What's your current favourite TAL carrier?

HTCOne

Noxegon wrote: »

All of them are crap compared to the ME3...

Just shows how subjective it all is. I flew via DXB with EK a few times in the last few years in both Y and J and I considered both inferior to the EI A330.

The 10 abreast seating on the 777 results in me ending up in agony after a few hours in economy and the J seat does not lie fully flat (despite them saying otherwise)hence why there’s a foldout stand that you literally have to stand your feet on to stop sliding out of the bottom in your sleep! Also they don’t do amenity kits in J anymore, even on the A380 (which is a fabulous experience in both Y and J).

EY are going down the toilet, have stop investing in their cabins and service.

As regards TATL, I’d imagine it’s probably SQ on the 380 or 350. Only tried them heading east but top notch. Maybe NZ too, heard rave reviews about their product.

BA the worst, by far. The club world or whatever J is called is a complete joke. Seats uncomfortable, no storage, you’re staring into a strangers face the whole time and there’s nowhere to put anything.

Noxegon

HTCOne wrote: »

The 10 abreast seating on the 777 results in me ending up in agony after a few hours in economy and the J seat does not lie fully flat (despite them saying otherwise)hence why there’s a foldout stand that you literally have to stand your feet on to stop sliding out of the bottom in your sleep! Also they don’t do amenity kits in J anymore, even on the A380 (which is a fabulous experience in both Y and J)..

Sure they do. I got one two weeks ago on DXB-SIN.

BigMoose

I recently did DUB-DXB-AKL in EK J and got 3 out of 4 amenity kits - they dont do them on what they consider a day flight.

HTCOne

Noxegon wrote: »

Sure they do. I got one two weeks ago on DXB-SIN.

Well I didn’t on 4 separate trips during the summer, maybe they just hate me.

Anyway I think it’s all subjective, for example if you get a great crew vs a not so great one, that’ll hugely shape your impression

Blut2

I've done transatlantic economy on all of American/Delta/United/Aer Lingus regularly, and business class semi-regularly on Aer Lingus, American and United over the last 10 years. And a few connecting flights via AMS/LHR on other carriers. In that time I think:

- Preclearance in Dublin is fantastic. Its just too much of a crapshoot arriving in the US to clear immigration there, in terms of possible wait times. And much more unfriendly border agents. Its always worth paying extra to fly direct from DUB just for this, even regardless of the additional significant time savings in travel/connection time.
- Delta are overall the best of the US carriers
- EI have by far the best customer service and cabin crew attitudes
- EI's business class in the last few years has really stepped up. Its almost at ME3 quality on-board these days, significantly ahead of the American carriers
- EI's frequent flyer program however is also by far the worst of any long haul airline I've ever experienced. I really don't know how they can be messing this up so badly in this day and age.

Given all of that I always advise casual/holiday flyers to fly EI if they ask me. But its hard to advise anyone whos going to be flying over regularly for business to do so, despite the high quality product, just because of the awful AerClub.

nsa0bupkd3948x

The above post shows you how subjective it is.

In my experience:

I pay extra to avoid mid morning pre-clearance at Dublin. Maybe I've been really lucky in the States but unless I'm on one of the first flights I'll avoid pre-clearance. 147 to SFO pre-clearance was miserable. Boiling hall and over an hour.

EI business soft product is distinctly average. Hard product is good but service is nowhere near ME3. It's a good use of avios but that's it.

EI customer support is the worst of any airline I've traveled including Ryanair and the only 1 star airline...

Blut2

^I should probably emphasize the almost qualifier more there in that line about EI transatlantic business class coming near ME3 quality. Its not really at ME3 level, but its just closer to the ME3 than to some of the very poor business class flights I've had on American carriers in the last few years. Flying business class transatlantic on US Airways in 2014 was one memorably bad example - I thought it closer to premium economy on a non-American airline in terms of amenities/comfort/service onboard than a real J service.

Agreed that it can be very subjective though, and/or even vary massively in individual experiences depending on the cabin crew, age of aircraft etc.

