3 ms·

Proper airlines only please.

ramraj07 4y ago
Are you implying Qatar isn’t a proper airline? Anyone who flies international often would likely rate it at the highest levels currently. My current lowest ranked crap airline is British. God have the Europeans grown lazy.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  Check out the comments from the article. Of course most of us have no way of verifying that information.
- wrldos 4y ago
  I'd rather have a safe bad experience than a shiny plane crash.
  - hackernewds 4y ago
    What plane crash?
    - ChemSpider 4y ago
      The 787 was less than 250 m above water, that was VERY close to crash.
      - hef19898 4y ago
        The only difference being at 600 feet above water, the olane could, and did, continue its journey. At zero feet, not so much.
- wtch98 4y ago
  There's a difference between the onboard service and cabin (and god are BA shit), and the flight safety. That said BA earned a hell of a black mark when it chose to divert to Heathrow rather than Stansted or even Gatwick when its engine was on fire [1]. Not as much as when Air France decided to divert from Lebanon to Damascus in the middle of a civil war rather than Cyprus because it was cheaper [2] [1] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ba-flight-returns-to-heathrow-after-engine-catches-fire-minutes-after-taking-off-a3628601.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ba-flight-returns-to-... [2] https://globalvoices.org/2012/08/26/france-an-epic-flight-from-paris-to-beirut-via-damascus/ https://globalvoices.org/2012/08/26/france-an-epic-flight-fr...
  - trimbo 4y ago
    > That said BA earned a hell of a black mark when it chose to divert to Heathrow rather than Stansted or even Gatwick when its engine was on fire After declaring an emergency, if they landed at Heathrow, that was at the pilot's discretion or due to limiting factors like runway length at Gatwick and the weight of their plane. The article is light on detail but they circled over Kent as well, so the pilots must have thought it was safe after shutting down the engine.
    - wtch98 4y ago
      In the process dropping debris over one of the largest cities in Europe. Gatwick and Stansted can take any plane just as easily as Heathrow, but has less on ground resources to fix the plane.
    - mpalfrey 4y ago
      Runway length at LGW is OK for a 777. I'd guess they knew it was safe and it's easier to deal with a plane full of pax at your originating airport than diverting to STN (where there's no BA ops) or LGW (BA have ops here so could have worked).
      - darrenf 4y ago
        > STN (where there's no BA ops) BA did fly from STN in 2017, at the time of the incident - they served short haul tourist routes like PMI, AGP, FLR, IBZ.
  - ramraj07 4y ago
    Honestly I’ll take the incremental odds that I’ll be the unlucky guy in the first ever Qatar plane crash over the absolute dogpile BA calls service now (having just received my missed business class bag after a full week of no communication or updates).
- kkfdkerpoe 4y ago
  Safety and customer experience are two different things that may not correlate much most of the time. I'll rather have top quality pilots and maintenance than friendliest flight attendants if I have to choose between two.
  - ExoticPearTree 4y ago
    I prefer a pleasant flight than to fly a shitty airline. And as a frequent flyer of European airlines for intercontinental flights, the quality of the flight experience pales in contrast with Qatar. You don't know how good the pilot is until it gets you out of a really bad situation that the AP cannot manage. Most airline pilots do very little actual flying: takeoffs mostly, and depending on how new the plane is and the type of runways they land on, some just use auto-land systems. You're most likely to find more experienced pilots flying small commercial planes without AP than actual proper airline pilots.
    - piva00 4y ago
      > Most airline pilots do very little actual flying: takeoffs mostly, and depending on how new the plane is and the type of runways they land on, some just use auto-land systems. And that's precisely why I also care about pilot quality before how pleasant the service is. The moment something goes awry with the automated systems you better have a good crew flying your plane than a crew who's much more reliant on instruments and automation. It's like insurance, I'd rather choose to never have to use it but the moment I need it you bet I'll be very grateful that I preferred a very good coverage than the cheapest option out there.
      - ramraj07 4y ago
        Agreed on most parts, but at some point you have to start deciding whether the safety tradeoff is worth it. You’re still more likely to die on the car ride to the airport than in the plane, yet we all do it still. And the “quality” of service is not just slightly off, it’s wildly off to the extent it genuinely distresses you even when everything is going right, leave alone the hell British creates if even something goes wrong. Again, until something actually crashes I’ll reserve judgement on whether the slight increase in supposed risk for the middle eastern airlines is even real.

