What are the best and worst U.S. airlines?

I fly Delta most of the time, and I can say I've had good experiences. Not great, but good. I like Allegiant, too.

Best: Southwest

Worst: American

Best: Ones that don't crash.

Worst: Ones that crash.

This is why we need the full-body scans at every airport. Everyone goes through them. No exceptions. If someone's looks suspicious, give them a strong pat down. No exceptions.

I used to fly 50,000 miles a year on Delta.

Not any more since they lost my bags - repeatedly, charged me for an overweight bag that they lost and returned UNDERWEIGHT with things missing (obviously) and then refused to refund the overweight charge, and then - final straw - charged me to check a bag when I was travelling on a Frequent Flyer Ticket.

Switched to United and have flown 75,000+ in the past 18 months - love their Frequent Flyer benefits.

Also use SouthWest on occasion. Bare bones but good enough.

Good: Delta, JetBlue

Bad: Continental

I don't want to put them on the "bad list" per se, but I've never had particularly great experiences on United either... but nothing that was outright "bad"

Best: Jetblue

No problems and great for short trips: Southwest

Worst: Changes over the years. I've had bad experiences with most other airlines. I think the absolute worst might be something like usairways.

My least favorite excuse is hearing that my flight had problems because of bad weather in Chicago. There's ALWAYS bad weather in Chicago. It's Chicago. Flight schedules need to take the possibility of delays into account; stacking everything up so that one delay ruins every other flight is a terrible business practice.

My latest complaint is the airlines that charge for checked baggage. Because everyone then tries to board the plane with a 50-pound carry-on, which makes problems every step of the way (when they're told at check-in that it doesn't fit the maximum dimensions, or they don't have space for it on the flight...). I think it breeds a lot of hostility.

Best: Southwest

Worst: USAirways

I flew USAirways cross country and none of the seats on the plane could recline. And the rows were crammed closer together than any other airplane I've ever been on. Is that true of all their planes? It was a miserable flight.

Best: United and those who dont crash

Worst: those who do crash

Best: Delta

Worst: U.S.Scare

Of course you get charged for a checked bag on an FF tix - you expect a free upgrade to first class too? A meal and drinks?

Back in the early 90's I serviced Continental aircraft.The M.D 11's had a potable water refill station on the port side about 15 feet in front of the wing.Some of these stations had faulty valves that leaked water during flight.This leaking water would then build up on the fuselage of the aircraft as ice.As the aircraft descended on approach to landing the ice would start to melt and break off.It would often hit the leading edge of the wing and damage it.

Rather than replace or fix the valves, Continental engineers would patch the ding in the wing and ignore the real fault.

I often laugh when I see those shows about meteorites and lumps of space ice that hit houses and think of the role that Continental played.

Interesting. I recall a thread about a year ago discussing airlines. A lot of people said Delta was one of the worst in that thread. Here its just the opposite.

I've never flown Jet Blue or Virgin America but I've heard that they are quite good.

My personal favorite is Southwest. No bag fees and No B.S. Flights are usually on-time and the fares are reasonable.

My personal LEAST favorite is American. I flew to the 2009 Chicago Marathon from Reno on American. Flight was late, bag fees were ridiculous, rows of seats were so close together I was completely cramped, and when we landed at Chicago we had o wait another hour for them to get to a gate.

On a world wide basis, my favorite airline is Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong airline.