Originally Posted by
dave31
Sometimes, I will look at Skytrax to read what people think of various airlines. I do NOT accept that every criticism of an airline is justified or that good reviews will necessarily mean that I will have a good flight. It is simply a snapshot of a flight on a particular day and is totally subjective.
However when an airline seems to be getting a lot of negative or positive comments, maybe it is time to take a little bit more notice.
I have a biz class flight out of London in the next few months, flying with Etihad for the first time. I am becoming a little concerned at the amount of negative comments on Skytrax. Admittedly, most refer to Economy but there are a lot of comments regarding rudeness by crew and what appears to be a rather shambolic airport at AUH. I just hope that the vast majority of passengers have experienced good flights with Etihad but cannot be bothered to write about it!
Very interested to read your measured thoughts here. Struck a chord with me because I'm a fairly loyal Emirates flyer over many years ; but have just recently been thinking of giving Etihad a go.....the only one of the (main) Gulf-based carriers I have never used.
I too was surprised by the very negative pattern of reviews/feedback on Skytrax. You make good points about the way in which such reviews can create a skewed impression, but nevertheless there was
far more criticism than I expected to see - and across all cabin classes.
It's reassuring to hear from some of the Etihad forum regulars that their experiences have generally been very good. I find a similar situation when I see very bad reviews of EK ("
will never fly them again ...."), only to then remind myself that the vast majority of my own EK flights have been good to excellent.
Ultimately, I have concluded that the only way to come to a meaningful judgement is to do a 'tried & tested' for yourself, and I guess that's what's needed
