I'm in a big of a pickle. I have been a loyal American Airlines customer since around 2001 or so. Between flight miles, bonus miles, credit card miles, etc., etc., I've banked a metric fuckton of Frequent Flier Miles. Where I live there are only two convenient airports, Stewart/Newburgh (SWF) and Albany (ALB). Six months ago, American pulled out of Newburgh. In September, American is pulling out of Albany.
I simply can't see driving two hours, dealing with city traffic, etc., etc. to go to a NYC airport that has American Airlines, when there are two airports that are local, very convenient, mostly traffic-jam free, etc., etc.
So now I need to pick out a new "preferred" airline... Here are my options....
- AirTran (SWF)
- Delta (SWF, ALB)
- jetBlue (SWF)
- Northwest (SWF)
- US Airways (SWF, ALB)
- Air Canada (ALB)
- Cape Air (ALB)
- Continental (ALB)
- Southwest (ALB)
- United (ALB)
So let's get rid of some of them right off the bat:
Cape Air - goes to like two places. Seen that sitcom Wings? Yeah, it's like that.
AirTran - Leaving SWF the same day as American, I think.
Air Canada - Only connects through Toronto. I don't think I want *every* flight I go on to be an international one going through customs.
US Airways - If I fly out of SWF all my flights, and from ALB most of my flights, will fly through their Philadelphia hub, which according to consumerist.com has an absolutely horrendous lost-baggage rate, and a 60% on-time rate. Woot.
Northwest - Has anyone forgotten the way they treated their passengers in the 1999 Blizzard? Did they even apologize? :-)
jetBlue ... oh, jetBlue, how I want to love you. If only you flew to somewhere other than Florida from SWF. Fly me to a major city, and let me partake of your glorious service. Unfortunately, they don't, and my connecting options through jetBlue are limited to "fly to Florida, and then connect to somewhere else on the east coast, and then fly somewhere west." It's just plain silly, and won't work long-term.
So that shortens the list quite a bit....
- Delta (SWF, ALB)
- Continental (ALB)
- Southwest (ALB)
- United (ALB)
Southwest is usually cheap (which is sweet) but I really really really hate the cattle-call. It doesn't usually affect me that much, since (as D can attest) I am always early to my flights, but the fact is that when I connect through somewhere, I can't be any earlier than my flight drops me off. I've got long-ass legs and I want a guaranteed aisle seat so I can stretch them during the flight. So Southwest is really my "last ditch" airline, and certainly not where I want to start banking miles again.
I used to be a rabid United flier, but -- in all honesty I have no idea why -- I distinctly remember being SO pissed at them about something that I immediately "changed loyalties" to American. My memory is extremely hazy, but I remember that "United fucked me somehow, and American swooped in and saved the day with great customer service," and I was sold. But I'm not sure if I can hold against them something I can't remember.
Continental is, by most accounts, awesome to fly on, but you pay for that level of customer service, as I also seem to recall them being one of the more expensive airlines to fly.
Delta... I dunno. I've flown Delta recently (when I was flying back from LAX on AA a couple weeks ago, AA cancelled my LAX>ORD>ALB flight for weather (all flights through ORD actually) and AA only connects through ORD, so AA had to throw me on another airline, and hence I got to experience Delta. My Delta experience was ok (heck, they came through for me in a pinch), but my view is a bit jaded by the fact that my connection time was hellishly short (30 minutes), the first leg was late, and I ended up having to haul ass through Charlotte trying to get from my arrival gate to my departure gate.
Anyone got any good long-term experiences with any of these four? Recommendations for or against?
I'd go with Southwest when they have a route to where you are going. Over here on the other coast (from Los Angeles) they basically just go up north, but I've been using them 2-4 times a year to go from Burbank to San Jose and I think they're great. It's cheap and they don't promise you much, but they've consistently given what's promised.
When I was traveling more I was often going on United because they have good connections / partnerships to Scandinavia, but it was always a pretty average experience. If you travel enough you might get consistent upgrades to Economy Plus which helps a lot on the legroom.
If you drop an airline completely each time you have a bad experience you can't travel much before you run out of airlines.
I've been to Canada a couple times this year and when we went with Air Canada it was (relatively) awesome. Or maybe we were just lucky it was a half-empty flight. I don't know if their whole fleet is new-ish, but the ones we were on had a 110v power plug or two in every row. Yay.
- ask
Yeah, I've flown Air Canada before, and been happy with the flight and all, but if my only way to fly them is to go through customs each time, that's going to get old real fast (which is how it would be for me).
My biggest issue with SWA is that I can't get a seat assignment. If they could do that, I'd probably figure out how to manage everything else about them....
I've only ever dropped an airline once (United) and while I remember that I was uber-pissed about it at the time, I can't remember now what it was. *chuckle* So, like I said,... not sure I can hold that against them any more....
Ugh. With the sole exception of Southwest, I hate all domestic carriers. I really wish the Feds would open up American skies & let foreign carriers compete.
I like Southwest simply because you know what you're getting. It doesn't feel like they're out to screw you every chance they get (e.g., still no bag charges). Flights are reasonable (and for me, typically direct), and helpful customer service.
I hear you on seat assignment, as I'm a wookie. I'm usually able to score an aisle seat on SWA by checking in early, although I'd love the chance to pay extra & guarantee emergency row.