Spent a lazy Sunday afternoon reading November's edition of Condé Nast Traveler. This issue carried their Reader's Choice Awards for all the usual travel categories. Most interesting for me were the transportation choices, in particular the ten best international and US domestic airlines.

International: 1. Singapore (81.6) 2. Cathay (69.6) 3. Virgin (64.4) 4. Qantas (64.3) 5. Swissair (63.3) 6. Air New Zealand (61.8) 7. Thai (60.1) 8. South African (59.8) 9. Japan Airways (58.7) 10. British Airways (54.7)

US Domestic: 1. Midwest Express (80.7) 2. National (42.3) 3. (Alaska 34.5) 4. Midway (33.6) 5. United (32.4) 6. Continental (31.1) 7. Hawaiian (30.1) 8. Delta (28.0) 9. Horizon (27.8) 10. American/TWA (27.1)

From reading the posts on the various boards here there doesn't seem to be much of a surprise for the international top ten except perhaps for SAA. Nor is it a surprise that 6 of the top ten are Pacific based. However it sure was a surprise to see National as the second best domestic US airline and American tied for last (okay tenth) with TWA!

Condé Nast readers make their choice based on four criteria: cabin comfort, cabin service, food & beverage, and ticketing & boarding. The average of these four scores is shown after each airline. For the US domestic airlines #1 Midwest has almost double the score of #2 National and the point spread between #3 Alaska and #10 AA/TWA is barely 8 points! Does this mean there really isn't much of a difference?