You are at netAirspace : Forum : Air and Space Forums : Civil Aviation

Your Opinion: The Chick-fil-A of Airlines

All about Airlines and Airliners.
 

Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 04 May 21, 12:40Post
In the USA there is a fast-food chain called Chick-fil-A. The service there is always (every time for me) fast and friendly. After a recent few encounters with absolutely abusive airline personnel, I started wondering if there was a Chick-fil-A of airlines?

In my limited experience, Fiji Airways comes closest. Fast service and the happiest people on earth.
Mark 04 May 21, 12:50Post
SkyWest has always come through for me. Nice FA's. Talkative pilots.
Commercial aircraft flown in: B712 B722 B732 B734 B737 B738 B741 B742 B744 B752 B753 B762 B772 A310 A318 A319 A320 A321 DC91 DC93 DC94 DC1030 DC1040 F100 MD82 MD83 A223 CR2 CR7 E175
miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 04 May 21, 12:54Post
The closest I think we had, was Midwest Express.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 04 May 21, 13:25Post
I know some will scorn this point of view, but I've always had a good experience with Southwest. Especially when Herb was sitting at the front desk, the employees went out of their way to be friendly and funny, and seemed to genuinely care about their customers having a positive experience. I've seen them turn a plane in like 10 minutes to try to catch up after a delay, and I flew with them shortly after 9/11, when there were only 3 other pax on a plane besides me and they didn't cancel the flight. THAT is customer service. The F/As and the pax all sat around in one of the facing sets of seats they used to have and we just visited the whole flight (CMH to STL).

The only thing I really got pissed at them about was when they revamped their Rapid Rewards program, it was extremely simple before (earn a free flight anywhere after X flights), and I lost several free flights because they did not notify anyone they would expire if not used after one year into the new program.
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
bhmbaglock 05 May 21, 12:20Post
Lucas wrote:In the USA there is a fast-food chain called Chick-fil-A. The service there is always (every time for me) fast and friendly. After a recent few encounters with absolutely abusive airline personnel, I started wondering if there was a Chick-fil-A of airlines?

In my limited experience, Fiji Airways comes closest. Fast service and the happiest people on earth.


Don't go to the CFA in Ashburn, VA. Disorganized clustermuck consistently. CFA in airports are also definitely a step down as well in my experience.

As for airlines like that, haven't run into one even close at least recently. Air France in the 70s and Qantas in the 80s were pretty damn good but it was a different environment then.
ANCFlyer (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 06 May 21, 01:06Post
AS for me.

From their Clubs to their AC to their crews . . . .
LET'S GO BRANDON!!!!
bhmbaglock 06 May 21, 13:19Post
ANCFlyer wrote:AS for me.

From their Clubs to their AC to their crews . . . .


I've been in the AS club in Seattle many times, not bad but not particularly impressive either. On the rare chance I have to fly with them they've always been good though.
captoveur 06 May 21, 14:48Post
AirTran before Southwest ruined them.

Never encountered a single salty FA or front desk person the dozens of times i flew on them.

My wife, a huge Southwest fangirl, hates it when I say anything bad about them, but its like flying McDonalds.
I like my coffee how I like my women: Black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.
IFEMaster (Project Dark Overlord & Founding Member) 06 May 21, 14:53Post
Queso wrote:I know some will scorn this point of view, but I've always had a good experience with Southwest.


+1 to Southwest. A few years ago I was on a weekly turnaround between SNA and DEN for a good 8 or 9 months. Every experience was decent, consistent, with a smile, and without any pretense. And once I made A-List after the first couple of months, the extra free drink coupons were a nice added touch.
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
GQfluffy (Database Editor & Founding Member) 06 May 21, 15:25Post
I understand most in the States think the legacies are a dime a dozen any more but I've never had an issue with Delta.

Ever.

Any time one arose, a call to customer service and it was handled with extras sent back my way.
Teller of no, fixer of everything, friend of the unimportant and all around good guy; the CAD Monkey
miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 06 May 21, 18:03Post
You just had to go there... Delta, NOPE.

Last year, a rush trip to Tolouse. MIA-ATL-CDG-TLS returning TLS-CDG-MIA. All in Biz.

I should have listened to Stefan... A one hour connection in CDG. Don't ever accept a connection through CDG unless you can spend a day there. So I missed my flight. When I do get on the next flight, it was a cattle car A320 all coach. And I got the middle seat. It was a three pound salami, in a one-pound bag. Mercifully, it was a short flight.

