Originally Posted by
Travelergcp
If one or two anecdotal bad experiences with an airline would cause you to never fly them again, most people would never fly *any* airline again.
OK here's mine. Any LCC. Not because they have wronged me, but simply because I can usually do better on a legacy carrier.
Setting aside AA for a moment (since you have status there), do you really think you'd do better on a domestic U.S. Skyteam or *A flight than on a flight operated by any one of the non-legacy U.S. airlines that don't take such a hard-line punitive approach to infrequent travelers?
(Take your pick of Virgin, Jetblue, Southwest, Frontier/Midwest, etc.)
If my choice was "legacy no-status" vs. almost any safe, established non-legacy carrier in the U.S., I'd fly the non-legacy. I'd do so precisely because those carriers, while they do have elite tiers, make less of a big deal out of a lack of status. I know that my experience on YX or WN (the two I've used the most over the years) is predictable and generally as good as anyone else's on the plane.