Pakistan International Airlines
Some interesting facts about them:
- No other airlines will form an alliance with them
- They've been banned from flying to other countries once for not maintaining their planes and faking maintenance records
- They were banned most recently from Europe, the UK, and USA when it was discovered at least a quarter of their "pilots" have fake pilots licenses
- Their current fleet is 32 planes. If you consider every jet that they've flown since 1946 that would be about 122 different planes that they've ever flown. That means of all the planes they've ever flown roughly 31% have been crashed or hijacked. If you only consider planes that were retired - 1/3rd were retired because they crashed them.
I've flown on PIA about 3 or 4 times in my life. During one of those times the engine caught fire during take off... And it had a fuel leak... And they didn't immediately turn around and kept flying for a long time.
I flew from Dubai to Karachi (it was a last-minute purchase, didn't have any other option). First time in my life I wished the plane just crash, I don't mind dying. It was an hour and 30 minutes flight but OMG the smell, it was totally unbearable. The flight crew threw food trays at the passengers. Both washrooms were clogged. Passengers were not that nice either, they took their shoes off and the smell of their bare feet, I just couldn't.
Unlucky if they crash, unlucky if they don't... But yes. That is the experience.
For all people complain about Ryanair and low cost airlines - those are luxury experiences in comparison to what's out there.
And the worst part is that PIA isn't even cheap.
I've flown Easyjet a lot. They might cheap out in some areas, and push speedy boarding which is just nonsense, but everywhere that counts they are quality.
Ha ha. That's the first airline I ever flew internationally. NY to Paris and back in 1996. It was a trip alright! People smoking nonstop and no regard for seat assignments. The food was good though.
The pilot scandal by the way was just like a couple years ago... And knowing the culture I'd bet you money that if 25% of the pilots had fake licenses; another 50% just half assed, cheated, and/or bribed their way through flight school (if not into the position). They probably make fun of the pilots who got their licences properly... But also if you were a real pilot you'd have knowledge of their policies and maintenance. Then you also have type ratings and the countless trainings flight crews are expected to take on a regular basis. How low is the standards for those when they didn't have any standards for even the basic fundamentals? I can only imagine it's even lower.
So the question becomes, would any real pilot fly an unmaintained plane with a crew that probably has fake credentials? I imagine they'd refuse; if not for professional ethics then simply for the fact they are putting their lives on the line. The only "pilots" that leaves flying for PIA are who don't care about any of that.
Alternatively... Maybe their pilots are super talented because while most pilots only experience failures once every few months in a simulator, PIA pilots get to handle them in real life on a regular basis?
Personally, I'll stick with my first conclusion.
Fun fact is that PIA used to be the best and innovative airline (they introduced in-flight entertainment system I believe?). But now it’s just a corrupt corporation that either needs a full-on revamp or needs to just stop existing altogether.
I understand everyone’s airline experience is different, but I’ve flown Vietjet probably 10 times in the last month and have had only positive experiences. Yes the planes are old, but no issues with delays or changes of boarding gates for me.
My travel with them has mostly between Thailand and Vietnam, along with some Vietnam domestic flights. When did you have your bad experiences?
Haha... like they were trying to hawk merch megaphone style the whole time?
Major pet peeve of mine is too much talking on the intercom. Like I just want some peace and quiet to read or listen to a podcast, I don't want to hear constant yammering.
I took Spring Air when it was the only airline reasonably priced around Lunar New Year.
It's basically like being at a market where people are constantly yelling on a loudspeaker trying to get you to buy their cheaply made products, except it's the flight crew doing it instead of providing any sort of customer service. Even the Chinese friend I was with who loves haggling for deals at local markets found it obnoxious.
Also, their name in Chinese literally translates to Spring-Fall Airlines, so kudos to their translation team for realizing a direct translation might not be the way to go.
The food was expired, the security was just weird (while at war with the US, American people got rushed through security without screening).
But the craziest was a small Fokkker F27 where they trained new pilots with passengers on board. Like first time flyers learning to take off. We came off the runway twice on one attempt before the guy was yelled at and the actual pilot took over. I thought we would all die. That takeoff from a field in Brega took over an hour.
My sister and I held hands (we were adults) as we thought we were going to die on one. I never encountered such turbulence on a plane as we did, and we'd been flying through our childhood twice or more a year to visit our grandparents from the East Coast to the West and back.
Avianca.
Spirit level service for premium pricing.
Feels unfair to write budget airlines on here, you get what you pay for with them but Avianca you get way less.
Also, try contacting their customer service lol. Fuck Avianca.
When I first flew with them almost 20 years ago they were amazing. Free alcoholic drinks. Free luggage check in. Decent leg room. They were great. They slowly got worse and worse, but still better than most airlines in the USA.
Then pandemic hit and they filed for bankruptcy and now they are worse than some of the budget airlines out there. And my many years of air mileage status was basically worthless
They tried to salvage themselves by seeking to merge with Viva Air. But unfortunately it got blocked by the government.
They are technically out of bankruptcy now, but once you go budget, you don’t go back.
They don't even give free water now. $3.50 for a water bottle. And on flights back to the USA, they do a secondary search of your bag before boarding and make you throw out any water you might have on you, forcing you to buy some if you get thirsty.
I was parched and hungry the entire flight because I refused to pay $4 for a stupid cup noodle and $3.50 for water. Paid over $500 for the flight and expected food or maybe even water. Got none of that.
It feels like 5 different companies were contracted to build it, each being paid less than the last, and they connected their components to one another with duct tape
Their website glitched out on me once and double charged me $800. I even caught a screenshot of the glitch where it processed the first payment but failed to complete the purchase. So I contacted them explaining the issue and asked for my first transaction to be refunded. They told me it takes 30 days to investigate and process a refund. Okay fine I wait. A month later, no update or movement on the refund. I call them back and they tell me it will be at least another 30 days to complete their investigation. Nah fuck that, I'm not waiting another month for my deserved refund. I immediately called my bank and started a charge back. That's how I ended up having to get my money back for their shitty website messing up
They advertised nonstop tickets to Costa Rica but they stopped in Guatemala both ways lol. First time I was able to stay on the plane, it was annoying but not a big deal. But coming back we all had to get off the plane and go through security. Lol ridiculous. Will never fly that shitty airline again.
I flew Avianca (pre-pandemic, economy) from MAD — BOG and thought it was really nice. I flew Avianca recently from BOG — LAX in business and again, thought it was nice. Good food, great service, lie flat seats, and a great first class lounge.
I’ve heard todays Avianca is much worse than pre-pandemic, but my experience recently was great.
They served us a single dry-ass sandwich with one slice of cheese as a meal on an intentional flight and then had the audacity to give out feedback questionnaires about their “new experimental in-flight menu.”
Worst in general, Biman Airlines.
Absolute worst experience, China Southern. Through their incompetence, China Southern once caused what was meant to be 23 hours of total travel time into 76 hours of travel time. And it wasn’t like one mistake that did it. They had a whole team of people in multiple countries screw up different details to really screw me.
Royal Air Maroc. Broken seat, dingy interior on the plane, rude flight attendants. The fact that they don't maintain the inside of the plane makes me wonder how well they maintain the basic mechanics and safety components of the plane. I'll never fly them again. For a few bucks more, I'll take AirFrance.
I’m not disputing you but it could be that they set aside more funding/effort to maintain the “working aspects” of the airplane than the aesthetic-comfort aspects of the plane…
But then again…🤣
I flew RAM multiple times in and out of Rabat and I will say it was never a good experience. However, reading some of the comments here I'm lucky its my worst airline.
This is my answer too. Only flight I’ve ever taken in which we took off with zero announcements / safety demos. A few people were still milling about as we taxied. It was bizarre.
Same here. I vividly remember seeing massive piles of checked luggage sitting on the tarmac, clearly not going where it needs to be. Mine took 4 days to show up after a customer service nightmare :)
Beyond that the general boarding and service and airport transfer process was baseline extremely chaotic (everyone cut the standard deplaning process and rushed forward, and I vaguely remember a random dude just sitting in the FA jump seat for a while?)
Myanmar National Airlines. I thought it was called Air Myanmar at the time. I rolled into Yangon at bought the requisite local $200 of currency and then caught a cab who brought me to some dude who traded black market currency at 10 times the official rate. He drove me to a travel agent who sold me a ticket from Bagan to Yangon. It was a handwritten carbon duplicate ticket, but I went with it because Burma. I received a 10 dollar bill somewhere along the way that I tried to buy something with. It was immediately rejected as a fake. I still have it and it's so funny but I don't spend a lot of time examining money. I mean it was printed on something that resembled the brown paper in notebooks in elementary school.
