This turned out longer than I expected.
On my last trip where I needed to fly, I realized something while packing. I was absolutely dreading the fact that I would have to go to the airport and fly. Why? Because my last flight was a bad experience. But, I didn’t remember all my flights being stressful or hard. So, I decided to write a review of all airlines I have flown with. Granted, my experience does not reflect the experience everyone will have…but I’m putting it out there for all to read so when they decide to fly, maybe it will come to some use. Ratings go as follows: Excellent, good, fair, bad, horrible Airline: China Airlines
Verdict: Very Good
Reason: I traveled with them twice: In 2004 to China and in 2006 to Thailand for my study abroad. Food was decent. They had a good movie selection and offered blankets and pillows and a deck of cards to keep me entertained. Flight attendant service was nice. I got 2 bags each at 70lbs as my limit for checked luggage. When I came home from Thailand after 3 months…I had a lot more luggage then when I left 4 months earlier. Both bags were about 60 lbs each and they didn’t give me any hassle. They will be strict about carry on luggage though…as to keep people from taking over another passengers carry on space.
Airline: Thai Air
Verdict: Excellent
Reason: I LOVE Thai Air. On a 30 min plane ride, you go up, get a meal that tastes good, and come down. Service is wonderful and you ALWAYS get a pillow and blanket and snack and a warm smile.
Airline: Bangkok Airlines
Verdict: Good
Reason: I only rode on 2 occasions. From Bangkok to Cambodia and from Bangkok to Koh Tao. Both flights were cool, except it’s in a prop plane…so it can be a bit noisy and annoying if you have to listen to it for more than 3 hours. Other than that…I can’t say much.
Airline: Vietnam Airlines
Verdict: Fair
Reason: Usually, when I ride in a plane, it gets a bit chilly for me. This airlines keeps the cabin warm to a temperature that is almost hot and uncomfortable. The airline also likes to cramp people into seats. It was a bit cramped, even for me and I am just about 5’3”. Food was so-so. Airline attendants were good.
Airline: Singapore Airlines
Verdict: EXCELLENT!!!
Reason: Oh My God! This airline will make you feel like a king. I was seated in one of the farthest seats in the back of the plane. Even though I was in coach, the seats felt really wide. Almost business class wide! And all the seats were black leather. You get a blanket and pillow that are to die for. Very soft, and sterile clean in plastic wrapping. The flight attendants routinely come around on their own and check on you. When I ask about a movie that I couldn’t watch, they actually took the movie system apart to find out why it wouldn’t play. After they found the movie to be broken, they profusely apologized for the inconvenience. For meals, every seat has an elegantly written menu with 2 choices. The food is really good. Wine is free is I remembered correctly. I would ride with these guys any day.
Airline: United Airways
Verdict: Poor
Reason: I had a flight to LA and then back to Seattle. They are the most cramped airline I can remember. I had peoples elbows digging into both of my sides (as I had a middle seat) and the guys on either side of me were not over weight or bulky. No snacks at all…unless you pay $8. There is also something VERY unnerving about being overwhelmed with the smell airplane exhaust in the cabin just before taking off.
Airline: US airways
Verdict: Horrible
Reason: Traveled with them from Seattle to Philadelphia and then to Rome. As you can see….we had a long flight. Usually seats on international flights are a smidge bit more roomy than domestic flights. That is wrong when it comes to this airline. Seats are VERY CRAMED. Once again, I had peoples elbows digging into both of my sides (as I had a middle seat) and the guys on either side of me were not over weight or bulky.
You have to pay $5 for earphones! Real crappy earphones. They have a 2 prong earphone plug-in socket, so if you want to listen to things in stereo, you have to own an adapter or buy their earphones. This is on the international flight too!
Food sucked! Flight Attendants were horrible. I’m sure they were tired…but they were snippy and rolled their eyes at me a lot. I never want to ride with them again. It was this airline that made me have anxiety the next time I flew.
Also, I highly recommend that no one use Philadelphia as a stop-over if they can avoid it. It’s a horrible airport in how they handle air traffic. The Airport is overwhelmed with flights that it simply cannot take it and the result is delays. We took off about 2 hours later than we were supposed to because of traffic issues on the run way. While waiting for 2 hours, we were asked to not go to the bathroom because people should not be up after the airplane disembarked from the gate and sat on the tarmac. No snacks or water would be served as well during our wait. Something about FDA regulations. FDA regulation my ass! I asked them to refill my water bottle that I brought on board. They flight attendant rolled their eyes, took it, refilled it, threw it back at me…and then made an announcement over the intercom that they would not be refilling water bottles…again…FDA regulations. I highly doubt that. Next time I fly…I’m going to that the FDA regulation manual along with me in my carry on.
Airline: Air New Zealand
Verdict: Good
Reason: Food decent. Service pretty good. Seating Good. Only thing was me and Chatham put all our stuff into one large suitcase and was told it was over weight by like 5 lbs. However, if we had brought two suitcases just slightly smaller, it would have been ok. That kinda sucked. So, we had to take out a pair of shoes and put them into our carry on. Checked luggage weight limits are a bit smaller than usual international flights. Airline: AlItalia
Verdict: Good
Reason: I only have 2 flights with them that were 45min. each. They gave a decent snack and were nice. Airplanes were clean and comfy to ride in. They had one piece of luggage that came on a later flight (the very next flight after us) but…other than that…they were cool.
Airline: Malev
Verdict: Excellent
Reason: This airline has GREAT service. When we were about to disembark from the gate, we were told that there was some sort of traffic jam or mix up at the run way. As a result, we would have to wait 2-3 hours before we could take off. O.O I thought “OMG!” However, the flight attendants were quick to spring into action. They started handing out snacks and drinks and newspapers and magazines. Granted the literature was in Hungarian or Italian, but it’s the thought that counts. They frequently rounded on the passengers to make sure people were ok. They encouraged stretching and walking up and down the aisles. After about 50 min. of sitting on the tarmac, we found out that the tower was going to let us go immediately. So, we took off! We were served a decent meal in the air (I didn’t expect to be fed for a flight that was under 3 hours and originally supposed to leave at 8pm). Seats were not the roomiest, but comfy enough.
Airline: Southwest
Verdict: Good
Reason: roomy seats. Flight attendants were humorous even though they were pulled off their last flight to substitute for ours at the last minute and working an extra shift. Just make sure you check in form home about 24 hours in advance to be one of the first to board.
In conclusion, I also am going to put down my research links.
http://www.seatguru.com/
http://www.airlinequality.com/main/forum.htm
And here is information on the food that the airlines serve:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/01/11/airline.food/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
http://www.zagat.com/airline
http://www.dietdetective.com/content/view/2873/3/
http://www.airlinemeals.net/index.html
http://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/fedora/get/inu:inu-ead-trans-001/inu:EADbDef11/getListOfContents | 
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