TravelBuzz! - Airline Economy Class Ranking

German magazine "Reise & Preise" asked 4,500 frequent flier to rank 50 airlines' economy class.

Airline Note
1. Singapore Airlines 1,78
2. Cathay Pacific 1,82
3. Emirates 1,83 4. Lauda Air 1,83
5. Air New Zealand 1,87
6. Qatar Airways 2,00
7. Malaysia Airlines 2,01
8. Thai Airways 2,03
9. Sri Lankan 2,12
10. Austrian Airlines 2,12

31. Lufthansa
32. British Airways
38. Air France
42. Alitalia
45. Iberia
http://www.reise-preise.de/00.4/umfrage.html
SORRY - IN GERMAN!

Why were US airlines excluded from the competition? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

These polls always bemuse me a little. If it were a totally unbiased sample of 4500 fliers .. great. But simple straw polling will at an airport have pretty obvious leaning and bias toward WHAT is the airline of #1 choice of the flyer they talk to. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Someone who has just walked off AA or BA or QF etc on a free redemption ticket, feeling good with himself is hardly likely to rave about Lan Chile etc IMHO.

Emirates are 3rd best? Hot Dog. And Lauda 4th. Great. And that highly patronised giant Qatar Airways is 6th. Amazing. Sri Lankan Air 9th - wow. Glad they never polled me, as despite a lifetime of heavy leisure flying to over 100 countries, have never set foot on about half the "top ten". I suspect if you asked 4500 random pax in ORD or EZE or NRT, SYD or JNB where they rated Qatar you'd get 4,499 quizzical responses! These things are hard to quantify with any impartiality or fairness.

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~ Glen ~



[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 10-18-2000).]

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Why were US airlines excluded from the competition?
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Sorry - I had only information on # 1 to # 10
and some European Airlines; they are the only ones published on the www.
A German reader of "Reise & Preise" might have the rankings of some American Airlines.

Ozstamps:

The poll was for ECONOMY CLASS. And I belive that # 1 to # 3 have a "First Class" Economy Class and deserve a prime ranking. And Lauda is also O.K. They have a LH flight MIA-MUC with a very good service.

However, Lauda produced a loss of about 71 Mio. US $

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Lauda Air, an der die AUA mit 36 Prozent beteiligt ist, habe in dem im Oktober auslaufenden Geschäftsjahr einen Verlust von 1,1 Milliarden Schilling (157 Mio DM) eingeflogen.
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Rank the domestic carriers' economy classes? Sure! Here goes:

AA: Sucks
CO: Sucks
DL: Sucks
NW: Sucks
SW: Sucks, but they are very tongue-in-cheek.
TW: Sucks
UA: Sucks
US: Sucks

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



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Time..... is on my side.

FWIW, I'm in "rough" general agreement with these rankings, based upon my admittedly VERY limited experience with some of these carriers - and in the interest of full disclosure, a complete lack of experience on a few others such as Qatar! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

However, while I do like my country, the US VERY, very much, what can I say about our beloved US carriers? They just simply do NOT stack up very well at all in any head to head competition with most of the other airlines worldwide! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Again, FWIW, as I've noted many times previously, in general, IMHO:

Asian >> European >>>> American

Hoping for substantial & rapid improvements! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Were the American airlines excluded from the competition or just didn't make the cut? I agree with the view that asking people's opinion on airlines is not always unbiased. I've had a better experience on AA's wide body aircrafts as against the 767s, on international routes. Thai's 777 have no leg room in economy, however there 747s are quite roomy. Austrian's A340 have better amenities than their 330s. Haven't travelled Emirates or SQ but have heard great things about them. I wish there was a poll based on the average of the provisions of economy service in different equipments of the various airlines. My personal experience, however, is that the difference is marginal.
In total agreement with Spiff. Domestic travel in US sucks. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Originally posted by USAFAN:
German magazine "Reise & Preise" asked 4,500 frequent flier to rank 50 airlines' economy class."Reise&Preise" is not exactely what you would call a Frequent Flier Magazine....

Where is SK on this list?

Just for a clarification, when I asked why US airlines were excluded, I was joking...how could anyone imagine them not being in the top 10?? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I have to disagree with the survey findings. I have flown BA most of my life and recently have been flying AA allot and frankly their new taking out seats program has made travelling economy on AA better than BA for me. In addition their 777 transat service also beats BA's transat service in terms of seat comfort. I think this survey was probably taken in Europe. Anyone who has traveled in the intra europe BA cattle cars in economy could never give it the edge over the 34" pitch economy seats that AA provides.

quote:
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Originally posted by USAFAN:
German magazine "Reise & Preise" asked 4,500 frequent flier to rank 50 airlines' economy class.
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"Reise&Preise" is not exactely what you would call a Frequent Flier Magazine....
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Curt:

You are right - "Reise & Preise" is NOT a Frequent Flier Magazine - I just translated parts of the article.

It may be even true that the reader compare apples with oranges: They may compare the LH flight(s) HAM-MUC or BA flight(s) HAM-LHR (in 727 ?!) with a long haul (vacation) flight(s) with Singapore Airlines (in a 747-400).

Do you have access to "Reise & Preise"? How are rankings for the US airlines? I only got my information from the www.