What is the worst airline you've ever experienced before

>>1144147
>right after we get our bags we're expected to get on a bus and to a hotel that the airline paid for
>it's 3 in the morning by now and me and my friend's insomnia are getting to us
>we talk to the Chinese man overseeing the whole thing, he walks right past us as if nothing is happening
>after 1 hour of continually trying to talk to somebody, there's nobody left but us in the baggage claim area.
>finally, they assure us that we will get a replacement bag by the airline once we get back
>I haul my broken bag since I can't roll it anymore, if I stopped wrapping my hands around it, it would fall open
>get to the bus and drive for 30 minutes to the hotel
>check into the hotels, goddamn receptionists can't even speak English
>we eventually find a room, and sleep for 2.5 hours until we wake up at 6 AM
>at this point, my suspicions about the behavior of the mainland Chinese were confirmed, they were loud, rude, and ignored you if you said anything to them that would require their assistance, they are pushy and unreasonably aggressive
>get herded on a bus, still carrying my broken, 20 kilo bag around my chest
>get to the airport
>try to talk to china eastern airlines baggage check in counter
>they ignore us and point to the information desk
>the information desk points us to a different direction
>then began a 2 hour long goose chase for a place where we could get a new piece of luggage
>finally find a place, they give us a tiny bag in comparison, need two, they give us two.
>hurriedly stuff our shit inside the cheap Chinese luggage, and hurry on our way
>It was past check-in by that point, so we needed to check in our bags in a special place
>15 minutes later and many phone calls by the guy at the belt, our bags were checked in
>we sprint to the security, get checked, sprint to the gate
>board the plane
>have to wait an extra 2 hours because fucking Pudong air traffic control didn't clear us (this was a problem on our return flight too.)
>eventually get to Delhi.

>>1144147
It was either American or US Airways. I think the latter. International flight where the IFE did not work and no free alcohol

>>1144150
Not much happened on our return trip, but there's only really one thing to point out.
>Flying from Varanasi to Delhi to Shanghai to LA to Las Vegas (home)
>Be at Shanghai Pudong again
>transfer flight no problem, no baggage claim, no cancellations
>decide to spend the remaining Yuan we have on some Chinese goods
>get two bottles of water and some bottled tea
>try to board the plane
>Chinese man booms at me "YOU HAVE WATUH? NO WATUH!"
>friend starts to protest, I know of no place where you can't buy water past the security checking place and not bring it on the plane, did it on the China East Airlines flight from LA to Shanghai and from Delhi to Shanghai
>woman at the desk turns to us and yells
>"NO, YOU NO BRING WATUH ON FRIGHT."
>Eventually decide to down the bottles in one go before boarding
>Australian girl walks past us and murmurs "terribly rude."

>>1144152
Fuck you, I had no idea China Eastern could have been that shit, and not everyone is a richfag who can afford the best airlines when they're going to a place with a 12 hour 30 minute time zone change, I.E, across the world. Also, fuck off, India was amazing.
>Went to see the place where the Buddha taught
>Saw numerous and countless temples
>Saw bodies burning on the ghat in Varanasi
>Bought musical instruments from Varanasi
>Saw the stunning town of Rishikesh and bathed in the Ganges
>Bought gold and diamond and jewels in Jaipur at an amazing price
>everything and everywhere is so cheap and you feel so alive walking the streets and haggling and seeing the life all around you
How can you wish somebody ill for going to India? Also, it's really no secret that mainland Chinese people are incredibly loud, rude, and obnoxious to you, you don't have to have the standards you were describing (pleasant North American dialect) to be put off by them and their method of handling others. It was the same experience I had when meeting Chinese tourists in Japan, this isn't a case of frivolous outrage.

>>1144147
>>have to fly with China Eastern Airlines both on the way to Shanghai and the way to Delhi
You didn't really HAVE to fly that airline. It was a choice probably based on airfare. I'm sure you weren't looking for the highest skilled pilots in that choice, ROFL.

