Virgin America, American Airlines, etc. (airline review/recommendation/etc. thread)

Possible trip to SF in the works - Virgin and AA are basically the same price, AA is more flexible in non-stop flight options (12/day vs. 3/day) but the Virgin times are workable.
I don't know anyone who's flown VA - anyone know if it's less shitty (ie more leg room) than the usual?

virgin america rules imo

i've had good experiences on virgin. i think they at least pretend to care about customer service.

their tvs are slightly larger than jetblues

also u can order beer from the tv

PROGRESS

flew on virgin america last week and thought I had correctly identified the safety video voiceover voice as that of Will Ferrell's, but after returning home and unsuccessfully attempting to google for confirmation, I had to admit to myself I was incorrect after all

sounds just like him though

ordering beer from the tv should be standard on every goddamn flight

its an impressive feature

this doesn't apply to milo but if you fly virgin america out of boston logan it's a v. isolated part of the terminal with two gates and its own security setup which means it's super chill and uncrowded.

beer via TV sounds pretty tite

Virgin America = by far the best airline in the US of A
American Airlines = the only thing older than the flight attendants are the jets they use

AA is the worst. Well thay are slightly better than southwest.

virgin and jetblue are so much better than the rest, delta had a jetblue clone called song far while that was good too but they gave up on it p fast

posting this on FB wound up with people one-upping each other with AA horror stories. I've never had a bad AA experience, but beer from the TV wins in the end

Dunno about Virgin America but Virgin Atlantic has always been A+++ when I have flown w/them in the past.

The major problem with AA is they have no money btw. That doesn't help.

Virgin America is probably the best thing going and I'm still annoyed that they don't fly out of BUR. JetBlue is comparable.

So basically we are waiting for an AA jet to fall apart in the sky (according to media reports).

Hilarious takedown of AA by Gary Shteyngart:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/a-trans-atlantic-trip-turns-kafkaesque.html

Grey Lady Yelp Rev

#usairways

rough monday over there

http://mashable.com/2014/04/14/us-airways-best-tweets/

glad i flew Delta LAST week

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/delta-system-outage-triggers-delays-worldwide-n625141

I fly American on Thursday. Fingers crossed!

Are there any US airlines with good reputations?

I've flown American and they were terrible, i've never heard a good word said about Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, etc,

I almost never take anything but short flights, like under 2 hrs, so I can stand a lot as long as the flight is on time and doesn't lose my one checked bag. I care more about things like are there enough people working to handle the check in line, and does the on-board bathroom have soap and paper towels? Pretty low bar.

Friend just complained that they were randomly downgraded from first class to coach for their anniversary trip on Delta, no compensation. Quid/Ag for sure (never even flown first myself) but still, kind of fucked.

It's like, when I'm paying hundreds of dollars do I need to bring my own wet-wipes? I already pack all my own food but that's because my body hates me.

xp Kind of fucked if you paid for a service, not to receive it!

gf was on a flight this morning, seems like it didn't take them long to sort things out

I don't fly a lot myself but I do have occasional work travel. Having only used Delta and AA for my trips, I found Delta to be the better of the two. I also got myself one of those Delta credit cards so I can rack up miles on work's dime, and it gives me some nice perks like priority boarding, free checked bag, discounts on in-flight wi-fi etc.

Also flew AA to Miami with the family and thought it was really bad -- cramped and no consideration whatsoever for people with small children (no early boarding etc.)

I don't get the appeal of early boarding. wouldn't you rather spend less time in an airplane?

The appeal is (1) finding space for your carry-on bag (because airlines no longer provide enough for everyone), (2) when you have small kids, it just takes a lot of time to get settled and get everything/everyone into place, and the more people are already on the airplane the harder that gets.

I love flying Virgin, hands-down my favorite airline

Virgin America sent the most teasing email ever - $199 round trip first class flights. From LAX to Vegas or vice versa. The discounted rates on tickets useful to me were $399 first class to LGA, SFO or LAX, one way.

Which is still a good deal and all for first class but not making me buy tickets inside of a 48 hour window to take a vacation in the next six weeks.

Has anyone tried the budget transatlantic Norwegian flights?

I might have to go to Miami in December and you can get direct return flights from London to Fort Lauderdale for £400.

only flown norwegian in europe. i was impressed enough that i'd be tempted by their transatlantic flights. the plane was newer than their rivals, it was more comfortable, it had free wi-fi. think there was even some free food/drink.

Just looked at Virgin to SFO from JFK and they have some really good fares, as low as $340 round trip if you fly out on a Tuesday.

jetblue is not bad ime

AA is terrible

United is bad

Spirit is shitty but if you travel very light w/o kids (i'd never do spirit w/ my kids) the prices are amazing

They are but one caution: the bargain sites advertise Spirit flights BUT those prices don't include a checked back OR a carry-on ime. And paying for your bag later is more expensive. Afaict the best prices are from buying on the Spirit website and adding your bag at time of purchase.

btw i somehow snuck into the Delta no-shoes-off Elite Motherfuckers line at LaGuardia when i flew to Miami. No such luck on return.

i felt like Clooney in that mediocre Reitman Jr movie

i never check a bag anymore, do laundry on long trips instead. The only valuable thing i learned from Steve Shasta.

yeah Norwegian in Europe is good. free food/drink on shortish haul flights is great, flew Tarom Paris/Bucharest last month and was surprised to get a free lunch. the old plane made it feel like flying American in the USA though.

when I lived in the states I generally ended up with gold status on AA b/c my crappy midwestern towns would only be served by AA and I flew quite a bit. lots of regional jets on American Eagle connecting in DFW or O'Hare. lots and lots of delays, often after 8+ hour flights, so I'd lag out next to Subway in the cruddiest parts of those airports. I doubt it was any better for my equivalents on Delta or United though. in short living in the midwest is ridiculous.

