<p>I’ve flown almost every airline and have had problems with all of them. People rave about JetBlue, but the one time I flew them was absolutely horrible. I’ve had issues with Delta, too. United is the airline we fly the most, and the problems we’ve had haven’t been any worse than with any other airline. Every airline cancels flights, loses bags, has long lines, etc.</p>
<p>nj2001mom, what airline did you fly? Last year when I flew home to visit my parents for Christmas my luggage was lost by Southwest. They live almost to NJ along I-95 and then another 25 minutes off the highway, and Southwest was willing to drive it all the way out to me. I was actually amazed when it showed up because the plows had just barely cleared our road after a few inches of snow the previous night!</p>
<p>I’ve had issues with all airlines (and US Airways has been especially egregious in terms of cancellations/delays), but United was the worst about having employees outright lie to me.</p>
<p>Love Southwest - tons of flights in the last few years and quite a few already booked with minimal issues throughout. Enjoy their sense of humor too although some of that has disappeared with the AirTran merger.
Did have one great flight on Virgin America; would definitely give them another go if they ever serve home city!</p>
<p>Haha…I’m back…was too tired to post last night…</p>
<p>Sooo, they didn’t really satisfy my complaint but refunded my cost of the upgraded tickets…the flight is basically sold out so to pacify me they put us in the exit row so we have a little more leg room…</p>
<p>I am going to email the person that oldfort posted…I’m still not thrilled…</p>
<p>For those of you who have defected to Southwest, I’m jealous…we here in Northern Nj don’t get certain things as a cost of living here haha…Southwest, Wegmans (although rumor has it that is changing but that’s for another convo), Mellow Mushroom.</p>
<p>Darn, I held my post until after the Conference Call and Quotia beat me to it! If you to want to turn your one-stop flight into an adventure, book US Airways.</p>
<p>My dad is the most airline loyal person I know–after years and years of frequent (sometime it seemed constant) business flying on Delta and Continental/now Continental–his most common trip was between a Delta hub and a Continental hub-- he refuses to even check other airlines for flights. I’ve suggested that he at least peak at them before (especially when I had 6-7 round trip flights in so many weeks while interviewing for grad school), but so far, no dice.</p>
<p>rodney, Southwest flies out of Newark. That seems like northern Jersey to me. (If you’re in the northwest corner of the state, what’s actually closer?)</p>
<p>I’m Platinum Elite w United and do try to stick w Star Alliance for my travel, most of which is international, so that takes some of the pain out of it. </p>
<p>My worst experiences have been w American (see baggage story above), Air Jamaica and Northwest. About 20 years ago, we sat on the tarmac for 6+ hours coming home from Milwaukee on NW due to snow & ice. In the game of musical gates, our plane was left without a gate when they closed the airport for a few hours because of the weather. Luckily I was in business - they ran out of beverages & food in coach & one bathroom was unusable. </p>
<p>Air Jamaica makes the list for family vacations in 2003 & 2006 (I’m a glutton for punishment to repeat, but they were cheap tickets - cheap for a reason!). In 2006, we had a ‘lovely’ 10 hour layover in Montego Bay with a 1000+ other stranded Americans. Closest I ever saw to a riot in an airport w several Soprano extras wannabees threatening ticket agents. </p>
<p>Singapore Airlines - now that’s the way to run a airline! </p>
<p>I’ve also had fairly decent luck w Quantas in Australia, but never used them for a long-haul flight, as their US mileage partner is American.</p>
<p>After what I thought was careful analysis, I booked a flight on United for my daughter (incoming college freshman) to come home at Thanksgiving. I spent entirely too much time chosing the fastest, most direct route and purposefully eliminated larger connecting airports. Not too long after I bought the ticket, United bumped back her arrival time by 45 minutes. This week, they completely re-routed her return trip through a different connecting airport and have her getting back to her destination 90 minutes later. Since it is only August, I am apprehensive about what other changes they will make between now and Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>I think they are all hit or miss. Southwest doesn’t fly out of our airport and whenever I price them out of the larger airport two hours away the prices are never lower and I have to deal with security at LAX.
I try to avoid US Air on the return trip since all of our major flight hassles have been on the way home. They don’t seem to have a problem getting us east but back west is a different story.
I find Alaska is pretty decent though our last trip they changed our seats putting us at the back of the plane. Frontier is sometimes decent. I used to like Continential but they have gone downhill.
