Unfortunately Malaysia Airlines remains on this list - it doesnt look like Mh370 will ever be found. Also bad reviews all round regarding its cost cutting measures.
Which are the airlines you wont fly which serve Australia?
Airlines Servicing Australia I Won't Fly
NotAnAudiophile on 12/05/2018 - 21:05
Last edited 12/05/2018 - 21:18 by 1 other user
Last edited 12/05/2018 - 21:18 by 1 other user
Comments
British Airways. Need I say more!
Well yeah, most people like BA
You're wrong.
If you've flown BA recently you would join the many that have said that they wouldn't fly with them again.
The airline has dropped from position one to position forty, which the CEO of IAG acknowledged in a recent TV interview, in one of the airline rating websites, but hopes that they will get to within the top ten in the next five years!!
As I wrote, need I say more!!!
So much flak about Malaysia Airlines but can anyone show me any other airline that provide shamans for missing vessels?
Tiger Air Australia sucks THE most.
I would happily pay double for a domestic flight home with Qantas, then be stuffed around with Tiger.
When domestic flight isn't that far away and they still can't get their services in order.
They are a cheap airline, and I have zero complaints about seat comfort, space, staff friendlness, presentation, or noise, as none of this really matters when their pricepoint is very low. But when they can't deliver a scheduled flight that's absolutely not acceptable.
Only good thing of their existence could be that it keeps Qantas prices to be somewhat competitive.
This is so subjective, and most people form their opinions on a tiny sample size. One person may justifiably love Qantas and another equally dislike them. Basing your opinion on a snooty staff member or some lost luggage may be drawing a seriously long bow. Surely the factors which truly affect your safety are maintenance and flight crew.
My brother is an airline pilot of about 25 years standing, and has expressed opinions to me about various airlines based on the conduct of pilots he has seen in the simulators (at Sydney Airport and others). All pilots have to do sim time, and there is a dearth of sims available, so they are usually heavily used throughout the region.
For what it is worth, it was some of the south east asian carriers which were suggested to me as probably not worth risking, on the basis of flight crew competence. As for maintenance, I don't know much about it.
But if you're the type for whom it's really more about how important the airline makes you feel as a punter, then I doubt you'd give much thought to safety anyway. And that's why cabin crew are really there.Every individual is a tiny sample size yes, but if you look at the overall opinion of different airlines formed by tens of thousands of reviews patterns do emerge.
Especially relevant are complaints regarding refunds & credits.
Cheap airlines like Tiger & Scoot appear like bargains but when you end up $100~$2,000 out of pocket because of their error & refusal to follow their own terms & conditions that cheapness evaporates (& really there is no other reason to fly budget airlines.. it isn't for the quality).Note here I am not talking about people who do not read the terms & conditions or fail to book luggage and then pay through the roof when they try to check some.. I mean issues like the airlines changing flight times & bookings on the fly & failing to live up to their legal obligations to make customer acceptable changes or provide refunds/credits.
Some years ago now, we were at Changi airport, about to board a Singapore Airlines flight back to Australia. We had 2 small children with us, one of which was a baby. We were the last to go through the final security screening and the sign above the gate still stated 'boarding'. We could see the plane and it was only two or maybe three minutes to get onboard. If we had been childless and sprinted, it might've been only 30 seconds. Once we were through the final security check, we were told that we would no longer be permitted to board. From memory we were not given any other reason. We asked one of the staff to please ask the pilot to change his mind. She contacted the pilot but he declined. Seeing our predicament and young kids, the lady trying to help us actually cried! We watched as they had to painstakingly locate our luggage in the hold of the plane and cart it back to the airport. This process took far, far longer, than it would've for us to board. We had to spend the night and most of the next day inside the terminal with our little ones. The whole process was utterly disgraceful and there was absolutely no excuse for it.