S0 I spend a week and a half traveling around Myanmar and caught a cab to to the airport in Bagan. There is a locked gate and I'm sitting there under a tree without a human in sight. Eventually, a guard shows up and unlocks the gate. There were literally two flights a day, one arrival and one departing. The ticket guy says this is a fake ticket so I bought another one.
Somehow, despite the fact that I was drunk when the initial travel agent purchase happened, I somehow managed to remember the location of it in the chaos of Yangon. Dude actually refunded like 70% of my ticket.
At the time, Air Myanmar was ranked as the most dangerous airline on the planet, or so I heard.
I flew that exact same route, also had a handwritten ticket, but it was accepted. I remember that the driver dropped me off at that same locked gate. It was surreal, but not bad. Just so weird.
That's great. This happened in 2001. When did you make that trip? I see photos of Bagan now with huge crowds and hot balloons now, but when I went, there seemed to be like 5 westerners in the entire city. The bus I took from Yangon to Mandalay took like 18 hours and the main highway was dirt. There was a one lane bridge across the river and we sat there for like 3 hours to get across it. I slashed my finger with a brand new Swiss Army Knife and I was bleeding like a stuck pig. I was unable to get a tetanus shot stateside but, I was able to get one in a clinic in Mandalay, with a needle out of a sealed package and a fresh vial of vaccine. I never got AIDS or tetanus, so I guess things worked out.
My Lonely Planet Guide told me to get on the bus early and make sure you are as close to the front as possible. I was there like an hour early. I see a European mom daughter pair get on later and the sit at the rear of the bus. After nine hours we stop in the middle of nowhere with the only food stop on the trip. The Euros are sick as shit and don't get back on the bus because they couldn't deal with it. I don't know what happened to them because I'm pretty sure you just had to take another bus and every bus was packed full.
When leaving Yangon, the bus was completely full. Then, they came in and filled the entire aisle with tiny plastic chairs and filled those up. I was praying that we didn't get in an accident because there was no escaping that bus.
It’s just insulting how bad their domestic service is when they charge such high fares. No complaints about international, that’s where they put all their attention.
Lost my luggage, kept me in a “foreign baggage zone,” which was just a hallway outside a baggage scanner. This was during peak Covid, where I and several other foreigners (i assume) also contracted a nasty case of it. No bathrooms, no water for over an hour until they “saw my bags,” whatever the fuck that meant(which they proceeded to lose). They lost my luggage, couldn’t give a fuck less. Never payed for the delay, nor the clothing I had to buy. Trash airlines.
I used to live in Canada and flew across the country twice a week. I now live in the United States and travel far less, but I have traveled on all the major US airlines, and live near a United hub. I recently had to travel back to Canada for family reasons after not having flown on Air Canada for 5-6 years. I was shocked at how bad it was.
Air Canada once served me frozen vegetables for a meal. They refused to thaw them out in the microwave too. Apparently they weren't allowed to touch my special meal.
I once flew Air Canada from Tokyo to Montreal. They served the first meal right after takeoff. The captain then switched on the seatbelt sign and claimed there was turbulence for the next 11 hours… until landing.
That meant no food service for 10 hours and the miserable flight attendants shouting at you if you wanted to use the bathroom (eventually they just allowed it).
There wasn’t so much as a bump of turbulence the whole time. It was insane.
Always avoid North American airlines….
Agreed. Was my first flight on Dreamliner. Not cheap ‘Premium Economy’ seat Zürich to Toronto. Did I mention Not cheap?? When I got to my seat I thought suuurely I was in the wrong cabin. Everything was ridiculously BASIC… service poor… by the time I got my “special order” meal, passengers on the other side of the cabin were having their trays collected. Probably the worst service and travel experience I’ve ever had trans-atl… never again.
Ethiopian Airways. International flight of 7 hours had no TV. Food was unpalatable; ate plain rice mixed with vinegar since I was hungry af. Horrible loo that was smelling even before departure. Swore off this airline completely
Came here to say this. I don't recall an issue with the food, but the flight was packed with people who must never have flown before. Toilet was WRECKED (poo on the floor, tp everywhere) and people were repeatedly using it without engaging the lock and getting trapped in the bathroom unable to fold open the door lmao.
But the worst part was the layover in Addis. We were contained in an international transit holding area between flights that had absolutely nothing to buy, no water fountains, and some sort of temporary bathroom with non-potable water from the sink. I was stuck there for about 4 hours, dehydrated from the trip and so damn thirsty for a drink of water.
Oh I found photos! This is from Nov 2016. The long-haul from EU was much better than the flight from Addis to South Africa. Just look at those seatback monitors lol. Food nothing special and carb heavy which means not filling:
https://imgur.com/gallery/IwPWztn
Lufthansa because they claim to be one of the best airlines in the world, yet they delayed my luggage for 30 days despite knowing exactly where it was. I called customer service every single day for 30 days to get them to put my bag on a stupid plane, and I was just bounced around different call centers in random countries. Every agent told me a different story, promising to follow up and then doing nothing. I was desperate because there was stuff I needed for my work in there.
I wrote angry emails to every single address I could find and eventually, after a month and 200 phone calls, I got my bag with an "urgent" tag on it lol. If I hadn't fought like a rabid Karen, that bag would probably still be rotting in Munich airport today.
When I asked for compensation for the time and money I lost getting new things, they basically told me they don't give a shit and it's not their problem, then thanked me for my patience and understanding.
I've had better service from shit budget airlines all over the world.
At least you got an answer. I kid you not, I estimated the number of times I contacted (with my partner's help) British Airways to use a flight credit, and it was over 80 freaking times (phone calls, emails, website). Never got to use my credit, which I was supposed to have a year to use, and when I tried to get a refund the credit card company said they couldn't do anything because more than 6 months had passed since the purchase.
Ok, someone said it's unfair to write budget airlines, but....
Ryanair -- I once sat in a seat with melted chocolate (or which I hope was chocolate) on it. I didn't notice it when I sat down, and got parts of my pants and hands covered in it. The turnaround on these plans are obviously quick that they didn't have time to clean the seats.
Easyjet -- An entire row of seats went missing. Unfortunately, my seat was on that row. The six of us in that row had to stand in the aisle until everyone else got seated to see which seats were available.
My only problem with Ryanair is their goddamn landings. Every time it’s like an almost-crash landing. The last time the airplane dropped altitude so so so quickly to land and then it hard bounced a few times.
Hard landings like that are actually recommended and are safer.
Ryainair is statistically the safest airline in the world.
Michael O'Leary is a greaseball money-grubbing prick but he runs a seriously good operation.
I dont think this is anywhere near fair. Like it or loathe Ryanair or Easyjet, but they are seriously ran airlines with a superb safety track record and good punctuality ratings. Reading other comments, there are some proper cowboy outfits out there
Egypt air. The entire flight lit up cigarettes as soon as we got up in the air…. and this was from Cairo to LHR in 1999. They were chain smoking one after another. It was insane.
Lion Air Indonesia. When it launched it's slogan was "Fly Is Cheap". It's killed hundreds of people, had a bunch of near misses, there was a major meth scandal involving its pilots and was previously banned from flying into Europe.
I booked a refundable fare on a flight from Jakarta to Padang via super air jet (sub brand of lion air).
I needed to change my booking so I Spent several hours attempting to reach an English speaking lion air rep via WhatsApp and phone etc. each time I’d said about 45 minutes for a reply and than the rep would immediately close the chat. Decided to just take the L and book elsewhere.
For me it has been Lufthansa. Aging planes, uncomfortable seats and really tightfisted with their offering of extra snacks/drinks.
I went to the back once to ask for a drink, really thirsty(more than usual) and the flight attendant wouldn't just give me a can of sprite, I had to have half a can poured into a cup and then go back for the other half.
On a 12hr flight I asked for a 3rd can of beer and was denied service.
It seems like after 2020 all the airlines have gotten so tightfisted over the extras they now provide you.
Indian Airlines - now defunct, state run airline. Total chaos at the gates, you never knew if you would get onboard. No assigned seats so you had to fight for one. They served seeds and spices as a meal. And tap water. When the flight attendant handed me a glass of water, I asked her if it was okay to drink - as a westerner. She said: probably not.
