The World’s Worst Airlines for Customer Service

Pépé le Pilot said:
In Europe, Ryanair has to be the absolute worst to the point of grotesque. Imagine Louis C.K.'s take on *I don't have the education to emote without using a curse word* flights, multiply that by 100x.
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I think Ryanair is okay so long as you know what you are getting into beforehand in terms of service, destinations, and true cost. If you think they're going to be a standard airline, servicing the standard airport, and with standard things like reclining seats and space in the overhead, then a passenger is going to be disappointed.

My family and I went all over Europe on Ryanair when we lived in the UK and on the continent, and the flights didn't cost too much and they were all an entirely satisfactory experience, hehe.
 
Ryanair is ok as long as everything is fine. The main problem with them is that if you have any kind of problem you're pretty far from the city since their airports are in the middle of nowhere for the most part, and have no problem whatsoever leaving you where you are without explanation or any type of arrangement. And because they fly mostly out of nowhere, it's usually impossible to use another carrier. Horror stories abound, but it's a huge operation and they are very successful. At what cost, it's a different story.
 
jskibo said:
Give me the foreign partners FAs and Gate agents of any OneWorld, StarAlliance or SkyTeam partner anyday over their US based surly, entitled brethren.
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You haven't dealt with the gate agents here in Russia in a while then, have you??? F/A's are nice enough though...:D
 
Derg said:
Spirit is actually fairly awesome.

However, people that think it's going to be a "cheaper" version of any ticket on a full service carrier are the problem.
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Education is the key. Sadly, even when the information is spelled out clearly, most Americans are too egocentric and self-absorbed to bother reading/ learning what they're actually buying. Then they show up to the airport and everything is a surprise to them, when the information was previously presented to them in a clear fashion. I have little sympathy for people like this.

Something about a horse and water...
 
Once again, my problem is not charging for bags or lack of hot towel service, it's the inability to run a reliable operation, to get customers their bags in a reasonable timeframe (or ever), to have the resources to accommodate customers when things don't go right, or to just give halfway decent CUSTOMER SERVICE, which the article is talking about.

As I've said before, I currently work at one of these outfits. We didn't start out this way and articles like this feel like an arrow through my heart. But honestly, the three US airlines on that list earned their place on it...
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
Try explaining this to my wife. We just flew to West Africa and back and she was giving me a hard time about wanting to know the aircraft types. I finally got it through to her that it mattered for seating and flight times etc. She just checks the price. Not the schedule or number of stops. I was like if I'm going with you aw hell no.


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The worst thing ever.

I can't tell you how many people I encountered during my commute to NYC that, even after departing PHX early, were always giving the cabin crew crap about their arrival time.

"I have a 20 minute connection in JFK!"

Then I'd tell them that SouthernJets already knows they're onboard and will take care of them and then I'll ask where they're flying.

"Rome!"

"I'm flying that flight, but it actually departs (whatever) hours after we arrive"

Then it turns out they simply clicked the lowest fare on Orbitz, and they're flying us to JFK and then flying AA from JFK to FCO and there is no way in hell they're going to go from the SouthernJets terminal to Americans in less than 20 minutes.

But Orbitz made that sell and he thought it was all "same same".
 
Cruise said:
Education is the key. Sadly, even when the information is spelled out clearly, most Americans are too egocentric and self-absorbed to bother reading/ learning what they're actually buying. Then they show up to the airport and everything is a surprise to them, when the information was previously presented to them in a clear fashion. I have little sympathy for people like this.

Something about a horse and water...
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Yup!

Plus, people treat it like a game in terms of hour cheap they can get the fare and regularly lose.

It's a business, not a public service.
 
Derg said:
The worst thing ever.

I can't tell you how many people I encountered during my commute to NYC that, even after departing PHX early, were always giving the cabin crew crap about their arrival time.

"I have a 20 minute connection in JFK!"

Then I'd tell them that SouthernJets already knows they're onboard and will take care of them and then I'll ask where they're flying.

"Rome!"

"I'm flying that flight, but it actually departs (whatever) hours after we arrive"

Then it turns out they simply clicked the lowest fare on Orbitz, and they're flying us to JFK and then flying AA from JFK to FCO and there is no way in hell they're going to go from the SouthernJets terminal to Americans in less than 20 minutes.

But Orbitz made that sell and he thought it was all "same same".
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"Hey you!" "Yeah you in the pilot uniform."

"This is all YOUR FAULT."


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Totally.

Yeah, I'm the one that forced you to click whatever the lowest fare calculator on Google (who is not a travel agent) came up with and you thought there was some evil conspiracy for airlines to sell the exact same product and experience for wildly different prices.
 
Derg said:
Totally.

Yeah, I'm the one that forced you to click whatever the lowest fare calculator on Google (who is not a travel agent) came up with and you thought there was some evil conspiracy for airlines to sell the exact same product and experience for wildly different prices.
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With codeshare flights sometimes that ends up happening. MAD-JFK on DL $6,000 the same DL flight booked under the UX code $1,200.
 
I will say I just found out I managed to make Diamond on Delta this year. I thought I was going to be short but received an email a couple of days ago. Makes me happy to have put up with some crappy trips that weren't Delta's fault but their "partners". Also all Moscow airports need some help.

I'm hoping to eliminate this requirement in the next year but we'll see. Anybody hiring Gulfstream pilots in Northeast Florida, or home based? :confused::cool:
 
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A little customer homework, goes a long way towards a smooth experience with the minimal amount of headache

Unfortunately, laziness usually wins out over making just a little bit of effort to do some due diligence, with many people.
 
Cessnaflyer said:
Isn't that every airlines goal?
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JOEFRIDAY2 said:
Yes, but only Delta seems to be getting it at this point in time.
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I fundamentally disagree with this. Delta has a high-brand, high-customer service, higher cost, strong culture strategy that seems to be working for them.

Spirit and Allegiant, with their lower customer service, lower cost, less corporate culture are also doing well business wise.

To me, its like difference between Trader Joe's and Dollar Tree. Both of those retailers/grocers are doing very well, but they have very different strategies and very different customer bases.

The real laggard in my view is American... they just can't figure out what they want to be.
 
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Derg said:
Yeah, I'm the one that forced you to click whatever the lowest fare calculator on Google (who is not a travel agent)
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Do brick & mortar travel agents still exist? I'm a "millennial" so the concept of buying an airline ticket anywhere but online eludes me.
 
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