When it came to booking the next flight out, we were initially going to be charged a fee for 'missing' our first flight. Only after some negotiation was this waived. The whole incident was utterly disgraceful. We would not ever recommend Singapore Air for this reason. I have flown many times and never come close to being treated like this. In my experience EVA and Air NZ are the best.
It's tough and a great inconvenience but ultimately you wwere late and they just played by the book. Changi is one of the best if not the best airport so given a number of options I'd roll the dice with changi and Singapore air anyday.
Well no, we weren't late. If we were, why would the sign still have stated 'boarding' and why would they have let us through the final security check? Not only that, but what airline does that to passengers, when it would've been much quicker to let us board, especially when they could see we were hampered by having little ones in tow? Clearly the pilot was on some sort of power trip.
I agree, Changi is a nice airport - actually one of the best for spending a night and a day there, but less so when you have a young child and little baby with you. In my opinion though, the premium people often pay to fly with Singapore Airlines is not justified. We flew with them on 4 legs and did not see a great difference, especially in terms of service. In that respect EVA was definitely better.
It says boarding from the time they start boarding. They don't change it to say not boarding later. Security checkpoint doesn't care about passengers' margins, it's not their job.
It would say gate closed and it didn't say that. Anyway it seems some of my fellow ozbargainers lack sympathy. It would be an entirely different story if we had flown without kids and had to wait overnight for another flight. I am pretty sure I have been on board other airlines where they have waited for passengers that were running late.
If gate staff didn't know where you were then I can understand.. But you were there so yes they should've just let you on and as you said finding luggage would've taken longer
@daft009:
At the expense of making everyone wait because one careless passenger didn't leave enough time to get to the airport on time?
Yeah right….
That's quite shocking!
I only have glowing things to say about them. I fly then for every international trip, solo or with my familyQuite disgraceful that you were late.
And you were late…. the non-late ones are already on the plane…. waiting for you and then waiting for your luggage to get unloaded.
Using your children as moral leverage in this discussion is also disgraceful.
Guess you've never traveled on a plane with a baby
then leave extra early to account for travelling with a baby. your baby is not more important than 300 other passengers on board.
Can't stand silly parents who seem to think that having a baby grants them VIP pass
No Tiger or Jetstar, no time to waste
No air China
Air Koryo.
Aeromexico… the most ironic thing is that we didn't even end up flying with them. Overbooked a flight from San Jose to Mexico City, then proceeded to book us on an alternate flight and check in our bags without our consent. We didn't even know where we were going until we received our tickets.. to go to Panama! When we refused to go we were told we would never get our bags back. We then missed subsequent flights home from Mexico City to LA then LA to Melbourne and were each $1600 out of pocket to book new flights. It's taken 7 months, and 3 escalations to the CEO to get a piddly $500 back, along with an apologetic "we hope this experience doesn't deter you from travelling with us in the future".
So to Mexico City via Panama?
…..but you refused? Why?
Edit: how long were you in Panama? Seems like you were on a tight schedule….. How many days were you planning to stay in Mexico City?…. looks like poor planning to me.
Why didn’t your travel insurance pay up?
Yes. The back story is that we had connecting flights from SJO - MEX - LAX - MEL, but not on the same ticket as we weren't able to book them through Qantas from SJO (they were a return carrier, and code share from MEL - LAX - MEX return). We left a 6 hour gap between when our flight was meant to get into Mexico City (with Aeromexico) and when our flight to LAX was meant to leave (arriving 10AM, departing 4PM). So no, not poor planning.
We arrived at SJO 2.5 hours before departure (we had tried to check in the night before but the system kept timing out). We were told that there was only one seat left and she had booked me onto it. We showed them our connecting flights and the time our flight left from Mexico City. When we decided that we would take the one ticket, with my friend opting to figure another way home, she then told us that she had forfeited that seat. They gave us the option of going direct to LA with Delta which we chose, thinking we could at least speak to Qantas there and explain why we didn't make the connecting flight. All of a sudden, a group of the customer service agents started speaking in Spanish to each other and ignoring our questions. About 2 minutes later we were just shoved some tickets and told to run to the gate. When I asked them where we were going, that's when they told us it was to Mexico City via Panama. I told her that we weren't going to make our connecting flight (with only 50 minutes between landing and the departure of the other flight) and she flat out lied to us and said it was in the same terminal and we would. Long story short, we were essentially told that if we did not get on that flight our bags would leave without us and we would not see them again.
