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In contrast to this story, my wife (a doctor) did attend to an ailing passenger on a transoceanic flight. The attendants were more than helpful, and my wife ex
by xarope 10y ago
In contrast to this story, my wife (a doctor) did attend to an ailing passenger on a transoceanic flight. The attendants were more than helpful, and my wife expressed surprise at how well stocked their medical kit was (drugs etc).
After the flight, the airline gave her some duty free goodies on the spot, and a few days later, a one-way business class ticket (I guess to make up for the fact that she sat with this ailing passenger for most of that transoceanic flight).
The article didn't mention what airline. We were flying Singapore Airlines. Service does make a difference.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eganist 10y ago> The article didn't mention what airline. We were flying Singapore Airlines. Service does make a difference. The article mentioned Delta's risk management folks further down. No worries though; I was wondering the same until I came across the conclusion.
- nkozyra 10y agoThere's mention of Delta in the article.
- xarope 10y agoAh, Delta. I flew Delta, once (in the 80s). On the return flight, the flight was "delayed" till the next morning, and despite being a frequent traveller, they basically told me to go away and come back. Needless to say, I swore to never fly Delta again after that. As an aside, I had a lot of good experiences whenever I flew Southwest.
- cloakandswagger 10y agoI'll trade you my own anecdotal experience: Delta is by far the most professional and comfortable airline I've flown with. The difference in quality when comparing Delta to other airlines is stark enough to me that I will book with them, even if the flight is slightly more expensive or less convenient.
- gkanai 10y agoDo you fly internationally at all? Because almost all US airlines pale in comparison to the top carriers like Singapore, ANA, Emirates, etc.
- inferiorhuman 10y agoAlmost all airlines pale in comparison to Asian budget carriers. I've flown (from best service to worst): Scoot, ANA, and United recently (all on 787-9s). One of the Scoot flights had some sort of medical emergency. Who knows what happened, but from what I could tell the guy lived. The closest we got to a medical emergency on the United flights was the food.
- monksy 10y agoThat being said. United provides a better service than Delta and the worst being Lufthansa.
- inferiorhuman 10y agoNot in my experience.
- mindslight 10y agoAll airlines suck, because they don't bother trying to avoid turning their problems into your problems good and hard. I've generally had better experiences with Southwest than other domestic airlines, and that includes spending the night in an airport because Southwest canceled my flight due to "snow" when nary a flake was seen at the destination. Delta, I don't even know why they bother publishing a schedule. But I'm sure our relative experiences are completely dependent on specific airports and time of day. (I have flown Singapore once and the actual flight service was fantastic. But I'm not going to drop my guard over one uneventful data point, and even they haven't pushed back against the molesters)
- ajmurmann 10y ago
- monksy 10y agoChange that to 3 years ago in LGA and you'd have the same situation. Delta is pretty crap.
- peteretep 10y agoThis thread rapidly devolves in to people name-checking favourite airlines. I will have flown ~100 sectors by the end of this year, to ~45 airports, about 2/3rds long-haul, and all but a handful in J or F. It's not an especially unusual year. Service varies much more on flights with any one carrier much more than it varies between carriers. Seats vary depending on plane deployed by carrier as much as they vary between airlines. About the only constant is the amenity kits, food, and crew uniforms. The best service I've had this year was on China Airlines (an ROC carrier, not a PRC carrier), and the worst by far was Asiana (out of South Korea). I have no trouble believing next year I'd have the complete opposite experience. Service in any industry can be such a variable. I've sat in a restaurant and had outstanding service while watching the couple next to me get terrible service from the same server, culminating in that server accidentally crushing the reading glasses of one of the other diners. I got lucky, they didn't. In short, in my experience: when booking flights, it's generally worth just ignoring any claims of service excellence or otherwise, and looking at the food and seats you'll get on the specific airplane you'll be flying on. I'd take the Vietnam Airlines 787 Dreamliner with the Zodiac Cirrus seats any day over a Singapore Airlines A330 with the 7811 seats, and if I was flying in Y, I'd be basing my decision purely on a combination of seat dimensions and how new the airframe was.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jaggederest 10y agoSingapore Airlines is noted for having close to the best service standards available. I bet that is what is reflected in her experience.
- ekianjo 10y agoYup but they are fairly pricey these days.
- brobinson 10y agoSingapore is easily the best airline I have ever flown on. Outstanding service.
- HappyTypist 10y agoI usually fly with Singapore Airlines. The service is always exceptional. One time (out of about a dozen trips) the flight was cancelled due to engine issues. After explaining I had a conference to attend and the next flight would mean missing one out of three days, they booked me an United ticket and offered me some points as an apology for the "inferior service". It was.
- hueving 10y agoI've had delta do the same for me (would have been stuck waiting overnight for another delta flight). Must just be about making the urgency clear.
- goodcanadian 10y agoIIRC, in the US, airlines are required by law to book you on the next available flight on any airline. Of course, they prefer to keep you on their own planes, and it is probably impractical to move every single passenger, anyway, so you do have to ask.
- Coding_Cat 10y agoIn the EU there are similar laws. Compensations start as soon as a plane is delayed by more than two hours. My dad has gotten quite a substantial chunk of money back on a regular vacation ticket after it was delayed for a few hours. You have to ask, but I have noticed in recent years that they're quite open about the fact that the program exists, with posters all over most airports.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoOn the flipside, I think there is a sort of loophole that some cheap EU airlines use, where if all the passengers board the plane, they can keep you delayed (and boarded) for a few hours with no compensation. I've been stuck outbound from Gatwick, sitting in the plane for 2.5 hours with no food and no compensation, due to illness causing shortage in the flight attendant staff. I believe they knew about the delay before they boarded us.
- inferiorhuman 10y ago> The attendants were more than helpful Probably worth noting two things here: 1.) In the United States disobeying any of flight crew (including flight attendants) is a federal crime. 2.) The pilot-in-command has the ultimate authority on the flight. If it is a life and death situation and you're getting static from someone, escalate to the PIC. You won't make any friends, but you may save a life.
- jrowley 10y agoMy dad, a physician had to catheterize a passenger on an air new Zealand flight, and they offered him a free business class upgrade on his next flight. He found the crew helpful and was impressed they had a foley catheter onboard.
- peatmoss 10y agoAirNZ perhaps not the best airline out there, but the best airline I've personally been on.
- autin123 10y agoI'm under the impression that all US airlines are terrible. Really bad service and everything feels low quality. And they make you pay for everything.
- fons 10y agoIt does mention the airline: Delta.