Tech

so i have to fly back to Texas in a couple months to go to my sister's wedding, and the only feasible flights are through AirTran or American Airlines.

i have no experience with either of these airlines. i historically fly southwest or continental.

does anyone have any experience they could share on which to go with? both are the same price (~$300) i don't really care about the "food" or the seats etc, but i hear such horror stories these days about delays and cancelations that i don't want to get screwed. thanks!

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~I swear sometimes i feel like i'm married to a child.
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Glory's Sun

well if you can deal with continhell then AA should be fine.

I've never had a major problem with American, although all air carriers are pretty much the same.. you never know what you'll get

The_Jazz

In my opinion, American has a slightly better track record on safety. That's about the only discriminating factor I can think of.

Cancellations are almost always weather related. Occasionally you'll get equipment issues. And unless you have a crystal ball handy, you'll never be able to guess what's going to fly on time and what won't.

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ratbastid

I've flown both, and both are about equally miserable. Southwest is probably the least miserable airline I've flown, and it's still pretty miserable.

sapiens

I've had an aversion to Valujet (AirTran) ever since the Flight 592 accident, but it probably doesn't matter either way.

Craven Morehead

I've flown both, several times over the past couple of years. If it were me, I'd go with the lowest fare/best schedule based on your plans. AirTran does have XM available however which is kind of nice. Lots of choices if you don't want to bring an iPod with or just want to listen to something different.

thingstodo

SW flies into BWI - why can't you take them to Texas? Are you going into Dallas? If so, try the alternate airports in the area for SW.

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levite

For the record, I really, really hate Southwest. I can't stand their "first come, first serve" seating policy, and I hate the way they pack you into the plane like cattle into a boxcar. 9 times out of 10 that I've flown Southwest, I've done it because it was so incredibly cheap, and I've ended up feeling like it would've been worth paying extra to get a little less "I don't give a fuck" attitude from the airline people.

AirTran...I've had some good flights with them. They can sometimes get the whole "sit down and shut up, don't you realize you're just cargo" attitude, too. But on the whole, not bad.

AA. Mostly pretty good. On the couple of occasions I flew them and had a delayed or cancelled flight, they could've been a little more compassionate and customer-friendly about it, but when there haven't been kinks, they've been pretty decent, on the whole.

BTW, hands down, best airlines I've ever flown: Air New Zealand and British Air. Nice, friendly, helpful, ready and willing to work with you to give you a good experience. Air New Zealand especially. God, I love Kiwis. They rock my world. They even came to me before takeoff and asked me astonishingly well-informed questions about my preferences concerning the kosher meal I ordered; which I know isn't really relevant for most other folks here, but you still have to give an airline customer service props for teaching their flight attendants the fundamentals of the laws of kashrut. Talk about prepared!

Also-- Air New Zealand flight attendants: definitely the hottest that I've encountered. Tall, healthy Kiwi girls who look like they could shag you rotten and then cheerfully get up and run a marathon while you were still gasping and too cum-shocked to take off the condom....

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uncle phil

don't put on an attitude based on what you may have "heard" about any particular airline and you'll enjoy your flight. if price is the consideration, go with the cheapest; if comfort/service is the consideration, fly first-class with a major airline and pay the price...

and for what it's worth, i much prefer southwest to any other airline in the conus. the stewards/stewardi really know how to have fun with the passengers and make the flight enjoyable; i've never had my luggage end up in east ass, iowa, while i was flying from tampa to phoenix; and the seating is based on a "first-ticketed, first-seated" basis rather than the "cattle-call" scenario they used a few years ago (which wasn't really a bother to me anyway...)

for any airline, online ticketing is the way to go, also...

oh, and you should be able to fly southwest from BWI through atlanta and/or new orleans to dallas without any difficulty. i did that a few years ago...

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- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
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MSD

I flew AA once and never would do it again, even if it meant rescheduling a trip. We were fucked over with a rescheduled flight for which the AA rep. told us the wrong time, and when we finally made it onto a flight, the flight attendant (who we nicknamed RuPaul for obvious reasons, and who apparently was rude to another friend who flew AA the month before) was rude and obnoxious, and we never got so much as an apology from AA despite complaints. A bunch of stuff on the plane like TV and A/C wasn't working and they made no effort to make our flight more comfortable.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by JetBlue and their blue potato chips, but I'd pick them over AA any day.

Tully Mars

Southwest was always good to me, used to be able to get "A" just by doing an on-line check-in right at 24hrs. to the flight. Don't know if that still how it works, haven't flown them in a while.

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uncle phil

that's still how it works...

__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.