Travel insurance does not cover cancellations/delays if it is due to a fault of the airline (e.g. overbooking). Essentially in their eyes they believe that any fault of the airline's would be adequately rectified and compensated by the airline. Where we got stuck was that our flights were on separate tickets.
I really should have taken our treatment at SJO as a reflection of their customer service standards - their VP of Customer Service isn't even capable of putting an email together, and their ethics department just somehow seems to 'lose' complaints in the system.
Buying 4 flights on different tickets is absolutely just poor planning no matter how you slice it. You contracted Aeromexico to get you to Mexico City, nothing more. They offered you an alternate route to Mexico City. Whatever you were planning after you get there is irrelevant to them because you didn't book it on one ticket, end of story.
@Georgevic: Right. So by purchasing separate tickets we lose all rights to our bags? Does that mean they can just take our bags from us without our consent? If you had read the above, it was TWO separate tickets - Aeromexico from SJO-MEX, Qantas from MEX-LAX-MEL (codeshare with American Airlines).
My issue was not with them putting us on another flight, but the way we were treated. The only flight option we were given at the time was the flight direct to LA, which we accepted and they agreed on. To turn around and then check our bags and book us on completely different flights without our knowledge or consent is completely deceitful. To then say that we would not get our bags back if we did not board that flight is, in my eyes, unethical, if not illegal.
If they had provided us with the Panama route before booking us on it, and told us that was our only way, then we would have accepted it as it was. End of story.
I’m not sure I’m following it all but if I am travelling between countries I always spend a night in the transit country.
I guess I like playing it safe.
I’ve flown with Aeromexico and Volaris.
Aero seemed to have old planes and I’m not sure their pilots were breath tested.
Volaris was great. LLC in Mexico. It was as if teen pilots were out for a joy ride.
Seriously though, I’m not sure I would fly Malaysian or Tiger. Not sure why…. maybe just the vibe.
I was once catching an Aeromexico flight out of Guatemala at about 9pm from memory. There was a huge storm and the power went out at the airport. And by power out I mean every light on the runway, every light in the building, not even green exit signs lit-up.. just everyone standing in complete & utter pitch black darkness.
It took about 1 hour for even a semblance of emergency lighting to be established (previous to that we only had a couple of airport staff with torches hurrying around. It was very surreal. All flights in & out were cancelled until much later the next day. Took them 3 more days to clear the backlog and get me on an available flight but put me in a nice 5 star suite with 3 meals a day at a local hotel. I wasn't in a rush & was able to change my onward bookings without cost so didn't have too much to complain about.. but boy pounded that hotels free wifi!
Never say never, but virgin have been pretty shit to me. 6 hour delay and no compensation, no apology. Members of the public rely on accident history to judge airline safety, not hearsay with maintenance.
MH is no more or less dangerous than any other airline. You had one plane that was shot down (hardly the airlines fault) and the other flight will remain one of the greatest mysteries that never be solved in our lifetime, one thing is for certain though.. It's weird AF. I think it is known what happened, but it will remain classified. Commercial airliners like that don't just vanish without a trace.
Hardly the airlines fault you say? Other airlines had been avoiding the airspace and the airline chose to fly over it anyway? Recipe for disaster..
Something like 150 commercial planes flew over that part of the Ukraine that day.
I work at Sydney international airport, I've been dealing with some ground staffs from various airlines, based on my own experience, the one I would avoid is LATAM
Been on LATAM out of Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland+back again, found their staff great although I do speak Spanish so that probably helps.
