding. After about 45 minutes someone came to the counter. They had cancelled the flight, gave no notification, just let us sitting there. I went and got my money back. As I mentioned before I should have listened to the locals. Never again will I consider Bahama Aire.

Posted By Bob Kay on September 6, 2007, 3:00 PM

I've had rudeness with Northwest, and just plain ridiculousness with Air Canada -- I avoid both. I've had a lot of luck with Delta and Airtran; I recently flew Virgin Atlantic for the first time and wish I could fly them eveywhere, eveytime. I've never been so spoiled in economy!!

Posted By bp telford on September 6, 2007, 3:00 PM

What a lost.....Why did Delta do away with Song?! I have never been so relaxed, comfortable as flying on Song. I was a big fan of theirs and we used them for our trips back and forth up north. I miss the fruit,cheese, and crackers with a martini made right at my seat. What a great airline and they had to stop it :(

Posted By Bob Kay on September 6, 2007, 3:04 PM

To James Sumpter, as a former airline employee you should know that deregulation happened in 1978, during the Carter presidency, not under Reagan. Reagan took office in 1981. I guess your union's propaghanda didn't mention that.

Posted By John Grim on September 6, 2007, 3:04 PM

As I read most of these comments most people are blaming the employees of these airlines and not management. Most of these airlines are running at 80-90% load factors which give no airline room to rebook any passenger on later flights due to weather/maintenance delays. Instead of putting most of this money the airlines make back into the airline, management just gives themselves bonuses for a job well done. Employees can only do the best with what they have to work with. Airlines employees are understaffed and underpayed. Some may say, "Get another job if you don't like it", but with senority as the primary factor in determining your pay and schedule, you can't. You just start off at the bottom of another job.

Posted By Edward Yanock on September 6, 2007, 3:11 PM

I am amazed that United has transferred all their customer service to India and the Phillipines. Try to get someone to think out a logical solution. Forgetaboutit. They can only go by their script and there's no way they can transfer the call back to the states. I had tomake a change to a milegae plus ticket for a daughter in Seattle and I live in Ocala, Fl. The attendant insisted that I go to the Seattle airport and have them reissue the ticket. This has happened several times with the closest airport being Orlando-2 hours away. They never said to mail back the incorrect ticket for reissue and when I did as noted on the paper ticket they couldn't understand how I could do it. At the end of each call they ask if I want to reserve a car from Hertz. Even if I beat them to it and say I don't want a Hertz car they still ask. United may be saving money but they are losing customers.

Posted By steve jacobson on September 6, 2007, 3:32 PM

Dear Ms. McDonald,
That's an awful situation. To really need to need to use the bathroom for a medical reason and to have a flight attendant hogging it for 20 minutes. Disgraceful!
Thanks for commenting,
Sean
Blog editor
Re:
I recently traveled on Continental Airlines while on a BP medication
containing a diuretic which dictated "when ya gotta go, ya gotta go". I
went to the rest room which was in use. I was standing next to a flight
attendant who was seated reading a book. She was very aware that I was in
pain and really really needed to go. She said nothing to me, actually acted
if I wasn't there. I waited 20 min. by my watch and guess who was in the
restroom!! The other flight attendant came out with her make up bag and a
newly made up face--20 minutes. She simply walked around me as if I wasn't
there. Never again will I be that polite in a situation as rude as that.
By the way, I was traveling first class. I travel well dressed and am
considered a quite attractive female. Wonder if that had anything to do
with the way I was treated by those two women??

Posted By Blog Editor on September 6, 2007, 3:42 PM

Great post roberto manzana. Everywhere you go and every job you work has rude employees/customers. You have no control over this. You do have control over your own actions. I am a health care worker at a government facility (Most government employees are UNderpaid and OVERworked) and I am here because I love helping people. If you think that I don't get cranky, rude people you can think again. People come into my lab angry, in pain, nervous and anticipating a bad experience but 99% of the time I get them smiling and laughing before they leave (and that isn't easy with some of these veterans). All this takes is a little patients and understanding (even if you have to pretend). It isn't easy working in a bad work environment (I won't get into mine) but it isn't your patient's or customer's fault. You have to remember that. And if you can't remember that and if you can't MAKE yourself be friendly or at least polite then you need a job that doesn't have you working with the public. Besides, I've always been taught not to take things out on other people.... It isn't their fault that you are not happy with your job.

Posted By Cristy on September 6, 2007, 4:06 PM

While making an online reservation 2+ months in advance for a flight to Orlando on US Air for me, my 2-month-old and 2-year-old, the website encountered a "glitch" and could not assign seats. I called the airlines, and they said to wait and call back in a few weeks. At that time they said that no two seats were available together for anyone who was not a frequent flyer - I should call a week before the flight. Again, no seats, and I was told I'd waited too long, but should still call every day until the flight. By the time we reached the airport, after a dozen calls, I was still seated in the front of the plane and my 2-year-old at the back. I was told to ask the gate attendant for help. Four hours later (mechanical difficulties) she still hadn't found two seats together and commented that we should just board the plane because "people usually move when a kid starts screaming." Once on board, the flight attendant refused to ask the people on the plane if anyone would move. We were leaving the plane in tears (nope, sweetie, no trip to Disney for you!) by the time a couple on their honeymoon kindly gave us their seats.

Posted By Holly on September 6, 2007, 4:15 PM

I will never fly with Northwest again. I was on business in detroit and was finally able to go home. I was running out of time to catch my flight but I checked in at the machine and headed to the gate. Detroit is a very long airport and I was even running down the moving walkways. As I ran up to the gate the lady told they had just given my ticket away to another person and had shut the door. I looked at my watch and it was 7 minutes until scheduled departure. She told me I was supposed to be there 10 minutes prior, although they had not even announced my name over the intercom, and they failed to realized that if I had just checked-in at the airport a few minutes earlier, that I, of course, was on my way to the gate. I was so angry and sad that I couldn't go home, that I actually sat down in the airport and sobbed. Then I wiped away my tears with a few margartitas. An experience like that just makes me want to not ever ride with them again.

And one more comment - this article was about customers and their bad experiences with airlines and their employees - not the other way around!

Posted By Anna on September 6, 2007, 4:22 PM

I just bought my tickets from Delta at the same price (well $2 less),
Hopefully it will be a better experience

Posted By Iole on September 6, 2007, 4:30 PM

I flew on a Delta flight from Shannon Ireland to Atlanta. I was horrified to see that the flight attendants blocked off an empty row of 3 seats with blankets hung from the overhead bins and took turns going in there and sleeping. What if there had been an emergency? Plus, were we not paying for at least the basic service from them? What right did they have to go to sleep on the job. I never could get a response from Delta on this complaint.