This should be a life lesson to you. Next time, when given a choice from cruise line to tour company to airline to rental car company, go ahead and choose one that matches your homeland. Whatever your standard of living is you'll get it, from acceptable food choices to the level of customer service (for handling problems) that you'd expect. You don't want fun cultural immersion when you want peace and quiet, cleanliness and being surrounded by people who don't offend you. Fly coach on BA expect to see a lot of people from the british empire, people in burkas, large indian families talking seat to seat, you name it. Wanna fly next to people who don't culturally bathe as often and dine on curry? Not me. Fly coach on Lufthansa, mm Germans. Icelandair? Best passengers around. Fly coach on Delta, you fly with people who fly Delta all the time, possibly Atlanta natives, and your flight attendants and captain will be ancient and experienced. Want to cruise the Danube with Americans? Tauck. With Russians? Uniworld. Canadians? Viking. You pick up these little nuances that help or ruin a trip after you learn things the hard way. Some cultures don't measure up when it comes to international standards. I wouldn't get you five cents for a shitty 3star ikea hotel mattress in half the countries in Europe on my 1st night in town. I know myself. I need a day to recover from jetlag and a flight, and I know my hotel brands. I realize that by american standards, 3star can be 1-2star in the US.

Worst airline I've ever been on? Spirit. I swear to God fellow passengers (and employees) just got out of prison.

>>1144161
You're right Anon, I never saw it like that. I suppose I only picked China Eastern because it fit with my awfully tight schedule, because I wasn't going on vacation, I was going as apart of my masters program. Again, that's another perspective I seemed to have been too autistic to catch on to. I'll try my best to heed your advice Anon, thank you.

>>1144122

File: IL62_CU-T1262_Cubana.jpg (62KB, 750x507px) Image search: [Google]

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These assclowns

>>1144164
tell us anon, what happened?

>>1144162
If anything, you got that cultural immersion on that flight, which now that you're past it is a profound memory, even if it wasn't good! I know money is indeed tight for a student (what was your masters?). Lots of pilots in my family (father owned a major flight academy a couple of decades ago)....I value my life too much to fly on half the airlines in the world unless I was, let's say, evacuating a city for an impending natural disaster or coup that broke out, I'll forget about the money, and go "damn, last flight out..." which has happened to me a couple of times, damn hurricanes!

It'll get some flak for my picky but justified attitude here from other travelers who I feel are just in the dark, but if you read a forum like airliners.net or flyertalk, you see some trends. [ Pilot error, pilot error, pilot error. Inexperienced pilot, inexperienced pilot. Copilot was relatives with government official. ] Asia and the middle east for that matter, unlike north america and europe, doesn't have the country military pool and generational links to pilots. Think about how many families in India have a plane, compared to say Florida. So you can be booksmart, simulator smart, but shit about weather, or emergencies. Russians? No one ever wanted them as their pilots. Too much alcoholism in the culture. Crash history based on repairs is horrible. Siberia Air though, on the other hand, it's crewed by Icelandair under contract and the planes are retrofitted for their climate, again by Icelandair. Just saying, the more you know. That airline's security is a layer on top of it all too, not just the airport.

Childhood experience of worst "bus" in my life. Mountains of Guatemala, "chicken bus" going between two towns for I dunno, shopping or some crap we decided to do. Pouring down rain. Cliffs of doom around every mountain bend. Driver watching TV on the floor :o TB cougher, breathing down my dad's neck. Get off the bus in the rain to save our lives.

>>1144164
Looks like Soviet technology

Never had any nightmarish experiences with airlines, but Ryanair and Thomson have always been pretty crap when I've flown with them.

OP, I just flew LAX-SIN on China Eastern because it was literally $500 round trip. I thought it was fine. It was obviously a new plane though because the bathroom was spotless. Worst part was transiting through Shanghai. That international terminal sucks and the lounge is somehow even worse. Didn't try the food as I already don't eat airplane food anyways.

When was your horror show? They must have improved dramatically. Except for the clientele.