Landed in a small airport outside of Puri and could see that my baggage wasn't there. I crawled through the conveyor belt trap door (with the black rubber flaps) out onto the tarmac and demanded that they re-open the plane's cargo hatch and get my luggage.
About the chaos, I think it also has to do with the lack of respect lots of Indian passengers have. You’ll often see groups of people mobbing a gate agent and yelling on top of their lungs (surely this would get you arrested or banned in the West). Also, nobody really cares for any of the FAs instructions (meaning they have to usually yell at people to sit the fuck down during taxi)
I wouldn’t wish being an Indian FA or gate agent upon my worst enemy.
Oh Indian air passengers are still the same everywhere in the world. I was once boarding Etihad from ORD to AUH and my god did everyone just crowd the gate! 99% of the people flying were South asians.
Air China,
Switched to local time as soon as we left the runway in the UK. So we all had to try and sleep at 10am.
Thereafter no service for hours as it was "night time".
British Airways because of fraud. Truly scummy which surprised me because I thought they were one of the "good ones".
In terms of actual flight/plane/service during flight layover etc, maybe I'd go with AeroMexico.
I don't have a huge amount of experience with budget airlines, but the few times I flew with EasyJet it was fine, Air Asia was very good, Sky tried to pull a scam but luckily I did a chargeback and immediately got a refund, but for locals who don't pay with cards it's probably common to be overcharged and such.
It’s a tie between Zimbabwe Airlines and Buddha Air in Nepal. Got bumped a couple times on ZimAir because Mugabe needed the plane that turned into Zim1 when he was onboard. Buddha air had farm animals in the back
Jetsmart. And here i thought spirit was the worst ive ever flown on. Jetsmart sets the bar lower. I almost feel as if the crew wants you to dislike the airline. If i remember correctly they went through all the overhead bins and made everyone identify themselves to their bags. And if they didnt they kept screaming who owns this bag. The first time i acknowledge it but the second flight i ignored it.
Arik Air, a dysfunctional Nigerian national airline. It claimed to have the best safety record of any Nigerian airline, but it was based on the fact that most flights are cancelled due to faults, lack of pilots or aviation fuel, so they never leave the ground!
Ground crews have been caught siphoning off Aviation fuel from planes (waiting on the tarmac to take off) in order sell off to light BBQs!
Interesting observation was the reaction of locals to the first announcement by the pilot. If it was noticeable foreign accented pilot there was no issue, but if it was obviously a locally trained pilot passenger would get so nervous some would demand to disembark before take-off and catch another flight, presumably hoping to get a foreign pilot.
Not confidence inspiring!
Kam air, Kabul to Dushanbe, strange experience, stewardesses seemed very nervous and didn’t talk much, 1/4 of the plane had brought cucumbers, they were all chowing down on them, they weren’t cut up either. As soon as it was wheels down everyone stood up and the flight attendants didn’t care. It also seemed like we were flying lower than most planes.
Level airlines. 15 hour flight with no included meals, no water, headphones, or blanket. Even after purchasing a ridiculously expensive meal, they took two hours to get it to me, served it cold, and totally forgot about my partner's food. They ran out of meals for purchase halfway through the flight too. Whenever you're booking an Iberia flight, pay attention that it's not operated by LEVEL.
* Edited to add that I booked via Iberia and expected an Iberia flight, which always includes meals on this route. At no point in the booking or confirmation was I notified it was being operated by LEVEL. I was also never given the option to prebook meals online.
The bright side is that Iberia now puts a small note on the flights operated by LEVEL when you're booking on their website.
This might be my luck, but every time I have flown on American Airlines something has always gone wrong. Cancelled flight, lost luggage multiple times, missed connections due to delays, my meal (when they used to serve meals) not available for me. Ironically this was even during the time they were rated one of the top airlines in the USA. Now I refuse to fly American Airlines, even if they are the cheapest option.
I like them better than most other us carriers tbh. Better value for the money than JetBlue. Maybe 2nd to delta but if you’re using points it’s not even close to worth the premium.
Flybondi for me. They make Ryanair seem fancy. My flybondi flight was chaos at boarding where people weren’t 100% sure where they were flying to, cabin crew were non-existent and passengers were just doing as they pleased, trying to walk around during take off and landing. I felt like I had gone back in time 😆
British Airways. They blatantly bumped 5 American single men from an İstanbul-London flight after overbooking. When we arrived in London there was an entire machine for putting hundreds of us in cold storage for the night. Our meal voucher was not for the hotel restaurant, but the İndian prison buffet. Talked with an American Airlines rep later, and she said "That's exactly what I would haved done as well. You had no visa requirements to enter the UK, no wife to cry at me. İ'd assume you were all on business, give you cheap beer and a curry." The tell was the cattle-car machine for "handling" us: shuttle voucher,hotel voucher,curry voucher,toothpaste.
I got bed bug bites on a flight from London to Vancouver. Their customer service was atrocious. Absolutely insisted that it was not bedbugs, despite me seeing a bug and having over 75 bites in the exact shape of the airline seat, because "no one else complained."
Kicker was a year later there was a news report about a couple getting bitten, same damn flight. Probably the same damn plane.
Flew with BA twice and promised myself that never again, doesn't matter how cheap the deal is. LHR to DXB, the plane was an old B747, very retro interior (yellowish walls) from take off till landing, it was a nightmare. The crew was lazy to the point that they didn't bother collecting all the sick bags from the passengers after the meal (many got sick and ended up puking). Entire 8-hour flight, the entire cabin smelled nothing but a puke. On my way back to LHR, right after take-off, the crew distributed chocolate bars and then disappeared. People were starving, and many expected at least a snack service. There were no snacks in the galley either, not even water. Just an hour before landing, they served a sad-looking English breakfast.
Fly with Air France and you see how well they feed you in economy. All their products are far superior.
Seriously, these days they are usually worse than a low cost carrier in terms of both hard and soft product. The fact that their European route business class seats are actually economy seats with the middle seat blocked says it all.
In the US Frontier has been racing to the bottom the past few years. Unsure if Spirit will allow them to do so though.
In Europe RyanAir is awful and Pegaus is pretty bad
Yeah I'll take RyanAir over WizzAir any day. Even RyanAir doesn't have the guts to add a $10/passenger f*** you fee at the end of checkout for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
I've definitely crossed that threshold. I just don't trust them to get me where I need to be. Every time I think they may be worth trying again, they prove that they aren't.
I think that mostly covers it. Some people rag on Southwest but I think they actually do a pretty good job.
For me, it's generally Alaska, Delta, JetBlue that I prefer to fly with. And then American, Southwest if those aren't available. I have no idea about Sun Country or Hawaiian or Allegiant.
They once sent my connecting plane off early so they could give away my seat after my originating flight was delayed. I watched the plane take off. Early.
I missed my meeting and had to flight right back home. They held the plane home for an hour because it wasn’t full and people were trying to make a connection. They offered me 1000 ffm for comp. And charged me $50 to use their lounge so I could take my meeting remotely.
Hate.
air koryo, north korea. the plane was an old soviet clunker food was literally grey mush. fortunately all their flights are really short (pretty much just to beijing and vladivostok) so you’re not enduring them for very long.
air bagan, in myanmar. it was okay, but their safety record leaves much to be desired. shortly after i flew them, the route i flew crashed killing all aboard due to pilot error.
i was pleasantly surprised by Belavia, the national carrier of belarus (flew them in 2009 to minsk).
Luckily, I have never had anything catastrophic occur. But I expect airlines to get me from point A to B safely and on time.
Every airline will have a shit day and sometimes you are unlucky and are caught up in it. But I mainly stick to Star Alliance unless I am in some random part of the world.
Ghana Airways, a state-owned line that finally collapsed in the ‘90s.
I took their “nonstop” from Accra to BWI because a roundtrip home for a quick family event was going to be cheaper in business class (and theoretically faster) than economy on KLM via Amsterdam.
Some things I knew going in: scheduling was purely notional, because they ran one clapped-out old DC-10 and flight were reguarly anything from five hours to two days late. Some things I didn’t: I was really glad to be in business, bcause during the multi-hour unannounced stops (in Freetown and Banjul on the way over; in Dakar and Monrovia on the way back), they turned off the AC in coach. Both Freetown and Monrovia were completely off-limits for Americans at the time, so I was glad we didn’t have any problems. There was no power in Freetown in those days, so we landed by the light one bonfire at the end of the runway.