Posted By Denise on September 6, 2007, 4:51 PM

I've had trouble with US and American. American almost made me miss a flight home. We were told our bags would be at one claim and the screen also said that they would be at that claim but they wern't. The bags were at a totally different claim which we did not find out until we talked to an employee so that wasted so much time that when we did get our bags the connecting flight was closed. What made me super mad was that when I asked an airline employee about what direction I should be going to get to the gate she had me follow the blue line on the floor which led me to the ticket counter. She couldn't even say to me your flight is closed; she just sent me another direction so I was even more confused.
We waited at the ticket counter for a few minutes until other American employees came and asked who was on this flight because the plane was half empty because everyone was stuck at baggage claim because they sent us to the wrong belt. I did make the plane so I can't complain too much. But of course our luggage and half of the rest of the flight's luggage was missing when we got to our final destination. I had to wait 2 days for that but at least I didnt have to sty overnight in Miami.

Posted By Jessica on September 6, 2007, 4:54 PM

I had a Diskman style CD player (expensive back then), carefully packed in the middle of a large suitcase, surrounded by socks, clothing, etc. When I finally got my suitcase 3 days later, that's what was stolen, so it was obvious to me the thief knew exactly what he wanted.

But as a frequent flier, I have lots and lots of experiences of bad airline services. Only AA has risen (and remained) to the Do-Not-Fly
list. The problems with AA go beyond a few bad people to basic business
philosophy. Reading the blog, others have made similar points. I've
had some bad experiences with -individuals- in UAL (like the time we
boarded and then the pilot announced a gate delay. As she was passing
through, I asked the gate agent "Did you know about this when we
boarded?" She said very rudely "If you want to talk about this, you
will have to leave the plane." My response was "You're right, I'll do
that." I took her name, booked a flight home on CO, and then went back
to the UAL gate to talk to a supervisor.

But ask me about rental car companies. Hertz is a no-no, and Avis is almost there too. In Sweden, I got a quote that was for 3 days, but
when I went to turn in the car, Hertz charged me the same amount -per
day-; it was well over $100/day. Unfortunately, this was early in my
traveling days, and I didn't have a copy of the reservation or even its
number with me. I forget the problem with Avis, but it was a similar
'didn't live up to its commitment' kind of deal.

dave

Posted By David Emery on September 6, 2007, 5:01 PM

There are good employees out there, but it seems there are a lot of rude ones, especially on the biggest carriers such as Northwest and United. I fly often for work and that has been my experience.

I have seen passengers act rudely to gate agents and flight attendents. I always try to smile at them and to be polite with any request I have had. Often that works and they have helped me. But just as often I am treated rudely, maybe because of stress or over work - I don't know but I really don't care, either. I treat them respectfully and I deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of their situation.

The truth to this is it is the employees at certain airlines that are doing this. Pay, pensions, etc., are no excuse. There are airlines that have a culture that foster good service. I agree with previous posts - I have never been treated rudely by anyone at Southwest. I would love to be able to try Virgin or JetBlue - I have heard these are good airlines as well. But they do not have the coverage of the majors we are forced to use so many times.

Lastly, I was not a victim in this particular case, but on a shuttle ride back from the airport to parking lot, I (and the rest of the shuttle) was exposed to a loud employee of Northwest who insisted she was not going to go from gate to gate as directed by her supervisor, that she would work one gate and that was it, regardless of what the customers at those other gates needed. I just don't understand this - we ALL are working longer hours, doing more with less, wishing things were like the "good ol' days." But we know if we have that type of attitude then eventually we won't have jobs at all. Hopefully those airlines that are doing a better job will continue to grow and those such as Northwest and United will go out of business, as should happen to service companies with employees that are too self centered and rude to provide good customer service.

Posted By Joe S. on September 6, 2007, 5:02 PM

I took an AirTran flight connecting Savannah with Atlanta. From there, I was using another airlines to fly to Phoenix. I was well within the permissible time of check-in at the ticket counter, but I had luggage, unlike the passengers behind me.

The ticket agent asked me to step aside so she could check in those passengers with no checked luggage. I did so, and she checked me in last. When I arrived in Atlanta, my luggage wasn't there and didn't make it in time for my other flight 2 hours later.

To AirTran's credit, they did find the luggage the next day and complied with my insistance that they deliver it to the Phoenix suburb I was visiting.

Another irritant was that AirTran "inspected" the contents of all checked luggage (before the new gov't regulations went into effect). The ticket agent asked me to reach into my luggage and move my belongings around. She said with slight disgust that she didn't want to be touching personal items. (If I HAD concealed a threatening item, I could have avoided displaying it!).

Posted By Nancy Collins on September 6, 2007, 5:13 PM

My least favorite airline? United, by far. The last three flights with them (because I had to) were late going and coming, by as much as seven hours. I donated my mileage points to a charity and am done with United.

My favorite? Lufthansa, by far. The planes are on time, and the service first-rate. American was a close second until just recently. I booked a flight to Munich five months ago, and AA changed my flight back from Munich to Heathrow last week from a nice 10:45 AM departure to 7:10 AM! It's a British Airways flight, so I asked them to put me on Lufthansa for that leg. Of course they refused.

Posted By James Lytthans on September 6, 2007, 5:16 PM

It's true. Northwest is the worst.

Midwest and Southwest are by far the best airlines to fly. Even if its bad, they try to be helpful.

And, expecting the worst, my family actually had a wonderful experience with ATA flying to Hawaii...it ain't luxury, but they were really helpful and great about some things going on with us and our flight.

Posted By Karen on September 6, 2007, 5:37 PM

This may be misplaced but I'd like to throw in a positive comment about Air Jamaica round trip from Chicago to Montego Bay. Flights actually leave EARLY since ground personnel go through the departure lounge checking paper work and any other details. As soon as everyone has checked in, boarding begins and when everyone is on board, the flight pushes back.
I must admit to have only taken the early flight out of O Hare, but it's a refreshing change.

Posted By Harry Orr on September 6, 2007, 5:42 PM

I fly over 150,000 actual miles annually (mostly on United Airlines). I find UA to be very professional and efficient. What I really don't like are all the amatuer flyers (especially during the summer months) who don't know how to board, how to stow their luggage or control their kids. These people are usually flying on either very cheap tickets or free (somebody's mileage)and are usually the biggest complainers.

