Recommendations-transatlantic airline?

[Vlad_Dracul]

Looking to fly Manchester to San francisco,dont want to pay top wack but looking for best value. Checked American airlines but lots of negative reviews..any thoughts/reports/experiences?

[AndyCambs]

You might try calling into your local independant travel agency and see what deals they can come up with.

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Do you mind flying indirect?

Ive used US Airways recently a couple of time via Charlotte, good price and good service too (dont know if they depart from Manchester)

[SMHarman]

How tall are you?
Looks like there are no non stops on the route so you are changing somewhere. Think about where that change is carefully. LHR is not the best as you usually have to switch terminals (except BA) as do your bags. ORD is OK and pretty efficient but bad weather can screw it up. AMS and CDG are also not bad for changes.
Virgin normally have the best in flight entertainment (IFE) but the boxes under the seats can make the leg room less.
BA are OK, you won't earn many BA miles on them though. Normally difficult to get seat assignments pre checkin.
The European carriers still do free booze, the US ones now charge $5 a drink.
AA I like, not the best but not the worst. Good FF miles policy. 777s have good IFE but no games on their IFE at the moment rolling out a new system with VOD on it.
United - not used in a while (limited routes out of NY), OK, the front of economy has more legroom so could be good if you are tall and can get seated there.
Not flown the rest. US Air equipment is older and has less investment, it has been a very poorly airline.

[skyblueheroes]

Virgin are great imho, and we went BA earlier this year.

[Lord Nikon]

Do you mind flying indirect?

Ive used US Airways recently a couple of time via Charlotte, good price and good service too (dont know if they depart from Manchester)

Are you MAD?

Ok, US Airways DOES fly from manchester, but I for one will NEVER fly with them again. 20 hour delay in philadelphia (it's so frequent this happens that the pilots call it 'the philly factor') no offer of anything other than a $3 meal voucher after 15 hours stuck in an airport that's locked, along with over 200 other people, no offer of pillows, blankets or ANYTHING. US Airways aren't worth it.

I now fly Delta every time, they are about as cheap as any other, have decent meals, and decent compensation offers, (overnight delay got me a night in a 4 star hotel, 2 $15 meal vouchers and a pack of essential toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo etc)

[danielf]

<snip>
Virgin normally have the best in flight entertainment (IFE) but the boxes under the seats can make the leg room less.
<snip>
The European carriers still do free booze, the US ones now charge $5 a drink.
AA I like, not the best but not the worst. Good FF miles policy. 777s have good IFE but no games on their IFE at the moment rolling out a new system with VOD on it.
<snip>

Nail head. Apart from price the main factor in long haul flying in my opinion is In Flight Entertainment. I really think that any airline that does not offer PVS (Personalised Video System) on long haul is behind the times. Time really goes so much quicker if you've got several movies/tv programmes/games etc. to choose from when you want to. It's not particularly new (I first encountered it on Virgin Atlantic 10 years ago), but not quite as common as you'd expect it to be. (Goes to show you that aircraft don't get refitted very often I suppose)

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Are you MAD?

Ok, US Airways DOES fly from manchester, but I for one will NEVER fly with them again. 20 hour delay in philadelphia (it's so frequent this happens that the pilots call it 'the philly factor') no offer of anything other than a $3 meal voucher after 15 hours stuck in an airport that's locked, along with over 200 other people, no offer of pillows, blankets or ANYTHING. US Airways aren't worth it.

I now fly Delta every time, they are about as cheap as any other, have decent meals, and decent compensation offers, (overnight delay got me a night in a 4 star hotel, 2 $15 meal vouchers and a pack of essential toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo etc)

I flew fron Seattle, Phiily to Gatwick and wasnt delayed at all. Were as ive also flown with Delta and it was awful. I suspect a lot of it is just luck

All depends where your flying and what your prepared to pay

[andygrif]

Nail head. Apart from price the main factor in long haul flying in my opinion is In Flight Entertainment. I really think that any airline that does not offer PVS (Personalised Video System) on long haul is behind the times. Time really goes so much quicker if you've got several movies/tv programmes/games etc. to choose from when you want to. It's not particularly new (I first encountered it on Virgin Atlantic 10 years ago), but not quite as common as you'd expect it to be. (Goes to show you that aircraft don't get refitted very often I suppose)

I think you make a good point, and this is something that the UK airlines do much better than the transatlantic US ones, as they have cut way back on such trivial (to them) things like IFE.

I've flown Virgin Atlantic to New York before, the IFE was OK, very slow to work and not very user friendly, but the service on the flight back was just awful...VA trolly dollies seem to think they are holier than Jesus Q Branson himself and really got on my do-doahs.