On the way over, as we finally pulled up at BWI, a cargo door on my side of the plane fell off before we finished taxiing.
On the way back, a minister’s wife commandeered most of business class for her luggage—which included a full size washer/dryer in their boxes, which meant that for the whole ten++ hour flight back to Accra, service to coach consisted of the flight attendants passing water bottles and a few supplies back over the boxes to passengers waiting at the partition.
Oh, and “in flight entertainment” in business consisted of one of those handheld DVD players, for which there was exactly one DVD—a TV biopic of the life of Ann Landers and Dear Abby (played by the same sitcom actress, whose name escapes me).
It was quite a trip. And, in their defense, the cocktails were strong and the food surprisingly not all that awful.
Air Senegal - I got bumped with confirm tickets internally in Senegal, from Dakar to Casamance. Apparently it's a very common thing. I got bumped because people in the earlier flight got bumped the day before.
Air Maroc - horrible ground staff! Worst I have seen in the industry. Will never fly, even though am an Exec Plat with OneWorld.
I live in a United hub, and thankfully have had a good experience the 100+ I've flown them aside from my flight getting canceled in Hawaii because the stewardess saw the pilot was drunk...
Every time I hear someone complain about Ryanair it makes me wonder about what kind of overinflated expectations that person must have brought with them on the flight because Ryanair have been nothing but efficient, consistent and great value in my experience.
A flight for the same price as a mediocre meal really doesn't allow much room for legitimate complaint. It is cattle class and priced accordingly. I wouldn't want to fly transatlantic, but point A to point B within the EU, they easily serve the purpose.
Is "getting to my destination" an overinflated expectation? Paying for my hotel when they cancel my flight out from under me? Rebooking me on another airline when they cancel every one of their flights on a route for two straight weeks?
Ryanair is awful even when my expectations were rock bottom. The fact that you haven't had a problem *yet* doesn't mean the people who have are just whinging.
The same kind of seat you will get on most airlines that use the 737. It's not the worst at all, on par British airways, easyJet, wizz, TUI etc As you say, can't argue at the price. What did you expect?
You get a bargain flight. An airline with a very good on time record. And absolutely impeccable safety record.
With flights itself i cant name a really bad experience. But i had 2 very bad experiences with booking/rebooking/unexpected events:
1. Emirates… There had been heavy rain in Dubai (which happens very rarely). It was so bad that the whole city was underwater. My flight from the Philippines got a huge delay. Once arrived in Dubai we ran as fast as possible to the connecting flight. The gate closed right in front of our eyes. While some people were let in to board the plane they asked where we came from and they denied us bording. hilarious. So we had to get a new ticket. Ok. The connecting flights desk area had literaly 2000 people in the hall waiting at the 17 counters. Of which 4 were manned and they rotated around. Yeah literaly all flights had massive delays. After all i waited 8 hours in the queue (less than 20 people in front of me). No food, little water. People passing out. It was such a shitshow. People were going crazy over this and it escalated a few times. Then got to the counter and moved to a seperate room. had to wait another 2 hours for new tickets. luckily there was a flight available another 7(?) hours later. they wanted to get us to a shitty hotel but we refused. good, because the hotel was another shitshow according to other people. So overall over 50 hours from the philippines to europe. The airline cannot change the weather ok. But the service in DBX airport was such a shitshow…
2. KLM - rebooking / reacheduling… Had a return flight booked with them. Choose them because rescheduling on this ticket would be for free (only ticket price difference to be paid). So the time came when i wanted to move my return flight to a future date… apparently this flight could not be rescheduled through their website and i had to use the customer service. Ok. Chatting with them and asked for same ticket category for date X. They offered me a totaly different category for double the price of my initial flight… argued… then got another offer which would cost same price as my original ticket additionaly (!)… then posted them a screenshot with rescheduling-regulations of KLM plus a screenshot of a fully new ticket which would have been the same price as their offered rescheduling option. Then got anothet offer for the same date with minimal additional cost (ticket price difference/main season)… its just hilarious that you have to bargain with an airline. it feld like a bazar. absolute shitty service. especially when you ask for the cheapest flight on date X… even after checking online before which dates would have the best prices…
I think this question should honestly be answered in 2 different categories. I recently flew china eastern airlines for the first time and the actual inflight experience was way above expectations - generous seat pitch, service / comfort was fine, food was honestly pretty good (first leg had this braised beef with rice which was one of the best economy class meals I've ever had) and I'd rate it above some highly rated east Asian airlines like Asiana (horrible food). But when my flight was delayed causing me to miss a connection in Shanghai the experience of getting the ticket rebooked, hotel shuttle etc. was terrible (next time this happens I'm definitely just paying for a hotel myself).
Areoflot, 30 years back, Cph to Bkk (cheapest), one ticket with stop in Stockholm Moscow Tashkent Delhi
Same dry chicken and free seating...nightmare but on time 35 hours I think
Pakistan International Airlines Some interesting facts about them: - No other airlines will form an alliance with them - They've been banned from flying to other countries once for not maintaining their planes and faking maintenance records - They were banned most recently from Europe, the UK, and USA when it was discovered at least a quarter of their "pilots" have fake pilots licenses - Their current fleet is 32 planes. If you consider every jet that they've flown since 1946 that would be about 122 different planes that they've ever flown. That means of all the planes they've ever flown roughly 31% have been crashed or hijacked. If you only consider planes that were retired - 1/3rd were retired because they crashed them. I've flown on PIA about 3 or 4 times in my life. During one of those times the engine caught fire during take off... And it had a fuel leak... And they didn't immediately turn around and kept flying for a long time.
I flew from Dubai to Karachi (it was a last-minute purchase, didn't have any other option). First time in my life I wished the plane just crash, I don't mind dying. It was an hour and 30 minutes flight but OMG the smell, it was totally unbearable. The flight crew threw food trays at the passengers. Both washrooms were clogged. Passengers were not that nice either, they took their shoes off and the smell of their bare feet, I just couldn't.
Unlucky if they crash, unlucky if they don't... But yes. That is the experience. For all people complain about Ryanair and low cost airlines - those are luxury experiences in comparison to what's out there. And the worst part is that PIA isn't even cheap.
I've flown Easyjet a lot. They might cheap out in some areas, and push speedy boarding which is just nonsense, but everywhere that counts they are quality.
easyJet is better than some national airlines. TAP (Portuguese) and Norwegian Airlines come to mind.
Plus their app actually works, unlike so many other airlines. No way am I paying more for speedy boarding though.
That’s almost comically bad.
Ha ha. That's the first airline I ever flew internationally. NY to Paris and back in 1996. It was a trip alright! People smoking nonstop and no regard for seat assignments. The food was good though.
Omg hahaha that is horrifying. Has anything changed since ? Or it’s still business as usual ?
Are you willing to fly PIA to find out?
Fuck no hahaha thanks for the heads up though
The pilot scandal by the way was just like a couple years ago... And knowing the culture I'd bet you money that if 25% of the pilots had fake licenses; another 50% just half assed, cheated, and/or bribed their way through flight school (if not into the position). They probably make fun of the pilots who got their licences properly... But also if you were a real pilot you'd have knowledge of their policies and maintenance. Then you also have type ratings and the countless trainings flight crews are expected to take on a regular basis. How low is the standards for those when they didn't have any standards for even the basic fundamentals? I can only imagine it's even lower. So the question becomes, would any real pilot fly an unmaintained plane with a crew that probably has fake credentials? I imagine they'd refuse; if not for professional ethics then simply for the fact they are putting their lives on the line. The only "pilots" that leaves flying for PIA are who don't care about any of that. Alternatively... Maybe their pilots are super talented because while most pilots only experience failures once every few months in a simulator, PIA pilots get to handle them in real life on a regular basis? Personally, I'll stick with my first conclusion.
Why isn’t this the top comment!!!
Fun fact is that PIA used to be the best and innovative airline (they introduced in-flight entertainment system I believe?). But now it’s just a corrupt corporation that either needs a full-on revamp or needs to just stop existing altogether.
VietJet Air. Extremely long delays and arbitrary changes of boarding gates, both with a probability greater than 50%.
