Spirit: IndependentTraveler.com reader Richard Rosichan was a loyal frequent flier on Spirit until l

Every airline hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car has its haters. Maybe you re still holding a grudge against Delta for losing your bag back in 2003, or you can t get over that time Aeroflot literally stranded you in Siberia. In fact, the whole airline industry rated lower than the IRS in a recent U.S. customer satisfaction survey.
But in the airline hall of shame, a couple of carriers truly stand apart. Ultra-discounters Spirit Airlines (based in Florida ) and Ryanair (which flies across hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car Europe ) make headlines hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car as often for their bad behavior as for their eye-poppingly low fares. From tasteless ad campaigns to an endless parade of fees, these airlines seem to be trying to outdo each other in a race to the bottom with no end in sight. Who s the worst offender? We ll let you decide.
Spirit: The airline s most recent money-grubbing hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car venture is a $5 fee to print your boarding pass at the airport. (Seriously? How much does a piece of paper and a little ink cost?) And it s the only airline in the U.S. to charge not only for checked bags but for carry-ons as well. Plan on paying $18 $43 for a first checked bag, $25 $50 for a second and $20 $45 for a carry-on, depending on where you re going, how you pay for the bag (online or at the airport) hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car and whether you re a member of the $9 Fare Club.
Ryanair: The Irish airline imposes so many extra charges hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car that its home page features a handy Fees link at the top, right between Contact hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car Us and General Conditions. The link takes you to a lengthy chart detailing such costs as an Infant Fee (20 GBP each way), a labyrinthine system of checked baggage fees (15 45 GBP depending hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car on the weight of your bag and whether you re flying peak or off-peak) and an Administrative Fee of 6 GBP that s charged hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car to every booking except those paid for with a MasterCard prepaid debit card. The airline has even considered hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car charging to use onboard toilets.
Spirit: Any press is good press, right? Spirit sure thinks so. Over the years its promotions have frequently been decried in the media as tasteless or downright offensive. We re no Virgin! We ve been cheap and easy for years, proclaimed one 2009 fare sale (competing with Virgin America). More recently, the airline poked fun at the demise of the Schwarzenegger-Shriver marriage with fares so low, you can take the whole family! hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car Including the half-brother you just met. But perhaps the worst offender was the following, in response to the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill:
Ryanair: Ryanair has done its share of cheeky advertising, hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car bringing it into frequent conflict with the U.K. s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The watchdog agency banned the following 2008 ad, saying that it appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour and was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Ya think?
Spirit: Forget complimentary water or peanuts you ll have to pay for every snack or beverage aboard a Spirit flight. And you d better bring your own entertainment as well. Spirit offers no Internet, movies, TV or music.
Spirit: IndependentTraveler.com reader Richard Rosichan was a loyal frequent flier on Spirit until last year, when a poorly handled flight cancellation hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car had him taking the airline to small claims court . Rosichan isn t alone in his displeasure: Spirit is rated only 3.3 out of 10 on airline review site AirlineQuality.com.
Ryanair: hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car Ryanair scores even lower on AirlineQuality.com hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car 2.4 out of 10, based on nearly 1,000 reviews. Disenchanted fliers can hook up with other haters at Facebook.com/ryanairsux, which currently has 505 fans.
Spirit: CEO Ben Baldanza made waves in 2007 when he hit reply all instead of reply on a customer service complaint hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car that had been forwarded to him, inadvertently sending the following message to both his own employees and the offended passenger: Please respond, Pasquale, hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car but we owe him nothing as far as I m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny. Oops!
Ryanair: Head honcho Michael O Leary is famous for speaking his mind, describing himself in 2006 as just an obnoxious little bollocks (it s hard to disagree). He s unapologetic about Ryanair s business plan our strategy is like Walmart: we pile it high and sell it cheap and ruthless toward those he sees as foes, calling British Airways overcharging rapists and offering the following charming hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car perspective on travel agents: Take [them] out and shoot them. What have they done for passengers over the years?
I booked United last year to our cruise on the Carnival Dream and they changed my flight times about 10 times before we flew, with one time being a major change. This year I have booked United to get us to Ft. Lauderdale. We are still three months out and we have already had about 6 changes. The one that has made me decide to NEVER fly them again was when they changed my return flight to one that had a leg that landed at IAH at 7:23pm and it s connecting flight left at 7:00pm. How in the heck was I supposed to make that?