Disagree about pre-clearance in DUB though. Even ignoring the variability of clearing immigration in the US, doing it in DUB and taking an onwards domestic connection in the US is still far quicker flight/connection time-wise than connecting via LHR/CDG/AMS/etc for most journeys in my experience. And obviously flying direct from DUB if possible is always much faster than any European connection.

I do think theres a certain knack to timing it just right in DUB to miss the crowds too though, which can make a big difference.

Nijmegen

Nobody really flies premium economy out of Dublin, do they?

I know there's two schools of thought re: J - That you fly daytime to get your monies worth or nighttime to get a kip on the red eyes back home, and I fall into the latter camp. So for me I don't mind economy on the way over daytime to the east coast at least, I read a lot or work and splash out for an exit row seat. I'd be interested in trying a premium economy as there seems to be a lot of push in this space among the US3 at least.

USPC have cleared out all of the machines they had downstairs that you could use if you'd traveled on your esta before. I wonder is that a temporary or a permanent thing? The queues seemed a lot longer without them, but that might just have been luck of the draw.

steve-o

Nijmegen wrote: »

Nobody really flies premium economy out of Dublin, do they?

Transatlantic, AA have it to Philly, Charlotte (and Dallas next summer). Air Canada to Toronto and Vancouver.

Tenger

Joyce Black Thimble wrote: »

............
EI customer support is the worst of any airline I've traveled including Ryanair and the only 1 star airline...

Thats a pretty niche badge of honour!
Referring to your Air Koryo travel, that would be an experience.

nsa0bupkd3948x

Tenger wrote: »

Thats a pretty niche badge of honour!
Referring to your Air Koryo travel, that would be an experience.

Yup, Flew them FNJ - PEK. No way they deserve just one star - purely political

Nijmegen

steve-o wrote: »

Transatlantic, AA have it to Philly, Charlotte (and Dallas next summer). Air Canada to Toronto and Vancouver.

Great tip, I must try AA.

Duff

Has anyone used Ethiopian Airlines for TAL flights? Flying with them to LAX in a few weeks and wondering what their service is like?

nsa0bupkd3948x

Duff wrote: »

Has anyone used Ethiopian Airlines for TAL flights? Flying with them to LAX in a few weeks and wondering what their service is like?

Yup, I've used them a few times both east and west. Flight to LAX was good, good food, good beer and friendly staff. No pre-clearance in Dublin which is an advantage/disadvantage depending on your opinion.

The Veteran

Joyce Black Thimble wrote: »

Yup, I've used them a few times both east and west. Flight to LAX was good, good food, good beer and friendly staff. No pre-clearance in Dublin which is an advantage/disadvantage depending on your opinion.

No preclearance but then ET gets into LAX as one of the first (if not the first) international arrival of the day. If you’re on an EU passport you’ll be through in a few minutes. Also they tend to be generous on the hand luggage side of things. It’s an early morning start going west and you are back in here for around 6pm so you need to sleep going west as you arrive around 08:30 into LAX.

castie

BigMoose wrote: »

Completely agree re EI joining a decent group frequent flyer program. Most annoying thing with my job is I do a lot of trips to Malaysia and a few to the US, but short of using Delta and KLM I end up splitting my travel between EK and EI. Since it’s all mostly economy the status is important to me!

I agree also re the EI business experience on the 330s V EK on the 777s. EK have crammed one too many seats in, Qatar have one less on their 777s and offer a much better experience. If EI were in Oneworld I’d move my east bound travel to Qatar and stick to EI for US.

Can't you do BA and earn avois on Qatar and EI flights to one account then?

BigMoose

castie wrote: »

Can't you do BA and earn avois on Qatar and EI flights to one account then?

Good question - never quite got my head around avois as I lost my EI status when they changed from gold circle... Should check that out. Although BA prices seem rather erratic, they can be very competitive but sometimes are crazy expensive to the point work might give out.

micosoft

Stephen Strange wrote: »

Just on the point above, has AL food improved much lately? Flew DUB-JFK 2 years ago and the food was so bad both directions that it was inedible.

SFO-DUB flight in Business recently and the breakfast was inedible. Not just me. The FA asked me as everyone else had handed it back quarter eaten.

micosoft

Joyce Black Thimble wrote: »

The above post shows you how subjective it is.