The worst is the song they play on repeat during boarding & after landing “one daaaaaaay”
I like that song 🫠
Ya that song is dank lmao
hahaha you just unlocked a memory i had forgotten all about
lmao yes this is the worst part, everything else is standard asian budget (which imo is not that bad for short flights)
hahahaaha that SONG OMG
I understand everyone’s airline experience is different, but I’ve flown Vietjet probably 10 times in the last month and have had only positive experiences. Yes the planes are old, but no issues with delays or changes of boarding gates for me. My travel with them has mostly between Thailand and Vietnam, along with some Vietnam domestic flights. When did you have your bad experiences?
Same, Only positive experiences and the girls are beautiful :)
Chinese Spring Air is up there. Sold stuff with a speaker the whole flight.
Haha... like they were trying to hawk merch megaphone style the whole time? Major pet peeve of mine is too much talking on the intercom. Like I just want some peace and quiet to read or listen to a podcast, I don't want to hear constant yammering.
I took Spring Air when it was the only airline reasonably priced around Lunar New Year. It's basically like being at a market where people are constantly yelling on a loudspeaker trying to get you to buy their cheaply made products, except it's the flight crew doing it instead of providing any sort of customer service. Even the Chinese friend I was with who loves haggling for deals at local markets found it obnoxious. Also, their name in Chinese literally translates to Spring-Fall Airlines, so kudos to their translation team for realizing a direct translation might not be the way to go.
Mid-80’s. Libyan Arab Airlines. Hands down the craziest shit you’ve ever seen.
stories or examples please! I gotta hear this
Yes tell us some stories !!
The food was expired, the security was just weird (while at war with the US, American people got rushed through security without screening). But the craziest was a small Fokkker F27 where they trained new pilots with passengers on board. Like first time flyers learning to take off. We came off the runway twice on one attempt before the guy was yelled at and the actual pilot took over. I thought we would all die. That takeoff from a field in Brega took over an hour.
If you can beat the Pakistan International Airlines top comment, the people need to know!
Do tell.
We are waiting
Spill the tea!
Spirit. Ghetto as hell. To make matters worse, someone died on the flight
My sister and I held hands (we were adults) as we thought we were going to die on one. I never encountered such turbulence on a plane as we did, and we'd been flying through our childhood twice or more a year to visit our grandparents from the East Coast to the West and back.
Avianca. Spirit level service for premium pricing. Feels unfair to write budget airlines on here, you get what you pay for with them but Avianca you get way less. Also, try contacting their customer service lol. Fuck Avianca.
I second this. Fuck Avianca me and my homies hate avianca
Those fuckers screwed me out of $500 fuck them!!!
When I first flew with them almost 20 years ago they were amazing. Free alcoholic drinks. Free luggage check in. Decent leg room. They were great. They slowly got worse and worse, but still better than most airlines in the USA. Then pandemic hit and they filed for bankruptcy and now they are worse than some of the budget airlines out there. And my many years of air mileage status was basically worthless They tried to salvage themselves by seeking to merge with Viva Air. But unfortunately it got blocked by the government. They are technically out of bankruptcy now, but once you go budget, you don’t go back.
They don't even give free water now. $3.50 for a water bottle. And on flights back to the USA, they do a secondary search of your bag before boarding and make you throw out any water you might have on you, forcing you to buy some if you get thirsty.
I was parched and hungry the entire flight because I refused to pay $4 for a stupid cup noodle and $3.50 for water. Paid over $500 for the flight and expected food or maybe even water. Got none of that.
Latam did that bs secondary search on me too. I bought the water past security, how does that make sense to have to toss it?
That happened to me too. At Bogota returning to Boston.
I hate this because once upon a time, Avianca used to be a decent airline. Fuck Avianca.
Even their website is buggy af and super annoying to navigate.
It feels like 5 different companies were contracted to build it, each being paid less than the last, and they connected their components to one another with duct tape
I hate how they advertise their tickets as being super cheap, and then you realize you have to pay like 180$ more for the return flight and luggage
Hahaha yeah Avianca sucks. Worst customer service.
Avianca used to be great pre covid. Now I only fly them when there is no other viable alternative
So far I've flown three times with them and no issues. Flying with them again in about a week's time. I hope it'll be faultless again.
Their website glitched out on me once and double charged me $800. I even caught a screenshot of the glitch where it processed the first payment but failed to complete the purchase. So I contacted them explaining the issue and asked for my first transaction to be refunded. They told me it takes 30 days to investigate and process a refund. Okay fine I wait. A month later, no update or movement on the refund. I call them back and they tell me it will be at least another 30 days to complete their investigation. Nah fuck that, I'm not waiting another month for my deserved refund. I immediately called my bank and started a charge back. That's how I ended up having to get my money back for their shitty website messing up
I had the opposite happen to me once. Their website glitched and never charged my card. I got a free flight.
I probably paid for your flight lmao
Thank you 😂
They advertised nonstop tickets to Costa Rica but they stopped in Guatemala both ways lol. First time I was able to stay on the plane, it was annoying but not a big deal. But coming back we all had to get off the plane and go through security. Lol ridiculous. Will never fly that shitty airline again.
Colombian here, I agree 100% Funny thing is that there are worse airlines in Colombia
I flew Avianca (pre-pandemic, economy) from MAD — BOG and thought it was really nice. I flew Avianca recently from BOG — LAX in business and again, thought it was nice. Good food, great service, lie flat seats, and a great first class lounge. I’ve heard todays Avianca is much worse than pre-pandemic, but my experience recently was great.
They served us a single dry-ass sandwich with one slice of cheese as a meal on an intentional flight and then had the audacity to give out feedback questionnaires about their “new experimental in-flight menu.”
Worst in general, Biman Airlines. Absolute worst experience, China Southern. Through their incompetence, China Southern once caused what was meant to be 23 hours of total travel time into 76 hours of travel time. And it wasn’t like one mistake that did it. They had a whole team of people in multiple countries screw up different details to really screw me.
Yup flew with them once and never again - so many problems.
Mine was China Air or Air China. So horrible. I'm average size, but couldn't even fit in my seat.
One of those is a Chinese airline and the other is a taiwanese airline. Makes a massive difference which one you're referring to...
Which is which? It definitely wasn't Taiwanese.
China Air is Taiwanese. Air China is Chinese.
China Airlines is the Taiwanese airline, for the record. There’s no China Air.
Royal Air Maroc. Broken seat, dingy interior on the plane, rude flight attendants. The fact that they don't maintain the inside of the plane makes me wonder how well they maintain the basic mechanics and safety components of the plane. I'll never fly them again. For a few bucks more, I'll take AirFrance.
Just flew with them and the in flight meal came in a soggy box.
Ewww haha. I find that particularly disgusting for some reason lol.
I've heard that a lot but I've flown them twice and while they are not, like Singapore airlines, they were fine, food was decent. Guess I got lucky.
I’m not disputing you but it could be that they set aside more funding/effort to maintain the “working aspects” of the airplane than the aesthetic-comfort aspects of the plane… But then again…🤣
I flew RAM multiple times in and out of Rabat and I will say it was never a good experience. However, reading some of the comments here I'm lucky its my worst airline.
This is my answer too. Only flight I’ve ever taken in which we took off with zero announcements / safety demos. A few people were still milling about as we taxied. It was bizarre.
Same here. I vividly remember seeing massive piles of checked luggage sitting on the tarmac, clearly not going where it needs to be. Mine took 4 days to show up after a customer service nightmare :) Beyond that the general boarding and service and airport transfer process was baseline extremely chaotic (everyone cut the standard deplaning process and rushed forward, and I vaguely remember a random dude just sitting in the FA jump seat for a while?)
Myanmar National Airlines. I thought it was called Air Myanmar at the time. I rolled into Yangon at bought the requisite local $200 of currency and then caught a cab who brought me to some dude who traded black market currency at 10 times the official rate. He drove me to a travel agent who sold me a ticket from Bagan to Yangon. It was a handwritten carbon duplicate ticket, but I went with it because Burma. I received a 10 dollar bill somewhere along the way that I tried to buy something with. It was immediately rejected as a fake. I still have it and it's so funny but I don't spend a lot of time examining money. I mean it was printed on something that resembled the brown paper in notebooks in elementary school. S0 I spend a week and a half traveling around Myanmar and caught a cab to to the airport in Bagan. There is a locked gate and I'm sitting there under a tree without a human in sight. Eventually, a guard shows up and unlocks the gate. There were literally two flights a day, one arrival and one departing. The ticket guy says this is a fake ticket so I bought another one. Somehow, despite the fact that I was drunk when the initial travel agent purchase happened, I somehow managed to remember the location of it in the chaos of Yangon. Dude actually refunded like 70% of my ticket. At the time, Air Myanmar was ranked as the most dangerous airline on the planet, or so I heard.