Posted By Jerry Randklev on September 6, 2007, 5:42 PM

Please indulge me, as I would like to add a different perspective to this debate: I am a chef on Amtrak, and I travel to Oakland from Chicago, a trip that takes parts of three days to complete. My coworkers and I are with our passengers for three days, as I say, and the stories they've told me about our passengers over the course of my 19 years with the railroad would curl one's hair. To be fair, too many of my railroad colleagues have fallen short in their performance over that same time frame. I have learned a lot in all those years of travel service, and I would like to share some of them with you:

--Please remember, dear passengers, that we employees are there to help make your travel experience as seamless and as pleasant as possible. However, we, as well as your fellow passengers, truly want you to refrain from the following: drunkenness; lewd behavior; unnecessary loud noises; poor cellphone etiquette; poor hygiene; an overdeveloped sense of your own importance; a poor sense of personal space; failing to realize that the only one in love with your children is you.

--There is the attitude among some in the customer service business (strongly, but not solely in the travel business) that 'this would be a fine railroad (airline, store,etc.) if it weren't for the passengers/customers'. Ridiculous, of course, but all who work in the industry, as well as those who patronize the industry, are human beings, with the same feelings, joys, frustrations, and worries that all people have. We, workers and customers, need to try to maintain this perspective in all walks of life, not just when we're trying to get from one place to another.

--Passengers, don't turn into children when you're in the air/on the rails/on the road. Be aware of your surroundings, your travel mates, the rules and regulations of your conveyance. Most of the troubles passengers have when traveling can usually be avoided by following things like fare rules, check-in/carry on rules, and the directions of whoever is in charge of your particular conveyance. If you do get an employee who is truly unreasonable, and you are on the side of the angels, then you have some recourse to follow, and I as a travel employee urge you to do so.

--As a corollary to the above, we hear that we are 'rude' a lot. 'Rude' is a definite buzzword in our profession, but it has become a word that has shades of meaning. Let me say, here and now, that there is no acceptable excuse for either side of the aisle to be rude, disrespectful, or unprofessional to the other. Having said that, understand this: Rudeness consists solely of personal, unwarranted affronts to your person, property, or space. It is not: rule enforcement by the worker; cutting off someone who is overserved; a flight attendant telling you that she will have to check your bag because all the overhead bins are full; that same attendant telling you that your child is disturbing the other passengers by screaming (other than from earaches from air pressure) or kicking seats or running in the aisles, so please control the little darling; because you were late for your flight, missed it, and, yes, the next three flights are sold out, and you cannot comprehend how this is possible; and so on and so on. We know and appreciate how important you are to us and our induatry: individually, you are very important; collectively, you are very important--but, no one is any more important than anyone else, irrespective of why you travel or how much you spend to do so. I as a chef do not cook better or worse with respect to who is dining in my dining car; I try to prepare the best meals possible for all who dine.

--We as humans and beneficiaries of mechanical progress over the years have come to take too much for granted. Just think about how much a miracle it is for a plane loaded with fuel, people, parcels, and tons and tones of steel to actually get up off the ground, fly thousands of miles to some faraway place, and land with no more than a bump on the ground fron 40,000 feet inthe air exactly where the pilot wants it to land-without incident.

--Think also of the rail traveler. If he is on my train for the whole ride, he will travel some 2600 miles, over bridges, across dozens of rail crossings, through several sets of mountains, through towns and cities, both nearby and away from people and wayward animals of all shapes and sizes. It, too, is a little miracle that we are not more often victims of pedestrian suicides (though those happen far too often), car drivers who try to beat the trains (and sometimes lose), cattle and wild animals who wander across the tracks--any of which can derail a passenger train moving along at the top speed of about 80 miles per hour.

In closing, let me say that it has, on the whole, been a joy doing what I do on the railroad for these last 19 years. I, as many of you are, am somewhat disillusioned with my company, but I make it my business never to take it out on my coworkers, and most definitely not on my passengers. I think that if we, workers and passengers, endeavor to show more compassion for each other, and to maintain respectfulness and professionalism, then we can weather whatever travel storms that may befall us. Travel often, travel safely, and come see me on the California Zephyr sometime.

Posted By Sam on September 6, 2007, 5:51 PM

I travel often and far for leisure. Not having flown Northwest I gave them a try. Mistake. Hours delay for weather, rerouted, grounded, rerouted. With minimal service from attendants ranging from brusk to rude. A couple were rather unkept, one wrinkled, very heavy male attendant with large hard objects in his pockets walking briskly up and down very narrow aisles banging passengers along the way. Seemed he wasn't aware but how does an awake walking person miss the fact he's slamming into multiple people? Aren't manners a basic job requirement? For those saying rudeness is often provoked.... not any of the the three instance (above not counted)I witnessed were justified, just rude employees throwing their authority around. Yes there are bad travelers that push employee's buttons, however this is normally very evident to surrounding passengers and allowance is generally made. But with NWA a lower level of thoughtfulness and cleanliness seems more common. Anyway, I was tansferred to Continental (extra stop) where things improved. Odd their boarding staff said, "Why didn't you take the earlier NWA direct flight, there were seat empty." NWA had told me it was full...twice??? I later learned the term Northworst, it fits. Since then I've said Northworst jokingly at parties and each time I get at least one tale of abuse or other NWA related travel nightmare. Funny how many times I hear heard others use that term since. Question: When did they quit manufacturing airliners with ashtrays in the armrests? I wonder how Northworst stays in business, better ailines have failed. Admittedly, this is based on two days flying with NWA, but it was by far the worst overall airline experience I've had and I've had a few. Amoung my fellow travelers Delta and Singapore Airlines get highmarks. My best to date was with South China.

Posted By John Featherston on September 6, 2007, 6:47 PM

A couple of years ago during the time Northwest Airlines was in negotiations to avoid a strike, we watched our departure time on the board keep changing. We had to make a connection on our flight to Mexico, so my husband went up to ask what the problem was and the gate attendant said she thought it was weather or mechanical. Funny thing was our friends went through the exact same thing the week before. When we got to Minneapolis, they were handing out vouchers that were coupons for $25.00 off on a room in Minneapolis and a $5.00 coupon for a meal in the airport. (that covers a cookie and we later found out it would have paid for the room) My husband spoke to the gate attendant about the fact we were spending the night in Minneapolis instead of having dinner with friends in Mexico and she shot back to him, "If you people wouldn't buy such cheap tickets, we wouldn't have to take pay cuts!" Where that came from, I don't know, but it crossed the line in my opinion. If the airlines doesn't want you to use "cheap tickets", don't offer them!! Some of our luggage never got there and some got to Mexico two days later. On our way home, we were bumped and had to find our luggage in Detroit and stapled to the suitcase was a white sheet of paper.When I got home and was bringing in the luggage, I read the "inner office memo" calling my husband a jerk. Oh, and when we got to our home 4 hours from the airport, there was a message on our answering machine from the airlines, day two of our vacation, stating that they had our luggage in Texas. Funny thing, we called the airport in Houston daily from the resort in Mexico and they insisted it wasn't there. The next day, the airline called and I could come to another airport 2 hours away and pick up the luggage...I called them and they sent it to me. Have you ever seen the system for lost luggage? Another whole story!! It was an ordeal and I swore I wouldn't fly Northwest again, we did get vouchers for flights and used them last year and no problems, but then again they weren't talking about going on strike. It just seems that if they would work at customer service, it would pay off and you wouldn't have to try to make it right with the customers, the vouchers alone had to cost quite a bit.

