milepig

Agreed. Even in biz, I just didn't quite get the hype.

Silver Fox

BA...

Athena53

Lufthansa. My husband and I took it in 2003 so this is ancient history, but FWIW: we were bumped from a flight from FRA to LED (St. Petersburg, Russia) on our honeymoon. I asked if they could let us use the lounge. She called the lounge. No, it was too crowded already. (I do know enough German to know that she was correctly reporting the conversation with them.) The flight we eventually got left over an hour late- they held it to wait for connecting pax from another flight. (Never in my life have I had a connecting flight held for me. Jealous? Heck, yeah.)

We did get $600 worth of vouchers, whcih I eventually sold for something like $400 (they were transferrable) but it wasn't worth it to lose 4 hours in St. Petersburg. What I found particularly disenchanting was all the Lufthansa ads I'd seen/heard touting their on-time record.

acunningham

I've been touring Asia for the last 6 months, and have been trying some new airlines based on their reputation. In some cases I've underwhelmed:

- Cathy Pacific HKG-TPE was on an old and tatty A330, with indifferent service. Not impressed at all.

- Asiana NRT-ICN and ICN-PEK, supposedly a great airline, had a hideously broken website, and bad food. Service was good though, and the cabin brand new.

- Singapore PVG-SIN and SIN-DPS, claimed by many to be the best airline in the world, does have really good soft product (service and food), but if they want to keep that title they really need to do something about their business class seats, at least on 777s. Quite a few other airlines now have much better seats.

On the other hand, there have been some pleasant surprises:

- Vietnam Airlines REP-SGN and SGN-HAN was very good for a short haul flight, with new aircraft, comfy seats, good service and good food.

- All the domestic Chinese airlines fly new aircraft and have good service. If only they served edible food...

- ANA PVG-NRT was wonderful - new aircraft, good business seat, superb service, and good food. In terms of soft product, it's probably the best airline I've ever flown. I'd go out of my way to fly with them again.

belfordrocks

Emirates

JerryFF

As with questions of this type, the problem is how the question is phrased.

First, don't you have to present a rating list from which to judge? BA and LH were mentioned several times, but how highly are either of those airlines actually rated and what criteria are used. There is at least one post where the evaluation of LH was based on one trip - one trip!

SQ probably comes out on top in most polls or surveys more than any other airline. And yet several people say it is overrated. Does that mean that these people think another airline is better or does it just mean that overall airline service is just very good so that even the best are "overrated".

Is there some absolute scale for rating or it is all relative?

And nowhere in this thread has anyone listed the criteria for judging.

hfly

Europe - BA
Asia - SQ
Middle East - Emirates
US - Jetblue

Joshua

I will third Southwest as overrated. (They're the third-largest airline in the world in terms of number of passengers carried.) They have a done a great job of marketing themselves as the cheapest (even though they're usually not).

daboogah

I would go with SQ. love the service but for what they tout, comes no where near. NH is good but they over did it with the fly first campaign on the 787. not a big deal when OA will be flying within 6 weeks of NH.

tonywestsider

I will have to agree that NH is generally a really good airline but now overrated. On long haul flights in Y, they have eliminated the mid-flight meal and now only serves a meal after take-off and then a meal before landing, which leaves Y customers starving mid-flight. They have replaced mid-flight long haul meals with food for purchase, including snacks for the mid-flight service or have you pay 80 USD for a Business Class meal.

And finally, it is cheaper to buy a RTW ticket Business Class on SQ, than to buy a Business Class RT ticket on NH long haul (IAD-NRT for example). The price and value for what you get strikes me as NH being highly overrated.

Gamecock

LH lounges are just awful, IMHO.

Y on BA and LH is far less comfortable than AA or UA. But the food is better.

J on LH and BA isn't bad though, better than AA.

Chatterbocks

there wouldn't be too many over rated airlines I reckon as most people tend to dislike most airlines. The only one that seems to get consistent praise is SQ and IMO they deserve it.

mapleg

Ah, you are making me smile...I have 2 ANA flights booked for an upcoming trip (courtesy of Aeroplan) and have ANA HKG-HND in Business and NRT-ORD in F. From what I have read I think that NRT-ORD flight is going to be superb.

Ancien Maestro

I like AC.. but based on some of the most recent enhancements for their top tiers..

may I be so humble as to throw AC into the bowl..

stupidzbu

I jumped from UA to CO in 2005 and never looked back. Now that CO has sold itself to the devil, I cashed in my 100k miles for a r/t to Kenya in November returning in B, doing a status match to AA and swapped my CO CC for an AA CC with 75k bonus miles

and your statement is exactly how I feel. The only thing worse than united is US