>take China Eastern
>eat the food like a fucking idiot
>immediately barf it all up when I land
>literally just me huddled in front of a trashcan in the men's bathroom heaving the entire contents of my stomach in front of a bunch of middle aged Chinese men
>still heaving when the food is gone, a bunch of bile is stinging my throat and mouth and spewing into the trashcan
>people are looking at me like I'm a psycho

I don't trust any airplane food after that except for the bomb ass bibimbap Asiana gives you.

>>1144286
How did you manage to hold it in for the entire flight?

>>1144287
>How did you manage to hold it in for the entire flight?
Food poisoning has a bit of an incubation time, depending on which kind you ate, it can come on in a certain window of time. and onset after a meal can even give a clue what type, for a bit of quick triage and treatment.
http://www.fda.gov/food/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm103263.htm
It have even been something he touched in the airport, and then ingested or rubbed on his nose or eyes, like a gross doorknob or armrest. Norovirus can have a 12 hour onset.

I have three airlines that I've been on in recent memory (I've been on planes as a kid, but don't remember much of anything about those trips). Two for business trips (Delta, American) and one for a personal trip (Jetblue). None of them were horrible experiences, but Delta did delay a flight, so if I had to choose one for the "worst airline" based on personal experience, it would be that one.

So what's up with China Eastern?
I didn't know they were that horrible, since they are like the 2nd biggest company in China after Air China.
And Air China is pretty good during low season (less mainlanders on board).

China Southern. Shanghai > Kunming

I don't care about flights as long as they don't crash but this was probably the worst. The meal was a cheap sugary burger bun with a piece of spam in the middle wrapped in tinfoil. This old man stood up and tried to go to the toilet right when we were landing, like literally the plane must have been at a 20° angle.

Pretty tame desu though. Never had lost luggage or the like (yet?)

US airlines are shit too, dunno which one I got but it fucking sucked, was semi-Third World and full of obese Walmart shoppers

>>1144375
ah, spirit

i've never actually flown alone until a few weeks ago, but on the return (a couple of days ago), i had a connecting flight with American

first i flew from tokyo to chicago, and then i was supposed to go straight to lga. after i arrived in chicago, i go to get my baggage checked, find out my connecting flight to lga is cancelled, so i get booked for another flight
go to the gate, apparently the new flight's full, aka, i was booked on an overbooked flight, so they send me to another one
that one is also overbooked, so they send me to the last flight of the day
that flight also happened to be overbooked, so the only option i had left was to rebook for the next day
go to ask where the main desk is, woman directs me to it. as i get there, that same woman i asked for directions takes over, and then tells me it's somewhere else.
after finally getting to the "actual" main desk, i was being punched up for a flight from chicago to boston to lga, as i listened to the employees laugh about how they're going to just leave at 10:00 even though they overbooked literally every flight like complete morons
i didnt get any compensation, so i had to stay in the airport over night. i basically just ran around the airport for 12 hours getting McDonalds and other garbage food because all airports suck.
12 hours pass, i finally get on the flight, arrive, and head to the baggage claim to find out my luggage is in the chicago baggage claim for god knows what reason
takes 3 days for them to get it back to me, and the food i got from Asakusa that i was so eager to eat at home is dry and mangled

it probably isn't that bad, but i find it pretty irritating how this happened the first time i ever flew

>>1144389
>it probably isn't that bad
I'd kill people for less than that.

>>1144389
go to frontera grill if ur ever at ohare again

>>1144152
>C) assuming everyone in the world should speak perfect English in a pleasant North American dialect

This part bothered me too until I realized that the guy was on a layover that was longer than it was supposed to be and these are people that work in an international setting.

>>1144147
China is basically the Moria of /trv/ you don't pass through it unless you have no other choice because China blows dick for skittles.

Next time get on Skyscanner and make sure your layover is in Korea, Japan, Dubai, Singapore, or Manila. Shit man, literally anywhere but China.

Also, stories like yours are why I never travel with more than will fit in my carry on.

Never really had an awful experience. I know for flights to Dublin (and presumably other Euro cities that aren't major tourist/business hubs) American puts you on a 757 with virtually no amenities that you'd think an international flight would have. The same plane that you would expect for a brief domestic flight, really.

