My list of airlines I would never fly

[CyberB0b]

I always found it so strange that I would buy a plane ticket and then have to buy the seat. Like... isn't that rolled into the cost of a ticket? When I go to a concert/theater I'm buying my ticket/seat. I never buy a ticket to a theater then turn around and have to buy the seat too. Makes no sense. It's all just a ploy to trick travelers into thinking they have lower prices. Frankly, I think those type of marketing tricks should be illegal

You don't have to buy a seat, you just can't pick your seat unless you want to pay extra. It will be assigned to you by the gate agent before boarding.

 

[SlammedZero]

Delta. I will never fly Delta again. For a 3.5 hour flight, I had water regularly dripping on me from the ceiling....on a freaking plane. That instills confidence....no..wait. What's the opposite of confidence?

Was on a flight from Boise to Huntsville, Alabama with a stop in SLC/Atlanta with Delta many years ago. We flew into SLC and I made it across the airport to the next plane. Everybody is aboard the plane and we are seemingly about ready to taxi out and get on with the trip. Suddenly there was a loud 'BOOM' and the entire plane shook. Everybody starts looking around at each other. Ten minutes go by and we get an announcement from the pilot that the stewardess accidentally deployed the emergency slide on the plane. lol We could not fly without one due to FAA regulations. The nearest spare slide? Dallas, Texas. So, we had to wait for a new one to fly from Dallas and get installed. The real kicker? Because it deployed on the gate door, we couldn't exit the plane. So we had to sit on the plane for like 5 hours waiting for this slide to fly in and get installed. Sucked, but hey, they fed us a free dinner.

Needless to say I finally arrived in Atlanta and 2am, hit a nearby hotel, and then had to be back at the airport at 6am for my connecting flight to Huntsville, Alabama. It was a long day. Thanks Delta. lol

 

[DasTex]

Was on a flight from Boise to Huntsville, Alabama with a stop in SLC/Atlanta with Delta many years ago. We flew into SLC and I made it across the airport to the next plane. Everybody is aboard the plane and we are seemingly about ready to taxi out and get on with the trip. Suddenly there was a loud 'BOOM' and the entire plane shook. Everybody starts looking around at each other. Ten minutes go by and we get an announcement from the pilot that the stewardess accidentally deployed the emergency slide on the plane. lol We could not fly without one due to FAA regulations. The nearest spare slide? Dallas, Texas. So, we had to wait for a new one to fly from Dallas and get installed. The real kicker? Because it deployed on the gate door, we couldn't exit the plane. So we had to sit on the plane for like 5 hours waiting for this slide to fly in and get installed. Sucked, but hey, they fed us a free dinner.

Needless to say I finally arrived in Atlanta and 2am, hit a nearby hotel, and then had to be back at the airport at 6am for my connecting flight to Huntsville, Alabama. It was a long day. Thanks Delta. lol

Oh man...that's the stuff that nightmares are made of. I hate sitting on a plane to begin with, but being stuck on the ground is the worst (ESPECIALLY during the summer). At least when your in the air, your accomplishing something.

Longest I've had was 2 hours and it felt like an eternity.

 

[Jammer]

Delta. I will never fly Delta again. For a 3.5 hour flight, I had water regularly dripping on me from the ceiling....on a freaking plane. That instills confidence....no..wait. What's the opposite of confidence?

It's probably A/C condensation you were dealing with.

Delta is about the only airline I fly. I don't do budget airlines so I can't comment on that. I fly 2-3 times a month and with Delta I rarely have problems with them. I try not to fly American because I've had such crappy experiences with them. I hate when their prices are cheaper than Delta and I get stuck on them because it seems there are issues with them on too many occasions. I do use American to fly to Dallas because it's a direct fly from where I live.

 

[nobody]

It's probably A/C condensation you were dealing with.

Delta is about the only airline I fly. I don't do budget airlines so I can't comment on that. I fly 2-3 times a month and with Delta I rarely have problems with them. I try not to fly American because I've had such crappy experiences with them. I hate when their prices are cheaper than Delta and I get stuck on them because it seems there are issues with them on too many occasions. I do use American to fly to Dallas because it's a direct fly from where I live.