Posted By Loretta on September 6, 2007, 6:54 PM

Worst airlines: United (I've never flown Northwest due to their horrible reputation)

Best airlines: Southwest & Singapore Air

Posted By Kelsey on September 6, 2007, 7:00 PM

British Air. They lost the luggage for 4 of us on our trip to Paris. We went the whole 12 days of the trip without it, bought toiletries, a few changes of clothes (mostly cheap t-shirts) and some more camera memory as we had been told it is better to take your camera with carryon stuff, but pack the camera bag and equipment. And a replacement suitcase to bring the new clothes and souveneirs back. Our luggage didn't arrive until 2 1/2 weeks after we were home. It was nearly impossible to get ahold of anyone to do a claim and then calls were ignored, not returned. After months we got 1 check for the 4 adults with no explanation, and less than 1/2 our claim. After trying to contact someone to dispute it they never returned any calls. We were traveling with parents in their 70's who had never been to Europe, so this was quite a disappointing trip.

Posted By Sue H on September 6, 2007, 7:29 PM

United Airlines.
The service in-flight for me was fine, it was what transpired before and after the flight that was so appalling.
I paid for an upgrade at the terminal and was charged, but I was still seated in the economy section for a 11 hour flight to Tokyo. When I went to the airline counter at Narita, they assured me they would fully refund the charge. Instead, it was declined, and I had to call United to complain. They reconsidered, but instead of giving me a refund, they gave me a travel credit that expired 6 months after it was issued. Useless to me. And United will never have my business again.

Posted By Michelle on September 6, 2007, 7:31 PM

Not to be rude like most of these comments but if you don't like flying why don't you try driving a thousand miles to your destination and see if you don't have any delays or problems. Most of the comments act as if airlines maliciously try to ruin passengers lives. Doesn't anyone remember the movie "Vacation", traveling can be a lot worse then just being a couple hours late.

Posted By E.R.Y on September 6, 2007, 7:31 PM

American- on a return trip from Hawaii I put on the call light to request a seat belt extender. No one responded so I rerang it several times, with still no response. I also tried getting the attention of several flight attendents as they were coming down the aisle, and was ignored. Finally I put my arm out to stop an approaching flight attendent (we were already taxiing down the runway) and I politely said "excuse me, I need a seat belt extender...I've been calling and no one has come" Her reply was "oh we don't pay any attention to those because people usually hit them by mistake"....sure glad someone around me wasn't having a cardiac arrest!

Posted By Sue H on September 6, 2007, 7:33 PM

I love southwest airlines! They are always pleasant & on time, sometimes early arriving!Only 1 time in the dozen or so times was my flight a little (15 minutes) late arriving & that was in the middle of the worst snowstorm of the Chicago winter 3 years ago!

Posted By colleen on September 6, 2007, 7:41 PM

After almost a decade in the airline business, I always remember one thing...It's easier to say "yes" than it is to say "no".

When your counter, gate or reservation's agent says "no", it isn't necessarily because they want to, it's because they have to. When the flights are delayed, and no information is forthcoming, it isn't because the gate agent likes to leave people hanging. They really don't stand in a back room and laugh at all the clueless passengers out there unaware that the aircraft has been fueled and ready for the past hour and a half while they've been waiting. Believe me, they would all like to just say "yes" and give you what you want... but they aren't allowed to.

I'm one of the lucky few that work for a small airline that has been voted best in the country by just about every travel magazine for several years now ( I haven't seen our name in this blog yet, knock wood) and one thing I've realized over the years is that he reason we are known for our customer service is because the front-line employees are given the tools and authority to make things right.

I, too, have had my share of bad experiences when I lost my head and decided to travel somewhere my airline does not fly, thus requiring me to fly another airline. My husband and daughter almost missed our cruise in Hawaii, because the flight they were taking was first delayed, then cancelled. When they asked if they could be placed in first class on a different, connecting flight they were told that they couldn't. Not because there was not space (there was) but because the gate agents would get in trouble for doing that. The flight went out with empty seats, and my DH and daughter were sent to a fleabitten motel.

In other words, upper management left the gate agent to deal with cancelled flights and angry passengers while the tools to satisfy the passengers went unused, by executive order.

Most airline employees are afraid of stepping out of line, and thus do not try to think of alternatives to assist the passenger.

Blame the big airlines, blame crowded airports with more flights than they can handle safely, but please don't blame the poor gate and counter agents. They are trying to help, but all the resources have been taken from them.

Posted By Karen on September 6, 2007, 7:43 PM

I wonder what happened to SouthWest Airlines a few days ago? Here's the story:

"After the plane filled, and the flight attendants began their safety spiel, Ebbert was asked to step off the plane by a customer service supervisor, identified by the airline only as �Keith.�

They walked out onto the jet bridge, where Keith told Ebbert her clothing was inappropriate and asked her to change. She explained she was flying to Tucson for only a few hours and had brought no luggage.
�I asked him what part of my outfit was offensive,� she said. �The shirt? The skirt? And he said, 'The whole thing.' �

Keith asked her to go home, change and take a later flight. She refused, citing her appointment. The plane was ready to leave, so Keith relented. He had her pull up her tank top a bit, pull down her skirt a bit, and return to her seat.'

This was from an article in the San Diego Union Tribune.

I saw a picture of the young woman in the outfit in question and believe me, there was nothing even remotely offensive about it.

Posted By Madelyn on September 6, 2007, 8:08 PM

Hey Erin - I'll take those vouchers!!!

I must admit I have been very lucky in my flight experiences however Northwest does seem to like delays! My last flight was about 90 minutes delayed which is not a good deal when you are a diabetic and plan your flight times around meals, etc.

