Flying-which airline do you use?

Yeah, the only meal I would class as absolutely vile was Air Transat's. Their special meal was: gluten free, vegan, kosher, halal, diabetic, and I'm not sure what else. It was a "veggie burger" on a gluten free roll, and literally the most disgusting thing I'd ever tried. Everyone else who tried it agreed. And on every flight over a 2 year period it was the same thing... That was when I started bringing the prepacked cups with quick oats and an insulated bag with cut fruit, veggies, olives & cured meat that could handle not being in the fridge for a couple hours.

That was when I started bringing the prepacked cups with quick oats and an insulated bag with cut fruit, veggies, olives & cured meat that could handle not being in the fridge for a couple hours.

Yum! Bet the other poor souls were watching your every mouthful!   

Slight diversion....

it's amazing what some airlines will serve when you request a diabetic meal. Seriously, one time it was a roll, some grapes, and fruit juice for breakfast. Holy carbohydrates! Supper was worse. A roll, a small salad, a pudding cup, and some sort of marinated veg, if memory serves. (It's been a lot of years). But when we asked, the flight attendant told us that there was only one kind of "special" meal no matter what your request was for, and so you either got that one or the regular meal. (Which was a pasta dish, on that flight.)

Oh yeah, kind of like the hospital I worked for before coming over. All meals were the same. They just put a different tag on it. Even my diabetic patients said ‘I shouldn’t be eating this much bread and juice should I?’

For some weird reason, airlines think that "diabetic meals" need to be sugar free and high carb but low fat.  Okay, not that any airline food is healthy, but that's taking the piss. If you're a person with Diabetes who eats low carb, you're screwed. 
That said, lots of the special meals are pretty good these days.   It's quite complicated trying to make food taste good in the air!

We quite like airplane food.  And they do a great job with the special meals on BA.

But we pack a carryon suitcase of allergy foods just in case the special meals don’t make it on the plane....   

PSA for folks who are sensitive to perfumes- Virgin spray their 'signature scent' through the cabin a few times and it caused me to have a sinus episode through half of one flight with a stuffy/runny nose and sneezing. Its not horrible but it was noticeable and it did bother me (but not on the way back, strangely)

We've had good luck with Iceland Air.

They’ve just opened direct flights to my hometown. Do you mind if I ask.. did you pay for upgrades? Would it be suitable for a child, space wise etc? We didn’t book with them because we haven’t know. Anyone to fly with them


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I personally prefer delta/virgin as we usually get a crappy old plain on aa/ba, and they’ve cancelled our flights many times so we miss our connecting flight or have extremely long layovers without compensation as “ our original flight wasn’t changed more than so many hours”.

I find virgin and delta planes to be better quality and staff more accommodating but they cost more for us.

However, I will say that for whatever reason we always have issues online checking in and the American attendants have bumped us up a few times which I appreciate. My uncle works for American and I can get cheap ‘standby’ tickets but I don’t trust those for international flights.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

They’ve just opened direct flights to my hometown. Do you mind if I ask.. did you pay for upgrades? Would it be suitable for a child, space wise etc? We didn’t book with them because we haven’t know. Anyone to fly with them


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I flew with them to go to Denver last Thanksgiving. Space was the same as any other economy seat I've had on BA or AA. The planes are smaller, but that's to be expected. There is ALWAYS a stop in Iceland.

I enjoyed my flight. You do have to pay for meals and when at their airport it is expensive to buy stuff, but they take pounds, dollars and Euros.

PSA for folks who are sensitive to perfumes- Virgin spray their 'signature scent' through the cabin a few times and it caused me to have a sinus episode through half of one flight with a stuffy/runny nose and sneezing. Its not horrible but it was noticeable and it did bother me (but not on the way back, strangely)

Ugh. All of us chemically sensitive folks made a stir on their social media when they announced this. Can you please contact their customer service and let them know you had an adverse reaction? They were adamant it was "safe and harmless and would not cause any reactions" even though we all know that's BS. I won't be able to fly them now, and they don't care if you aren't a paying customer.

Does anybody know the procedure to book a flight for a 14 year old?  It's impossible to book through the comparison sites as they won't let you pick one child by themselves. 
I'm planning on using the comparison sites to find out what airlines make the trip direct and then call the airlines to book.

They’ve just opened direct flights to my hometown. Do you mind if I ask.. did you pay for upgrades? Would it be suitable for a child, space wise etc? We didn’t book with them because we haven’t know. Anyone to fly with them


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No, we always fly the cheapest option. It was comfortable enough - the last flight I had with them I boarded with what turned out to be the flu (so sorry to my seatmate!) that kicked in pretty seriously when we were over, I think, the Great Lakes on the eastbound leg to the UK.  But what I remember of the flight was good. And then that fresh air in Iceland, when we changed planes and had to wait for the little disabled transport vehicle that takes you out to the plane and lifts you up to the door so you don't have to climb the steps.... brisk? No. Bracing? closer. Stunning? yep. in April. But I was coming in from a heat wave in California so it was just kind of one of those "dear god I'm gonna die on this trip and they'll put me out on a glacier to get rid of the body" moments that passed quickly.  The wait for the dtv was a bit long - we were in a coverered, semi-outdoor area for a good 45 minutes. Cleared the sinuses that... as they frosted up....

