I have traveled a lot in the past few years and I can attest to the results of the survey. When flying outside the US, I always try to book a flight with foreign airlines because their airplanes are newer, the flight attendants are friendlier, the food is better and the overall flying experience is more civilized. Here are my experiences with US and non-US carriers, and with foreign airports:

(1) United Airlines (SFO-Osaka-SFO)

This was a mistake. I had booked a ticket on ANA, the Japanese airline, but did not check if ANA itself was flying me to Osaka. As it turns out, the ANA flights to and from Osaka are carried out by the dreaded United. ANA flies only between SF and Tokyo, not Osaka.

• Very rude flight attendants: as the Seatguru survey indicated, UA staff need to go to social graces school. On the flight to and from Osaka, they yelled constantly at passengers about filling out forms, and other matters. In Japan, people who provide services do not yell at customers. The United flight attendants were also yelling in English, which the Japanese passengers (90% of the flight) did not understand. As a result, the passengers thought something was wrong and they became agitated. Then again, yelling seems to be a way of doing things in the US: in foreign airport security queues, you do not hear people yelling but in the US, it’s common.
• Disgusting food: since this was a flight to Asia, you would think they would have Asian food (specifically, Japanese food). Alas, they did not. I’ll bet their competitors – Japan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, Cathay Pacific – all offer Asian meals on their Asian flights. What a concept!
• Ancient flying machines: the 747 I flew to Osaka felt old, very old, and the bathrooms harkened back to the 1970s.

Verdict: I will never fly United again to anywhere in the world. SF International Airport is relatively new, clean and modern. The security staff seem much more polite at this airport than in Boston or Houston, yelling is kept to a minimum although voices are raised sometimes.

(2) TACA: I flew this airline to Peru on a trip to Macchu Picchu. The flight was from SFO to San Salvador, with connecting flight to Lima, then on to Cusco.

• new airplanes
• friendly professional flight attendants
• decent food
• clean, well-lit bathrooms that belong in the 21st century
• San Salvador airport is new; WiFi is free.
• Lima airport is also new, as is the one in Cusco.
• No screaming in any of these airports. Security staff were friendly, passport control personnel were welcoming.

Verdict: Will definitely fly TACA again to Central and Latin America.

(3) Singapore Airlines: flight from Amsterdam to Singapore; roundtrip Singapore to Manila; Singapore back to Amsterdam

I agree with the survey  - that Singapore has the best service, best food, etc. Singapore airport is also a delight: new, clean, efficient. I’d fly this airline everywhere if I could.

(4) KLM: so many trips between Amsterdam and SFO I cannot even count, most recently on a trip to Turkey, SFO-AMS-Istanbul

• old airplanes
• service is OK, not as good as Singapore
• quality of the food in business class has declined dramatically in the past few months – the food was actually quite horrible and this is in business class. It’s clear the airline is scrimping on costs, but the result is to encourage me to fly with another carrier the next time.

Verdict: I will try to avoid KLM given the old planes and bad food, but it’s a bit difficult if I want to fly to Amsterdam. Still not quite as bad as a US carrier, but slowly getting there. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is a modern, efficient airport that, although quite large, is easy to figure out. The magazine stands offer lots of magazines and newspapers from different countries; the airline lounge of KLM is very good. Overall, Schiphol is a terrific airport. No screaming security personnel.

(5) Turkish Airlines: I flew this airline from Istanbul to Tel Aviv, then Amman (Jordan) to Istanbul last month.

• relatively new airplanes
• friendly professional staff
• decent food
• clean modern bathrooms

I would fly Turkish Airlines again. The airports in Istanbul, Tel Aviv and Amman are clean and modern, not decrepit like a lot of US airports. No screaming security personnel in those airports either. They are high-security places but the staff manage to execute their duties without yelling at passengers. Here’s another observation: when we crossed into Jordan at the border in Eilat, Israel, the Jordanian border guards were very friendly and shook our hands and said, “Welcome to Jordan!” Imagine that!

(6) Continental Airlines: OK for traveling outside the US, their business class is better than KLM’s. However, flying Continental within the US is absolutely horrible. Although the flight attendants are better than United’s, the seats are extremely uncomfortable because they do not go back far enough and the leg room is tight. You know exactly what a battery chicken feels like after being on a domestic Continental flight. The only reason I flew Continental was that we were using up frequent flyer miles so we had to fly this airline to get to Roatan, Honduras via Houston. From SFO to Houston (and back) I got a backache I never get on other carriers.

• relatively new airplanes
• miserable seating on domestic flights: very uncomfortable, seats don’t recline much, no leg room, you will get a backache
• flight attendants better than United’s
• for travel outside the US, Continental’s business class is very good

Verdict: I will avoid flying Continental within the US but will consider flying with them to foreign cities. Houston Airport (named after the first George Bush) is relatively new but insane. These carts carrying people, lots of them, keep zipping around all the time. It’s actually scary. TSA security personnel at this airport believe in the power of yelling as if it were a talisman against bad luck, bad weather, bad people. I don’t know why TSA people at this airport have their voice volumes turned up to maximum.