It really doesn't matter that it is AC condensation or not. Delta is the only time I've ever experienced that and I've flown probably about 100 times. It wasn't the only issue on that flight, but it was the biggest. By far the best experiences I've had flying have been with Jetblue.

 

[CyberB0b]

It really doesn't matter that it is AC condensation or not. Delta is the only time I've ever experienced that and I've flown probably about 100 times. It wasn't the only issue on that flight, but it was the biggest. By far the best experiences I've had flying have been with Jetblue.

Delta pilots get profit sharing, so they will keep the APU off for as long as possible. It's a tiny jet engine in the back of the airplane that provides AC and electric power. If you were in ATL, it probably got hot and humid in the cabin and they turned on the APU, causing the condensation.

 

[CouchCoach]

If you visit someone, do you drive, take a bus, or a train? I personally dislike flying, but I'll do it if I need to.

I was kidding about the fear of flying as I spent about 10 years in the air, 48 weeks out of the year. And that was before the real hassles of flying 9/11 brought about.

I don't like anything about flying from the minute I get to the airport to the minute I leave one.

Should I decide to visit anyone that far away, I would either drive or take the train if they have a cool one because I used to love taking the Metroliner between NYC and Philly and took the trains around CT and MA one week on business.

Once I retired, I lost that "in a hurry to get somewhere" mentality, which is the only reason to fly. Can't stop and smell the roses at 35,000 feet.

 

[OmerV]

 

[Dunks3001]

Well I'm looking into a short there and back again trip to CA soon. Frontier has an advertised price of 55 dollars. So, that's tempting but then I remembered this thread. So, for clarification. Do you HAVE to choose your seat and pay or will one be assigned to you for free if you don't? If I bring a backpack with socks and boxers will it count as a carry one? Not expecting anyone to know all the answers. Just asking incase anyone does

 

[Tabascocat]

Well I'm looking into a short there and back again trip to CA soon. Frontier has an advertised price of 55 dollars. So, that's tempting but then I remembered this thread. So, for clarification. Do you HAVE to choose your seat and pay or will one be assigned to you for free if you don't? If I bring a backpack with socks and boxers will it count as a carry one? Not expecting anyone to know all the answers. Just asking incase anyone does

Been awhile since I’ve flown with them but you will get a randomly selected seat if you don’t want to pay for your choice.

As for the backpack, it isn’t considered a carry-on if under a certain size but I don’t know what the limit is.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Well I'm looking into a short there and back again trip to CA soon. Frontier has an advertised price of 55 dollars. So, that's tempting but then I remembered this thread. So, for clarification. Do you HAVE to choose your seat and pay or will one be assigned to you for free if you don't? If I bring a backpack with socks and boxers will it count as a carry one? Not expecting anyone to know all the answers. Just asking incase anyone does

Turns out you don't HAVE to choose your seat online, but I didn't know that. There was nothing that said if it was optional or mandatory. Plus, I have a medical condition that makes it important for me to have an aisle seat. But the way it was set up, I could not understand my options. I think they allow one light personal item that's not classified as a carry on, but for that one, you should probably call the airline to find out.

 

[CyberB0b]

Well I'm looking into a short there and back again trip to CA soon. Frontier has an advertised price of 55 dollars. So, that's tempting but then I remembered this thread. So, for clarification. Do you HAVE to choose your seat and pay or will one be assigned to you for free if you don't? If I bring a backpack with socks and boxers will it count as a carry one? Not expecting anyone to know all the answers. Just asking incase anyone does

Yeah, you'll just get a random seat. A standard backpack is fine. Bring an empty refillable water bottle and fill it up when you get past security.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Delta. I will never fly Delta again. For a 3.5 hour flight, I had water regularly dripping on me from the ceiling....on a freaking plane. That instills confidence....no..wait. What's the opposite of confidence?