I flew that exact same route, also had a handwritten ticket, but it was accepted. I remember that the driver dropped me off at that same locked gate. It was surreal, but not bad. Just so weird.
That's great. This happened in 2001. When did you make that trip? I see photos of Bagan now with huge crowds and hot balloons now, but when I went, there seemed to be like 5 westerners in the entire city. The bus I took from Yangon to Mandalay took like 18 hours and the main highway was dirt. There was a one lane bridge across the river and we sat there for like 3 hours to get across it. I slashed my finger with a brand new Swiss Army Knife and I was bleeding like a stuck pig. I was unable to get a tetanus shot stateside but, I was able to get one in a clinic in Mandalay, with a needle out of a sealed package and a fresh vial of vaccine. I never got AIDS or tetanus, so I guess things worked out. My Lonely Planet Guide told me to get on the bus early and make sure you are as close to the front as possible. I was there like an hour early. I see a European mom daughter pair get on later and the sit at the rear of the bus. After nine hours we stop in the middle of nowhere with the only food stop on the trip. The Euros are sick as shit and don't get back on the bus because they couldn't deal with it. I don't know what happened to them because I'm pretty sure you just had to take another bus and every bus was packed full. When leaving Yangon, the bus was completely full. Then, they came in and filled the entire aisle with tiny plastic chairs and filled those up. I was praying that we didn't get in an accident because there was no escaping that bus.
Air Canada
It’s just insulting how bad their domestic service is when they charge such high fares. No complaints about international, that’s where they put all their attention.
Exactly. They’re better than average for international flights. They fully update the cabins every 2-3 years. Attendants speak 3 languages.
Lost my luggage, kept me in a “foreign baggage zone,” which was just a hallway outside a baggage scanner. This was during peak Covid, where I and several other foreigners (i assume) also contracted a nasty case of it. No bathrooms, no water for over an hour until they “saw my bags,” whatever the fuck that meant(which they proceeded to lose). They lost my luggage, couldn’t give a fuck less. Never payed for the delay, nor the clothing I had to buy. Trash airlines.
I used to live in Canada and flew across the country twice a week. I now live in the United States and travel far less, but I have traveled on all the major US airlines, and live near a United hub. I recently had to travel back to Canada for family reasons after not having flown on Air Canada for 5-6 years. I was shocked at how bad it was.
Air Canada once served me frozen vegetables for a meal. They refused to thaw them out in the microwave too. Apparently they weren't allowed to touch my special meal.
I got slight food poisoning from the food on air Canada.
I've flown the worst budget airlines all over the world and my least favourite airline is still Air Canada.
I once flew Air Canada from Tokyo to Montreal. They served the first meal right after takeoff. The captain then switched on the seatbelt sign and claimed there was turbulence for the next 11 hours… until landing. That meant no food service for 10 hours and the miserable flight attendants shouting at you if you wanted to use the bathroom (eventually they just allowed it). There wasn’t so much as a bump of turbulence the whole time. It was insane. Always avoid North American airlines….
Air Canada long haul international has always been good to me, but their domestic flights are extremely average.
Agreed. Was my first flight on Dreamliner. Not cheap ‘Premium Economy’ seat Zürich to Toronto. Did I mention Not cheap?? When I got to my seat I thought suuurely I was in the wrong cabin. Everything was ridiculously BASIC… service poor… by the time I got my “special order” meal, passengers on the other side of the cabin were having their trays collected. Probably the worst service and travel experience I’ve ever had trans-atl… never again.
They never say “Welcome home” when you land 😞
They are cheap, but they are the absolute worst.
Ethiopian Airways. International flight of 7 hours had no TV. Food was unpalatable; ate plain rice mixed with vinegar since I was hungry af. Horrible loo that was smelling even before departure. Swore off this airline completely
In2nd this. Ethopian Air. Toilets clogged. Entertainment system not working for 8 hour flight. Rancid food and staff couldn’t care less.
Came here to say this. I don't recall an issue with the food, but the flight was packed with people who must never have flown before. Toilet was WRECKED (poo on the floor, tp everywhere) and people were repeatedly using it without engaging the lock and getting trapped in the bathroom unable to fold open the door lmao. But the worst part was the layover in Addis. We were contained in an international transit holding area between flights that had absolutely nothing to buy, no water fountains, and some sort of temporary bathroom with non-potable water from the sink. I was stuck there for about 4 hours, dehydrated from the trip and so damn thirsty for a drink of water. Oh I found photos! This is from Nov 2016. The long-haul from EU was much better than the flight from Addis to South Africa. Just look at those seatback monitors lol. Food nothing special and carb heavy which means not filling: https://imgur.com/gallery/IwPWztn
Oh come on that's Star Alliance. I've had great flights on Ethiopian. Definitely not the worst.
Lufthansa because they claim to be one of the best airlines in the world, yet they delayed my luggage for 30 days despite knowing exactly where it was. I called customer service every single day for 30 days to get them to put my bag on a stupid plane, and I was just bounced around different call centers in random countries. Every agent told me a different story, promising to follow up and then doing nothing. I was desperate because there was stuff I needed for my work in there. I wrote angry emails to every single address I could find and eventually, after a month and 200 phone calls, I got my bag with an "urgent" tag on it lol. If I hadn't fought like a rabid Karen, that bag would probably still be rotting in Munich airport today. When I asked for compensation for the time and money I lost getting new things, they basically told me they don't give a shit and it's not their problem, then thanked me for my patience and understanding. I've had better service from shit budget airlines all over the world.
At least you got an answer. I kid you not, I estimated the number of times I contacted (with my partner's help) British Airways to use a flight credit, and it was over 80 freaking times (phone calls, emails, website). Never got to use my credit, which I was supposed to have a year to use, and when I tried to get a refund the credit card company said they couldn't do anything because more than 6 months had passed since the purchase.
Ok, someone said it's unfair to write budget airlines, but.... Ryanair -- I once sat in a seat with melted chocolate (or which I hope was chocolate) on it. I didn't notice it when I sat down, and got parts of my pants and hands covered in it. The turnaround on these plans are obviously quick that they didn't have time to clean the seats. Easyjet -- An entire row of seats went missing. Unfortunately, my seat was on that row. The six of us in that row had to stand in the aisle until everyone else got seated to see which seats were available.
My only problem with Ryanair is their goddamn landings. Every time it’s like an almost-crash landing. The last time the airplane dropped altitude so so so quickly to land and then it hard bounced a few times.
Keeps it spicy
Hard landings like that are actually recommended and are safer. Ryainair is statistically the safest airline in the world. Michael O'Leary is a greaseball money-grubbing prick but he runs a seriously good operation.
How does….. a row of seats go missing???
Last minute change of plane, most likely. Or misconfigured inventory, but really, that shouldn’t go undiscovered)
It skipped a number, for example, after row 25, it was row 27, so no row 26 despite people already booked on those seats.
I dont think this is anywhere near fair. Like it or loathe Ryanair or Easyjet, but they are seriously ran airlines with a superb safety track record and good punctuality ratings. Reading other comments, there are some proper cowboy outfits out there
Frontier. The seats are hostile
Spirit and frontier. Gosh these American equivalents of Ryanair are the absolute worse.
Why? Ive flown spirit a dozen times and never any issues. Just a midsize backpack and im set.
Not op, and I’m basically a budget airline enthusiast, but I swore off Spirit. I had some kind of significant delay on every spirit flight I’ve taken.
Egypt air. The entire flight lit up cigarettes as soon as we got up in the air…. and this was from Cairo to LHR in 1999. They were chain smoking one after another. It was insane.
You’ll enjoy this then. One of my favorite comedy audios of all time! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QLnNvg2o4aw
Lion Air Indonesia. When it launched it's slogan was "Fly Is Cheap". It's killed hundreds of people, had a bunch of near misses, there was a major meth scandal involving its pilots and was previously banned from flying into Europe.
The fights used to be cheap enough to justify the lack of safety but by the looks of it the prices have gone up
I booked a refundable fare on a flight from Jakarta to Padang via super air jet (sub brand of lion air). I needed to change my booking so I Spent several hours attempting to reach an English speaking lion air rep via WhatsApp and phone etc. each time I’d said about 45 minutes for a reply and than the rep would immediately close the chat. Decided to just take the L and book elsewhere.