Next day, I call delta to bitch, because they sold it as all J-Class fare. They offered me a $50 credit. I told the agent thanks, but it sounds like you guys need the money. Next day, same miserable experience in the middle seat. Saving grace the gate was close to where I had to go to connect to the MIA flight. Murphy was alive and well, a late go around, got vectored around for a bit, and we landed and taxied to a gate in Hamburgh. Deplaning, the race was on. It was a trek. Then security. Then the bus. Then the baggage cart tug doing 5 mph. Got to the gate and they were in the final boarding for the flight.

Delta blows chunks for selling that $%&t, oops, fecal matter. Now I know better.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
GQfluffy (Database Editor & Founding Member) 06 May 21, 19:34Post
Yeah Vic, that sounds utterly ridiculous.
Teller of no, fixer of everything, friend of the unimportant and all around good guy; the CAD Monkey
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 06 May 21, 22:50Post
I have not flown DL in 10,000 years...well, not that I recall. Might have been booked on them by a company on one of my unposted trips to Europe. Not a fan of United due to [redacted due to politics], even though I have status with them. I've heard that they're better recently.

For airlines in the US, I've never had any issues with Skywest. Always friendly, but not exceptional. Southwest has never let me down a single time, though. My stepdad uses them for all of his business travel, too, because he's 6'5" and can always nab lots of legroom for cheap.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 06 May 21, 22:57Post
bhmbaglock wrote:
Don't go to the CFA in Ashburn, VA. Disorganized clustermuck consistently. CFA in airports are also definitely a step down as well in my experience.

As for airlines like that, haven't run into one even close at least recently. Air France in the 70s and Qantas in the 80s were pretty damn good but it was a different environment then.


That is noted. :)) I agree that the airport locations aren't the best, but even with long lines I've never had the worst experience. (Including in Denver where it was about 90 people long the last time I went!)
bhmbaglock 07 May 21, 11:25Post
GQfluffy wrote:I understand most in the States think the legacies are a dime a dozen any more but I've never had an issue with Delta.

Ever.

Any time one arose, a call to customer service and it was handled with extras sent back my way.


Sorry, DL burned me a dozen or so too many times. I won't fly them willingly.
Florida Metal 07 May 21, 15:36Post
As far as I know, all airlines fly on Sunday. Well in Israel El Al doesn't fly on Saturday.


I fly Delta a lot, never had a problem with them. I grew up in Detroit and had Northwest to fly on if I wanted to get anywhere, had some past issues with Northwest and at least at DTW - Delta has fixed a lot of the old Northwest issues.

I never had a bad experience on Southwest, flight attendants, staff were always very nice, just don't care for the cattle car seating. Around the time Air Tran and Southwest were in the process of their merger, Southwest came through for me. My Air Tran flight, the last flight of the day DTW- MCO went mechanical and I needed to be at work at 11pm that night, it was around 3pm at the time (which would have normally got me into MCO around 5:30pm). I explained my situation to Southwest that did their best to accommodate me, even though I had a 3 hour layover at BNA. I got to Orlando at 11pm and an hour late to work (which wasn't too much of an issue as my work worked around me in this situation) but at least I got there.

Airline I will never fly is Spirit. I used to fly them all the time when they had the MD-80s and that great Spirit Plus upgrade for $35 that got you snacks, extra legroom and booze. Then they raised it to $50, took away the booze and shrunk the snacks. Then they took away all snacks and made you start paying for even water, then pay for carry on etc. Finally after I got on a dirty plane where someone from a previous flight pissed in the seat and there were cheetos all over the floor from the previous flight I said enough is enough.
ANCFlyer (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 07 May 21, 23:09Post
bhmbaglock wrote:
ANCFlyer wrote:AS for me.

From their Clubs to their AC to their crews . . . .


I've been in the AS club in Seattle many times, not bad but not particularly impressive either. On the rare chance I have to fly with them they've always been good though.

Ahhh, then you need to go back to SEA because AS now owns the North Satellite (once a UA bastion) and their new club on the third level is spectacular. The other AS SEA clubs are standard issue, but North Satellite is pretty awesome. March 2021.
LET'S GO BRANDON!!!!
Mark 08 May 21, 13:07Post
Florida Metal wrote:I fly Delta a lot, never had a problem with them.