Posted By Jen on September 6, 2007, 8:39 PM

whew!! just scrolling down this list makes me break out in a cold sweat. i travel for fun a lot. no question SW has personality and style and the folks there seem to LIKE THEIR JOBS! my overseas favorites are without question quantas and singapore air and kenya air business class was lovely and a nice surprise to me. actually classier than british air business. who knew? had some nightmare experiences with AA trying to leave aruba and will never return to aruba mostly due to the inefficient airport there. hated heathrow it (like miami airport) is to be avoided at all costs. just try and negotiate customs and immagration and connecting flights in london. yipes. sure do miss NY Air and the flying nosh. they gave out bags with bagles cream cheese apples and a drink to all passengers on every flite.
ah the good old days!

Posted By pat s. on September 6, 2007, 8:55 PM

Best airline I have flown in Qantas - flight attendants are very courteous, are always on the lookout for things you might need, get you plenty of water on those very long flights (15 hours LAX-Melbourne). The airline even serves food in the national flights! Nevertheless, I live in Puerto Rico where American Airlines is 'king'. Most morning flights are on time. Afternoon flights, especially if they go through Miami, are NOT on time. Personnel at the Admirals' Club is exceptional. Thus, we take the good with the bad. :-)

Posted By Esther Arzeno on September 6, 2007, 8:57 PM

Worst flights were Olympic, lost everyone's luggage, Libyan Arab - cockroaches in the food, British Airways - hits the heights for rudest male stewards - and last but not least Air Canada, too expensive and their customers are treated like cattle.

Posted By annemurray on September 6, 2007, 9:09 PM

I have been flying for many years. I have experienced many different airlines over those years. I mainly flight one airline today....Southwest. They are rarely later. They tell you the truth if something is wrong. Their employee's can write the book on customer service.
Need I say more!!!!!!!!!

Posted By Mike Suehring on September 7, 2007, 12:20 AM

I have been flying for many years. I have experienced many different airlines over those years. I mainly fly one airline today....Southwest. They are rarely later. They tell you the truth if something is wrong. Their employee's can write the book on customer service.
Need I say more!!!!!!!!!

Posted By Mike Suehring on September 7, 2007, 12:21 AM

For a few years I was working as a consultant and traveling all over the world. Nowadays my air travel is mostly domestic. I’ve listed what I consider to be the worst airlines I have flown and why;

The worst:

Aeroflot, the national Russian airline. Granted the last time I flew Aeroflot was on a domestic flight almost 10 years ago, but it scared the living crap out of me and I never repeated the experience. That flight featured an old, creaky plane that had seen its best days 25 or so years earlier. I don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I look out the window and see duct tape on a cart down by the ground crew. Also, the flight attendants acted as if it was a huge pain in the ass to have an American on a flight of mostly Russians. In fairness, the Aeroflot international flights were better because they had newer plans and better overall service, but the domestic flights always felt like Russian roulette.

Iberia (Spain): Imagine the DMV in the air and that is what the service is like on most Iberia flights. The must have a very good union because none of them would last two minutes on an airline with good customer service (think Southwest). Once on a flight from New York (JFK) to Madrid I was boarding with a group of college-aged Americans. One of them, an African American kid, took a couple of steps up the stairs to get a better look at the second level of the plane. A middle aged, male Iberia flight attendant shooed him down and then turned to his co-worker and said in Spanish, “They’re all animals” very clearly commenting on this kid’s race. I was walking by just as he said it (and I speak Spanish) so I asked him if he would like me to repeat that comment to the same young man in English. He freaked out a little and I told him what I thought of him. That’s an extreme, clearly, but also gives you a pretty good idea of what you find when you fly Iberia.

US Airways: This is an OK airline to fly (except out of SFO where they do not have a single monitor at or near their ticket counter to check flights) but my complaint has to do with their “Dividend Miles”. I flew US airways several times a year for a few years and racked up quite a few miles. Then, over the course of more than two years I tried to use the miles. IMPOSSILE!! Between blackout dates, restricted flights and (the ever increasing) miles required I found my US Airway frequent flyer miles to be about as useless as useless as a hat full of busted a..holes (very appropriate Aussie expression I like). I called several times and went online dozens of times to try and book a flight with my miles with zero success. Sometimes I would be trying to book six or seven months in advance. After their merger with America West I was finally able to get a couple of tickets to Texas for my wife and young daughter. Hmmm…US Airways miles, Krispy Kreme stock or a massive tooth extraction???? Tough call.

Airlines I like? Southwest and Alaska are consistently good in terms of customer service. And I’ve had mostly good flights on United, Air Nepal, Singapore Airlines and British Airways.

Posted By J. Waldrep on September 7, 2007, 12:59 AM

In response to E. Alexander about Disney training the airlines? I worked for Disney and it was the worst employer I have EVER had. It was disorganized and the management structure was unclear.

As far as flights go? United is the worse offender. The clerk at the check in counter in Heathrow was exceptionally rude, going so far as to threaten to call security when I asked why she couldn't simply answer my question.

As far as good experiences, Olympia Airways was by far the best experience. The food was great, the flights were on time, and the staff was wonderful. I've also had good luck with Midwest Express the employees were exceptionally helpful and polite, even to people around me who were rude. I recently flew with Delta and was bumped from my flight due to overbooking. Instead of getting mad (the gate agent couldn't help it) I asked what could be done. Delta paid for a hotel room and transfers, dinner at the airport, gave me a bag of toiletries and $400 in airline credit, and booked me out on the first flight the next morning. The employees were polite and turned what could have been an horrible experience into one that will have me using Delta as frequently as possible in the future.

Posted By Jen H on September 7, 2007, 1:42 AM

As a long time airline employee, I know that flying can be frustrating for our customers. dealing with those problems should be handled in a professional manner by both the airline employee and the customer. 99% of our customers and employees do just that. It is the other 1% that we unfortunately often remember.

Posted By Donna on September 7, 2007, 3:44 AM

In response to Iole, the flight attendants have to block off seats on long flights for the "crew rest" seats. These are FAA regulations, so we don't have overtired crews in charge of the passengers.

Nowadays, with flights running as full as they do, you need to bring your patience to the airport with you. My husband works for an airline, so we fly standby, which is a real challenge with 2 small children. We had a tough time getting a flight to visit family this summer. When we finally did get seats on a flight, it was delayed due to computer problems on the plane. I was amazed at the amount of complaining by the other passengers about a 1 hour delay! These were adults flying solo. I had been at the airport with my 2 kids for 8 hours at that point, we had been bumped off of 3 other flights, and we were just happy to be on a plane and glad that they checked everything to make sure it was in working order.

