Whats the worst and best airlines you have ever traveled on in economy ?

Whats the worst and best airlines you have ever traveled on in economy ?

Worst is by far Aerlingus (the Irish natinal carrier) for me. Service is the same as Ryanair (i.e. non-existent). You even have to pay for food if you want to eat on an almost 3 hours DUB-BUD flight and you pay close to twice as compared to the budget airlines.

And it is worht mentioning AA as well a full service airline where you again have to pay for food on a 3:35h flight between New York and Dallas. The flight attendants are plain rude and couldn't care less about their job, one of them threw the sandwich (which I had to buy) on my tray just because I insisted to pay with a creadit card insted of cash.

One of the best surprisingly was Air NZ althouhg I have to try the much hyped middle-eastern airlines first on economy before I make my best call.

I actually didn't mind flying Aer Lingus when I was connecting from Scotland to the US a year ago, but I think I was swayed by the fact that you can pre-clear US Customs and Immigration in Dublin, where the staffers are a lot more pleasant than they are on arrival in New York's JFK.

Flying in Europe always makes me realise just how good Australians (and especially business travellers!) have it with Qantas, Virgin Australia and even the budget airlines.

Worst is probably China Southern. The passengers are not very civilised and can be quite diruptive. The Check in at Guangzhou was confusing. When we landed in guangzhou it was 5 in the morning and there were no shops open. Outside ther terminal was chaos, barely any security. Flight attendants were rude and i did not get one smile. Food was below standard. Barely any drink rounds. Only return flight had IFEs and had 5 english movies.

Best is probably Singapore airlines. Flight attendants always smiled, and helpful. Food is the best. Lots of drink rounds, and very good seatback entertainment with lots of movies, tv shows etc.  Seats were confortable and ontime. 

Not flown too many long haul flights in economy recently, so I'm perhaps not the best person to give an opinion. None the less...

Best:  South African Airways were excellent, lots of leg room, pretty good food and entertainment. Air New Zealand were good too, but I've not tried their new, more cramped 777-300 layout. And while I feel Emirates business class is overated, they do have one of the best economy cabins in the sky with great entertainment and good food.

Worst: US Airways had rude staff, awful food, almost no leg room whatsoever, and terrible entertainment options. They're Envoy (business)  class is much better though. By far the worst though was Turkmenistan Airlines a few years ago, no entertainment, inedible food, rock hard seat that didn't recline, worn cabin, and kids running up and down the aisle for the entire flight. Thankfully I've never needed to fly with them since, and if I do need to visit Ashkhabad again I will use a different airline.

Very good question! Makes me puzzle for a bit... hmmm...

Worst: United 747, Sydney to San Francisco. If you've never travelled on United's AU-US 747, it's hard to imagine how bad this is: third-rate meals, no IFE bar a few monitors hanging from the ceiling (which play video for the whole flight, so even when you're trying to sleep there's that flickering light in the cabin), a cabin crew consisting of grouchy grannies who should have been retired a decade ago...

Best: A much tougher call, because economy is almost uniformly average, so at best the flights just blur into one another. But the ones which stand out for being bearable and not-bad have been Cathay, Singapore Airlines and Qantas. Even in economy, CX and SQ really are a notch above the rest...

My personal worst has to be Air Canada, connecting through Toronto to London a few years ago. The E-Jet that I flew up from Houston to Toronto was fine (actually, it was pretty great), but the eight-hour trans-Atlantic flight was just like the United trans-Pacific flight David mentioned above: no entertainment, crappy ancient planes, very little legroom.

But the best is closer to home: Air New Zealand across the Tasman, if you're a frequent flyer, lets you pick "Space+" seats, which have 35" of room (compared with the usual trans-Tasman 31"), a superb entertainment system and a fairly good buy-on-board food choice.

Dishonourable mention to British Airways: I was sitting in the first row of economy in the late 1990s, and the crewmember was passing down the business aisle with newspapers with a smarmy smile ("Sir/Madam, may I offer you a complimentary newspaper today?"). The crewmember got to our row, dropped the smile, and started barking "newspaper? newspaper?". I asked what broadsheets (quality newspapers, as in not the British tabloid press) they had. A sniff, and "No, not in economy. You can have the Daily Mail". Fortunately, recent BA crew haven't been quite so...what's the word...stereotypical?

A friend of mine experienced the worst day in the history of PanAm. He was on a Pan Am flight on their last day of operation and the hostesses basically didnt make any announements, were rude to passengers and basically didnt care how they treated anyone. They were losing their jobs so they simply didnt care. There was one old lady onthe plane. She was about 90 and she wanted a rug to keep herself warm. the flight atendant just piffed it at her

I was on the last day of TWA operations before it got absorbed into AA. All the crew were in absolute floods of tears! I felt so badly for them...ended up giving one sky granny a hug of sympathy (I was young and adorable back then, I feel I should say), and she was so touched that she passed me two full bottles of champers for my hand luggage. Dear old TWA...

Worst: Any American based airline, especially the domestic carriers. I've travelled them all. UA, AA, CA, SW, JB, Delta etc etc. The experiences fall between diabolical to tolerable, it's never reached the point of adequate. Old planes that smell of pee, UNFRIENDLY staff, food (If you get any) that is served still frozen, ridiculous check ins, sitting on the tarmac for 6 hours, lost baggage. No excuse for a developed industrialised country. I can understand if an airline is from a backward developing country is bad, but not from a country like the US. BA similar although their planes are a little better because they are newer, but talk about surly cabin crew.

Our flying kangaroo is really not that bad in comparison.

Best: Singapore Airlines. No question. Of course they have their moments and not every flight is fantastic, but they do bat a good average. Most of the SE Asian airlines are pretty good actually. (I exclude China from that of course.... shocker....)

Air NZ for long hall most seat pitch but it depends on where you are going, far too many for the worst check out seatguru.com for the seat map and plane they list seat pitch in a database by all airlines. If you fly eco and have the time: Day flight to Asia overnight in a Hotel and first European flight in the morning. You arrive in Europe same day but early evening, breaking that journey in economy is the only way. It dosen't matter what airline for service it all depends on the crew. Smile be polite and I have even been known to offer Boli down the back!! Descrite though

Worst: equal tie Olympic Air and Aeritalia. Don't have the foggiest in terms of customer service. Surly, food service was perfunctory, and unkempt (even the females!).

Best: consistently, Singapore Airlines. Hands down.