In my experience:

I pay extra to avoid mid morning pre-clearance at Dublin. Maybe I've been really lucky in the States but unless I'm on one of the first flights I'll avoid pre-clearance. 147 to SFO pre-clearance was miserable. Boiling hall and over an hour.

EI business soft product is distinctly average. Hard product is good but service is nowhere near ME3. It's a good use of avios but that's it.

EI customer support is the worst of any airline I've traveled including Ryanair and the only 1 star airline...

So the flights vary in quality. The 757's are ratty but the 330 is a fine business product from the West Coast.

But regardless of the flight experience I think we can all subjectively agree that AerClub is the worst customer service by any airline. Badly designed. Badly supported. And like you I include Ryanair. Despite having access to the "concierge" line (what a misnomer) I have found out of 14 calls I was given the wrong information or actions I asked were not acted on 12 times. Likewise their email address have agents who refuse to read what is being asked before responding (which is typically a link to the website). I'm struggling to think if you could deliberately design a worse service....

Blut2

micosoft wrote: »

But regardless of the flight experience I think we can only subjectively agree that AerClub is the worst customer service by any airline. Badly designed. Badly supported. And like you I include Ryanair. Despite having access to the "concierge" line (what a misnomer) I have found our of 14 calls I was given the wrong information or actions I asked were not acted on. Likewise their email address have agents who refuse to read what is being asked before responding (which is typically a link to the website). I'm struggling to think if you could deliberately design a worse service....

I recently had the joy of being told by two different AerClub employees that they themselves couldn't help me, but to contact X who would be sure to help me. After doing this twice the third person I emailed didn't even bother to reply to fob me off, they just ignored my email completely.

In direct contrast to that I was also livechatting recently with a BA agent about an issue, which she did her best to solve but was unable to - but she at least didn't immediately fob me off by telling me it wasn't her responsibility. But then a week later I got a follow-up email from her out of the blue, telling me that she had gone off and investigated it further and found a solution for me.

Its really just consistently surprising how bad AerClub can be. I wish IAG would just scrap it and absorb EI fully into BAEC.

micosoft

Noxegon wrote: »

It is a different market but I’d take issue with the suggestion that customer expectation is different.

I put it to you that if any carrier put an EK-type service on DUB-JFK they would do very well.

DUB-JFK is probably one of the most analysed connections in the world. If there were a market it would be fulfilled. It's a very different market and comparing TATL carriers from a cost base etc. The evidence is that middle market is being hollowed out everywhere - it's either based on price or not at all.

The other thing to be understood is that Aer Lingus is a discount Airline that steps up to a business product on certain TATL flights. It's not a full service Airline stepping down to deliver a cheaper product. Subtle but fundamental difference in business model which drives every decision. Hence no Oneworld.
Ironically Aer Lingus's success in IAG is predicated on this low cost up. Iberia can't do that hence Vueling. And BA will remain the full service stepping down where necessary.

micosoft

Blut2 wrote: »

I recently had the joy of being told by two different AerClub employees that they themselves couldn't help me, but to contact X who would be sure to help me. After doing this twice the third person I emailed didn't even bother to reply to fob me off, they just ignored my email completely.

In direct contrast to that I was also livechatting recently with a BA agent about an issue, which she did her best to solve but was unable to - but she at least didn't immediately fob me off by telling me it wasn't her responsibility. But then a week later I got a follow-up email from her out of the blue, telling me that she had gone off and investigated it further and found a solution for me.

Its really just consistently surprising how bad AerClub can be. I wish IAG would just scrap it and absorb EI fully into BAEC.

Yeh. The worst is when you get through to the New Jersey call centre which consists of one women (I call her Beth) who I am certain sells life assurance products as she constantly seems surprised I am calling about flights on one of those aeroplane things. I then need to explain what Aer Club is. That the system does not recognise Concierge but count my tier points. And after 15 minutes get to the ask. Which is invariably messed up and results in another call.

What infuriates me about the email is that they will always ignore what is written and give a template answer. Infuriating.

At this point I have no hope that AL will join One World. They have halved tier points by making every SMART fare this year a Saver fare. So transitioning to flying Blue with KLM (flights moving to east now any way) and BA.