No flight attendant is required on aircraft with less than 20 seats. That is why so many small commuter aircraft types have been designed for 19 seats.

On Easyjet the 149 seat 737 will have at least 3 FAs and the 156 seat 319 will have at least 4. Their 319s currently operate only out of the Geneva, Berlin, Dortmund and Gatwick bases. Bear in mind that in the standard Easyjet (and other airlines) 737 safety briefing one will be at the front doors, one will be at the centre overwing doors, and the one doing the PA will be out of your sight at the back doors.

Helicopters have different regs which I'm not familiar with, but where operating overwater (eg to North Sea Oil rigs) the attendant is invariably a beefy ex-Royal Navy guy in a full survival suit who is there not to serve any cocktails but to get you into the liferaft if necessary, anything less like the stereotype of an airline FA it is difficult to imagine !

If you come with me in G-WHBM you will find that I will be your commander, baggage handler, safety briefer, etc. But you will need to be my FA, handing me the water bottle when requested.

Worst airline? Delta gets my vote for five reasons: 1. Overly complicated Amex/Skymiles tie-in program, 2. too many reasons to deny crediting SkyMiles, 3. old out-dated airplane, 4. very poor service by attendants, 5. almost impossible to use SkyMiles.

Back in February, I signed up for the AmericanExpress/Delta frequent flyer program. I enrolled twice, once for my business and once for a personal card. Both cards credit my Delta SkyMiles account. No problem. But I had counted on accumulating more miles early on during a Kalamazoo to Europe trip, and having available flights to use the miles on! The Delta flight to Europe was the worst flight I've ever experienced. Here is a rant about both:

First, the Amex account rep told me because I was a previous Amex card holder, I was eligible for a $30 annual first year fee. Because my second card for my business used my name and same SSN, my second card would not have an annual fee. Truth is, they both cost me $85, or $170 total! Several emails and pleadings have not produced any results. Really, I don't need more cards, I have 5 Visa/Mastercards. I signed up because of the Skymiles bonuses. With the sign-up bonuses and a couple other bonuses, I had 29,000 miles. But I had expected almost 50,000 miles by the time I completed my trip to Kyiv. But I couldn't get any of the flight bonuses. No "pre-boarding" for international flights, so scratch that. Tickets were pre-purchased, so no on-line booking bonus. There were other unexpected "NO-CREDIT" problems, but I've forgotten them. This was April when I took the flight.

Before I signed up for this Amex/SkyMiles plan, I signed up for the Delta Skymiles plan to investigate use of the Skymiles. I could not! So I assumed I could use the miles as a usual ticket purchase, with available seat restrictions. When I had miles to actually schedule a flight using SkyMiles, I checked out "use your miles." But there are only "SkySaver" seats available to me. No times for the "SkySaver" routes fit my schedule, but some close to working were very bad. One route available from JFK to Grand Rapids Michigan went from JFK-Washington National-North Carolina-Cincinnati-GRR. There were "SkyChoice" routes from JFK-Cincinnati-Grand Rapids, but I had to pay a couple hundred dollars to bump up my mileage bank.

The Delta flight from Kalamazoo to Paris was 2.5 hours late due to weather problems(thunderstorm of surprising intensity then surprisingly heavy mid-April snow) when connecting in Cincinnati. So, I missed the only connection that day from Paris-CDG to Kyiv. It was an old Boeing from Cincinnati to Paris, not a nice new AirBus 330 like I had for my previous 4 Atlantic crossings(NorthWest 2 and Austrian Air 2). There were only two rear TVs and one large front TV screen for the entire coach cabin, showing one movie the entire trip and many Delta advertisements. Overhead luggage storage was a BIG problem. The attendants were busy chatting and offered no help. I'm assuming the subject of the ATTENDANTS conversations were more important than ATTENDING to the passengers.

Because I have type-2 diabetes, I requested a diabetic meal. The flight attendants had "special meals" for me, but they were labeled "Hindu," not diabetic. The flight attendant assured me the "Hindu" special meals(brown sugar-honey & oat cluster bar, fruit yogurt, bread, apple) were the same as the diabetic meals, so eat up! I had a strange feeling she was not trained in nutrition for diabetics. I took the apple and returned the remainder to her.

The same attendant told me I could use my cell phone (games and calculator) after the plane reached cruising altitude. This was once passengers are allowed to "move about the cabin." Another attendant saw me using my phone and shrieked "TURN THAT OFF!! READ THE SAFETY RULES! NO ONE ANNOUNCED YOU CAN USE YOU MOBILE PHONES!" Embarrassed, I turned it off.

It was a bit of a problem to find an affordable place overnight in Paris near the airport. No help from Delta for finding or paying for a room. They said economy passengers are not assisted for weather related problems. After much work, I eventually found a place 10 minutes by shuttle bus from CDG Airport called the B&B for 51 euros, about $70. The room was adequate and the breakfast barely met standards, but this was all OK by me. Other places nearby were going for $125 to $200 a night. All I needed was a safe, clean, quiet place to stay until next morning's flight to Kyiv.

I chose Delta over Northwest because it was the lowest priced. I don't know if the $235 I saved over Northwest's price was worth it. There must be at least a $150 advantage for Delta in the future or I will ==NEVER<== consider flying Delta Airlines again.

Let me guess, you flew a DL Boeing 767 over to CDG. Personally speaking, I wouldn't DARE fly DL over to Europe. I have absolutely no interest in flying on a B767, which is the aircraft they use most often for their European destinations. Besides, I have already flown on their B762, B763 and B764 series on domestic flights.....big whoop!