I've also flown BA to Seattle for many years, and always thought that it stood for Bloody Awful...but just got back from hols in New York, flying BA again, they have really improved dramatically in the last year in my opinion.....service is better and friendlier, food is still dreadful of course, but at least you get something unlike one or two of the US carriers, and they have not introduced a very good video on demand system in the cheap seats with lots og good movies, good British television show and a good selection of CDs to listen to....full marks to BA this time around from me, and I really despised them before those two flights.

But the bottom line is really that they're all rubbish, unless you pay to turn left when you enter the aircraft!

[SMHarman]

AA I like, not the best but not the worst. Good FF miles policy. 777s have good IFE but no games on their IFE at the moment rolling out a new system with VOD on it.I forgot to add that the front of Economy in AA also has 12v inseat power points spread about the cabin About 1 to every 2 seats. They also use the standard cigarette lighter style plug. Great for charging the iPod, Running the laptop, vSmile or whatever other power hungry device you have on you. This in my mind makes up for the slightly less advanced IFE as you can bring your own and run it all flight.

[andygrif]

Are they the 'premium economy' seats? We looked at that for our BA trip, but another £500 each for a few inches and a power socket wasn't really compelling to me...although I'm sure some people would happily pay £500 for a few extra inches any day :LOL:

[LSainsbury]

Flown with Virgin on "Cosmic Girl" from Heathrow to San Fran - best flight I've ever had!

Also flew with Lufthansa from Heathrow > Frankfurt > Dallas - worst flight I've ever had!

[SMHarman]

Are they the 'premium economy' seats? We looked at that for our BA trip, but another £500 each for a few inches and a power socket wasn't really compelling to me...although I'm sure some people would happily pay £500 for a few extra inches any day :LOL:
No just plain ol economy, or 'coach' class. Here are the maps that show you where the power points are. As you can see on the 777s you are covered wherever you sit in rows 20-27 but further back you need to be more aware of where they are when you do your seat selection.
http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/aboutUs/ourPlanes/boeing777AtlanticSeating.jsp
http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/aboutUs/ourPlanes/boeing7632classnew.jsp
http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/aboutUs/ourPlanes/boeing7632class.jsp

---------- Post added at 09:59 ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 ----------

Flown with Virgin on "Cosmic Girl" from Heathrow to San Fran - best flight I've ever had!Did LHR > JFK on a new VS A340-600 this summer, got to turn left with an upgrade to Upper Class. Now that was a nice flight. Flat bed seat though I spent most of the flight propped up at the bar while my 5 yr old flirted with Emma our very cute member of crew.

---------- Post added at 10:17 ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 ----------

The other recommendation is flying on weekdays, avoid Sunday evenings toward the US and Friday evenings from the US. Went back to the UK last weekend JFK STN on Thursday night and had 3 seats to crash out and sleep on, similarly on LHR JFK on Sunday night the back of economy was equally empty.

[Vlad_Dracul]

Thanks for all the replies..
My previous experience of US airlines was with Delta and I was very happy with it.

My concern with AA is that they have an older fleet,many of which are MD80's/variants. I dont like them. They are old and have a bit of a history where safety is concerned.

I am constantly reminded of the incident of the rear hydraulic jackscrew which operates the rear tail plane on these. Failure =nil recovery/no hope.

Found this interesting page by the way;
http://www.geocities.com/khlim777_my/ashowsafe1.htm

[SMHarman]

Firstly, transatlantic you will be on most likely a 777, A340, 767, A330, or 747 in about that order across the atlantic. An MD80 would not make it without stops in greenland and Canada for fuel.
http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/douglas.htm
indicates most MD8x fatalities have involved wet runways or bad weather landings. Whatever this jackscrew incident was if it was serious enough a TSB would have been issued and all US carriers forced to comply.
http://www.geocities.com/khlim777_my/ashowsafe1.htm
Dunno what he knows but how a Continental 777 made it into LHR I don't know. CO don't fly from there, they code share with VS from there.
You are more likely to die in the car bus or train on the way to the airport that in a plane crash. You are more likely to die on a plane from natural causes than any other reason in fact the A380s that SQ have ordered have a special dead body store for such eventualities.
I can't see how BA is the safest European airline when someone like VS has had 0 crashes (though been operating for a shorter time). Similarly Ryan and Easy have had 0 crashes.
I am constantly reminded of the incident of the rear hydraulic jackscrew which operates the rear tail plane on these. Failure =nil recovery/no hope.Do you not mean the DC10? This incident that grounded the type until it got fixed.
19 July 1989; United Airlines DC10-10; Sioux City, USA: While in cruise, engine two had an uncontained failure that led to a loss of all three hydraulic systems. The crew maneuvered the aircraft to a crash landing at the Sioux City airport using differential thrust on the two remaining engines to control the aircraft. One of the 11 crew members and 110 of the 285 passengers were killed.