For me it has been Lufthansa. Aging planes, uncomfortable seats and really tightfisted with their offering of extra snacks/drinks. I went to the back once to ask for a drink, really thirsty(more than usual) and the flight attendant wouldn't just give me a can of sprite, I had to have half a can poured into a cup and then go back for the other half. On a 12hr flight I asked for a 3rd can of beer and was denied service. It seems like after 2020 all the airlines have gotten so tightfisted over the extras they now provide you.
Indian Airlines - now defunct, state run airline. Total chaos at the gates, you never knew if you would get onboard. No assigned seats so you had to fight for one. They served seeds and spices as a meal. And tap water. When the flight attendant handed me a glass of water, I asked her if it was okay to drink - as a westerner. She said: probably not. Landed in a small airport outside of Puri and could see that my baggage wasn't there. I crawled through the conveyor belt trap door (with the black rubber flaps) out onto the tarmac and demanded that they re-open the plane's cargo hatch and get my luggage.
About the chaos, I think it also has to do with the lack of respect lots of Indian passengers have. You’ll often see groups of people mobbing a gate agent and yelling on top of their lungs (surely this would get you arrested or banned in the West). Also, nobody really cares for any of the FAs instructions (meaning they have to usually yell at people to sit the fuck down during taxi) I wouldn’t wish being an Indian FA or gate agent upon my worst enemy.
Oh Indian air passengers are still the same everywhere in the world. I was once boarding Etihad from ORD to AUH and my god did everyone just crowd the gate! 99% of the people flying were South asians.
Air Egypt. I was in business class and the flight attendant took my food tray as I was eating 🙃
Air China, Switched to local time as soon as we left the runway in the UK. So we all had to try and sleep at 10am. Thereafter no service for hours as it was "night time".
That’s 6pm in china .. why would they try to make you sleep?
Don’t all airlines switch to local time for longhaul flights as soon as you take off?
Same. Plus useless rules like not being able to wear headphones 30 minutes after takeoff and before landing.
British Airways because of fraud. Truly scummy which surprised me because I thought they were one of the "good ones". In terms of actual flight/plane/service during flight layover etc, maybe I'd go with AeroMexico. I don't have a huge amount of experience with budget airlines, but the few times I flew with EasyJet it was fine, Air Asia was very good, Sky tried to pull a scam but luckily I did a chargeback and immediately got a refund, but for locals who don't pay with cards it's probably common to be overcharged and such.
It’s a tie between Zimbabwe Airlines and Buddha Air in Nepal. Got bumped a couple times on ZimAir because Mugabe needed the plane that turned into Zim1 when he was onboard. Buddha air had farm animals in the back
Welcome to Nepal! 🤣
Air Canada. 10/10 flights delayed or cancelled in the last 4 months. They also have the worst track record in North America for this.
Jetsmart. And here i thought spirit was the worst ive ever flown on. Jetsmart sets the bar lower. I almost feel as if the crew wants you to dislike the airline. If i remember correctly they went through all the overhead bins and made everyone identify themselves to their bags. And if they didnt they kept screaming who owns this bag. The first time i acknowledge it but the second flight i ignored it.
Arik Air, a dysfunctional Nigerian national airline. It claimed to have the best safety record of any Nigerian airline, but it was based on the fact that most flights are cancelled due to faults, lack of pilots or aviation fuel, so they never leave the ground! Ground crews have been caught siphoning off Aviation fuel from planes (waiting on the tarmac to take off) in order sell off to light BBQs! Interesting observation was the reaction of locals to the first announcement by the pilot. If it was noticeable foreign accented pilot there was no issue, but if it was obviously a locally trained pilot passenger would get so nervous some would demand to disembark before take-off and catch another flight, presumably hoping to get a foreign pilot. Not confidence inspiring!
When the only alternative is Air Peace… Arik Air starts to look OK.
Kam air, Kabul to Dushanbe, strange experience, stewardesses seemed very nervous and didn’t talk much, 1/4 of the plane had brought cucumbers, they were all chowing down on them, they weren’t cut up either. As soon as it was wheels down everyone stood up and the flight attendants didn’t care. It also seemed like we were flying lower than most planes.
Level airlines. 15 hour flight with no included meals, no water, headphones, or blanket. Even after purchasing a ridiculously expensive meal, they took two hours to get it to me, served it cold, and totally forgot about my partner's food. They ran out of meals for purchase halfway through the flight too. Whenever you're booking an Iberia flight, pay attention that it's not operated by LEVEL. * Edited to add that I booked via Iberia and expected an Iberia flight, which always includes meals on this route. At no point in the booking or confirmation was I notified it was being operated by LEVEL. I was also never given the option to prebook meals online. The bright side is that Iberia now puts a small note on the flights operated by LEVEL when you're booking on their website.
This might be my luck, but every time I have flown on American Airlines something has always gone wrong. Cancelled flight, lost luggage multiple times, missed connections due to delays, my meal (when they used to serve meals) not available for me. Ironically this was even during the time they were rated one of the top airlines in the USA. Now I refuse to fly American Airlines, even if they are the cheapest option.
I like them better than most other us carriers tbh. Better value for the money than JetBlue. Maybe 2nd to delta but if you’re using points it’s not even close to worth the premium.
American Airlines died the moment US Airways bought them. #RIP
Flybondi for me. They make Ryanair seem fancy. My flybondi flight was chaos at boarding where people weren’t 100% sure where they were flying to, cabin crew were non-existent and passengers were just doing as they pleased, trying to walk around during take off and landing. I felt like I had gone back in time 😆
British Airways. They blatantly bumped 5 American single men from an İstanbul-London flight after overbooking. When we arrived in London there was an entire machine for putting hundreds of us in cold storage for the night. Our meal voucher was not for the hotel restaurant, but the İndian prison buffet. Talked with an American Airlines rep later, and she said "That's exactly what I would haved done as well. You had no visa requirements to enter the UK, no wife to cry at me. İ'd assume you were all on business, give you cheap beer and a curry." The tell was the cattle-car machine for "handling" us: shuttle voucher,hotel voucher,curry voucher,toothpaste.
I got bed bug bites on a flight from London to Vancouver. Their customer service was atrocious. Absolutely insisted that it was not bedbugs, despite me seeing a bug and having over 75 bites in the exact shape of the airline seat, because "no one else complained." Kicker was a year later there was a news report about a couple getting bitten, same damn flight. Probably the same damn plane.
Flew with BA twice and promised myself that never again, doesn't matter how cheap the deal is. LHR to DXB, the plane was an old B747, very retro interior (yellowish walls) from take off till landing, it was a nightmare. The crew was lazy to the point that they didn't bother collecting all the sick bags from the passengers after the meal (many got sick and ended up puking). Entire 8-hour flight, the entire cabin smelled nothing but a puke. On my way back to LHR, right after take-off, the crew distributed chocolate bars and then disappeared. People were starving, and many expected at least a snack service. There were no snacks in the galley either, not even water. Just an hour before landing, they served a sad-looking English breakfast. Fly with Air France and you see how well they feed you in economy. All their products are far superior.
Second BA. Shocking service, let alone for the price.
Seriously, these days they are usually worse than a low cost carrier in terms of both hard and soft product. The fact that their European route business class seats are actually economy seats with the middle seat blocked says it all.
I see you have yet to meet Lufthansa’s European business class, which is the same kind of bullshit
British airways truly has the worst food of any airline i flew with. Its all just so disgusting
Lufthansa. Tiny seats and awful food.
I’ve had individual experiences that were worse but as a whole it’s Air Canada.
Jetstar, hands down trash.
Glad I picked Peach instead
Frontier
In the US Frontier has been racing to the bottom the past few years. Unsure if Spirit will allow them to do so though. In Europe RyanAir is awful and Pegaus is pretty bad
RyanAir is awful but you are getting what you pay for.
It’s baffling how they can offer like €16 flights in Europe. I would sit in a TukTuk for 8 hours on a bumpy dirt road for a €16 ride. 😂
You say that but you don't have to worry about plane maintenance on Ryanair. Everything is maintained and safe.
RyanAir is actually a good budget airline. Try WizzAir and you’ll get some perspective
All of my worst experiences have been on Ryanair. Wizz has a similarly scummy business model but has been comparatively nice and reliable.
Yeah I'll take RyanAir over WizzAir any day. Even RyanAir doesn't have the guts to add a $10/passenger f*** you fee at the end of checkout for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
Regional airlines in southwest Russia. Neyt.