Angkor Air, Cambodian national airline. Had tickets booked directly with them, getting confirmation emails the morning of the flight, rock up at airport, flight doesn't even exist.
To top it off no staff on site or phone number to call to sort it out.
Had to rebook with their codeshare partner, Vietnam airlines who actually owns Angkor Air but would not take any action or be held accountable.
Took me days to even get a response from Angkor, they would refund my flight but nothing more (which I never got), wouldn't even pay fare difference. It was a "system issue".
Just cut my losses, wasn't worth claiming travel insurance as excess was more than extra hotel night.
Moral of the story, in 3rd world countries pay a little more for the more reputable airline, even if a codeshare
If you paid on credit card you could probably raise a dispute with your bank to get the charge reversed.
Which airports were you flying from/to?
I have a couple of flights to book with them. Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City.
Philippine Airlines - their codename is PAL which the locals have dubbed "plane always late". I've taken a fair few PAL flights and the only one that was close to being on time was leaving Sydney; the rest were late, cancelled or redirected. No frills airline (even though you pay full fare), no entertainment, rubbish food and the service is pretty average.
I'm a frequently flyer and have had bad experiences with all locally serviced airlines (Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar, Tiger, Air Asia) so it really is a subjective / experience based question. Overall Qantas is the best airline for me (domestic and international).
I fly whoever is cheap - rarely on Tiger because of Jetstar price beat.
Scoot had fallen from their decent service in the first year or two, but f*%k it … cheap
Air Asia is like the cheap tourist bus of the sky ….. Cheap
Qantas is pretty shit these days and trade more on their name than decent service, but I fly them when I have to.
Malaysian are not too bad as long as you get to your destination.Regardless of the fears of "danger" in flying, even flying Malaysian is still safer than commuting around the city. Think about it - if you look at the last 10 years, Malaysia Airlines has flown around 350,000,000 passengers and lost 500 of them, this means 0.0000014%.
Odds I am happy with.I found that when travelling around the world on my own, just booking everything the day it was needed (accommodation/hotels), & thus no worries about delays, cancellations & changes to travel plans these airlines worked great.
It is when travelling on set dates, with a group & kids that you end up taking a real risk. The flight date gets changed so you miss the wedding you are supposed to attend, they cancel the flight and split your party onto different flights, they change your tickets so that instead of a 1hr scheduled airport stopover it becomes 16 hours and you have no option (not even the option of a refund to fly with someone else) but to accept it or lose your money.
its Qantas . crappiest air line service .
A friend on mine use to be a flight instructor for Singapore airlines and china southern airlines. he says the amount of experience these students have or lack of is very concerning when they are put into a cock pit of a plane. there really only is the captain, which is most likely foreign trained but from their native country and the first officer whom has only a small amount of flight and simulator experience when placed in the cock pit. from not knowing anything about planes and flying to sitting in a cock pit as a first or second officer to the captain. is like 3 years. and most of their experience is in a simulator.
flying most airlines in asia internationally from Australia is pretty good its when flying domestically is when I get a bit jittery,
Actually thats the best way to do it
Captain with a ton of experience but might make a mistake related to that age/experience.
Fresh first officer who can can see/fix those mistakes of the captain.
The real problem, as you would learn in the air crash investigations tv show is the first officer being too scared or not assertive enough in trying to correct the captain.
Yep, good example of this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Indonesia_Flight_200
"The PIC's attention became fixated on trying to make the first approach work, and he failed to heed the warnings of the copilot and his recommendations to abort the landing and go around, and the repeated warnings from the aircraft flight systems, which were audible in the voice recorder data, e.g. "Sink rate" and ‘Whoop whoop, pull up". The copilot failed to take control of the aircraft in these extraordinary circumstances, as required by airline policy, apparently due to inadequate training. Wing flaps were not fully extended to the maximum 40°, not even to the 15° repeatedly requested by the captain, but only to 5° because the copilot was aware that this was the recommended maximum for that high airspeed, but he failed to notify the captain."
