Not dissecting into components, just overall suckiness. My vote would have to be for Iberia. I'd rather fly JAT.

Olympic (personal experience only)

I am sure there are many, many worse ones, but the ones I personally tried and now try to avoid are Delta and VolareWeb (Spanish LCC) .

The two flights I've had on Iberia were actually very good. Haven't flown Olympic yet.

These days, sadly, KLM.

Definitely KLM. They have a major quality issue in terms of their customer services and senior management who refuse to acknowledge this. The only reason I still bother flying with them is that I much prefer waiting in AMS to LHR, CDG or FRA.

Just a little correction...

"Volareweb" is an italian LCC! Not spanish!
In spain there�s existing only one LCC named "Vueling" so far!

America Worst

SAN-LAS connecting through PHX and taking 5 hours. Puh-leeze.

KLM is like the girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead.

The worst flight I've had, however, was with Balkan Bulgarian, GLA-VAR. Second worst was probably in an NW 727 DTW-BOS. Even SU DEL-SVO came way ahead of these...

I guess my worst experience with an airline was Balkan as well, in the winter from SOF to VAR. Scary (and I travelled ALOT in CEER/FSU). Weird seeing snow on the beach...

With several daily non-stops SAN-LAS, why in the world would anyone choose to take the connection thru PHX?

mainstream not being a well defined concept, my vote has to go to KLM. messed up my reservations, spilled orange juice on me, lost my bags not once but every time I connected through AMS, unfriendly to the point of insulting, unprofessional complaint handling. I fear things won't improve with the AF merger

I've had great flights on Iberia (within Europe), American West and Olympic. As for KLM, they have probably declined the most of any major airline. The reason we are so upset at KLM is that they used to be a pretty good airline. However if you fly them with no expectations they aren't too bad. I've only flown KLM twice this year though.

OTOH, United in some ways has declined far more than KLM. UA is still a good airline in some ways, but if you based them on what you expected in 1998 for instance, you would be highly dissapointed today.

LCC's aren't quite mainline, are they? I simply won't fly them except for the few times I've had no choice but to fly Southwest. Ugh!

[QUOTE=stimpyAs for KLM, they have probably declined the most of any major airline. The reason we are so upset at KLM is that they used to be a pretty good airline. However if you fly them with no expectations they aren't too bad. I've only flown KLM twice this year though.
[/QUOTE]

I fully agree. KLM used to be one of the best up until the early 1990's. Ever since the close cooperation with Northwest started, they started to go rapidly downhill. I do about 25 flights on KLM / year (a mix of European and inter-continental flights and a mix of business class and economy class) and fly a lot on many other airlines, too, and KLM these days is about average. They have never lost my bags (LH and CX did lose my bags), I haven't had major delays, the food is normally OK (nothing special, but certainly edible).
The fact that KLM is doing relatively well in financial terms and has recently reported high load factors, also is proof that they can't be too bad.

I think that's very unfair. Yes, we used to roll our eyes about classy KLM getting involved with Northworst. But the last few years, something has happened. I can't remember anymore when I last dealt with a Northwest employee who was anything less than correct, and I can remember plenty of recent examples of good and friendly customer service, and plain Mid-Western decency. I certainly can't say the same about KLM. Northwest have managed to make quite substantial cuts whilst keeping their employees motivated and their customers at least content and usually satisfied. Compare this with KLM's infuriating puritan Calvinist ideas that their customers don't *deserve* ice with their soft drink, a beer, or (most recently) bringing more than 23 kg of luggage over the pond (why, anybody who has more than that must surely be too attached to their worldy possessions, which is why KLM usually tries to part them from their owner during transfer at AMS).

Sorry for the rant, which is off-topic as this thread is supposed to be a plain list of worst carrier without chapter and verse, but I don't think it's a coincidence that KLM is the most commonly mentioned one, and I also don't think it's reasonable to blame Northwest for this.

Olympic have to be high up this list.
Easydeath, the only LCC I've flown, seems better-organised but I wouldn't want an emergency to happen while I'm flying them (not that I would enjoy it on another airline). As far as I can remember, there were 2 FAs for a planeload of about 170 pax