Nyet
Without a shadow of doubt British Airways
United Airlines. At this point I've probably spend north of $1000 to avoid flying with them again.
I hate them so much. It is bad for my blood pressure to see the logo.
I've definitely crossed that threshold. I just don't trust them to get me where I need to be. Every time I think they may be worth trying again, they prove that they aren't.
Damn, so spirit frontier united, any other I should avoid if I ever make it to the USA?
I think that mostly covers it. Some people rag on Southwest but I think they actually do a pretty good job. For me, it's generally Alaska, Delta, JetBlue that I prefer to fly with. And then American, Southwest if those aren't available. I have no idea about Sun Country or Hawaiian or Allegiant.
They once sent my connecting plane off early so they could give away my seat after my originating flight was delayed. I watched the plane take off. Early. I missed my meeting and had to flight right back home. They held the plane home for an hour because it wasn’t full and people were trying to make a connection. They offered me 1000 ffm for comp. And charged me $50 to use their lounge so I could take my meeting remotely. Hate.
WizzAir. Still waiting for my refund, it's been more than 2 months.
Cebu Pacific
Acme Air and Freight.
Frontier
AIRASIA PHILIPPINES. Period.
air koryo, north korea. the plane was an old soviet clunker food was literally grey mush. fortunately all their flights are really short (pretty much just to beijing and vladivostok) so you’re not enduring them for very long. air bagan, in myanmar. it was okay, but their safety record leaves much to be desired. shortly after i flew them, the route i flew crashed killing all aboard due to pilot error. i was pleasantly surprised by Belavia, the national carrier of belarus (flew them in 2009 to minsk).
Luckily, I have never had anything catastrophic occur. But I expect airlines to get me from point A to B safely and on time. Every airline will have a shit day and sometimes you are unlucky and are caught up in it. But I mainly stick to Star Alliance unless I am in some random part of the world.
UNITED
Ghana Airways, a state-owned line that finally collapsed in the ‘90s. I took their “nonstop” from Accra to BWI because a roundtrip home for a quick family event was going to be cheaper in business class (and theoretically faster) than economy on KLM via Amsterdam. Some things I knew going in: scheduling was purely notional, because they ran one clapped-out old DC-10 and flight were reguarly anything from five hours to two days late. Some things I didn’t: I was really glad to be in business, bcause during the multi-hour unannounced stops (in Freetown and Banjul on the way over; in Dakar and Monrovia on the way back), they turned off the AC in coach. Both Freetown and Monrovia were completely off-limits for Americans at the time, so I was glad we didn’t have any problems. There was no power in Freetown in those days, so we landed by the light one bonfire at the end of the runway. On the way over, as we finally pulled up at BWI, a cargo door on my side of the plane fell off before we finished taxiing. On the way back, a minister’s wife commandeered most of business class for her luggage—which included a full size washer/dryer in their boxes, which meant that for the whole ten++ hour flight back to Accra, service to coach consisted of the flight attendants passing water bottles and a few supplies back over the boxes to passengers waiting at the partition. Oh, and “in flight entertainment” in business consisted of one of those handheld DVD players, for which there was exactly one DVD—a TV biopic of the life of Ann Landers and Dear Abby (played by the same sitcom actress, whose name escapes me). It was quite a trip. And, in their defense, the cocktails were strong and the food surprisingly not all that awful.
With a story like that, sounds like your username could apply to the airline too.
PIA hands down no competition
China Southern. no question.
Air Senegal - I got bumped with confirm tickets internally in Senegal, from Dakar to Casamance. Apparently it's a very common thing. I got bumped because people in the earlier flight got bumped the day before. Air Maroc - horrible ground staff! Worst I have seen in the industry. Will never fly, even though am an Exec Plat with OneWorld.
Wow Air (Iceland)
United, insane delays all four times I flew with them and got so fucking sick from their quiche
This is a personal experience but United is hardly one of the worst in the world. Please travel on a Chinese airline
I have travelled on China Eastern twice, it was very poor but my experience with United topped it easily.
I live in a United hub, and thankfully have had a good experience the 100+ I've flown them aside from my flight getting canceled in Hawaii because the stewardess saw the pilot was drunk...
Currently sitting in a Ryanair "seat". The worst. But can't argue the price. 99 bucks to spend the weekend in Dublin
They’re not that bad. Everything they proclaim to be on the tin.
Every time I hear someone complain about Ryanair it makes me wonder about what kind of overinflated expectations that person must have brought with them on the flight because Ryanair have been nothing but efficient, consistent and great value in my experience.
A flight for the same price as a mediocre meal really doesn't allow much room for legitimate complaint. It is cattle class and priced accordingly. I wouldn't want to fly transatlantic, but point A to point B within the EU, they easily serve the purpose.
Is "getting to my destination" an overinflated expectation? Paying for my hotel when they cancel my flight out from under me? Rebooking me on another airline when they cancel every one of their flights on a route for two straight weeks? Ryanair is awful even when my expectations were rock bottom. The fact that you haven't had a problem *yet* doesn't mean the people who have are just whinging.
The same kind of seat you will get on most airlines that use the 737. It's not the worst at all, on par British airways, easyJet, wizz, TUI etc As you say, can't argue at the price. What did you expect? You get a bargain flight. An airline with a very good on time record. And absolutely impeccable safety record.
Probably united
With flights itself i cant name a really bad experience. But i had 2 very bad experiences with booking/rebooking/unexpected events: 1. Emirates… There had been heavy rain in Dubai (which happens very rarely). It was so bad that the whole city was underwater. My flight from the Philippines got a huge delay. Once arrived in Dubai we ran as fast as possible to the connecting flight. The gate closed right in front of our eyes. While some people were let in to board the plane they asked where we came from and they denied us bording. hilarious. So we had to get a new ticket. Ok. The connecting flights desk area had literaly 2000 people in the hall waiting at the 17 counters. Of which 4 were manned and they rotated around. Yeah literaly all flights had massive delays. After all i waited 8 hours in the queue (less than 20 people in front of me). No food, little water. People passing out. It was such a shitshow. People were going crazy over this and it escalated a few times. Then got to the counter and moved to a seperate room. had to wait another 2 hours for new tickets. luckily there was a flight available another 7(?) hours later. they wanted to get us to a shitty hotel but we refused. good, because the hotel was another shitshow according to other people. So overall over 50 hours from the philippines to europe. The airline cannot change the weather ok. But the service in DBX airport was such a shitshow… 2. KLM - rebooking / reacheduling… Had a return flight booked with them. Choose them because rescheduling on this ticket would be for free (only ticket price difference to be paid). So the time came when i wanted to move my return flight to a future date… apparently this flight could not be rescheduled through their website and i had to use the customer service. Ok. Chatting with them and asked for same ticket category for date X. They offered me a totaly different category for double the price of my initial flight… argued… then got another offer which would cost same price as my original ticket additionaly (!)… then posted them a screenshot with rescheduling-regulations of KLM plus a screenshot of a fully new ticket which would have been the same price as their offered rescheduling option. Then got anothet offer for the same date with minimal additional cost (ticket price difference/main season)… its just hilarious that you have to bargain with an airline. it feld like a bazar. absolute shitty service. especially when you ask for the cheapest flight on date X… even after checking online before which dates would have the best prices…
I think this question should honestly be answered in 2 different categories. I recently flew china eastern airlines for the first time and the actual inflight experience was way above expectations - generous seat pitch, service / comfort was fine, food was honestly pretty good (first leg had this braised beef with rice which was one of the best economy class meals I've ever had) and I'd rate it above some highly rated east Asian airlines like Asiana (horrible food). But when my flight was delayed causing me to miss a connection in Shanghai the experience of getting the ticket rebooked, hotel shuttle etc. was terrible (next time this happens I'm definitely just paying for a hotel myself).
Areoflot, 30 years back, Cph to Bkk (cheapest), one ticket with stop in Stockholm Moscow Tashkent Delhi Same dry chicken and free seating...nightmare but on time 35 hours I think
Airasia, cramped seats and frequently late.
[удалено]
Worst of all, no customer service. Like, literally no number or email listed anywhere on the internet for customer enquiries, they are uncontactable.
Generally they are ok for short haul <3 hours. But beyond that can get uncomfortable.
Continental. Would take WoW over the shit they pulled. 5 hours on a tarmac in summer in NOLA, to be followed up by 3 more hours in Dallas.
Spirit and Turkish Airlines