The copilot knew that they everything was extremely (profanity) up, but was afraid to actually take control.
Except when something happens to the captain.. and the controls are left to an inexperienced pilot controlling an aircraft with over 200 people on board.
I don’t hesitate flying Malaysia Airlines (have flown them several times again over the last 3 years), they’re just not a premium airline anymore so would only book them if the price is right (online checking is really bad as well).
Would be hesitant flying AirAsia - have flown them half a dozen times, really great experience including seat upgrades and on-time flights but they’re too often in the news for the wrong reasons.
There are none that I won't fly if the price is right, but, I will generally pay a few dollars more to avoid the inconvenience of flying Tiger or Jetstar. I've had bad experiences with KLM, but I'd still go with them if they were cheap enough.
Jet Airways or Air India or any Indian airline.
China Southern
Qantas!
Would consider if the happen to be the only Airline flying to my destination otherwise I'll take any other starting with the Middle Eastern airlines and Singapore.Slackers, the lot of you. The princely people of Darwin only fly Singapore Airlines for international travel !
… its another thing that they are the only airlines that fly out of/in to Darwin !
I go with who's ever plane's crash the least
Here's the thing, Cathay Pacific is phenomenal in most parts of the world; but their Australian team is the absolutely most incompetent and atrociously trained of all of them. They would rival Qantas in their dreadful level of service and staff attitude.
Unless you need them for their central hub in Asia, I would give them a miss as well.
Air India. I am from India originally and spent 8 years in the US. Even when I was a student and was cash starved, I avoid this like the plague.
Private airlines from India such as Jet airways serve the route indirectly and I use them in conjunction with Qantas. The worst airline in the world hands down.Tiger airways - cheap and the crowd in this one is usually the worst (YMMMV)
Air Asia - somehow they seem to be lax with safety based on what I have seen. A lot of friends use it though and love it.
About Malaysian -well I am gonna try getting on one of them next time just for the thrill. :D
Will check again in another year to see if you made it back from your thrill flight :P
I've flown Tiger and Malaysia Airlines plenty of times. Never had any problems. at all.
Avoid Qantas if possible, they are the worst airline in the OneWorld alliance. Service is average, food is average, staff is ok (sometimes rude), phone support is always unavailable unless you can wait for up to 1 hour just to hear “sorry not much we can do”
The fleet is old, just ordered some B787-9 when other airlines have it for ages. And, the carrier charge when redeeming a reward flight is ridiculous, not transparent to the customers why they are charging this fee.
- Malaysian Airlines not just because of MH17 (which wasn't their fault) or MH370, but because they're not a good airline
- Jetstar
- Air Asia
- FIji Airways
- Tiger
- Garuda
Btw if we can include airports, I will never ever fly into or out of Paris CDG ever again. I'd rather fly to Amsterdam or London and take the train than try and navigate that shithole.
Malaysian Airlines
AirAsia Indonesia
AirAsia X (Malaysia) also seems to have a number of close calls recently
China Airlines (Taiwan)MAS code share with Air India and Air Sri Lanka.
The toilets in the section where these nationality seated are especially filthy compared
to the other in the economy class.And they will force you to preach Allah hu akhabar before they start their journey.
(Experienced in KL to Delhi flight)You want to have fun watch the "air crash investigation" series. It is very interesting and highlights how accidents tend to be due to failures by maintenance or the flight crew. One of the worst aircrashes in history was at Tenerife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disasterThis accident was basically down to the arrogance of the pilot of the KLM aircraft deciding he was sick of waiting and the copilot not being strong enough to tell him to back off. One of the more interesting conclusions from the series was that this was less likely to happen with Qantas as the copilot would've been more likely to tell him to back off given the more egalitarian nature of Australians.
