A friend and I took the bait on a cheap fare plus double miles offer from TWA this past weekend. We flew from PDX to Barcelona for $397 each. The bottom line is, I guess you get what you pay for.

While the experience in beautiful Barcelona was ultimately worth the long flight, I would never take TWA on such a long haul again. In fact, if it were not for the fact that I got 29,000+ miles out of the one trip, I would NEVER fly TWA again.

The planes were mostly old and not too tidy, not to mention their gate areas (the JKF terminal was exceptionally awful). The seats on the MD-80 on the first and last legs were cramped even for my 5'7" frame. And why, oh, why are they flying 757s on the transatlantic legs???

The food was horrible. I know, I know, you're not supposed to fly for the food, but I guess I expected more than snack bags for the long domestic legs.

I hate to look the FF gift horse in the mouth, but I'm tempted to exchange the miles from this trip through HHonors and take the loss.

Hate to start a new topic with such a gripe fest, but I'm just wondering why anyone would choose to fly TWA. Frankly, I'm surprised they're still in business. At any rate, I'll never complain about United or Delta again!!

Cheers,

Essxjay

The last time I flew TWA was transatlantic RT to Europe. This particular trip was back in '85, and it was awful. I have never flown them again.

Thanks for the trip report. Sorry your flying experience was none-too-pleasant.

TWA was once a great airline and I regret that it didn't go the way of PanAm, Eastern, et al. I don't believe they'll ever recover from the I-man daze...

I have never flown T-W-A and based on the stories I hear I'm glad I don't have to.

I'm still recovering from T-W-A Flight 800 (what a news day... I was at work 13 hours! YIKES!) CATMAN

I fly TWA and TWE quite frequently - makes sense from a geographic location and my employer has contract with them. TWE is awful!!!! Every time I fly from St. Louis to Bloomington, IL - every evening flight is overbooked and there are frequent, unexplained cancellations (underbooked flights, no doubt!!) As to TWA - there's never ever even a snack on shorter flights (even American's Cafe American bags are better than nothing) - but they do rule with the Y class upgrade and Y ticket entrance to the clubs.

The real irony here is that JD Power gave TWA the 1998 #1 ranking in customer satisfaction for flights of 500 miles or more. Food service, aircraft interior, seating comfort, and gate checkin/conditions were a large portion of the evaluation filled out by over 6,000 frequent fliers.

Who are these 6,000 people, anyway, and do they really exist?

Also agree with the EMD's comments about TWE. My travel agent said TWE spaced out their flights a little better in December so the TWE mechanics can service the planes more efficiently. That reportedly has helped reduce the number of cancelled flights on some routes and increased their flier's satisfaction level.

My last trip on TWE was in November 1998, where the two pilots were 20 minutes late because they made a McDonald's run from the STL airport. The gate agent was furious because the two morons were late for no "real" reason and they carried their food bags laughing and giggling through the gate area for all to see. These two were still eating in the cockpit when I arrived on board.

EMD: Being in Bloomington, I'm surprised you don't fly AA more? Ironically, I'm driving to BMI next week to fly to LGA... $202 roundtrip with 3-day advance purchase versus $900 from STL on any airline. I guess there is a reason for Valujet to exist -- they keep the major airlines' prices down.

Any suggestions on getting around BMI efficiently? I have a one-way Hertz rental return, too, to do at BMI. Is Hertz at the airport and what kind of time will I need to plan for the car return and eventual gate check-in? Thanks!