Airlines I have flown

crap

 

Really? The last time I flew out of Frankfurt, I had a horrible experience. My group and I got there at 9 a.m. for a 3 p.m. flight (it was a connection flight...we went Rome-Frankfurt-Detroit) and, of course, in our terminal where we were taking off from, there was a flight leaving before ours from Tel Aviv.

So we have to change terminals to get over to where we were taking off from from where we landed. We cross the airport and we see all of these shops (and what was possibly the longest security line ever) and we get into our terminal, expecting to have something to do for the next five or so hours...and there was a duty-free shop and absolutely NO PLACE to sit. So we ended up sitting on this cold stone floor for about four hours (and most of us on about an hour of sleep because the night before, the 16-year-old idiot boy who went with us decided to drink 2/3rds of a bottle of Bacardi to avoid wasting it and also to avoid awkward questions with customs and/or his parents, and we spent most of the night until about 1 a.m. trying to convince him not to jump out the window of our hotel. It was a funny night, we ended up dressing him up in a tube top and a skirt, giving him a makeover and plucking his eyebrows. Maybe it should go without saying that he was the only boy on this trip?) so we were exhausted as well.

We finally get to go in and sit down and that's when we look outside and there's no tarmac outside. We had to walk outside, be loaded onto buses (three buses full) and go all the way across the airport and take the stairs onto the plane. And, instead of doing the brilliant thing and letting each bus get off as it arrived, they waited until all three buses were there and completely stopped and then let everyone out, so it took about three times as long as it should have. Plus, my seatmate that time only spoke French and smelled really bad.

Let's see...onto the actual topic now.

I've flown Delta, Northwest, Southwest (I think) US Airways, United and American Airlines.

I have no idea what model of plane I was on that was the largest, but in coach, every aisle had 11 people in it (three on each outside and then five in the middle...and on that flight to London, I was in the middle seat in the middle row. I don't normally get claustrophobic, but five hours in that seat and I was about to die.)

I've flown on a plane that only sat four (small private plane), so that was cool. The pilot even let me take the wheel for a few minutes, so that was fun.

But yeah, all of this flying has been in the last six years. My parents don't fly, they prefer to drive everywhere, mostly because my dad hates heights and my mom had a traumatic turbulent flight to California once. I am apparently the only one in the family who doesn't really mind flying to get places.

Oh, and if you're giving advice to someone who has never flown before...it is NOT a brilliant idea to spend the three-hour drive to the airport arguing about which part of the takeoff is the worst: when the nose goes up or when the butt falls out. That's literally the conversation my parents subjected me to before my first-ever flight (which was international as well).

Oh, and as for coolest airport? Minneapolis, hands down. I had a five hour layover in that airport and wasn't bored at all.

 

Does a Blue Angels F-18 count?

I don't know what my overall list looks like, but I also have SAS, Sabena, Austrian, Lufthansa and one small fly-by-night airline I took inside Alaska many years ago.

I wish I'd been able to fly the Concorde -- just once.

 

OK, I'll give this a shot.

Republic
Eastern
Braniff
TWA
Northwest
Southwest
AirTran
America Trans Air
Delta
US Air
American/American Eagle
United
Midwest
Skyway
Frontier
Alaska
Ozark

EDIT: Adding Ozark to the list and my list of largest planes ... Flew on a 747 once from (get this) Minneapolis to Detroit. I have no idea why they were flying a jumbo on such a short route other than they needed that plane at DTW for an outgoing.

Flew on a few DC-10s and a couple Lockhed 1011s.

I believe I recall being on a couple of 767s but haven't been on a 777 or the Airbus 380, and with less and less work travel I don't anticipate getting to do so, either.

 

Wow, let's see:

DOMESTIC:
Delta
US Airways
Continental
United
Northworst
AirTran
American (but never voluntarily; only as a last resort when another flight was canceled)
Southwest

INTERNATIONAL
Air Canada
Scandinavian
Cimber
Air France

RIP DIVISION
TWA

Largest plane: 747 from San Francisco to Sydney

Smallest plane: DeHavilland Dash-8, several times

 

Maybe some of the more senior members of the board will remember Evergreen International. I flew them to Florida back in the 70s and later remember hearing they were actually owned by the CIA or something like that.

 

Southwest.
AirTran


No mas.

 

That site is awesome! I just spent 45 mins plugging in all my flights from the last year.

Thanks, Webby!

 

I'm definitely jumping on that site Webby pointed to . . . I'm a huge airline geek. The list:

Eastern
National (original, not the Vegas-based one)
United
TWA
Golden West
Continental
Ozark
Skyway (this was a commuter from STL to Columbia. One guy sat on the luggage.)
King Air (see above)
Allegheny
American
Delta
Northwest (Orient and non-Oriental)
Aloha
America West
Southwest
British
Air France
Aegean
Most of the commuter versions of the trunk airlines above

Planes I've flown on:

Boeing:
707
727
737
747-400
757
767
777
(Dammit, missed the 720)

McDonnell Douglas:
DC-8
DC-9
DC-10
MD-80

Lockheed:
Electra
L-1011

Others:
DeHavilland Twin Otter
Beech 99
King Air
BAC 1-11
BAe 143
Fairchild F-28
CRJ-200
CRJ-700
Saab 340
Shorts 360



I tried to get on a Convair 880 flight back when TWA still flew them, but couldn't make it work. I also tried to book a Braniff flight way back when, but couldn't do it.

 

I'm not even sure I can list all of them or even remember them all. But does anyone remember an airline called Air Atlanta or something like that? They were based in Hartsfield and had an amazing frequent flier lounge. They were very short-lived because they offered so many perks. My favorite airlines have been the European-based ones I've been on. Swissair and Alitalia. Also, Hawaiian Airlines is great.

 

It was Republic.

Ozark
Texas International (I don't remember this one, but I assume I was on the same flight as Bubbler.)
Republic
American
Continental
United
Delta
Comair
Northwest
TWA
US Air
Vanguard

 

I see it on Slappy's list and no one else's.

North Central was huge in the midwest in the 60s and 70s before buying up Southern and changing its name to Republic. I grew up in the flight pattern about 2 miles north of the airport and watched numerous North Central DC-9s and Convair 340s go right over my house.