If you are concerned with safetly what you don't want to do is fly with an airline service that has undue servility so that people don't feel they have the ability to speak up about issues they might see. For major airlines the number of crashes is tiny compared to how many flights take place. I'm much more concerned with the quality of the meal, the comfiness of the seat, and the check in experience than being put off by one, or two, accidents. You are much more likely to die in a car crash than a plane crash, but I still get in cars to travel to places if it is more convenient than taking public transport.
IIRC one of the strengths of that QANTAS A380 emergency in 2010 was that the cockpit worked together as one to solve the issues.
TIGER, they are the worst of the worst, I'd rather walk then fly these pricks
Recently my partner and I took a trip from Brisbane to Sydney. I made a booking on the Qantas website thinking that I'd get a better service from a 'quality' airline. What a big mistake. The flight was like being on a budget airline but with a slightly better snack and free, but crap, headphones.
What I hadn't realised when I made the booking was that they'd booked us onto a Jetstar flight for the return! At Sydney Airport we were told that the flight would leave from Gate 35 (we were told that the flight would be departing from a Virgin Gate and, no, I did not mishear her) but in fact, it left from the Jetstar Gate 53 - bloody great going from one to the other with someone with walking difficulties and no available wheelchair facility. At Gate 53 I was greeted by someone with an attitude problem when I asked if my partner could board via the front walkway as she can't walk up stairs who told me that they will only take two 'disabled' passengers on each flight, and these have to be pre-booked! Needless to say, I was none too pleased with her attitude, and I let her know so.
Then we all had to go through the indignity of having our cabin luggage checked for size and weight and then having a label attached to it.
The flight went OK, as did the arrival in Brisbane where a hoist and wheelchair facility was provided but I have to ask if there is actually any airline that does the domestic runs that treat their customers with any respect?
Virgin used to be good when they were Virgin Blue, but not now, and I've been warned off of using Tigerair, so I don't know about them.I have flown around 50+ different airlines from around the world - and surprise surprise - I am avoiding Jetstar.
I made a mistake, so the screwed me - but that's OK, it was my fault.
then…
Jetstar made a mistake, so they still screwed me - that's not Ok - but they said it is allowed per T&Cs so screw you.
So screw you Jetstar, really should be known as OneStar, NoStar, DeathStar, CrashStar, Orange Cancer
AIR FRANCE aka AIR CHANCE
they don’t fly directly from OZ but oh boy what are the chances you get to fly with all the strikes they haveBut it's French, what do you expect!
Surely you've heard of the, seemingly, constant problems caused by the French farmers blockading Paris with their tractors, or the truck drivers blockading the Autoroutes, or the fishermen blocking Calais harbour or the Air Traffic Controllers going on strike. And let us not forget about French politics that the party that promises to cancel outstanding parking fines has the best chance of getting into power. Oh, and of course, the poor build quality of French assembled vehicles - lolAnd you think that you're going to get anything reliable out of Air France, pleeeease - LMAO
Air Canada
TigerAmerican Airlines, far worse than any other international flight I've been on.
I've been to ~35 countries throughout Asia, Europe, Sth Africe, North America and South America….I generally just go with whatever is cheapest and will just deal with whatever happens. I've had bags lost, delayed flights, rude staff etc, then flown with the same companies other times and had no issues.
I have just come back from BKK with Malaysia Airlines and they were fine. It always amazes me that people say that they would never fly with them because of those two cases… to me it's like saying "I'm never going to drive 'brand x' car because I saw there was a car crash". No one seems to take into consideration the number of flights that they've had since without incident
I don't have any numbers to back this up, but I feel like you'd be more likely to be hit by a truck than to have an airline accident
I'm the same to a degree, I do have preferences based on past flights.
I'm not worried at about a plane crashing. There's way more chance of dieing walking, riding , driving . Big planes are fairly safe.
I Fly mostly AirAsia (Malaysia, Thailand) including domestic. 100+ flights over the last two years, great service and only one canceled flight which they handled very well. They also respond quickly on Twitter and live chat but I have never needed to call yet.
Also, Continental was merged into United.
Same sort of joke as not flying Ansett.