Please advise on airlines from US to UK

[Olya2007 0]

I am trying to book flight from San Francisco to London. Will be meeting with my fiance there (he will fly from Ukraine). Prices pretty much the same, but I feel so uncomfortable to fly alone 10 + hours, so I need to know all info ahead :-))

Can you please suggest which airline is better : United or Britishairways in terms of convenience , safety, service?

Thanks in advance!

[mike & elena 0]

I am trying to book flight from San Francisco to London. Will be meeting with my fiance there (he will fly from Ukraine). Prices pretty much the same, but I feel so uncomfortable to fly alone 10 + hours, so I need to know all info ahead :-))

Can you please suggest which airline is better : United or Britishairways in terms of convenience , safety, service?

Thanks in advance!

Picking an airline is a personal preference. I try to get the flight that are less crowded. The reason is a full flight does not give you the opportunity to change seats. That is important when sitting near small children, large people and hygeine problems of all varities. you might also get the opportunity to sit in the midst of several seats and lay down.

Flying is great at any distance and very safe.

Have Fun enjoy the blue marble.

[Olya2007 0]

'mike & elena' ,Thanks a lot for your reply! However how to know if flight is going to be overcrowded in advance, at time of booking? Any hints?

And since I do have these two choices of particular airlines-United and Britishairways, which one is more preferable? I have a little experience with United(not very good one), and thinking may be British is more comfortable one? Or not ? Anyone with personal experience of flight to London?

[ddkm 0]

i flew with BA return to JFK new york a couple of years ago and the service was one of the best of all the airlines i have flown with (little things like free snacks available all the time, and not just the airplane snack packs you often get...im talking proper candy bars and the like. Also, i believe BA offer free alcohol in economy-something which i havent come across on any other flight, excpet when i went United Business)

So yeah i would say that BA would be better, but it does depend on your personal preferences. dont worry about being alone flying all that way, many people do it all the time and are fine. Just a tip - when booking your flight seats, choose a seat that currently has nobody next to it. And also check in online for the flight at the very earliest opportunity, that way you can see how many empty seats there are and possibly get a better seat.

Just my 5 seconds though!

[Lou Lou 1]

seatguru.com will tell you where the best seats are too.

[pj1959us 0]

Although it was a while ago I have flown both United and BA from Chicago to Heathrow and back. The experience was similar but did prefer BA slightly more than United.

Have a good trip whichever one you choose!

PJ

[Lansbury 19]

At the moment avoid BA. The infrasture at T4 at Heathrow especially the baggage handling system just cannot cope with the demand. BA are having real problems and are mishandling so many bags they are forecast to lose about 1.3 millions bags this year. Some passengers have waiting many hours just for their bags to reach the carousel.

A link to the news story http://tinyurl.com/2wvkju

[mike & elena 0]

Best Seats?

Well they all arrive at you destination about the same time. Some people can not stand to look out so they prefer an asile. So get couped up in a plane and they must look out. Some can't stand to be in the middle so they pick the asile or window. Fist Class is beast and most expensive. Business Class is wonderful bt still expensive but the best value for comfort. Economy still arrives about the same time but if your tall you will want an asile or emergency exit so you can manipulate a little extra leg room. The very best seat is the one you leave empty just before you hug your honey!!

Mike

[Mags 112]

BA over United any day.

[Dr_LHA 3]

BA over United any day.

I fly United all the time (one of the perils of working on money from the Federal Government is that I have to fly a US carrier on business) and they used to be not bad. The service has basically got worse and worse in the last few years though, to the point where their flight stewards are rude, their seats are cramped, their flights are expensive, and you don't get any free alcohol on their transatlantic flights any more or any free food on their internal flights (I took one last week that took 7 1/2 hours, and no free food - OK 2 was on the runway!).

Last time I flew on BA it was much better. Now when I fly to Europe on business I always pick a code share flight, last time I flew to Italy I managed to get a ticket that said "United" but actually got on a Lufthansa airplane, and it was much better.

Basically United have gone to the dogs. The only reason to like United these days is their Economy Plus seating, which I thankfully now get for free as I managed to get Premier status this years as I already few more than 25,000 miles this year on United. Certainly Economy Plus is worth more than their damn useless upgrade coupons that never work because they aggresively sell all the first class seats that are availbale, meaning the upgrades never work and always expire.

You might tell I'm a little pissed off with United right now.

Still they're better than US Airways at least, which is basically the ghetto United.

[Sheri&Carl 0]

I would chose BA over United. Although Virgin is by far my fave, BA is second on my list.

[TracyTN 237]

I have always flown American and have been quite pleased with them each time. I hear BA is better, but given their issues in Heathrow right now, I'm not sure I'd risk it. Hubby flew both United and American and didn't have any better or worse time on either - they were about the same.

Virgin was never an option for me unless I wanted to fly into Gatwick (no thanks) but I'd love to try it once!

[Lansbury 19]

In economy there is no best airline. They have all come to realise that the majority of people who fly economy use search engines to find the cheapest possible ticket and buy that. In fact research by US airlines has shown that a price difference as little as $5 on the ticket price is enough to influence the purchasers choice.

This has resulted in a major dumbing down in service both in the air and on the ground as airlines realise that their back end customers have no brand loyalty and it doesn't matter how well they are treated they will go with the lowest fare next time, so as the customer has indicated service doesn't matter why offer any. All that counts is getting the ticket price lower than a competitors.

There are good reasons why economy is known as cattle class and airline staff call passengers self loading freight.

[msu17 0]

I definitly prefer BA over United.

[Olya2007 0]

Thank you so much to all who spent time and gave me your opinions and reviews! I am very infrequent fly-er so these opinions helped a lot. Based on them I would definitely prefer BA over United, but knowing what problems BA facing lately (thanks for the link to article!) ,i probably will fly by United instead. Just do not want spend couple of hours waiting for luggage instead of being in my honey's hands, who is going to meet me in airport-can't believe it will happen so soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited September 3, 2007 by Olya2007