justforfun

Not too bad for our little airline...

https://www.cntraveler.com/galleries...oice-awards/12

The caption says A3 plans to expand by more than 50%. Interesting.

irishguy28

I'd rank it higher

But you must take all these "rankings" with a pinch of salt; the author clearly doesn't know what s/he is talking about.

Here's what they say about KLM (Number 20):

"KLM’s premium economy cabins get rave reviews for seat comfort,"

Not only does KLM *not* have a premium economy cabin; their seat comfort attracts far more complaints than praise.

blackball

Plus Swiss is highly ranked. I have sworn I will NEVER fly Swiss again, after the last time I was on one of their 777-300s with a 3-4-3 config. I was touching elbows with the guy next to me the *entire* 10+ hour flight... Ugh...

irishguy28

I did laugh at the Swiss caption. Says something about going for a boutique airline feel rather than a stodgy flag carrier - accompanied by a photo which places them firmly in the "stodgy" category.

And you have to wonder if they could have found a worse photo to use for Emirates...

I think whoever "assembled" that article was having a laugh!!!

CesarFrancq

KLM has introduced "Economy Comfort" sections on its entire fleet now (including narrowbody planes), in the style of United, with 4 inches more legroom. I guess this counts as premium economy.

fransknorge

Not really. A premium economy is usually a different product than just an economy seat with more legroom. All airlines which have something akin to KLM, i.e. an economy seat with more legroom, but without its dedicated cabin, service and fare class are usually very careful to not name it Premium Economy.

irishguy28

Again...they specifically state "Premium Economy cabin". Anyone who has seen KLM's Economy Comfort seats would NOT get every single aspect wrong. It's not a different seat, and it's not a different cabin.

TPJ

Slightly OT - but NZ the world's best airline? Weird - the trans-Tasman experience is a very low cost one.

A3's rating is well deserved...

irishguy28

Probably the best flight I ever had was a domestic hop from Auckland down to New Plymouth 6 years ago on a Dash 8; the sole flight attendant was the most engaging, friendly and welcoming staff member I have ever had the pleasure of meeting; she acted as tour guide and welcome ambassador and was an absolute credit not only to the airline, but to the entire country. ^

My only other NZ experience was on a trans-Tasman; one of the big rugby boys in my row had obviously overdone it the night before; he spent a large part of the flight spewing into various sick bags.

ajeleonard

Not a ringing endorsement for these awards, although I assume at some point before modern media became a click-factory she did something more worthy than Buzzfeed style slideshows.

johnirvine

Post deleted.

Noobflyer59

Having started my Aegean relationship out of greed (getting gold as easy as possible) a few years ago, the company has slowly convinced me and I easily consider it among the best airlines in Europe. Certainly better than any of the big ones! Everything from onboard service, transfer service, gold hotline service and general friendliness as well as organisation of staff, and last but not least important, attitude when problems arise, is just excellent.
Also, even if I'm no expert in this area, their high utilisation of their economical unity fleet of A320s, seems to save money where it doesn't really hurt anyone involved. When I started using Aegean, I was disappointed they had no longhaul flights, and only flights on weird times to the Middle East. Now I know the reason and hope it doesn't change!

CALMSP

I really enjoy flying A3. The only problem we ever encounter is the lobby at ATH seems to be complete chaos. However, I've only been there during the morning hours and guessing this is just a surge for all the pax flying to the islands first thing in the morning? Seems like there could be ways for improvement to expedite quicker or increase your counter space with more agents or increased self bag-tag.

yurtripper

These are encouraging comments. I’ll have *G via SQ by the end of the year but for next year I think I’d like to go the A3 route as I’m based in the EU and that looks more sustainable (the main reason being the relatively low hurdle for retaining *G).

However, qualifying for A3*G will be quite a bit more work than just retaining it so I will likely have to go the well-trodden route of flying SK to get there. Why is A3 so generous with SK accrual?

fransknorge

It is the other way around: SK is generous with A3. The operating carrier is the one deciding what to award for all FFP of the alliance. SK went for simplicity: 100% earning on economy for all FFP. Lufthansa went for being a scrooge, as if you notice their logo is not a crane but a vulture