That's a shame. I had a great flight on them to and from Cleveland in July. I had stops in Detroit going and Minneapolis returning. They had great service. I haven't flown Spirit or Frontier, though their models are similar to EasyJet and RyanAir, so I might give them a go if it favours my schedule. I kinda like United, and I have them to Chicago for Midwest FurFest in December, excited cuz, other than my fursuit which is still being made, everything is ready to go. Southwest is fine. They lost my bag on a connection, but they gave me a check for it and the service was fantastic. Haven't flown American Airlines yet, but I'll probably be flying them in March to Dallas for Texas Furry Fiesta. I've also enjoyed flights on Swiss and Lufthansa.

 

[nobody]

That's a shame. I had a great flight on them to and from Cleveland in July. I had stops in Detroit going and Minneapolis returning. They had great service. I haven't flown Spirit or Frontier, though their models are similar to EasyJet and RyanAir, so I might give them a go if it favours my schedule. I kinda like United, and I have them to Chicago for Midwest FurFest in December, excited cuz, other than my fursuit which is still being made, everything is ready to go. Southwest is fine. They lost my bag on a connection, but they gave me a check for it and the service was fantastic. Haven't flown American Airlines yet, but I'll probably be flying them in March to Dallas for Texas Furry Fiesta. I've also enjoyed flights on Swiss and Lufthansa.

Sometimes you don't know if it's the airline or airport's employees that lose/misplace luggage.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Sometimes you don't know if it's the airline or airport's employees that lose/misplace luggage.

It happens though, and it's usually on connections. It's annoying when it happens.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Excited for my flight on United in on December 1 to Chicago.

 

[Creeper]

I hate flying now. I used to love Virgin Atlantic when I flew on business to Europe. But airlines today simply have no regard for passenger comfort and convenience. I know it is not the airlines fault, but it starts with airport security. Waiting to get through security at the busier airports has been normalized as has taking off shoes, not carrying items more than 3oz of liquids, body searches, naked scanners, etc. More than 99% of passengers can be ruled out as potential terrorists in an instant. There is no need to make everyone go through all that nonsense at the airports. I cannot think of another business that treats its customers as poorly as the airlines do. I don't fly anywhere anymore.

 

[VaqueroTD]

If you visit someone, do you drive, take a bus, or a train? I personally dislike flying, but I'll do it if I need to.

I’m almost as bad as CouchCoach. The only thing they got me over it was I was forced to fly for work often.

But I have rules and a pre-flight routine almost as bad as any superstitious athlete before they go into the game. LOL

One of those rules is I will NEVER ever fly the discount airlines like Spirit and Frontier. If they can’t even pony up the money for a freaking cup of coffee, I don’t even want to know what their mechanics and safety inspectors are doing.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I’m almost as bad as CouchCoach. The only thing they got me over it was I was forced to fly for work often.

But I have rules and a pre-flight routine almost as bad as any superstitious athlete before they go into the game. LOL

One of those rules is I will NEVER ever fly the discount airlines like Spirit and Frontier. If they can’t even pony up the money for a freaking cup of coffee, I don’t even want to know what their mechanics and safety inspectors are doing.

That's a great point. Besides the annoyance of their pinching every penny, who knows where else they're pinching pennies. "Well, Hank, they should have a proper mechanic through and re-lube everything, but we can't afford that for a few weeks, so let's just shove a bunch of sawdust in there for now."

 

[CyberB0b]

I’m almost as bad as CouchCoach. The only thing they got me over it was I was forced to fly for work often.

But I have rules and a pre-flight routine almost as bad as any superstitious athlete before they go into the game. LOL

One of those rules is I will NEVER ever fly the discount airlines like Spirit and Frontier. If they can’t even pony up the money for a freaking cup of coffee, I don’t even want to know what their mechanics and safety inspectors are doing.

Our pilots and mechanics are paid pretty well. Spirit has the newest fleet in the world. When the plane breaks, it is written up and fixed. There's 0 pressure from management to try to defer maintenance or fly an unsafe aircraft.

Our average fleet age is around 7 years and dropping. We're phasing out older planes and getting brand new ones every month. American has an average fleet age of nearly 12 years.