I'm going to be flying Norwegian in October, fingers crossed.

American is the worst airline.

If I have to take a US carrier, I prefer JetBlue (haven't tried VA, though).

I am pleased to have survived two flights on the airline that is consistently rated the worst in the WORLD: Air Koryo. Which was actually better than American Airlines.

Goddamn I hate American Airlines, including my f'ed up flight yesterday: arrived in DC and spent 40 minutes waiting to park at a gate when there were plenty of gates open, WTF.

xp Yeah I'm going to the Midwest/O'Hare so I didn't have all the choices esp at my price point (the cheapest possible).

My main credit card generates miles in AA's Advantage program - I feed *every* purchase through it (even rent if I could) so in the end it works out that I get three or so free trips LAX<->JFK a year. Getting miles this way is incredibly handy even if it does keep me on AA more often than I want to. Used to fly United more, but they can seriously just go suck it.

Day 2, Delta has cancelled 400 flights

feel like i dodged a bullet in my summer travels

I live near an AA hub so they're generally the cheapest option and many times the only non-stop option (and still cheapest) so I've flown with them 90% of the times I've flown as an adult.

I don't know what any other airline's coach class could have done to be less miserable - no one's giving you more shoulder room, everyone can still have the guy in front of you recline. Bells and whistles don't mean much for the back ache from twisting into the aisle so that I'm not rubbing shoulder and upper arm with the person next to me for four hours.

Any good / bad experiences with either Srilankan Airlines or Saudia? I'm assuming the latter has a poor choice of inflight drinks, but other than that...

gf was on a flight this morning, seems like it didn't take them long to sort things out

haha this ended up being pretty wrong

I don't get the appeal of early boarding. wouldn't you rather spend less time in an airplane?

― iatee, Monday, August 8, 2016 10:03 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The appeal is (1) finding space for your carry-on bag (because airlines no longer provide enough for everyone), (2) when you have small kids, it just takes a lot of time to get settled and get everything/everyone into place, and the more people are already on the airplane the harder that gets.

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Monday, August 8, 2016 10:09 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also why even though it makes perfect sense, airlines will never board passengers from back to front.

FWIW I find other credit cards tend to offer better dollar-value rewards on travel than miles cards, although it can be hard to value miles exactly. However I still put any work travel on my delta skymiles card, in part just to keep it separate and easy to manage when I get reimbursed. also I got 40K miles and a $50 credit for the signup, plus the other minor benefits.

I just got a Hilton hhonors visa through citi that gave me a 75K sign up bonus (appx $750 of hotel nights), which is pretty sweet, and it gives 6% back on Hilton family hotels. Not really this thread though. Would it be too lame to start a credit card points-gaming thread?

I've been tempted to start that thread myself.

Hotel rewards are ludicrously generous compared to air miles. The Radisson programme is pretty great.

Costco Visa is great btw - 4% on gas, 3% travel, 2% at costco/costco.com. And right now chase freedom is giving 5% back on warehouse clubs like costco, which is a substantial amount of money for us since we shop there weekly.

I get a £5 Amazon voucher every time i spend £1750 on my credit card :(

I think there already is a credit card points-gaming thread? StevieD and jordan are both v. v. into this iirc

Like I'm pretty sure StevieD has used Visio to make a highly branched decision tree wrt cards/vendors/purchases

i don't even understand cash back.

What's the thread? I couldn't find it by searching "credit card" or "credit cards"

Lots of xposts but I have flown Norwegian transatlantic a couple of times and it was pretty smooth and comfortable. Can't beat the price, but I'd advise bringing food/getting something in the airport as their meal prices are extra and kind of ridiculous. If you need to check baggage, you can pay $100 more which includes a checked 20kg bag, meal, and seat reservation.

Thanks!

I might have to fly from São Paulo to Mexico City. Has anyone used Copa or Avianca before?

If I had to transfer in the US, which of Delta, United and American would be least likely to end up with me being physically assaulted by security guards?

In re 2 -- you take what treatment we give you you damned foreigner. Signed. The Loving Gov't.

Harsh but fair.

I can't imagine custom searches are fun on a São Paulo > Miami > Mexico City run either tbf.

My personal experience of those three is probably not through the airports you'd be looking at, but my general feeling is Delta > American > United

United completely failed to communicate in any useful way last year when my flight kept mysteriously changing gates, repeatedly got pushed back by 20 minutes every 20 minutes, and was eventually moved to the next morning

As much as I loathe Branson, Virgin Atlantic to New York was excellent.

How is Air Canada long haul / short haul these days?

I only use them for short 3-hour trips and they are fine. Sometimes they get delayed but I heard this happens more often on long trips

It seems like we love to hate them in Canada, though. And they do get a lot of criticism in general. I have never had a layover/stop with them or connecting flights with them so take that into account. And all my flights have been from LAX<>YVR so it pretty much feels like a domestic flight. International flights could be a whole other beast

I used to fly primarily on Alaska Airlines, despite their huge crash a long time ago, and they always had great service and I seem to recall that they had better seats. But I’ve been using Air Canada for six years now with very few issues

Thanks!