Are you implying Qatar isn’t a proper airline? Anyone who flies international often would likely rate it at the highest levels currently. My current lowest ranked crap airline is British. God have the Europeans grown lazy.

bigDinosaur 4y ago
Check out the comments from the article. Of course most of us have no way of verifying that information.
wrldos 4y ago
I'd rather have a safe bad experience than a shiny plane crash.
- hackernewds 4y ago
  What plane crash?
  - ChemSpider 4y ago
    The 787 was less than 250 m above water, that was VERY close to crash.
    - hef19898 4y ago
      The only difference being at 600 feet above water, the olane could, and did, continue its journey. At zero feet, not so much.
wtch98 4y ago
There's a difference between the onboard service and cabin (and god are BA shit), and the flight safety. That said BA earned a hell of a black mark when it chose to divert to Heathrow rather than Stansted or even Gatwick when its engine was on fire [1]. Not as much as when Air France decided to divert from Lebanon to Damascus in the middle of a civil war rather than Cyprus because it was cheaper [2] [1] https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ba-flight-returns-to-heathrow-after-engine-catches-fire-minutes-after-taking-off-a3628601.html https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ba-flight-returns-to-... [2] https://globalvoices.org/2012/08/26/france-an-epic-flight-from-paris-to-beirut-via-damascus/ https://globalvoices.org/2012/08/26/france-an-epic-flight-fr...
- trimbo 4y ago
  > That said BA earned a hell of a black mark when it chose to divert to Heathrow rather than Stansted or even Gatwick when its engine was on fire After declaring an emergency, if they landed at Heathrow, that was at the pilot's discretion or due to limiting factors like runway length at Gatwick and the weight of their plane. The article is light on detail but they circled over Kent as well, so the pilots must have thought it was safe after shutting down the engine.
  - wtch98 4y ago
    In the process dropping debris over one of the largest cities in Europe. Gatwick and Stansted can take any plane just as easily as Heathrow, but has less on ground resources to fix the plane.
  - mpalfrey 4y ago
    Runway length at LGW is OK for a 777. I'd guess they knew it was safe and it's easier to deal with a plane full of pax at your originating airport than diverting to STN (where there's no BA ops) or LGW (BA have ops here so could have worked).
    - darrenf 4y ago
      > STN (where there's no BA ops) BA did fly from STN in 2017, at the time of the incident - they served short haul tourist routes like PMI, AGP, FLR, IBZ.
- ramraj07 4y ago
  Honestly I’ll take the incremental odds that I’ll be the unlucky guy in the first ever Qatar plane crash over the absolute dogpile BA calls service now (having just received my missed business class bag after a full week of no communication or updates).
kkfdkerpoe 4y ago
Safety and customer experience are two different things that may not correlate much most of the time. I'll rather have top quality pilots and maintenance than friendliest flight attendants if I have to choose between two.
- ExoticPearTree 4y ago
  I prefer a pleasant flight than to fly a shitty airline. And as a frequent flyer of European airlines for intercontinental flights, the quality of the flight experience pales in contrast with Qatar. You don't know how good the pilot is until it gets you out of a really bad situation that the AP cannot manage. Most airline pilots do very little actual flying: takeoffs mostly, and depending on how new the plane is and the type of runways they land on, some just use auto-land systems. You're most likely to find more experienced pilots flying small commercial planes without AP than actual proper airline pilots.
  - piva00 4y ago
    > Most airline pilots do very little actual flying: takeoffs mostly, and depending on how new the plane is and the type of runways they land on, some just use auto-land systems. And that's precisely why I also care about pilot quality before how pleasant the service is. The moment something goes awry with the automated systems you better have a good crew flying your plane than a crew who's much more reliant on instruments and automation. It's like insurance, I'd rather choose to never have to use it but the moment I need it you bet I'll be very grateful that I preferred a very good coverage than the cheapest option out there.
    - ramraj07 4y ago
      Agreed on most parts, but at some point you have to start deciding whether the safety tradeoff is worth it. You’re still more likely to die on the car ride to the airport than in the plane, yet we all do it still. And the “quality” of service is not just slightly off, it’s wildly off to the extent it genuinely distresses you even when everything is going right, leave alone the hell British creates if even something goes wrong. Again, until something actually crashes I’ll reserve judgement on whether the slight increase in supposed risk for the middle eastern airlines is even real.