Of the airlines I've used, I would rank them as follows and give them the following grades:
1. Singapore Air A+
Sparkling new equipment. Great food. Very polite and competent flight attendants. GREAT prices. I like to use them for my intra-Asian flights because stopping over in Singapore for a few days and then flying on to the ultimate destination only increases the total cost of the ticket by $30 or so.
2. Korean Air A+
Sparkling new equipment. Great food. Competent flight attendants.
3. Japan Airlines A
Sparkling new equipment. Great food and JAL's flight attendants are the very best. Another thing I like about JAL is how they seem very relaxed and don't nickel and dime passengers to death. They even serve beer and offer a second, complimentary, and this is economy class (I always fly economy). It took them a while to resolve a billing issue, otherwise, they would be #2.
4. Delta A-
A very underrated airline in my opinion. Their equipment always looks great and their flight attendants are by far the most patient and most professional of all of the American carriers. The earphones they pass out suck, but I always pack my own good ones anyway and Delta doesn't charge, the way US Air does! Delta's food is excellent and probably my favorite. When their planes were empty in the weeks/months after 9/11, they upgraded me a couple of times.
5. British Midland International A-
A great airline. Very efficient. I don't know what their food is like since I always just take them on the very brief flights between London and Dublin.
6. Lufthansa B+
Great equipment and flight attendants. The food is great.
7. Southwest B+
I've only flown them once on a roundtrip flight and have little to say, but I guess I would put them lower than Lufthansa but above United.
8. United B
While their planes and upholstery don't look as new or clean as Delta's, and their flight attendants can be rude at times, I like United because its prices are usually very reasonable and its in flight entertainment is probably my favorite. United's food is pretty good as well.
9. US Airways C
They nickel and dime to death and their food is just so-so. I once forgot my own earphones on a flight to London and slept instead of watching the in flight entertainment since they were charging $5 or so. Their equipment seems okay.
10. Czech Airlines C-
Definitely the scariest equipment and definitely the worst food, but their personnel was very professional. I haven't flown them since the '90s, so they're probably a much better airline since the Czech Republic is a much wealther country than it was in the '90s, as it was still very much a developing post-communist fledgling when I was there.
11. American Airlines F-
Shoddy equipment that makes one feel like this must've been what the Aeroflot planes were like during the Soviet era. I reserved a flight online in Saigon and when I got to the airport, I had to pay triple the amount. Very uncool and I can't imagine any airline other than AA doing something like that. The TV screen at my seat didn't work on a long flight between Tokyo and Dallas. When I got to Dallas for my connecting flight to Nashville, I was at the gate looking at my ride home when they changed that flight to San Jose and I had to be rebooked to a different gate with no plane there! The next flight cancelled, so I had to rebook again. Each time, I had to go to the other side of security to the very rude AA desk and then be rescreened by the same two TSA guys who had searched my carry on and my person twice previously. The American Airlines desk was also very rude to some Japanese businessmen which embarrassed me, as an American. I wish they would change their name to something else since they're a national embarrassment. The third time, I rebooked on a pay phone at the gates so I wouldn't have to be searched yet again. Oh, back to the flight...since the TV was broke, I slept until one of their obese flight attendants hit me in the face with her booty even though my head wasn't hanging out in the aisle. I'm not a Superpatriot or ultranationalist, but I don't see why we can't put height/weight proportionate flight attendants on our planes like the European and Asian carriers and show off America's beauty. We have no pride, or at least AA doesn't. Plus, the slim build would help the attendants navigate the aisles without bootiesmashing passengers in the face. When I woke up, I saw a male flight attendant opening a foil wrapper with one of those large coffee filter packets with his mouth. I'm not a germaphobe, but geez, have some pride AA.
12. Air France F---
France is an amazing country and the French people are very nice to Americans and are very down to Earth unlike the unfair stereotypes but, unfortunately, France's flagship airline is awful. Its equipment is good and its food is great. Its flight attendants are outstanding. What drags them down so far is how so many of their flights naturally connect at Charles de Gaulle. It seems like the CDG luggage handlers are always on strike which translates into late luggage. Not just a day or two late, but weeks! When my grandfather was alive, I had picked him up some items at European Christmas markets. After a few days of waiting on the luggage to arrive in Atlanta, I asked the Air France attendant at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport if there was any way it could be expedited and arrive by Christmas since my grandfather had cancer and I would really like to give him those gifts on Christmas day. The Air France lady, an American actually, said that she "didn't have time for my sob story." And it wasn't like I was crying. I wasn't even raising my voice or using foul language. Two weeks later, and several days after Christmas, my grandfather died with items still in Paris or somewhere.
I'm probably forgetting a few airlines, but if I'm forgetting them, they weren't memorable in a good or bad way.