The kicker? They charge $600 compared to Delta's $300 that puts you on a much more modern aircraft

>>1144155
>Saw numerous and countless temples
After about a couple of temples they get fairly boring to be honest, sure they still make a good place to visit but not exactly the life changing experiences people make them out to be. I find it really hard to understand Westerners who despise religion at home and go out of their way to defame and attack religious institutions and peoples, they then go overseas and have full respect for foreign religions. I am Christian and have nothing against Eastern religions (except maybe when they're practiced by the Chinese), but why do people have such hypocritical views of religion?

>>1144155
>bathed in the Ganges
What the fuck.

>>1145491
This, you couldn't fucking pay me to bathe in that literal shit water

I've flown, France Air, American Airlines, Air Mexico, and Lufthansa. Great experience with all of them honestly. My only problem was on my way back from Ukraine, either the German (I had some time in Germany), American, or Ukrainian customs opened my suitcase, threw out all of the lighters and most other gifts for my friends and family. The lighters were fine since none of them had fluids.

They also broke my fucking zipper and duct taped it up.

>>1145478
Exactly. If you work at a large international airport you need to be fluent in english. It's the world language and you're going to be asked questions all day by worried passengers.

>>1144147
>what is the worst airline you've ever experienced before /trv/?

Nothing really bad yet, but some minor annoyances

>Delta
>Fly to LAX from Europe on KLM, was quite OK and on time
>Last leg to Las Vegas on Delta
>Do the stupid US TSA dance, but all works perfect
>go to gate
>wait
>wait quite a while
>wait a while longer
>blah blah, delta to las Vegas is delayed
>wait
>blah blah, delta to las Vegas is cancelled
>WTF?
>OK, sucks, but stuff like this happens, with small flights (was just a little Embrear anyways), so not too angry
>go to counter
>Yeah, next flight soon, sorry, I put you on priority, and just to be sure, I also put you on priority for the next flight
>WTF? They dont trust themselves?
>next flight also delayed
>6 hours in now
>They finally realized they should offer their customers some food and drinks
>1 bottle of water (for the whole plane…)
>a bowl of shit like slim jims and 100%HFCS "candy"
>finally, we fly
At least they put me in first, (or whatever they call the front of the plane on short domestic) for the 30min flight.
>somehow, my baggage was not on the belt, but in the "Shit that arrived ours ago, and no one picked it up" pile

>>1145552
And back:
>SFO to Amsterdam on KLM
>night before in the hotel
>wonder why I did not get the E-mail for web check in
>try to do it on their website
>the flight you are looking for got cancelled
>Oh no, not again
>Contact option on the webpage does not do anything
>call their hotline
>sorry, no office hours
>fuckfuckfuck
>OK, I could also go to about 5 other airports in Europe, and there are 3 earlier options on AF-KLM
>get up at 5 in the morning (afternoon flight, originally) to try to get the staff to get into one of those
>Arrive at the airport
>tell them my issue
>Lol, what? No, your flight is fine, we also dont know how that happened. Yes, you are booked for the afternoon flight, which will indeed fly
>Oh well, hang out at the airport for hours
>hang aorund at my soon to be gate
>headphones, laptop on lap
>suddenly, cops on segways
>turns out there was a bomb threat on the plane before ours
>http://abc7news.com/news/report-of-threat-delays-cathay-air-flight-from-sfo-to-hong-kong-/1131369/

Don't think I've ever had a memorably bad flight. Some of the airlines I've flown with include, but are not limited to: Delta, KLM, Air France, Air Astana, Air India, VivaColombia, Spirit Air, EasyJet, RyanAir, SpiceJet, Qatar Airways, Emriates, Etihad, and IndiGo.