I used to fly with my daughter when she was a very young child on Southwest Airlines in the States. It is a bare-bones, but good price flyer. I never had any problems with her on up to a six hour flight, as I prepared her in advance by us pretending to get on an airplane and how we behave on an airplane, and taking snacks and some toys (crayons, if memory serves) to amuse her. The one time we had a problem was when she was around two years old and had an ear problem that I wasn't aware of previously. The pressure change did a damn-damn on her ear, poor little thing, and she screamed during takeoff and landing (sorry fellow passengers) from the pain.

Does anybody know the procedure to book a flight for a 14 year old?  It's impossible to book through the comparison sites as they won't let you pick one child by themselves. 
I'm planning on using the comparison sites to find out what airlines make the trip direct and then call the airlines to book.

A little out of it this morning (a tree flying by kind of woke me up too early). But have you tried booking directly on the airlines' websites? I've gotten really good fares that way that don't show up on the comparison sites, sometimes.

They’ve just opened direct flights to my hometown. Do you mind if I ask.. did you pay for upgrades? Would it be suitable for a child, space wise etc? We didn’t book with them because we haven’t know. Anyone to fly with them


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I booked economy comfort on icelandair last year and it was great.  It's the same seats as regular economy but you won't have someone sitting next to you, either you'll have 2 seats free next to the window, or you will have a seat in the middle section, an empty one, and then another person on the other aisle.  Tons of space--I would definitely book if you needed that.  I think there was more leg room too.  Instead of a regular meal service, everyone in economy comfort can choose whatever they want from the menu, which has a variety of hot meals, plus sandwiches and cold things, and then snacks like icelandic chocolate bars and things.  On my first leg I had chicken curry with rice and a glass or three of wine, then on the second leg I had a Spanish cheese, cracker, and chorizo platter.  So it's a pretty good selection.

Speaking of food I have found the food and drinks on Virgin to be pretty good, they have (had?) a signature cocktail that was nice with or without alcohol, and the food was never like, disgusting.  On the JFK-Heathrow route I used to take a lot there are usually a bunch of Indian people flying on Virgin so there's always a curry option and then a veggie option like pasta; pretty safe airline food.  The afternoon tea arriving into the US is nice, although I don't like the muffin top they give you for breakfast coming into the UK so I usually just had a coffee and got something once I got through immigration.

Point proven why I hate American. Had
A flight out of London yesterday at 17:15. Get to the airport to find it’s cancelled.

After begging and pleading they got us on another flight out but because it was to another city we missed our connecting flight and nothing else was available till this morning. So with the promise of meals, hotel, travel to and from hotel etc we agreed to do it.

Get to Philadelphia last night, and guess what. All the staff couldn’t wait to get out the door. There were no hotels they gave them all away. They said we could pay for our own hotel and get reimbursed which we considered. But then forgot we temporarily have no money. My mom for whatever reason has my American bank card and we didn’t tell uk bank we needed our cards till today. Why would we as originally we got home at around 11 pm and knew we would go straight to my mom and dad’s for the night.

So we slept on god awful cots for four hours before they kicked us out at five am. All I can say THANK GOD we left our little One behind on this one as it is a short trip.

On the other hand we’re so tired and it’s such a short trip I’m worried it’ll be ruined because we’re so tired and behind schedule.

I think American has permanent lost our business the way we were handled last night was just uncool. I feel bad a poor family Work four little ones flew with us and were in the same boat.

I don’t give my luxury cot five stars

Point proven why I hate American. Had
A flight out of London yesterday at 17:15. Get to the airport to find it’s cancelled.

After begging and pleading they got us on another flight out but because it was to another city we missed our connecting flight and nothing else was available till this morning. So with the promise of meals, hotel, travel to and from hotel etc we agreed to do it.

Get to Philadelphia last night, and guess what. All the staff couldn’t wait to get out the door. There were no hotels they gave them all away. They said we could pay for our own hotel and get reimbursed which we considered. But then forgot we temporarily have no money. My mom for whatever reason has my American bank card and we didn’t tell uk bank we needed our cards till today. Why would we as originally we got home at around 11 pm and knew we would go straight to my mom and dad’s for the night.

So we slept on god awful cots for four hours before they kicked us out at five am. All I can say THANK GOD we left our little One behind on this one as it is a short trip.

On the other hand we’re so tired and it’s such a short trip I’m worried it’ll be ruined because we’re so tired and behind schedule.

I think American has permanent lost our business the way we were handled last night was just uncool. I feel bad a poor family Work four little ones flew with us and were in the same boat.

I don’t give my luxury cot five stars

That is SHOCKING eh!  I hope the rest of the trip looks up from here.  Shame American on Twitter!!!