Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
Can someone please put Loganair in the top 10? Seating on their planes is usually cramped (although the leather seats with sufficient space, reclineable backrest, larger table and hook are better than AF NEO), there is either no food (on those flights which have no FA) or limited to Starbucks coffee/tea without lemon/OJ/still water and between 2 and 3 sorts of biscuits, lounges are either non-existent or terrible, their frequent flyer programme isn't great (it's FlyBe's), but their crew are super friendly (cabin crew are attentionate and friendly; pilots are great and let you sit in the copilot seat on the Brittan-Norman Islander flights in the Orkneys and fly an extra round around one of the islands/rocks if you want to take a particular picture), they really do everything and go the extra mile when you get stuck in an irreg ops situation (stuck on Barra because of bad weather, they mobilised half the island of Barra and half of Benbecule to arrange for the GA's cousin to drop me at the ferry, organize and pre-pay taxi, hotel, onward flight, paid for my missed connection and reimbursed the hotel that I would have stayed in if their flight had operated) - rarely have I come off commercial flights as happy as after my Loganair flights in Scotland.
You really do make me feel like giving them a go and sitting on this copilot seat!!!
I guess individual trip reports are more likely to affect my own travel patterns than global rankings. ^
[PS: U2 is definitely ok but personally, if fare and times are equal I would always choose AF or BA over them. Part of it may be my not being immune to snobbery, but another is that apart from anything else, I find the whole pax 'starting block' attitude around boarding time nerve racking even if I remain sat myself! (plus I really do prefer windows so I don't always do). I also dislike the extra costs for credit card use, food and drink onboard, to a lesser extent luggage, etc. You are absolutely right though I think expectations matter a lot, and U2 is usually satisfactory based on my expectations while AF is often disappointing despite a better product in my view as my expectations are undoubtedly higher in that case]