I am flying United to China in the fall. Hoping it is decent since it is a long trip.</p>
<p>I fly United a lot internationally and I like them, I never had any problems. Even premium economy with the extra hundred bucks for an exit row is tolerable. And now it seems particularly easy to get free mileage flights on their partners such as Lufthansa (or SAA, which I just flew free business class from Peking to Johannesburg).</p>
<p>Racinreaver: yes, SW is there but they don’t really fly that many routes from EWR; mainly through Chicago and Baltimore…I can drive to Baltimore faster than it would take to go to Newark, go through security etc just to change planes in Baltimore…</p>
<p>My alternate has been LGA; not a great alternate but I have gotten cheap fares on Delta and USAir for certain routes.</p>
<p>I try to avoid United and AA whenever possible. I just find the check-in process so ridiculous. DS flew United to France a few weeks ago (via Dallas.) Anyhow, they had automated check-in and every person was having issues with the computer system and then having to wait for a human. In our case, the computer skipped right over checking the luggage in. When I finally got a person, he looked at the screen/boarding pass and said, “Oh, no problem, the bag is checked.” I said, “No it isn’t” pointing at the bag next to my son, untagged, unweighed, unchecked for anywhere. Several times he insisted that the bag really was checked and on its way. It took several tries of me pointing to the suitcase and saying, “This is the suitcase, it’s not checked” before he finally went around the counter and checked it in.</p>
<p>Jet Blue used to be so great, but most of the time their prices are too high now. And they charge more for seats with extra legroom. Is the OP still on hold?</p>
<p>D flew United from San Francisco to Chicago last night, and she was stuck in a later boarding group. There was no overhead space when she boarded — it was a new plane with much less overhead bin space than the previous planes on this route. They really need to limit the carry-ons if they are going to cut space for them — D said lots of people had too-large bags and/or more than a carry-on plus personal item. She ended up having to gate-check the bag … which, unlike gate-checking on other carriers, means having to pick it up at the baggage claim area. There was some electrical problem on the plane, so they loaded everyone on & let them sweat until they finally brought a generator. They sat on the plane for an hour. She is anxious to get status so that she can be in a higher boarding group … although there are a ton of people on that route who have status. It’s still better than being almost last.</p>
<p>Now this part is not United’s fault, but worth sharing: D finally got to O’Hare at 1:30 a.m. She waited for her carry-on at baggage claim, then got a cab. When the cab driver got out on the road, he informed D that he needed to stop for gas - he said he’d knock $10 off the fare. She let him know that she was not happy, but told him that she would rather he got gas than run out. Well, guess what happened? Yup, the cab ran out of gas. The cabbie told her to get out of the cab, and she told him no … he said he would hail her another cab, which he did. Then he tried to charge her the $25 on the meter. She told him absolutely not! She let him know that he should have filled up before he picked her up, and that she could have had her pick of cabs that were waiting at the airport that did have enough gas to get her home. Glad the kid can fend for herself! :)</p>
<p>kelsmom - not to freak you out, but I had something similar happen in Paris, except it was a scam. It was their way of getting me into another cab without any record (trace). I made enough noise that the cab driver took off. I would tell my kid to hail another cab or car service by herself instead of getting in a car arranged by the previous cab driver.</p>
<p>rodney, I’m sorry I didn’t see your post yesterday while you were on hold with United. Check out this article [“How</a> to Minimize United Airlines Phone Hold Times”](<a href=“http://thepointsguy.com/2012/03/how-to-minimize-united-airlines-phone-hold-times-part-2]"How”>http://thepointsguy.com/2012/03/how-to-minimize-united-airlines-phone-hold-times-part-2) using the “Click to Call” link. You enter your phone number, click on the link, and a United rep will call you back - usually within a minute. I use it frequently & it really works.</p>
<p>Airlines: I have had problems on so many, I can’t even keep track anymore. Generally, I have found SW easiest to deal with when there is a problem, but otherwise they all seem more or less equally likely to mess up my travel.</p>
<p>Taxis: I never appreciated US taxis until I started traveling abroad. Scary and frustrating. But oldfort, you are making me nervous; I would like to think that US cabbies are unlikely to try to pull the sort of scams that foreign cabbies engage in . . .</p>
<p>Wow, Oldfort … that is scary. I will share that with my D, because she just started flying into Chicago/taking a cab late at night (lived in Nashville previously & drove). She should be aware of possible scams and have a plan of action in place, just in case.</p>
<p>The last time I flew United, we had to raise our hands to use the bathroom. They only wanted two people going at a time. It was quite demeaning.</p>