Posted By Maureen on September 7, 2007, 8:17 AM

Here's a topic I haven't seen commented on here very much -- baggage handling and service. We are told that the airline must identify each bag with the customer being boarded, for security reasons, and bags are supposedly coded for tracking purposes. As a matter of fact, it is clear (on American at least), that once a bag disppears down the chute after being checked by TSA, nobody knows where that bag is. Four times in the last three months, my bag has gone astray on American flights -- twice on non-stops! In 3 of those occasions, a big part of the problem was flight delays/cancellations where my bag did not keep up with me. But I find that baggage service desks are chronically understaffed (in San Juan - one worker, 50 people standing in line; in Miami, 2 workers painfully slow with 20-30 people in line and the supervisor says she is leaving no matter what. One one of those occasions at Miami, I was repeatedly told they did not know where my bag was, but when I went back to the airport and looked for it, I found it with about a zillion other bags next to a carousel. Again, probably too few people to manage the process. The airlines seem to have done very little to accommodate the additional volume of checked luggage since the restriction on liquids and gels was put in place.

Posted By Morris on September 7, 2007, 10:28 AM

I can NOT believe the post by James Sumpter, an airline employee. "You Get What You Pay For"???? Puhhhleeese! Many "employees" of many different companies and different kind of companies are not happy with "management", their salary, benefits, etc. BUT that is NO EXCUSE to take it out on the customers.

Posted By Shawn on September 7, 2007, 10:53 AM

Travelers should be warned about London Heathrow (LHR), for several reasons including its complexity and user-unfriendliness (busing between terminals, having to go through two security checkpoints even though you have never been out of the security area en route to your connecting flight) and rude, officious security personnel, long lines, delays, etc., but the latest and most troublesome problem, which I noted in June en route from Chicago to Frankfurt, is this (assuming the practice is still in effect): they limit you to ONE carry-on item. ONE, not one bag and a personal item, but ONE, period. You can start from probably any other airport in the world, certainly any in the U.S., with a carry-on and a personal item like a briefcase or purse or small camera bag, but when you get to LHR, you have to get rid of the extra item.

I had a small camera bag the size of a woman's purse and a small duffel bag with an antique glass bowl I was taking to friends in Germany, very delicate, 110 years old, irreplacable. I said to the security guard, who was officiously nasty, "Am I supposed to just sit down here and spend the next two weeks waiting for my return flight? I cannot check or throw away either of these things." To which he replied: "Do that if you like. I don't care what you do. But you're not going through here with two items."

Eventually I managed to tie one bag on top of the other and that got me through.

Beware of LHR. Go through ANYwhere else and go back to the U.K. on a European flight if you have to, but avoid LHR.

Posted By Brian Alm on September 7, 2007, 11:02 AM

USAIR! Their customer service and customer support is reprehensible. Several months ago I attempted to book online rewards travel for me and my wife. Having some difficulity I called the customer service hotline to an off shore cervice center. I explained my problem to a "new" agent who transfered me to his manager. She hung up! A return call netted me a hold of 21 minutes. The following Monday I attempted to contact the customer support department in Phoenix. "All operators" have been busy for the past 3 months! By their actions USAir has indicated that I should drive to neighboring airports for service! My USAir Visa now has another airlines name and logo! I fly about 10 to 15 times a year.

Posted By sam on September 7, 2007, 1:17 PM

Sean,

I travel quite a bit, and have used many airlines, both domestic and
foreign. My best single flight ever was on Malaysian Airline, from LAX to
Tokyo. The planes were new and clean, the service and food was wonderful,
and everything was on-time. And the cabin crew were stunning. Lufthansa is
still my favorite long term airline. The old Swissair was also good, but
I've not flown the most recent incarnation.

Jim

Posted By Jim Lytthans on September 7, 2007, 1:43 PM

I will not fly Southwest. Southwest recently denied service to a woman they thought was overexposed because she was wearing a miniskirt. They humiliated the worman in front of the entire airplane by lecturing her on her attire, saying that they were a "family airlines" and making her get off. What's next, will Southwest be issuing burkas for women they don't think are dressed decently to fly?

Posted By Will Germain on September 7, 2007, 1:59 PM

I am an American Airlines almost 20 year flight attendant and I want to express my deep sadness and shame to our customers. I have helped build this company over the years into the largest U.S. airline and when I see how it is being run by greedy management and treating their employees with disrespect it hurts to look back on all the sacrifices we have made for them. I see the employees take their frustrations out on the customers all the time. The service has therefore gone downhill with bathrooms not being dumped which causes foul odors beyond belief, not enough food available for every customer to purchase even on delayed flights that are stuck on runways for up to 4 hours. The fact that they now have to buy the food that sometimes have been sitting there during lengthy delays makes me cringe beyond despair. I was not hired to be a waitress!! Without tips!!! I want my old job back where we mingled with the customers and enjoyed the glamour days of travelling to exotic destinations and having long layovers where I shop,
try new cuisine and explore the world and get paid for it. I was the happiest girl in the world. Who wouldn't be? Now I long to be Anthony Bourdain and have my own travel show one day and reminisce about the old days when I was 20 years old with my vogue hairstyle, vintage luggage on wheels and made friends in every city. Now I am too exhausted to have my usual martini with my cosmopolitan cronies and have become a recluse on my days off.

Posted By Jill Aslani-Far on September 7, 2007, 2:25 PM

I fly mostly for business and am strongly encouraged to fly the least expensive flights. As such I have flown all of the majors and most of the minors over the course of several years. I have found both amazing service and horrible on all the airlines, sometimes both on the same flight. I work in customer service and know that some employees take pride in their work and others have only their interests at heart. I can deal with the variety of up and down face to face issues, that's life. BUT THE ONE CONSISTANT PAIN is the outsourced overseas call centers!!!!!!!!! If I have to call someone at the airlines I know I have to clear time, have everything in front of me, maintain focus, and be prepared to ward off a thread of lies, mis-directed calls, incompatant representatives, and needless holds. Add to that language/slang issues and the airline looks worse EVERYTIME! If i call somewhere and get an agent with a thick Indian accent and he identifies himself as "Steve" then he starts the call with a lie, how is it supposed to get better from there? I was once transfered by a United agent to the airports tower, another time I was told by a USAirways' agent that I had to tell her what airport my luggage was currently located at if I wanted it to be found. Please tell me the airlines don't actually think these people are helping their images.

Posted By John on September 7, 2007, 5:23 PM

Another comment on luggage and outsourcing: my daughter flew from Jackson, MS to LAX (and later returned) on Delta and they lost her luggage both times! They found her luggage fairly quickly in LA, and got it to her, but on the return trip they lost her luggage again. It took almost 2 weeks to get it back. Delta's customer service reps (all with strong Indian accents) told us it was in Atlanta, then Houston, then they just didn't know. Finally, they said it went to Mexico! I could not get any answers to e-mails, phone calls, etc. When I got online, I found a blog with an acronym that sums it all up :
D-on't
E-xpect
L-uggage
T-o
A-rrive.

