Worst Airline in the World?

[Weatherman]

Just got done reading this:

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/03/the-worst-airli.php

little snippit:

An American woman approached the manager in tears and told him her son had just died and that she needed to get to Chicago for his funeral. Would he please just rebook her on another airline?

"No," he said.

And then the crowd lost it.

Crazy.

[vinraith]

Wow. Note to self: avoid Italy at all costs.

[Caliga]

Alitalia

[grumbler]

Wow. Note to self: avoid Italy at all costs.

Avoid Alitalia, at least.  We just had a group of students come back from a spring break trip to Italy (run by the Latin teacher) and they had a great time.  Some railroad issues, but that's pretty common everywhere.

[Monoriu]

UA is pretty bad in my books.  Asian airlines typically have much better service than North American airlines.  UA, which has a lot of operations in Asia, does very badly comparatively. 

First thing.  Their check in counters.  Most Asian airlines check in all customers manually.  UA insists that customers use check in machines.  That's fine, except that their machines never work.  I mean NEVER.  Every time we try to let the machine scan our passports, the procedure goes in loops.  Scan passport, press enter, asks us to scan our passport again.  My guess is the machine is probably designed for customers to insert their credit cards - but what UA doesn't know is that most Asians don't use credit cards to pay for their air fares.

Second, their error rates.  I once gave them a ticket, and they told me they couldn't find me in the system.  The reaction of their staff was to ask me to stand aside, while they processed other customers.  What about me?  Dunno, don't care.  Not until my wife made a huge fuss did their manager try to find out what went wrong, otherwise they would just let us stand there forever.  Our ticket was from Saigon to Hong Kong.  Somehow their system thought it was from Singapore to HK. 

Another time, we boarded a UA flight in HK.  Just before take off some alarm sounded, and it had to be worked on.  I mean, I seldom fly UA, but somehow, every time I do so, something very unpleasant pops up.  I doubt it is just bad luck.

[Grey Fox]

Good God these people were had a ton of patience.

[Admiral Yi]

Good read.  Some of the comments are fun too, like the guy that goes off about neocons.

I rode Italian trains and had zero problems.  Only time I ran into any staff-first/customer-second attitude was at museums and attractions, where the hours always seemed to be open: 9Am to 12 noon, closed for lunch noon to 3:45, open 3:45 to 4:30.

[jimmy olsen]

 

Three police officers arrived to calm down the crowd. The most enraged of the African men picked up one of the officers, slung the cop over his shoulder, and took him away.

Here we go, I thought. This is when it begins.

I thought about lighting a cigarette. Rules no longer applied. I doubted anyone would say anything, and I doubted even more that anyone would make me put it out. I was pretty sure that if I lit a cigarette, other people would light up cigarettes, too. It actually seemed slightly dangerous, though. The mood in the terminal might have shifted yet one more degree toward total breakdown. A cop had already been taken away to God-knows-where by an unruly passenger, and the other two officers didn't do anything. I kept my cigarettes in my pocket.

[grumbler]

Good read.  Some of the comments are fun too, like the guy that goes off about neocons.

That was a gal.  Not that it matters.

[Neil]

Good read.  Some of the comments are fun too, like the guy that goes off about neocons.

That was a gal.  Not that it matters.

Male, female.  All third-world lunatics and their supporters are equally worthless.

[Habbaku]

Benvenuto Al'Italia.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I flew Alitalia years ago without issue.  Despite the large number of Italians I dnd't have any issues in Italy except for prices mysteriously spiking up at the tourist traps somehwere between ordering and the check arriving.

[dps]

If I had been there, so of those motherfuckers who "work" for the airline would be dead.

[Drakken]

How about Aeroflot and Cubanair?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Well I'm off to Italy in May, using Swissair to get there though 

Italy is a wonderful country to visit, but the public sector there is sprawling and mind-bogglingly corrupt and incompetent. I think that is why so few British people have moved there to live (unlike Spain or France) despite it's obvious attractions.