mcgillianaire | Longhaul Flights Appraisal

Since my arrival in Montreal I have now flown with five different long-haul aircraft carriers in my quest to get home to Oman and back. By far and without a doubt the best of these has been British Airways and the worst, Al Italia. Inbetween there has been Lufthansa, Swiss and Air Canada. There's only KLM and Air France left to try out... :)

I definitely recommend flying British Airways, but the only problem with their flights to Oman is the untimely arrival in London Heathrow with respect to my connecting flight to Muscat - otherwise for pure service, comfort and airport quality, they outscore all the others quite comfortably.

Economy class, no doubt. In business/club and first class there is a lot less difference between the airlines, although I must admit I've only flown it once on BA and once on Lufthansa so I can't say for sure about them.

This week I flew with Swiss International, for the first time since the previous carrier Crossair/Swissair closed down a couple years ago. Initially I wasn't looking forward to the 6 hour transit in Zurich but luckily Switzerland has virtually the same visa regulations as other EU countries so getting out without a visa was not a problem. As such I was able to meet up with a friend who I hadn't seen in a couple years and she was able to show me and a couple friends from my highschool around the city. It's such a pretty little town set amidst a beautiful lake, snow capped mountains in the distance and a chilly fresh air...

The major downer with Swiss are its tiny seats. I had a very uncomfortable journey from Muscat to Zurich but the 2nd leg to Montreal was much better... or maybe it was the presence of a aesthetically pleasing passenger sitting next to me. ;)

The movie choices are amazing in BA, pathetic in Lufthansa, Air Canada and Al-Italia and several but old with Swiss. BA always has the latest movies on offer which has me confused why the others can't follow suit...

What I did enjoy about Swiss the most however was its choice of games. I must've spent a good 2-3 hours playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire along with several rounds of Multiplayer Trivia and other goodies...

Moral of the Story, take BA for longhaul flights.

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personally, i really like BA as well. i flew them to london and italy back in the day and it was great, plus they were super nice to me when i got a nosebleed (was my first time on an airplane!). let me share w/ you my other long haul experiences... iberia has really old planes but the service was good. united surprised me by the great service on our flight to hawaii. american is pretty good too tho they fly some seriously tiny embraer jets on "regional" flights so i try to avoid them. to get to morocco, i flew delta, air france, and royal air maroc so i don't really remember which was which tho it was pretty positive over all. you have to remember tho... i take lots of drugs when i fly these days, so any flights taken recently i'll probly say great things about. i'm always happy w/ the service from air canada on my little short flights to ny and back, tho back in november we had a missed approach coming into la guardia which was rather unpleasant. so i guess the moral of my post is... drugs can make any airline a great airline. (note: these are legal drugs which are prescribed to me for my fear of flying... nothing sketchy going on here)

i've never travelled iberia... where did u fly with them? i flew us airways from here to SF coupla years back and it was adequately pleasant but nothing spectacular, and i dont like those american embraer jets for flights to ny. cant remember if ive taken delta, but i know i took united many years ago.

air canada is fine for short flights, like the one i took to halifax but i didnt like it much on the flight to frankfurt and back.

ive flown klm upto amsterdam/munich and back once and it's definitely one for the top of the list.

others ive flown include gulf air, oman air, air india, indian airlines, deccan airways (all of these are based either in the middle east or india) and while not the best, were pleasant enough - except deccan which i recommend avoiding.

kuwait airways used to be the cheapest and most popular choice from the middle east to the uk/us and they were really nice then but i havent flown them recently.

id like to travel with emirates and qatar airways asap, since they're vying with each other to become the best airline in the world...

the best airline in the world...
Don't get too caught up in the ~~propaganda~~ marketing wars.

How Was Air Arabia?

Nothing special. But then it's a budget airline, and the fares are far lower than on other carriers.

Also, nothing special is still a lot better than say, Indian Airlines, or Olympic.

Hey, I like Indian Airlines. They've provided me with some of the best service when I've flown them! If you wanna pick an Indian airlines, choose Deccan. That's the worst of the lot.

The only other domestic Indian airline I've flown on was Jet Airways, and despite a small, noisy plane, they were awesome.

i've always preferred BA, i can't think of a single bad experience i've ever had with them.

Flying to india, I always enjoyed BA, lufthansa and air canada. Air canada's actually the shortest flight.. toronto->delhi nonstop via a polar route. BA has great service but heathrow is always a mess, and since '98 you always have >12 hours in london to kill. The last two times I went I took singapore and malaysian, respectively.. The service on singapore was the best I've ever seen, bar none.. They even offer warm towels periodically, even in coach class. I loved the playstation games and 30 channels of TV/movies, and there was even real-time updates on plane position and positions of nearby aircraft. Malaysian was good, not quite as good but I would still recommend it... Kuala Lumpur airport is nicer than changi, less crowded too.

But pacific routes take 6 to 8 hours longer than european routes, which can be ridiculous..

yeh, ive heard a lot bout the toronto-delhi route. that's an amazing one but from the ones i know whove taken it, more often than not they've had to make stopovers in places like stockholm or rejaivik (sp?) for extra fuel.

the other problem with heathrow is when u've not got much time and need to transfer terminals. need i say more...

you've got me hooked onto taking singapore!!! that's unfuckingbelieveable service!!! blimey! i'm quite shocked cuz it's been well over 15 years since i flew it and i cant really say i remember what it was like when i was 5.

and i havent been to changi but i keep hearing so much bout it. why did u find kl's 'port better?

yeh, pacific routes dont really make much sense unless ure traveling from the west coast. or to me at least.

I thought KL was a little fresher and a little less manufactured, i like the way they integrate windows and greenery into the terminals.

Singapore was fantastic when I took it, but the flight is loooong. The run was calgary->vancouver->taipei->singapore->madras, and it was around 30 hours if I recall correctly. Europe is faster by at least four hours.

British Airways and Air Canada are pretty good.

Whatever you do, NEVER go on SKYSERVICE!!! (they are new) I went on SkyService to go to England and it was just a horrible experience.

i've not even heard of them! hehe but shall keep the advice in mind! dont think id go anyways when there's so much other choice available.

Longhaul Flights Appraisal

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