Posted By Christi on September 7, 2007, 9:42 PM

How about the airport itself. The Philadelphia airport is the worst airport ever. My son is in college in FL, while we live in NJ. We go back and forth a lot. There employees are very rude and ignorant. Doesn't the airport have some control of the above mentioned problems. One particular flight, we arrived over 3.5 hours early and never boarded our flight until 5 min before take off due to terrible service at the airport. Trying to get to my flight on time, I was late because of the service, I spoke to a few employees to see if I could be helped and I even had one employee tell me that the supervisor at the airport, "just told me false information so that I would leave her alone", when I was trying to make sure we got to our flight on time. I work for an international company who has people flying in and out every day. Every person complains about the terrible service at the Philadelphia airport.

Posted By Tracie on September 8, 2007, 8:46 AM

Aloha Airlines has the worst ticket agents in Kona on the Big Island! We arrived 2 hours early for a 12:45 flight. The board stated, 'flight on time'. When receiving our boarding passes, Charlene did not tell me that they had put us on an earlier flight because the 12:45 flight "was broken". (Who does that?) When later questioned, she said that she said nothing, because she was "busy"!! We missed our "earlier flight", and before boarding the flight that we were put on, two hours later, we were told that the co-pilot had not arrived and there would be another 20 minute delay. By the time we arrived in Oakland, CA, we had 2 min. to catch our connecting flight to Chicago. Do I need to say it was already gone? We spent the night in the Oakland Airport because Aloha's agents couldn't find us a room due to a convention in town. We did not make it out of Oakland until noon the following day. We arrived in Chicago 16 hours later than we should have with no sleep all because Charlene was busy and couldn't tell us that our flight was leaving an hour ahead of schedule! Hawaii is beautiful but it will freeze over before we ever fly Aloha again.

Posted By Rae Anne on September 8, 2007, 8:10 PM

I hve flown on a number of airlines with minimjhum "reasopnable" problems. However, DELTA is still my choice all around.

Posted By Ronald W. Davis on September 8, 2007, 11:17 PM

Lufthansa has my vote for having the worse service. My daughter and I recently flew from Boston to Cairo on Lufthansa with a change in planes in Frankfort. On the way to Frankfort, this one flight attendant when walking down the aisle would stop and put her behind in my face. At first, I thought it was my imagination but I noticed she made it a habit of stopping at the person across the aisle from me and had to say something to him. She also neglected to serve us a meal or offered us a beverage. I had to get up and ask another flight attendant for food. When they came down the aisle with the beverage cart, she skipped pushed the cart pass us as if she had ran out of liquids and went to the people behind us.

The only time she said anything to me was during landing, she wanted to make sure my daughter who was asleep had her seat belt fasten. She practically pulled the blanket off my daughter even when I told her she had her seat belt on.

Coming back, the male flight attendant didn't bother to ask us which meal we wanted. He justed handed us the trays. When inquired as to what was the meal, he never replied. It was not like they had ran out of different meals, but didn't give us an option, but he gave the people behind us choices. When I ran for the flight attendant, he turned off the light. I made it my business to go to him and was as polite as he should have been. It seemed to upset him that I was kinder to him than he was to me. Upon my exit, when he thanked me for flying with Lufthansa, I thanked him for being rude, but thanked the other flight attendant who came to my rescue and bid her farewell in german. He looked shocked.

I have not had problems with AA and in fact became sick on a flight from Chicago to London before we pulled away from the gate. They called for medical help. Waited for them to arrive and walked with my daughter who was 9 at the time back to the gate. They gave me a refund voucher for the the two tickets and when I used them to fly to Paris, did not charge me any tax or surcharges. AA also give me refund for 2 tickets which were 6 years old. My dad I and had purchased tickets to fly from Chicago to Atlanta , but we never used them. After my father died, I found the tickets in his home safe and called AA. I sent a copy of his death certficate and they issued me a voucher for the total amount of both tickets.

My daughter's flight was Boston to Chicago was delayed because of Chicago's whether and AA not only put her up in a hotel room for the night, but bumped her up to first class because the only flight they could get her on was to fly from Boston to Florida and then Florida to Chicago. She flew 1st class on both legs of the trip at no extra cost. I will fly AA any day.

Posted By Jan on September 9, 2007, 6:02 AM

kudos to james sumpter sep 6
blog
i am an ex airline employee and concur with his comments 100%
get rid of hubs
get rid of deregulation
make airlines run as a transportation service company,not a sieve for monies via aircraft builders, oil companies,major bank lending institutions,etc..etc..

Posted By bill kasperowicz on September 9, 2007, 8:07 AM

I've had a few incidents with airlines but I first contacted the airline. In each and every case I found that management wanted to know my issue, apologized for the incident and offered some compensation. There will always be some issues in any business you deal with. If you first did not take the time to contact the carrier then you should not be posting your dissatisfaction. If you give them the oppertunity to correct and imoprove thier company and they compensate you for it, you really don't have a gripe.
Mechanical difficulties and weather issues are all part of travelling. If you do not anticipate them, you only have yourself to blame.

Posted By Leo Leary on September 9, 2007, 11:29 AM

I've had a few incidents with airlines but I first contacted the airline. In each and every case I found that management wanted to know my issue, apologized for the incident and offered some compensation. There will always be some issues in any business you deal with. If you first did not take the time to contact the carrier then you should not be posting your dissatisfaction. If you give them the oppertunity to correct and imoprove thier company and they compensate you for it, you really don't have a gripe.
Mechanical difficulties and weather issues are all part of travelling. If you do not anticipate them, you only have yourself to blame.

Posted By Leo Leary on September 9, 2007, 11:31 AM

I recently flew on Air Tran to Las Vegas and back via Atlanta. My flight out was in the morning, and not to much delay in either airport (Pgh, PA and Atlanta). On the way home, we did have a delay of at least forty minutes because the plane was late in landing in LV, and because there was a mechanical problem with the plane. Many of the passengers were making connecting flights, and had asked the airline attendants for connecting flight information. The attendants could not give us that info, and advised all of us that we would have the answers as soon as we deplaned in Atlanta. There were three young women who persisted in asking our attendants for their connecting flight numbers and gates, and even after the attendant explained that those decisions were still being made, these three did not give up. Once we landed, one of them called a friend and said that she would never fly Air Tran again because of the "attitude" of the attendant. Well, I want to say that I thought the attendants on all four of my flights were wonderful, kind, and very professional. And to my fellow passengers, I would say that "attitude" cuts both ways. If you can't take the correct answer the first time, then the attitude that needs to be adjusted is not the attendant's! Thanks Air Tran for a terrific experience.