Happy that you found NW satisfactory with your previous transatlantic flights. No doubt their new A333 are wonderful aircraft (in fact, I'll be flying on one when traveling DTW-CDG soon.....other direction will be AMS-MEM via DC-10-30 which is by choice, since it will be the very last DC-10 I will ever be able to ride here in the U.S.....boo-hoo).

Another neat perk with flying international flights on NW instead of DL is that *ALL* cabins are offered free alcoholic beverages (anything you want). Yep!! DL charges $4-5 per beverage in economy.

I recommend that you chose NW for your future transtatlantic flights. You already know the reasons why.

Cheers,
MIKE

Whoa, Piedmont! There's a blast from the past ... and it's so true. They were awful. Even the peanuts weren't very good, as I recall.

The current bain of my existence is NWA. I've had two awful flights on them this year. The flights themselves were pleasant. The service and delays were just ridiculous. (Delays were traffic-related ... not weather.) Ugh.

Though I have to say Delta is a close second. Or maybe they're worse -- I had too many bad experiences, so I stopped flying them.

Southwest! (the original cattle car)

Sometimes we don't have a choice. Thank you, corporate travel agent....

You are correct, it was a Boeing 767. I'll be flying home to the U.S. from Kyiv in a couple weeks. Aerosvit has NON-STOP!! from Kyiv-Boryspil KBP to New York JFK for only 564$ RT. I couldn't resist... But I am expecting a boring cattle-car type trip.

TJ

I have to defend Southwest here even though I've flown on them only a few times. They are unabashedly no-frills and you get what you pay for. The FAs are cheerful and have a sense of humor and the flights have taken off and landed on schedule and my luggage has arrived when I did. More than I can say for some of the airlines where I've paid premium prices.

We have the same problem but I don't stand for it at all.

Recently was travelling from London to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Agent said "there are 3 Malaysian Airlines flights, leaving London at 1200, 1800 or 2200, which do you want", to which my reply was "the 1800 stops at Penang and is overtaken by the 2200, so why ever would I want that one?". Reply: "Um.... oh yes". And as a result of similar happenings I am known as a "nuisance" by the travel agency staff. But when the contract comes up for renewal, such issues are one of our prime grounds to change travel agent. Which we have done twice in recent years. And in the meantime tell them to rebook you properly, especially if they are giving away your personal time to save the company money.

No matter what one says about low fares, happy flight attendants etc., I will always hold them resposible for the downgrade in the air travel expereince. They have inspired the lowest of the low, free for all bargain fares, animosity between passengers that pay different fares for the same lousy service and a new lowest common denominator in travel. Bleecchh!
Let's just put wings on a greyhound bus.

My vote is also for Iberia.

I did a rt MAD-JFK in Y earlier this year. On the outbound portion -- in addition to the filthy bathroom and the bad food -- they started the movie just late enough that they had to turn it off 10 minutes before it ended as we were making our final approach. A few days later, on the way back to MAD, the same thing happened: the movie was turned off around 10 minutes before the end. I mentioned this to one of the flight attendants, to which he replied: "Yes, these flights are never long enough to show the whole movie." I guess it's really hard to start the movie a little earlier on that 6.5 hour flight...

Other IB peeves:
- Like other European airlines I've flown, food is no longer free on flights under approximately two hours. Unlike those other airlines, not even water is free.

- You want to make a complaint? On our way back to Madrid, we had a problem with our luggage. We thought it would be good to bring it to the attention of the airline, so that others might not have the same problem in the future; we were not looking for compensation. After waiting in line at the counter in Barajas, the employee types our information into the system, prints out the form, and hands it to us saying: "Now, if you want to officially register this complaint, you have to call ######." And - the complaints number was one that you had to pay extra to call! Gee, maybe I should complain about having to pay a service charge in order to file a complaint?

Que verg�enza. I'll take Bangkok Airways anyday.

- Michael

Apparently you have not flown Delta, the airline of delays, horrible service, and inefficiency. Southwest may not be the royal treatment, but I've never had a bad experience. It saves the hassle of "um, you're in my seat", rewards those who actually get to the airport on time, and always has helpful staff. Paying $8 for something to eat on a 5-hour flight on Delta is more likely in my mind to have downgraded the air travel experience. I guess on other airlines you get a longer amount of quality service with the delays; on Southwest, the aircraft actually take off and arrive when they are supposed to. As a college student, I actually like the "free for all bargain fares", which apparently are a bad thing? I respect your opinion, but just because you pay more and have assigned seating on other airlines doesn't mean that you will get better service or have less delays. As for "No matter what one says about low fares, happy flight attendants etc", what more do you want than cheap fares and a company who appreciates you as a customer?

Yup! I've flown 1.67 million with Delta, the last of which have been award flights in the past year since I quit and moved over to NW. Delta, along with all the other mainstream airlines are desperately trying to emulate the no frills carriers while maintaining their international routes and fly everwhere philosophies. I don't mind paying a little more, but not for what's become of any carrier's service these days. The no-frills airlines, of which Southwest was the originator has decimated service for all and clearly redefined air travel for the worst. That's why they get my vote.

I'm amazed this thread has gone on so long without mentioning Aer Lingus. Clearly the worst major airline in the free world (can't speak for North Korea).

Oh, I beg to differ (that is, before Dec 26, 2003). Though, definetely not in the same league as better quality KLM, AerLingus wasn't all that bad when I flew them in December- certainly not compared to many U.S. carriers and Finnair.

But since EI has adapted the "no frills" approach, I suppose they have now lowered their standards to the likes of EasyJet.


Cheers,
MIKE