Recliner wrote:
"MC" wrote in message
ster.com
"Bruce" wrote in message
...
On 12 Oct 2009 08:43:40 GMT, Adrian wrote:

"Ian F." gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying:

Did you have a bad experience, or are you just reacting to the
chattering campaign about them?
I've had a couple of bad experiences - herded around like cattle,
talked at by snotty-nosed ground staff like I was a piece of ****,
shown no respect whatsoever...

I'm a reasonably frequent flyer and I'm too old and
dyed-in-the-wool to worry about saving a few pennies to be treated
like that. I'd far rather spend the extra and be shown some degree
of care. And this is not just me - I know dozens of friends and
colleagues that feel the same way. I have always found easyJet to
be far superior in every way to
Ryanair, although, understandably, not on a level with the major
airlines. I would travel with them like a shot, but I will never,
ever, ever travel Ryanair.
I've never flown Ryanair - nor do I ever intend to, mainly because
of their attitude to quoting a cheap fare then chiselling every
penny out of you in compulsory "extras" - but I've also sworn off
SleazyJet after direct personal experience about ten years ago.

I was meant to be flying back from Schiphol to Luton, on a late
evening flight. The plane had a technical problem, so wasn't
available for boarding. It happens. What SHOULDN'T happen is all
the passengers being left at the gate with no staff, no
information, no access to refreshments - for SIX HOURS. We finally
got to Luton at about 3am, IIRC.

I used to commute weekly from Heathrow to Schiphol in the late 1980s.
I had a similar experience with BA, involving a five hour wait at
Schiphol on a Friday evening, with the aircraft still not having left
Heathrow on the preceding flight. No attempt was made to transfer us
to KLM, which would have saved several hours, and only after many
complaints were refreshments provided.

I decided to reject BA in favour of BMI (called British Midland in
those days). It happened twice more with BMI, once with a four
hour delay and once with a seven hour delay, meaning I arrived home
in West London about 2:00 AM. But the overall service of NMI was so
much better than BA that I stayed with them. Plus, it was only two
flights in around 50, so it wasn't too bad.

My point is that flag carriers such as BA and "full price" airlines
such as BMI have similar problems to the low cost, as do rail
operators. What they all share is that they are all spectacularly
bad at dealing with them, in most cases. However. it was one area
where GNER absolutely shone.
Er... this was 20+ years ago. How can you compare your experiences
with modern flying trends. The airline industry and regulations have
moved on enormously since then. Budget airlines were still only a
twinkle in the eyes of a lot of the current budget airline bosses.

I have flown almost exclusively with BA in that last 8 or 9 years and
have never had a problem with them apart from one occasion when we
had to wait for 2hrs, onboard, before we could depart. However, the
crew were very good with refreshments etc... during that time. Had I
been sat on a Ryanair plane I somehow doubt the "FREE" refreshments
would have bee so forthcoming. The only times I have ever had reason
to complain was when I have flown with budget airlines. One time was
BMI Baby the other Thomas Cook Airlines.

I've had a couple of occasions when BA cancelled flights because of bad
weather at Heathrow. In neither case did it deal with them well. I'd
agree with Tony that British Midland was better than BA in the 1980s,
but it lost its way later, when it couldn't decide what kind of airline
it wanted to be.


Still a pretty good airline, in my experience. At least if you are going
some place like Amsterdam.