(7) Alitalia: I flew Alitalia from Amsterdam to Milan and back; Amsterdam to Rome. Will definitely avoid next time.

• ancient planes
• nondescript food
• friendly flight attendants

Alitalia is an airline that has been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for many years, kept alive artificially by the Italian government. As a result, the planes are quite old. It’s seen better days. I would not fly this airline again.

(8) Virgin America: SFO – Las Vegas; SFO to Washington DC, NYC to SFO

• brand new airplanes with mood lighting in the cabins, feels like a disco lounge
• good service
• no regular meal service, you order via the screens, pay and your meals are brought to you. The result is a quiet cabin without carts constantly rolling up and down the aisles. Why don’t other airlines do this?
• in-flight Wi-Fi (but you have to pay)

I would fly Virgin America everywhere in the US if I could. But of course, one has to still go through US airports which have drawbacks: many are old and have not been updated in the last 30 years. They resemble what we once called “Third World airports”, except many airports in the Third World have been modernized and updated. TSA security staff in US airports shout at passengers constantly as if yelling makes airports more secure. In Dulles Airport at Washington DC (could this be the worst airport on earth?), we had to board these ridiculous “people movers” (seemed futuristic in a Jetsons sort of way in the 1960s, now very inefficient) that took us from one terminal to the another terminal where the baggage is collected. The guy operating the people mover kept screaming very rudely at us, telling us to shove in some more even though there was no room until we started yelling back at him. Very uncivilized! And this is in the nation’s capital. Obama needs to appoint a Chief Social Graces Officer for US airports, in particular, Dulles.

(9) Easy Jet: Amsterdam – London, Amsterdam – Barcelona (back when they were still flying this route)

• new-ish planes
• OK service
• pray they don’t cancel your flight, otherwise they have no airport desks where you can change to another flight, you need to call a number and you can bet everyone else on your canceled flight is trying to do the same

Cheap, cheerful and good when it all works. Terrible if your flight is canceled. When the regular airlines like BMI, BA and KLM began lowering their prices, I stopped flying Easy Jet because I just can’t bear to go through the cancellation horror again.

(10) Iberia: frequent trips between Amsterdam and Barcelona and to the Balearic islands via Madrid or Barcelona

• old airplanes
• good service
• bathrooms have seen better days, seems very 1970s

Fortunately for Iberia, the airports at Palma de Mallorca, Madrid and Barcelona have been modernized in recent years. Otherwise the travel experience would be worse. Iberia is probably not in as bad a financial situation as Alitalia but everything feels old.

(11) Lufthansa: Amsterdam-Munich, Amsterdam-Frankfurt-NYC

• Some airplanes are new, some are old, you never know what you are getting
• service is professional, not as friendly and warm as Singapore Airlines
• food is edible, I’ll leave it at that

Munich Airport is beautiful and modern. Frankfurt Airport is a fright – ugly, decrepit and nasty, something out of a nightmare that would involve you and Kafka trying to make it to a connecting flight with only 12 minutes to departure. If you need to fly through or to Germany, go for Munich.

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The flying experience has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. I am willing to pay more for a better flight experience – more leg room, cheerful, polite flight attendants, better food – but am not given this option. We are willing to pay more for better hotel rooms, why not the same thing on airlines? In general, foreign carriers offer a much more civilized travel experience because they have newer planes and their staff are friendly and professional.

To see how sad air travel has become, see The Saddest Fruit Plate of All in First Class (with bonus photo).

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Check out www.mapplr.com for my reviews of the best boutique hotels and restaurants around the world.

Patrick Smith writes in his latest column:

At this point, the whole apparatus of concourse security is little more than a stage presentation, a theater of the absurd, choreographed to the cowardly notion that confiscating shampoo bottles and forcing airline captains to remove their footwear actually makes us safer. How we got here is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering, and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of “security.” We have come to equate intrusiveness and inconvenience with safety.

We shall see if anything changes in US airports. I’m not holding my breath. At least in Amsterdam, you don’t have to take off your shoes and in the near future, they’ll probably not confiscate your lip gloss.

Here’s the article from BoingBoing.

“European legislators called for a review of the continent’s anti-terrorism policies yesterday, including the scrapping of limits on taking liquids on board aircraft . . . MEPs also voted to force the European Commission to publish the secret regulation limiting air passengers to five 100ml bottles of fluid, which has increased queues at airports, saying that unless it had a valid reason it should be scrapped. If the Commission does not comply within three months it can be taken to the European Court of Justice.”

While European airports (with the exception of those in the UK) are not as horrible as US airports, the travel experience deteriorated noticeably after the liquids rules came into effect.