Posted By Colleen Arnowitz on September 9, 2007, 11:47 AM

Have read all the comments and would say that I have had
nothing but favorable experiences with AIR FRANCE- in fact when traveling to
Europe I REQUEST - AIR FRANCE
if at all possible.
Generally excellant food,
and service.. and comfortable
planes.
I generally fly Delta in the
US however- I can say I have
had some awful flights with
them- and a few surly
employees- overall it is a
good airline.
Biggest complaint in
the U.S.is NO FOOD included
on Delta. Sometimes you can't GET food in the airport-- too early or too
late so a better "snack"
than a bag of peanuts
would certainly be nice.
I think with the terrible
weather we have been having
and now the overbearing
security- which is a needed
precaution..flying isn't fun anymore. It is scary.
So when you begin with a
negative start to each and
every flight of course a lot of the flight attendants are going to
be going "over the top".
I can certainly understand
that this "fear" goes into
the cabin with them and
this "fear" does not bring out the best in people.
How would you like a job where you watch a passenger reach into a bag and pull out something shiny-- is
it a gun?.. no- it is a
ballpoint pen!! That sort
of thing certainly MUST
have some effect on the service and interactions we
are getting from the flight crew-- God Bless them!
So remember when flying the
"Friendly Skies" all the airlines are working to do
their best.. it is the
individuals who have the
issues.. and also remember how YOU might be in the
same situation and cut these folks a bit of slack
on your next flight.

Posted By Cheri on September 9, 2007, 2:18 PM

My faorite airlines: Alaska Air and JAL - although I have only traveled twice on each of them all experiences on long flights were positive with excellent service, a bit of humour (on Alaska Airlines) and the feeling I was being cared for by competent people.

I will not fly US Air - on a night flight from Seattle to PHL the gate attendant took away my freshly purchased water (inside the Seattle airport) and then I was only allowed one glass of water during a six hour flight. When I went back to ask for more water I was told they were busy and to wait. After an hour I went back and this time was told there were no more cups. I arrived tired from the long night flight and dehydrated. It was no help that during the flight a lady two rows up took two bottles of water out of her carry-on and gave one to her husband seated across the aisle. My water had been in a mesh pouch on the side of my backpack. I am 72, retired and travel quite a bit - but not with US Air!
About American, I fly them several times a year to Central America and have had my checked baggage rifled and items taken. Once flying from DFW (origin) to PHL I found that a gift bottle of a souvenir vodka had been opened and now was only half full - hope he or she enjoyed it!

Posted By Martha Thomae on September 9, 2007, 4:39 PM

A group of ten teachers and administrators were invited to go to China and visit schools. There would be an exchange visit from the Chinese a year later. We booked flights on Northwest leaving Philadelphia in the morning for a short flight to Detroit. We had a 4 PM flight to Beijing. We were told the flight would be delayed (weather was not the problem) as we did not have a full crew for the flight. Fortunately we did not board the plane. after 6 hours we were told the flight would not take off and NW would add a flight the next day to accomodate the passengers. as this was a regular daily flight. We would go out the next day. I went to the counter and asked where they would put us up for the night. Finally they sent us to a hotel in the airport. We walked in the door of our room only to see condums on the floor. Finally got a room that was not good, but better than the first one. Went back to the airport in the morning to make sure we all got on the flight. We were given no information. As it apparoached 4 PM and our new daparture time, we were not told anything. The flight was called to board, but not for those who had spent 24 hours in Detroit. The flight for that day was boarded and took off. The people who had been waiting 24 hours were livid. When asked what was going to happen we got no answers. It looked like there would be a riot in the terminal. My wife called a local TV station on her cell phone and they told her this was a common occurance. Police did come to the area.
Over the years I have also had bad experiences with Air France. I have used both airlines again and have been surprised when things turned out well. You actually look for the worst to happen when you fly them.

Posted By John Tomlinson on September 9, 2007, 7:39 PM

Beware of Icelandair if traveling with family: they don't acknowledge your children as persons paying for their trips, thus you'll lose all frequent flyer points on family members under 18 years of age. Icelandair customer service says the frequent flyer account is a 'legal contract' no person under 18 can enter into. So I paid almost 4K out of pocket for overseas travel this summer and will never be able to benefit from accrued mileage with them. I should've paid $100 more in total and fly through any mainland European city instead - after all my kids have had their accounts with all US airlines since birth.

Posted By mariannahl on September 9, 2007, 8:03 PM

We have flown on Air New Zealand twice, once to Australia and once to New Zealand and were very pleased with the service on both occasions.
We also fly UAL and have never had any great problems with them. When offered an up-grade to Economy Plus, we take it even though we have to shell out more money. Our flights have been on time for the most part. It's the connecting flights that are the problems. We just wait patiently.
The one airline I hate is UAL's TED. Talk about cramped! Next time we want to fly to Florida I think we'll try Jet Blue or USAir. TED offers no leg room or elbow room. The overhead compartment for our seats was taken up by the video equipment. What a hassel to have to walk half way down the aisle to find an empty space in the overhead. And then to retreive it at the end of the flight was like driving the wrong way down a one way street in NYC. You can have TED.

Posted By Nancy on September 9, 2007, 8:13 PM

For all those underpaid Airline salaries being what they are and that being in the ball park of $15,000 a month for a pilot and $10,000 for a stewardess, shouldn't have a complaint in the world about being UNDERPAID and whining that their pay is being cut,come into the real world here all of our pays have been cut to some degree.

Posted By J.Edwards on September 10, 2007, 1:36 AM

TUIfly.com airways-flew from Venice to Berlin in June 2007. We sat on runway 25 minutes in a rain/wind storm and then proceded to take off directly into the storm once it had cleared the airport. It was the scariest experience that I've ever had flying. Not more than 5 minutes in the air, as we were still being tossed around, the seatbelt sign went off so they could sell their merchandise. No freebies on this airline! We did make it to Berlin, but I left my stomach in Venice.
Best in Europe was Easy Jet. Always on time, very professionally dressed, kind, etc. even though they charge as well for everything extra. BMI was great from London to Paris and included a sandwich and drink (in 2003). Delta is my airline of choice, and I've good experiences 90% plus of the time with them. I have earned several free flights (1 to Hawaii, 2 to Canada, 1 to Europe in coach and 1 to LA and 4 to Europe in Business Elite) with my AMEX and my Medallion status bonuses. I will try SkyEurope on my big trip to Europe.

Posted By disneyorlando on September 10, 2007, 3:01 PM