Okay, time for my annual review of airlines to see who I give top and bottom billing to. I rate every airline on every flight i fly vis a vis their offerrings from booking to landing. On my rating scale 5 out of 5 is an almost perfect travel experience. Any airline with:

• 4.7 or more out of 5 is Superb
•  4.4+ Excellent
• 4.1+ Good
• 3.5+ Average
• 3+ Below Average
• Under 3.0 Poor

Superb and Excellent List

1. Emirates once again scooped the pool for me with 5.0 out of 5.0 Consistently good service, food, entertainment, safety means I trust. Disappointed in 2011 that they did not recognise and match my Qantas frequent flyer status
2. Air New Zealand at 4.9 out of 5. This is an airline that is always a joy to fly. Amazing customer service, great food and wine and so many innovative attempts to make flying fun.
3. V Australia – now rolled into Virgin Australia plys the International routes. In all three classes, the V product is excellent earning then an average 4.8 out of 5.
4. Qantas Airways -still came in with 4.8 out of 5. There has been a lot of talk about a decline in Qantas service. On board, I still find the Qantas customer service focus to be there. I cannot say the same with upper management and the disgraceful grounding incident earlier in the year, almost had me remove Qantas from this list.
5. Cathay Pacific- still one of the best in the world though their service has become less consistent recently, their seats are not very comfortable (and are being replaced) and I had a run in over their online booking system in 2010…still get 4.7 out of 5 from me
6. LAN (about to merge with TAM) gives many carries a run for their money with service, cleanliness, food and entertainment.  4.7 out of 5
7. Lufthansa  My 2011 Lufthansa experience was very disappointing but overall I still give the German carrier 4.7 out of 5
8. JetBlue- for me, this low cost carrier has never compromised  servcie, courtesy or on board offerings. There are horror stories of  a grounding in the snowstorms a few years ago which I believe JetBlue learnt from: 4.7
9. Virgin America- the carriemr doesnt make any money but manages to fly customers around in amazing aeroplanes with great service and and an amazing eneternment system. A light in the dark US domestic scene: 4.7
10. Singapore Airlines- othe rpeople rave about Singapore and place them higher. I am satisfied with my 4.6 scoring.
11. Frontier- another low cost carrier makes it into the top ten list. Whether its the free on board chocolate chip cookie, groovy planes, or warm mid west hospitality, Frontier always delivers.

Out of my favourite airlines, three are One World,  three are Star Alliance, two are Virgin linked, three are unaligned and none are Skyteam

My Least Favourite airlines

1. Tiger Airways Australia – my last flight with them was a non event. Arriving 42 minutes before the flight, I found that check in had closed (they have a 45 minute check in cut off and didn’t offer online check in). They had no interest in accommodating two marginally late passengers insisting we buy new tickets. Coupled with their grounding in Australia last year and crappy on board project, Tiger comes  in for me with 1.5 out of 5 which I wonder if it is too generous?
2. Alitalia- enough said with 1.5 out fo 5
3. Ryan Air sits next. Their cheap fares attract but their legendary lack of care for customers, desire for revenue at all other costs earns admiration as a business model but one wonders if its really sustainable long term or will people continue to fly to save a few Euros, pounds or dollars even treated worse than cattle? (2 out of 5)
4. American Airlines. Grumpy service, aged planes and their  built in online ticketing rip off for Australian kept American in the list of worst carriers I have flown. Will bankruptcy improve them? (2.9 out fo 5)
5. US Airlines-How many airlines cancel a flight and invite you to drive  193 miles [310km] for an alternative flight. My US air flights were marginally better this year than my overall experience with them over years. (2.9 out fo 5)

Worthy of Comment

1. I have rated Air Asia at 3 out of 5 but think its time I revised this as people around me rave about them
2. United Airlines- my question in the United/Continental merger is will the Continental part raise the overall standards of United.  Pre merger, I gave United 3.5 out of 5 and Continental 4.7. For my nine 2011 United flights in 2011, I gave the new carrier an average of 3.7 out of 5. This means United is no longer in my bottom carrier list- just. Don’t get excited – they only just make average!
3. After a long absence, in 2011, I began frequenting Delta again. Boy am I impressed. Delta’s overhaul over the last few years has moved them from my no fly list to Good. I would rank them as the best US domestic carrier!
4. Etihad who I flew six times in 2011 were my biggest disappointment. I gave them a solid 4 out of 5 suggesting they are an average carrier. For all of their awards and marketing, I found the hype did not love up to a fairly ordinary global product.

What have been your experiences? Next Thursday:  Cities Visited in 2011

Blog readers will know that I love the A380 SuperJumbo currently in service with 5 airlines:

• Air France
• Emirates (I flew their A380 in 2010 and loved it)
• Lufthansa (hope to fly this in July)
• Qantas (see the blog post about my  2010 fabulous A380 flight)
• Singapore Airlines (flown 2010)

Photo Credit David Barrie

Showing its colours at Toulouse is the Airbus A380 belonging to the sixth airline to have it,  Korean Air Lines. This is a company that I have never flown because of their dubious safety record (wikipedia: Korean Air had a relatively high accident rate between 1970 and 1999, during which time it wrote off 16 aircraft in serious incidents and accidents with the loss of 700 lives). Korean Air is a founding partner airline of SkyTeam, the world’s second largest airline alliance along with Air France-KLM and Delta. It is one of only nine airlines to fly to every inhabited continent.

Korean will start flying A380s in May, 2011 to Japan and East Asia. This will be followed by Korean’s US and European routes in August, 2011. Korean Air have said they will have five A380s by the end of 2011 and then another five from 2012 to 2014

 Korean Air’s A380 will only have 407 seats in total on board. This is the least number of seats out of all the airlines (Qantas 450, Singapore 471, Emirates 489/517, Air France 516/538, Lufthansa 526).

Of those seats Korean will have 12 KOSMO First Class seats and 301 economy seats on the lower deck. On the upper deck will be 94 Prestige (Business class seats) which will have to be a very spacious affair. No other carrier has done this.

China Southern will also add A380s in 2011 with Thai, Malaysian and Qatar flying them in 2012