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Airlines

Recommendations and advice for travelers

🕒 4 min read

Category: Travels

Tags: travel

This is a draft article about airlines I got to fly with.

Air France

Kind personel! Usually the crew is very welcoming. Great meals.

Aeroflot

They guess when you're thirsty (basically any time I would press the "Fly Attendant Call button"). However, their TV screens are slow as fuck. And yet they have the latest movies available. Sleeping masks (very comfortable by the way) and kind of slippers provided for free (economy class). Meals were good. WiFi is expensive (5 USD for 15 minutes). Meals were good and of different kinds.

Peach

Really cheap but very little service. I flew once with them, for barely two hours, maybe three.

Air India

Good personel. Great meals.

China Airlines

Great company although I don't remember much about the one time I flew with them.

easyJet

Small aircrafts, do not expect anything crazy, it is a low cost company. No meals, no Wi-Fi, no TV screens.

Ryanair

Same as easyJet.

Virgin America

Paid Wi-Fi (can be bypassed using a VPN, though). Drinks are free.

WOW air

Supposedly a low cost company. They charge everything else though, even my normal sized carry-on bagage. What you get for free is a tiny bag, not bigger than a backpack. No meal included (on a 9 hour flight). No Wi-Fi. No TV screens on seats. Even water is paid ($2.99).

One time, we showed up at the airport and the service agent could not find one of our paid hold luggage on our booking: she believed we hadn't paid for one piece, although we had. She had us pay at the desk in order to check in. Several weeks later, it took many emails to and from them to convince them it was an error from her to make us pay. I eventually got refunded.

Norwegian

Pretty much the same as WoW air, although they have TV screens. As far as I remember, you don't get any food or drinks for free. I was lucky enough to get on their first flight to New York City. Nice lighting in the cabin right after landing.

Oh, and they offer free WiFi.

Tui Fly

Nice one. On a 9 hour fly from Miami to Paris we got dinner and breakfast, plus sodas for free. Alcoholic drinks were paid. Seats are equipped with TV screens and fairly recent movies are available. No free or paid Wi-Fi on board. Quite big aircrafts, mine was a Boeing 787, Dreamliner.

Vueling

Low-cost spanish company. No free drinks or meals. When I flew with them, the had shortages of food, not everything on the menu was available. No TV screens. No wifi. Not much room for the legs. A classic low-cost airline, to sum it up.

TAP Air Portugal

The official portuguese airline? Even on short flights (~2 hours), we had a free meal and a beverage. No TV screens on the seats. Not much space for legs.

Joon

Owned by Air France, doomed to merge with Air France some time in 2019. I only flied with them to go to Berlin from Paris and back. Each time, I was served a snack or a sandwich with a drink (with or without alcohol) for free. No TV screens on seats. One time, I was denied boarding because you know, all airlines do overbooking, and that time I was one of the two lucky guys who checked in at the very last minute. Unfortunately, every expected passenger showed up, so no seat for me. They offered a 175 euro voucher + a night at a nearby Ibis hotel + taxi to and from hotel. I took the next morning flight for free of course but still, a pain in the ass...

United

On a 7+ hour flight, they served us two meals, fairly light if I'm honest (and looking at the calories tags! - around 600 to 700 kcal if I recall correctly). One right after taking off, one about an hour before landing. The second was the lightest one. Besides that, friendly staff, I could ask for more food after they were done serving everyone. Decent catalogue of movies to watch. Shitty buggy TV screens. We got a blanket and a travel pillow by default. They did not bother me with my overly big backpack (Decathlon Travel 100, 60 liters) when boarding.

Air Canada

Only flew with them on sub 2 hour flights (NYC -> Montreal, Toronto -> NYC). On one flight, the plane was small (4 seats per row, 2 on each side). It was a Embraer 175. Looked quite outdated. We got a snack (a drink and a cookie). Nice staff. Could not figure out where to plug the earphones lol. They did not bother me with my overly big backpack (Decathlon Travel 100, 60 liters) when boarding. Very big offering of movies (even Apple TV was available).