ThePointsCollector

AA. what ever their rating is I'd lower it by 10.

Austin787

Singapore Airlines. I have flown them several times, all in economy, and don't think SQ is significantly better than other airlines. Their Y seats are like any airlines Y - cramped and uncomfortable on long flights. IFE is top notch but other airlines have the same IFE. Food is decent but still economy class food. SQ flight attendants are very hit and miss - some are super nice, some indifferent, some downright surly.

kkjay77

SQ's reputation (as well as EK's) are based on their premium cabin.
SQ Y is good, but not a great way to fly.

Annalisa12

Qantas.

tmiw

This. Just booked SAN-SLC-DEN on Delta that was the same price as the non-stop Southwest flight; with the $50 Delta gift certificate that I had it ended up being significantly cheaper. Still more expensive than Frontier and Spirit but I'm not a fan of ULCC.

It's more that people don't research much before booking, which is strange because with sites like Kayak there's no real excuse not to any more.

shaner82

You can't compare a flight with a stop to one that's direct though. That's not a fair comparison. I've never even flown Southwest so I don't care what people think of them, but you have to compare apples to apples

Annalisa12

Why? Who says when finding the cheapest flight you have to compare apples to applies.

shuigao

Thanks to a company travel policy that only allows really senior guys to fly J, I've flown tens of thousands of miles in 6 / 8 of SkyTrax'es 5-star airlines in Y. What you've typed here equally applies to ALL of them.

krazykanuck

+100. Most of my travel is on my own dime, and I like to get what is a good value to me, so I always price all carriers. There has only been 1 trip in the last couple years that Southwest has been cheaper than other airlines, and that was a work trip, so I had no choice as we follow a "cheapest economy" rule domestically. I've found with Southwest, to get a fare that is close to what I'd pay on UA, I'd need to connect/stop in at least 1 airport vs. a direct flight on UA.

Also, living in Houston, I dislike flying out of Hobby. There is nothing to do there when your flight is delayed and no lounges. At IAH I have lounges and stuff to do, which I often need.

The only WN flight I have booked for the next 12 months is a points flight courtesy of Chase, and that's because I was able to get non-stop flights at the exact times I wanted them.

Thunderroad

British Airways. Not that it's horrible (and certainly not in comparison with USA airlines.) But at least in international F and J (which I've been fortunate enough to fly in recent years) it portrays itself as being a top tier airline while in reality comparing unfavorably with lots of competition in terms of hard product, soft product, phone service, some online features, etc.

BenA

For me, the award has to go to Thai: the hard product was fine (although not outstanding), but I had a terrible experience with every TG employee I encountered start to finish on the journey. I also think BKK is a terrible transit hub - only place I've ever seen a sign indicating I needed to walk more than a kilometer (!), and the lounges were dank, depressing caves with mediocre food options.

Maybe I'd have had a better experience if I was flying F rather than J, of course. But I'd heard people rave about their service on FT, and I can't see how they're possibly in the same league as any top tier Asian carrier.

Strawboy1230

I mean, I'm assuming all American carriers are out right? Because they're crap to begin with and this thread title clearly points to "overrated" airlines...

ckx2

Lufthansa and Emirates

84fiero

No. Because, to be overrated, they'd have to have someone rating them highly to begin with, which isn't happening very often!

wrp96

I think you also have the issue of X airline is great, they won all those awards - yes they won all those awards because of their great first class cabin, but most of us are not flying in first class or even business class. In order to make the top cabins great they've crammed as many people as possible into the back and cut what little quality there is to what is provided.

So a lot of people choose Emirates (for example) because "I've heard it's really great," and it is pretty nice up front. Except that they are flying coach and their friend who raved about it was up in first class. Quite a different experience.

You've also got the problem of people going on past reputation or experience and thinking the airline is still the same as it was 20 years ago (like the guy that goes into every review of JAL on FT and rants about his bad experience with them back in the 70s).