Thursday, August 24, 2006

World Traveler Has Returned

Yey!

I know you are all overjoyed that I arrived home safely, despite the dangers of traveling internationally. In this post, I want to share my airline experiences: all of the airlines listed below I have flown on recently, and I feel obligated to share my experiences in hopes that it will help you make an informed decision about the airline you choose the next time you fly:

Now that I've spent 3 weeks being a world traveler, I took a moment to jot down a few ideas about airlines, based on my experiences with these companies. I hope you find the information interesting and insightful. They are listed in order of best to worst:

American Airlines
Pros: Good snacks--long flights get good meals
nice flight attendants
tv's in every seat
nice, up-to-date magazines
clean, modern cabins
assigned seats
Cons: no leg room
noted for losing luggage

British Airways
same as Amercian Airlines--very nice to fly. only gripe--no leg room

Southwest
Pros: snacks not as great as AA, but good--peanuts, pretzels--long flights get cookies/wheat thins
nice leather seats
nice flight attendants
clean modern cabins
pretty good magazines
Cons: no tv's
no assigned seats
limited travel destinations (they don't fly to a lot places on the East coast, including Atlanta)

Continental
Pros: huge amount of leg room--almost feels like first class
assigned seats
clean, nice, up-to-date cabin
Cons: not great snacks, again pretzels
mean flight attendants
no tv

US Airways
Pros: nice flight attendants
assigned seats
Cons: not up-to-date cabin/planes; looked very old
no good snacks--one small bag pretzels, even on long trips
no leg room
old, out of date magazines
definitely no tv's--these planes are too old


Bottom line: I would choose American if I could get a cheap enough flight, (generally they run more expensive). Also I would choose Southwest (if they have a flight where I'm going) --or Continental for the leg room --which was GREAT on long flights!

Ok, more later on how the trip went-- I will also have pics soon.

2 comments:

-C said...

Well, hello, Amber! I found you thru a weird network of links. It's good to see pics of your boys and hear of your adventure in CA. You're on my bloglines so I can keep up with your posts. :)

Anonymous said...

Hey, Amber! Glad you are home. Anyone who flies a lot probably has their own stories, likes, and dislikes about the many airlines. Wasn't Continental the one who was so wrong to the church group who went to the Dominican Republic? And, United was pretty rude to us about bringing our 6-day-old baby. (Mostly the fault of one crazy "I hate the world" employee, though.) I haven't had much of a problem that stands out in my memory about any of the others. However, in Southwest's defense, I must say that I like their ticket-change policy.
Well, that's my two bits. Love ya, Tracy