Airlines to hate

American Airlines has been voted the most hated carrier in the US. In the UK I would not be at all surprised if that citation went to BA. By coincidence, Wee Willy Walsh was on BBC World whinging about ‘unfair’ competition from the rising airlines in the Gulf.

They smartly reposted that until recently all national flag carriers in Europe were nationalised and received huge subsidies from the state, whereas the Gulf airlines are required to function as commercial entities and receive no privileges like cheap fuel.

I have always had acceptable service from BA, but I heartily dislike them as a company. The main reason is that when they ran regional services, they had a nasty habit of cancelling flights for ‘technical’ reasons, or take you to an alternative destination.

For example, I came back from Malawi via Joburg arriving at Heathrow. I then took a taxi to my connecting airport, Luton. My flight was not even on the departure board. As BA had no enquiry counter at Luton it took me some while to discover that we were all being bussed to Gatwick instead, not nice after a journey that by now was about 24 hours with another four or five to get home.

It is blindingly obvious that the ‘technical’ problem was lack of passengers so they put everyone on a single flight.

A friend living in Thailand bought refundable BA tickets for his son and girl-friend to visit from England. The day before departure the girl friend discovered that she had lost her passport. So my friend claimed a refund. That was two years ago. He has had no reply whatsoever to his numerous approaches to BA and has now given up.

But he is a frequent premium traveller, and has vowed that he will never, ever fly BA again.

I have flown Virgin twice. If my experience is typical they have brought the pleasure back into flying.

It started in the business-class lounge. The waiter welcomed me by asking if I would like a cocktail. As it was only 7 a.m. I had coffee instead. The food was the first I had really enjoyed in 50 years of flying. The service was exceptional. Diagonal single seats were fantastically comfortable. And there is a stand-up bar.

I can never sleep on aircraft. Wrapped in a duvet on my flatbed I had to be wakened on the return journey because we were landing at Gatwick. Even missed my breakfast!

We take eight flights a year by Thai. Their service is good but their long-haul aircraft are clapped. They should have been replaced by the A380 but this is three years behind delivery date. They do not reply to complaints.

With a succession of technical problems QANTAS is now known as Quite A Nice Trip; Any Survivors?

What is your experience?