When that has happened to me a couple of times on American Airlines, all it took was a phone call to change to a reasonable departure/arrival time. Have you tried calling them, especially if you re a member of their frequent flier program (they re people are always the best at service)?
The worst experience I had was with Iberia. Here s the whole story. I was flying to Tenerife from Tucson, AZ. That was a long flight with 2 connections. When I checked in at Tucson, around 7AM, the next plane that was supposed to take me from Chicago to Barcelona was already grounded in Barcelona and the airline knew that it was grounded, and yet they checked me in the whole way. In Chicago, they rebooked me on two more flights (London, Barcelona, Tenerife). In London, it turned out that although hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car I had a boarding pass, I did not have a seat on the flight to Barcelona. I had to run back and forth between terminals, to get on a flight to Barcelona next day, I spent over 12 hours in Heathrow with no assistance from Iberia whatsoever, without my luggage. After I arrived to Tenerife hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car a day later then scheduled, of course, my luggage was not there. Over the next 7 days I kept calling Iberia about my luggage and they kept telling me that they will bring it to the hotel tomorrow, but never did. In the end, I received my luggage at Tenerife airport on the way back, the bag wheels were broken off, the clothes inside were wet, some things inside were broken. On the flight back to the US from Barcelona, the plane was sitting on the airfield under the blazing sun for about an hour, with A/C turned off. Back in the US, I mailed to Iberia a claim for reimbursement of necessities and clothes that I had to by while on Tenerife due to my baggage being delayed. I received no reimbursement and no response.
Worst North American airline in my opinion is Continental. Have flown on it approximately 8 times and not one of those flights has ever arrived on time. Newark is the classic whenever the flight goes through that airport there is always a wait of several hours while they find a pilot . If they are scheduling the bloody flight they should have a plane and crew available hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car for it otherwise as far as I am concerned it is False Advertising and Taking Money Under False Pretenses. My last flight with them was definitely my LAST flight with them. I would not fly with them again even if it was free!
Having lived in Ireland for several years and frequently used Ryanair, hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car I don t know how anyone can truly complain about this no frills airline. The fact that we typically paid under $100, including all of their fees, for 2 people to fly roundtrip all over Europe was more than enough reason for me to fly Ryanair. They do not hide the fact that what you are buying is basic transportation and everything else is an extra charge. The flights are all short haul none are much more than 3 hours if you want a soft drink or a snack, you can bring it with you. The baggage policy is clearly spelled out there are no surprises. Rynair runs a very cost effective, efficient airline that is the most financially successful airline in Europe most of their competitors are financially troubled. If extra comfort hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car and a free soft drink is that important to you, there are plenty of other airlines that will charge you considerably more and get you to the same place (and Ryanair typically gets you there on time as well!). I know I would rather spend the extra money once I get to my destination hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car rather than getting a bag of peanuts on the flight over. As for Michael O Leary, the Ryanair CEO, he pulls outrageous stunts and laughs all the way to the bank with his free publicity he s absolutely brilliant and a very shrewd businessman. Ryanair is an airline people love to hate not me, I think they are great!
IBERIA! After waiting in the check-in line (the auto kiosk wouldn t take my #,) and missing my flight, I asked the clerk to check later flights for availability. She claimed to be unable to do that and responded that I would have to wait in the customer service line to reschedule. Certain that I had misphrased my request, I asked again and was told that, You are not special! Go to customer service! That line took 4 hours and, when I finally got to the desk, I had to walk that clerk through the process of rebooking me on the next available flight. Only good part the customer service folks were polite. (So..maybe I am a little special?)
My beef with Continental is the plane. Living in Texas makes it difficult to fly without an occasional Continental booking, however, I give them a pass if possible. No matter how experienced and competent the pilots may be, I have NEVER flown Con. that the take off and landing didn t make me shutter along with the plane!
Still have to give my all time worst to Delta, mainly due to their flight attendants. So rude and overbearing, they need to realize when they were hired they were given a bottle opener not a badge. hawaii business bankruptcy tropical rent a car What does it take to smil