Being that MSP is my home airport, needless to say, I have to use Delta a lot. I've never had a problem with them. Never a lost bag. Never a cancelled flight. Never an oversold flight. Nothing bad. And I'm talking about Delta... not SkyWest, Republic, or Delta's own Endeavor Air.

That said, SkyWest as Delta Connection rocks! The little airline that could. Flying with SkyWest is actually fun. As long as you avoid those damned CRJ-200's.
Commercial aircraft flown in: B712 B722 B732 B734 B737 B738 B741 B742 B744 B752 B753 B762 B772 A310 A318 A319 A320 A321 DC91 DC93 DC94 DC1030 DC1040 F100 MD82 MD83 A223 CR2 CR7 E175
GavinFlies 01 Jun 21, 15:03Post
My experiences on American Airlines LAX-JFK runs and flying them internationally have far surpassed any other domestic experience.

I'll also give props to Turkish Airlines and Cathay Pacific.
Fumanchewd 01 Jun 21, 22:44Post
Southwest. Cheap and always pleasant, consistent service. Customer service has always been pretty nice and accomodating as well. I used to coordinate and arrange dozens of flight crew travel arrangements a week and we always preferred them as the change fee was minimal compared to every other airline that would rape you. Not to mention the two bags free while other airlines try to rape you on that.

All in all Southwest is consistantly better than average service with extra perks and minimal charges. The best time I've ever had on a flight was a quick PHX-LAS, the last flight on a Friday. They played dance music, flashed neon lights, danced in the aisles, and gave everyone a free drink just for the hell of it.

Internationally, I've always been impressed with Lufthansa. Our trip to Poland with two babies was awesome, they bent over backwards trying to help our trip go smoothly while we were stressed out. Plus the baby bassinets on the partisan walls was great.
"Give us a kiss, big tits."
PA110 (Founding Member) 03 Jun 21, 20:21Post
+1 for Southwest. Always cheap and cheerful. No expectations, no disappointments.

Alaska is solid, but unremarkable.

JetBlue has always been outstanding every time I've flown them. Yeah, I hear horror stories out of JFK, but I've never had a bad experience.

United - only when I fly nonrev. They're super-nice to me. Otherwise, meh.

American - No. Just. No.

Delta - haven't flown them in over a decade.
Look, it's been swell, but the swelling's gone down.
tangoscar 07 Jun 21, 18:15Post
PA110 wrote:+1 for Southwest. Always cheap and cheerful. No expectations, no disappointments.

Alaska is solid, but unremarkable.

JetBlue has always been outstanding every time I've flown them. Yeah, I hear horror stories out of JFK, but I've never had a bad experience.

United - only when I fly nonrev. They're super-nice to me. Otherwise, meh.

American - No. Just. No.

Delta - haven't flown them in over a decade.


+1 for Southwest - Echoing PA110.

+1 for JetBlue - Same, never any issues, always very friendly and courteous crews.

Delta - Solid, but not outstanding.

United - Don't even get me started ... I am trying to avoid this airline like the 'rona (the plague sounds kind of outdated)

American - No, thanks. Runner-up behind United.

Alaska - Haven't flown with them yet.

I guess, the ULCCs don't make the final round by default ... {laugh}

Others I have flown with more often:

DLH / SWR / ACA / KLM / BAW - Hit or miss, generally solid similar as Delta
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 07 Jun 21, 18:35Post
Now that we've given it some time, I'd like to introduce some results. (As of 07 Jul 21)

I think that my biggest surprise is that Delta did well, but really managed to acquire ardent fans and people who view them with outright contempt. WN won handily, followed by "please take me back in time."

Note: I forgot a "k" in the title and will add all the airlines for a later graph.

NAS Poll.png
NAS Poll.png (49.4 KiB) Viewed 1657 times
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 08 Jun 21, 17:13Post
With all included, Southwest takes the love!

The Chick-Fil-A of Airlines.png
The Chick-Fil-A of Airlines.png (39.75 KiB) Viewed 1642 times
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 09 Jun 21, 15:19Post
Of all the airlines I've flown, gotta say Southwest is hands down the most "Chick-fil-A" of the bunch. I always get what I expect, never had an issue that wasn't resolved, and generally walk away satisfied.

Flown United a lot and while I've not had a bad experience with them, most of the good experiences have actually been with SkyWest.

Delta? It's ok, so long as their isn't a snag of some sort and you're subjected to their crappy customer service in ATL.
Make Orwell fiction again.
 

Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

LEFT

RIGHT
CONTENT