What's a good airline to use to fly out to the UK?

You may want to expand your flight search to include the airports at Carlsbad and Santa Ana, sometimes you can get amazing bargains flying out of the smaller airports.

As far as airlines go, flying coach is flying coach no matter what airline you go for. I like Virgin for their behind seat entertainment. Otherwise I just go for what's cheapest. The nice thing about flying international is that you'll get fed and watered, so less to worry about and pay for!

When flying out of San Diego I usually end up at a Newark, Chicago or Pheonix to get the flight into London. It's so nice to fly direct, but the direct service to London from San Diego gets cancelled so often I've never been able to experience it.

I forgot to mention this sorry: I'll be flying from SD to North Carolina to drop my daughter off with my mom so she'll be with family while I'm on my trip so TECHNICALLY I'll be flying out on Greensboro NC.. Sorry for the confusion folks

I forgot to mention this sorry: I'll be flying from SD to North Carolina to drop my daughter off with my mom so she'll be with family while I'm on my trip so TECHNICALLY I'll be flying out on Greensboro NC.. Sorry for the confusion folks

I have lived in Greensboro, NC for a few months with my sister, her daughter, & her hubby when he was in the Marines in the early 90's.

I liked Virgin for the most part except there seats are not definitely Fat Friendly in my opinion.   I guess Dh & I must be lucky cause whenever we fly with AA we always have had the individual tv's on our International flights there & back.   We always fly with AA to get the airmiles I think we are either ready for a free flight home or are reeaallyy close to having enough miles to get one.  

Anything will be fine, really- as long you don't expect too much in economy class.  Which these days, is not much, as no airline gives you much anymore

When I flew for the first time with AA I was suprised with what you actually do get.

All beverages (non alcoholic) are free whenever you want them
All flights are catered 2 meals normally
They have individual tv's in the head rests which have all the latest films on them.
plenty of leg room and free head phones, blanket and pillow

As I am British I am used to the no leg room policy which is horrible most British no thrill's are all about getting as many people on as this was different with AA as they made you feel welcome but one point to add get to the front of your boarding group as there is limited space in the overhead lockers and you will find you will be running half way down the plane to get your bag at the end of the flight if you dont

When I flew for the first time with AA I was suprised with what you actually do get.

All beverages (non alcoholic) are free whenever you want them
All flights are catered 2 meals normally
They have individual tv's in the head rests which have all the latest films on them.
plenty of leg room and free head phones, blanket and pillow

Were you flying Business Class? Because I just came back from the US on American a week or so ago and I can assure you that there were no TV screens in the headrests, drinks were not free and you even had to pay for headphones. 

Were you flying Business Class? Because I just came back from the US on American a week or so ago and I can assure you that there were no TV screens in the headrests, drinks were not free and you even had to pay for headphones. 

This is very odd. We fly standard economy class with American everytime we travel. In all the return flights we have done to the UK, around 12 flights, we have always had our own screens with films and tv, free drinks, 2 meals, free headphones in the pack with blanket and pillow. We always fly Heathrow to Chicago but their website says all transatlantic flights are on their 777 aircrafts which have all of the stuff mentioned above.  

I always fly whichever airline is cheapest/has the best flight and layover times for the trip (I haven't flown direct to my US destination before due to there being no direct flights, so enough time between connections to get through immigration is important for me) .

I've flown between the US and UK several times over the last 16 years and have flown with a number of airlines: TWA (now AA), AA, Continental, Delta, United, Air Transat (Canadian airline) and all of them have pretty much been the same. The first few times I flew in the 90s they still only had a couple of screens for the whole plane and none on the back of the seats, but I've only had one long-haul flight in the last 10 years without screens for every seat. All the airlines have given me 2 meals on each long-haul flight: lunch and an afternoon snack (sandwich, mini pizza etc.) on the UK to US daytime flights and dinner and breakfast on the overnight US to UK flights.

My thoughts on the different airlines.:

AA: not so keen on them - the AA planes I've been on always seem a bit old and you don't get any free snacks (peanuts or pretzels). If I remember correctly, you do usually get a whole can of soft drink instead of a cup-full if you ask for Coke/Sprite etc.

Delta: I quite liked Delta when I flew with them - the staff are funny and last time I flew with them, they offered a choice of snacks (peanuts, cookies or cheese crackers).

Continental: I flew with them a couple of weeks ago and have no complaints. I got pretzels with my drink and there was a choice of over 150 movies and 150 TV shows to choose from. Only issue I've had with them was that when I flew Bristol to Newark and back last year, the entertainment system kept playing up and cutting out... however, they cancelled this route last November so I can't fly it again anyway.

United: Not keen on United - the planes seem old and the flights just aren't that great. They seem to get delayed quite often as well (I've been stuck overnight in Denver and in Chicago before on domestic flights due to the plane being delayed and missing my connection). However, I will fly with them if I have to. They are in the process of merging with Continental at the moment though.

