Fly Guy’s First Flight Reviews

0
2627
Fly Guy Travel Reviews

You would think spending well earned vacation time sitting on an airplane would be the last thing a professional flyer like myself would consider enjoyable. While sometimes true, I actually do love being on the other side of a meal tray. It’s refreshing to see the inside of other airplanes, look at a different uniforms, try new amenities and witness how other airlines deal with feeding hundreds of hungry guests at one time.

Off duty crew either make the best or worst passengers. The good ones bring their own food and water bottle on the plane, sit in their seat, take a sleeping pill and they’re out for the count. They wont say a word until the last goodbye at the door. These crew are setting a good example of what a perfect passenger should act like. Then there are the worst. These are the ones who think acting like the type of passenger they hate while on duty is some sort of revenge. Ringing the call bell for water? Pretty sure you know where that’s found and how to get to that location!

When crew fly as a passenger they tend to leave hint’s they’re airline personal. Some opt for the crew tag on their carry on and others are as flashy as they are sassy! They come on with their ID a blazin’ and if they’re really smart, they have gifts for the crew in hand. I’m a mix of both. When I want to be left alone I remove all crew traces and try hard to resist the urge to help people with their bags as I board as this would be a dead giveaway. Other times when I feel like being social I come bearing doughnuts, chocolates, or whatever else looks expensive ‘but really’s not’ item I can get in duty free.

On my recent jaunt to America I had the enjoyment to fly five airlines over the span of a few days and the one flight I didn’t bother to bring a gift for turned out to be the best domestic flight of the trip. I jumped on an early morning departure from Raleigh Durham to Phoenix with Southwest Airlines, with Hollywood being my final destination. Southwest is the king of low cost airlines, but on this flight they gave me full service treatment, minus a meal service (however three gin and tonics counts as a meal in my book). The girls (two of them pictured below) on this sector were lovely and constantly in the cabin looking after their 70 passengers. Now just give Southwest crew a better uniform and it would be my type of airline.

image

Flight attendant passengers pay closer attention to details when compared to civilian customers! We are the toughest critics because we can spot a shortcut or shortfall when we see them. On the other hand we are the fairest as we understand the challenges cabin crew face when trying to deliver their service. With this in mind I introduce my first round of flight reviews:

Best International Flight:

  1. Emirates
  2. Virgin Atlantic

I flew the newest aircraft types on both Airlines. For Emirates it was A380 and Virgin it was the A330. While the Virgin crew and plane were sexy, fun and friendly, I found the Emirates food, IFE, and aircraft to be a step above and their crew are classy and cute. It’s hard to beat the Emirates A380 even in economy.

Best Crew International:

  1. Virgin Atlantic
  2. Emirates

I found some of the Emirates crew to be up to par but as a whole team Virgin out performed EK on this trip.

Best Domestic flight:

  1. Southwest
  2. Virgin America
  3. American Airlines

Southwest and Virgin America are close in this race. Virgin is gaining on their well seasoned Dallas based counterpart.

Best Domestic Crew:

  1. Southwest
  2. Virgin America
  3. American Airlines

The Virgin America hands down have the most attractive and best dressed crew in the country. They were all smiles and sweet but it’s hard to beat the experience charm of the mature Southwest gals. It was almost a tie between these two. As for American Airlines… Were there even crew on my flight?

Best Airline overall based on appearance:

  1. Virgin America
  2. Emirates
  3. Virgin Atlantic
  4. American Airlines
  5. Southwest

Virgin America has done a great job creating an ambiance that’s more night club then drab airport terminal. For the older traveler I could see this being an annoyance instead of an attraction. Virgin knows the art of smoke and mirrors. However my aircraft bound for JFK could have been cleaner. That’s the problem with having black interior, it shows the dirt.

Best IFE:

  1. Emirates
  2. Virgin Atlantic
  3. Virgin America

Southwest and AA don’t even rate in this category as they didn’t have IFE on the sectors I flew. However both airlines did have wifi which helped pass the time. Emirates is the king of IFE. With more than 1,200 channels of on-demand-entertainment, I’ve yet to find another IFE system that comes close.

Let's hear from you

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.