By far the two worst experiences I've had were related to airports and ground staff. Here:

>have an Air Astana flight from New Delhi to Istanbul with a 36-hour layover in Almaty
>land in Almaty
>security staff are very friendly but the process is just bizarre
>wondering how the female security guards are supposed to be effective at doing anything security-related while caked in twenty pounds of make-up and wearing stilettos
>settle in at the airport
>kind of hungry but all the food is ridiculously overpriced
>go to see how much a bottle of water asks
>politely ask in Russian at a kiosk if the lady speaks "English"
>she smiles and says "da"
>ask her how much water costs
>blank look
>ask her in English if she speaks English
>"yes"
>blank look
>she starts yelling at me and waving her hands and screaming and shrieking
>what the fuck just happened
>there are no prices posted anywhere
>later figure out that bottled water costs almost $10 USD
>no water fountains, airport is fucking tiny with 2 or 3 shops
>get woken up in the middle of the night repeatedly by drunken Russian travelers shaking my leg
>overhear a Kazakh guy speaking to his British traveling partner, he sounds like he's panicking
>says one of the customs officials told him to buy X number of bottles of vodka from the duty free, put them in a cart, and leave them in the elevator or he'd "miss his flight"
>mfw

File: Hate-Spirit-jpg.jpg (111KB, 782x536px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1144161
>>1144384

Spirit Air has made their terrible in-flight experience and despicable business practices part of their marketing. I took them about a decade ago and never again, but this point, I have little sympathy for anyone who takes Spirit and gets ripped off. There's an avalanche of information available on their awfulness.

>>1145570

Anyone who gets "ripped off" by Spirit is a fucking idiot. All of their fees are clearly posted and explained.

I fly Spirit for short weekend trips or to get from point A to Point B. I take a small backpack, pay $0 for luggage, and am not a fat-ass who needs to buy a $10 candy bar on a two-hour flight.

>>1144341
Flew with Air China two weeks ago to Beijing and Seoul.

Apart from the overly loud Chinese passengers, it seems like a GOAT airline. Dirt cheap prices, loads of new planes, food wasn't all bad.

>>1145622

I don't know, as someone over 6 foot tall, 9 hours Air China from Beijing to Vienna was hell. The food was pretty awful too. To this day I haven't figured out what a "chicken flavoured egg" is...

Flying Ryan Air next week for the first time. My backpack will be just BARELY under the maximum LxWxH. Potentially half a centimeter above in width if my backpack is too stuffed. Should this pass easily or are they really strict?

You guys don't know shit until you fly Air Koryo.

>>1145765
I had a flight with Koryo. It was retro but not shitty or anything. China Eastern was far worse.

Early May I had a flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt but three and a half hours or so into the flight one of the machines that keeps the cabin pressurized broke. We ended up flying back to Atlanta and waiting another two hours to get a new plane. While no one was hurt it was pretty scary. Airline was Delta

i've flown on very many - best would have been when qatar airways upgraded me to business for a long-haul, that was pretty nice

by far the worst was royal air maroc - now if you google RAM you'll see countless shit reviews of them, however I neglected to look them up before flying with them, thinking that as a national flagship airline they couldn't be too bad, surely

flight Gatwick to Casablanca was delayed by 3 and a half hours with no explanation, which then caused me to miss my connecting flight from Casablanca to Marrakech on top of this, when I arrived at Marrakech my luggage had been misplaced - and RAM have "a policy" of not posting luggage, so I had to go back to the airport every day to check if it had arrived (note, all their phone lines are NEVER operational, so you get zero customer service or help of any sort). eventually I gave up hope as after nearly a week it hadn't come and no-one seemed to be any the wiser + my travel insurance came through for me

>>1145783

cont.

on the return flight I arrive at Marrakech to find that my flight has been cancelled (again no explanation), and this time do not manage to persuade RAM to put me on another flight (apparently they have no obligation to do so). in either case, I had had enough and decided even Ryanair would be better, so just bought another flight and managed (through some extreme fortune) to claim it back on travel insurance

>>1145744
I just finished my travels with an Osprey Porter 46L backpack which works out to pretty much exactly the maximum dimensions. I took eight flights across Oceania and SEA, with seven different airlines and I didn't have a single problem. None of them even looked at my backpack, except once to weigh it (was 6.9kg). So my experience is that you will be fine as long as you keep it under the weight. I saw a lot of people bringing on bigger bags then me or multiple bags, etc..

>>1145742
I'm 6'1 and was fine, but my legs are pretty short in terms of the rest of my body.