[Vlad_Dracul]

I mean this one,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261

Failure of rear tail plain jackscrew on an MD80 variant. Subsequent investigation i think found that it was not a fail safe component and that also,failure was due to lack of maintenance and possible repeat falsification of maintenance records. Thats is,stuff was signed off as checked but wasnt. I'm not sure whether mods were ordered or whether the same components are still out there but are allegedly checked properly now as they should have been in the first place.

Also i beleive MD80 variants had to have insulation material replaced after an investigation into a fire on board one of them. The cost was rather high per plane.

AA seem to use a lot of MD 80 variants within the USA but are phasing them out gradually as they have a lot of years on them i think.

Not being paranoid or anything,just cautious :)

[BBKing]

You wouldn't get an MD-80 on a transatlantic flight, much more likely to be something newer with an excellent safety record, like a 777.

Personally, my missus likes United and they've been OK the couple of times I've been over, though not as good as before the bankruptcy. She's flown twice on them in the last year or so, once to JFK (rubbish), once to LAX (fine). 777s both times, I think (coming back from LAX definitely was, I watched it fly over before driving to the airport to pick her up).

[Vlad_Dracul]

Thanks BB, i know I#m being paranoid and perhaps its becasuse i hate flying. Its dangerous,un-natural and as much a triumph of marketing as selling bottled water !

The MD80 would be an internal link i.e big bird to Chicago, old crate to SFO

I've been doing too much reading and thinking about this one. It isnt good for me !

See some of the more recent ones on the publications section here;

http://www.aaib.dft.gov.uk/home/index.cfm

and here

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/

[SMHarman]

Thanks BB, i know I#m being paranoid and perhaps its becasuse i hate flying. Its dangerous,un-natural and as much a triumph of marketing as selling bottled water !Paranoid. The guys (or gals) at the front want to make it safely back on the ground as much as you do, they want to get home to see their husbands, wives, children, parents, partners, friends and family and have a vested interest in making sure that the aircraft you are flying on is fit for purpose and will make the journey safely.
You obviously read the wiki article on the MD80, pulling on that stick with 140lbs of force to get the plane level again, that is some level of strength those pilots probably did not know they had.
You could just as easily, probably more easily be driving, or driven to the airport, have a tyre blow out and smack into the central reservation of the motorway at 70 and get wiped out by a truck, or have some numbskull driving with a cell phone stuck to their ear cut in front of you can cause an accident. These are more likely to happen than the scenareos you worry about in the air.
http://www.geocities.com/khlim777_my/ashowsafe1.htm#Which%20is%20the%20safest%20airplan e?
Indicates that the MD80 is the 7th safest aircraft. The top 3 have 0 accidents, the 737, 319/20/21 are both below the MD80, it is a very safe aircraft, one incident does not make a pattern.
http://www.airsafe.com/airline.htm
Shows the US carriers
http://www.airsafe.com/events/regions/europe.htm
Shows the Europe carriers.
Look at when the last fatal events of most of those carriers are, in Europe most don't make it to this millenium. In the US where there are probably still more flights a day than Europe many carriers have not had an accident this millenium.
Sit back close your eyes and take 6 hours of me time. Even in Economy it is something that is tough to do anywhere else.

[Hugh]

Thanks BB, i know I#m being paranoid and perhaps its becasuse i hate flying. Its dangerous,un-natural and as much a triumph of marketing as selling bottled water !
....snippety snip...

Whilst sympathising with your fears, most of what we do in the 21st Century is "unnatural" (including sitting in front of a screen communicating with total strangers who shield their identities under nom-de-nets :D ).

I have had to frequently visit the US for 2-3 days at a time, and in the 90's used to spend one month out of two in NZ (for two years) - that would be impossible without safe frequent air transport.

What's the worst that could happen? :erm:

[jkat]

What's the worst that could happen? :erm: could be sat next to the "shoe bomber", blow your shoes right off!:batty:

[Hugh]

could be sat next to the "shoe bomber", blow your shoes right off!:batty:
To paraphrase the kiddies TV series ""SHA SHA SHOE SHOE SHOOOOOE bombers!" ShoePeople (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hbx93lLnFw)