I love everything flying. Airports, airplanes, airlines - all of it. So, for those of you who share a similar interest, here is a brief report on my experiences on these flights...in case any of you are planning future travel on any of these airlines.
United Airlines: Overall Grade: B-
I flew UA from Fresno to Denver, Denver to London, and LAX to Fresno. For the flights from/to Fresno, it was a regional jet, operated by SkyWest. The flights were comfortable enough and I had no major issues. For the flight from Denver to London, I got to fly a Boeing 777 for the first time! Also, I spent the $89 upgrade fee to fly in their Economy Plus Cabin, which offers a few extra inches of legroom, which I figured would make a big difference in comfort...especially since this flight was 100% full. There was a funny story about my seat in Econ Plus, which if any of you are interested, let me know and I will share that story with you.
Seat Comfort: C+; in Economy Plus
Food Quality: C-; pretty bland
In-Flight Entertainment System: D; tiny screen. Few movie choices and not on-demand.
Service Quality: B
Overall, UA provided a pretty good product at a reasonable price. I think I would have been pretty uncomfortable for 8 hours in their regular Economy cabin, so the upgrade was worth it - but take note: Economy Plus only means a few more inches of legroom - there are no other upgrades to the product - so don't go in with major expectations!
BMI: Overall Grade: A-
BMI took me from London to Yerevan and back a week later. The flight going was pretty empty, so I had an entire row to myself. This concerned me because I was super impressed with the flight service and wondered how BMI made flying to Armenia viable. The answer came a week later: the flight coming back was 100% full. This is when I realized that the seats are REALLY close to each other! Not a whole lot of legroom. On the way to Armenia, when I had the whole row to myself, I laid across like a King. On the return, I was barely able to lay back without my legs hitting the seat in front. That said, the service provided by the flight attendants, both outbound and inbound to London, was impeccable. Maybe the erosion of service on US Domestic carriers has left me with lower expectations, but even still - the service on BMI deserves a big WOW!!! The flight attendants were super nice, very accommodating and friendly. The food served was delicious - and I don't mean by airline standards. I mean by restaurant standards - it was a very yummy meal. AND, on the trip from Armenia to London, we must have had a newer plane because we had our own seat-back TV screens with 6 channels of rolling movies to entertain ourselves with.
Seat Comfort: D+; they have leg rests, but seats are too close to each other
Food Quality: A; delicious!
Entertainment: B-; not on-demand, but good size screens
Service Quality: A+
Air New Zealand: Overall Grade: B
This is the first time I have flown Air New Zealand (London to LAX). They flew a Boeing 747 - super cool!! Everything about this flight was impeccable - except one: the flight attendants, at least in my cabin, were surly and quite frankly rude! I couldn't believe it! EVERYTHING else was amazing. A huge entertainment screen with on-demand EVERYTHING (movies, TV shows, CDs, flight map, games). The seat was VERY comfortable for a Coach seat. Tons of legroom (more than Economy Plus on United, but this was the normal Economy product), and the seat laid back quite a bit to make sleeping fairly comfortable. The food was delicious with some New Zealand flare to spice it up. But the flight attendants did not smile once, their service was absolutely boring, uninspired, and unwelcoming. And, when one flight attendant spilled water on me, he didn't even acknowledge it. I had to ring the call button to get him to come back and to ask for napkins. He grudgingly returned, dropped (no exaggeration, DROPPED) the napkins on my lap, and walked away. No apology, no nothing. Had the flight attendants been even moderately nice, Air New Zealand would have easily earned an A+ in my book. The only reason they fall to a B for overall grade is because of the service quality, which was a failure.
Seat Quality: A+; especially for econ, very comfortable seats!
Food Quality: A+; loved the New Zealand influence in my lamb meal
Entertainment: A+; on-demand everything, with TONS of selection - I would estimate more than 100 movie choices were made available!
Service Quality: F; too bad the flight attendants SHOWED they weren't interested in being there. That said, I would definitely fly Air New Zealand again because the most important part of the product - their seats - were awesome in the Economy cabin.
Hope you found this helpful. Stay tuned - Armenia posts are coming up in the next couple days!
Okay, first off I voted on your thing that I wanted to leave a comment about what I want to read about...so here it is. I want to read about you. You choose what to write about, what it is you want to expand on and that is what I want to read. Got it? :-)
ReplyDeleteNow for a story of my own that you will love. In May I flew to Wisconsin for a conference. My flights to WI were fine. Nothing special nothing horrible, oh and it was UA (Sky West 1st leg then UA 2nd leg). However my return trip was a MESS, but I totally benefited from it. Here is the breakdown.
I flew from Milwaukie to Chicago. While in Chicago (a notoriously bad airport) they were having a really hard time dealing with overbooked flights. When my flight came up, it was overbooked by like 24 seats or something. So I volunteered my seat in exchange for a flight out the next morning, hotel accomadations and a free round-trip ticket. I also scored meal vouchers for 3 meals (they usually don't do this). My hotel room was AMAZING. My mom looked it up online, a King Suite at Marriot Courtyard, $278/night!
The next morning I arrived for my flight early, ready to give my seat up again if needed. Sure enough. This flight was overbooked by 12 people or something. So, I volunteered my seat right away...I got another round trip ticket and first class seats on my flights from Chicago to Wichita, Wichita to Denver, and Denver to Portland.
Let me just tell you, first class is insane. I had like two full glasses of wine, I didn't even have to ask for a refill. But I totally felt out of place, I am no yet comfortable being waited on like that. Hmmm, I'll have to get used to it I guess, since I'm going to be rich someday! :-)
Well, Hovig, and whoever else reads this, I hope you enjoyed my little story. Let me know if you need more details Hovig.
very informative flight information
ReplyDeleteYou should consider writing for a flight/travel magazine. Welcome Home!
Hey Andrea! When I worked in Baltimore, I usually flew America West (now US Airways) home to Fresno. Around Christmas and Spring Break, they always overbooked their flight, so three times I volunteered my seat for a hotel room, $400 voucher, and a first-class upgrade. It is, as you say, quite nice up in the front of the plane! Glad to hear you had a schedule flexible enough to keep volunteering - I've never had that experience of being able to bump twice! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear from you and hope all is well Andrea!
Anyone else have interesting flying stories? Share them with us!