Air Transat: I flew with them in 2006 as we were visiting Canada first before the US. Not keen on this airline at all - it's one of the cheaper ones, so there is hardly any leg-room (my knees were almost up against the seat in front and I'm only 5'2" !) and the food wasn't pleasant (it gave me a dodgy stomach).

I'm pretty sure every AA flight I've ever taken has had some sort of issue!  Either the plane itself had some issues or just massive delays (which isn't the fault of the airline, necessarily).  I don't remember having to pay for anything.

So lets see - for my money, when they are not striking, BA is pretty good and comfy, for coach.

VA - also good, but super tight in coach.  my 6'7 fiance can't fit into their seats unless it's bulkhead/emergency row.  For real, it's not a comfort level, his legs flat out don't fit.  All other coach airlines he does okay, although obviously we prefer bulkhead/emergency door row if we can get it.

Delta/KLM/Air France - I'm good with these guys.  For some reason, Delta may or may not hook you up with the booze, but if you fly KLM, they do.  even though they are all owned by Delta?  Not that I need it, but if I'm taking a night flight, I kind of like the option.  and on principal, it's a pricey flight to begin with, give me the $6 crap chardonnay for free, will you?    But regular stuff like food and soft drinks are free.

My own personal experience for US-Europe long haul flights I've taken:  

AA: Terrible. Bad food. Expensive alcoholic drinks.  Overhead TVs and no personal entertainment- and ones that don't even work properly at that, pay for headphones, RUDE flight attendants, baggage allowance pretty standard, decent leg room at least, usually cheap(er)

BA: Nice food, nice flight attendants, good entertainment- usually the ones you can pause so you can get up and walk about and still hit the same point in the film, free drinks, snack,  baggage allowance pretty standard, adequate leg room

Air France: Nice food, very good baggage allowance, good entertainment, free drinks, decent leg room- as long as you're not stuck in the middle seats in the plane. However, Charles de Gaulle Airport is awful!!

United (been a while, as I was turned off…)  Overhead entertainment, last time I couldn’t even see the TV at all, so that was awful, crammed in like sardines,  food- not great at all-pretty sure last time I flew them, alcoholic drinks were free… standard baggage allowance

Virgin Atlantic – ahh, my favourite, but I am biased because I have elite status.   My work flights are Upperclass, but even in economy, I like them –nice entertainment, good food, free drinks, helpful flight attendants, (and the other elite status perks even in economy- the Virgin Lounge!!!, Champagne on the flight, the Revivals Lounge, extra baggage)  - standard baggage allowance, leg room isn’t great though.  

Hence why I said above, it’s all based upon personal experience ;-)

From the AA website concerning flights to the UK

For this route, depending on your aircraft main screen movies may apply and/or inseat or personal video player.

Inseat and personal video player selections can be found by clicking on one of the aircraft choices

Last time we flew back to the States (2009) partner did all the arranging and we wound up on AA. He chose them based on information from SeatGuru
http://www.seatguru.com/articles/booking_airline_seats.php

Might be able to use them to see what you want and what you get match up for what you want to pay.

BA used to have a non-stop from JFK to MAN but they cancelled it a few years back as all long haul flights now depart from Heathrow.

I've only had one problem with Delta when my tv for my seat didn't work and I asked 3 separate flight attendants if they could do something about it. I was told they could reset it but I was watching the screen (not sleeping or anything) so I would've seen if it reset and the screen didn't even change. I wrote a message to them, and got a $50 voucher for my next flight. They are the only ones I've been with except for one trip back from the UK where I had to change my flight and had to take AA instead. I thought they were good, I had a big comfy seat and also had pizza which I'd never gotten on a flight before (but this was just one random flight i had to take) I prefer delta though, I get a t.v. to watch things which is nice because I can't sleep on overnight flights no matter what I try.

I hate all airplanes 

Flew Air France Business (air miles) once and, while the seats and food were great, there was a family with very young children who kept jumping up and down on the seats and running around shouting. The hostess tried to get them to sit down to no avail. So, you never know what you'll end up with.

I've flown a variety of airlines from the Boston - Manchester.  I usually just go for the best connection and cheapest fare, so often it has ended up being KLM through Amsterdam.

I haven't had any big problems with any of the airlines.  My favorite is probably Virgin Atlantic - good food and entertainment and they treat you well.  However they are usually a bit more expensive.

BA are also good, but also a bit more expensive and I always worry they will go on strike.

I've flown with American quite a bit and have found them fine, although the food is not great.  A couple of the flights from Boston - London are on the old-style aircraft with no personal tvs (you can check this out on FlyerTalk).  I imagine on larger aircraft there would be tvs though.  I think AA has a decent frequent flyer program too for folks flying in economy (compared to BA anyway), and there are also credit card offers on right now that would earn quite a lot of miles to spend on flights.

The others: KLM, Continental, US Air, Aer Lingus have all been fine.  Although I dislike connecting in Philly with US Air - the lines for security and immigration have always been really long and I worry about missing my flight.

Phatbeetle said exactly what I would say.

Virgin is by far my fave and worth the extra money. And AA is by far the worst in my experience. The flight staff are simply surly!!

Good luck!