Not my article but helpful one recounting someone being stung by a car rental company in Spain--some helpful warnings

http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/holidays/goldcar.htm

An hour late but the ground crew did an excellent job of updating things.

Midnight Blue was the plane (all JetBlue planes are named) delivering me to the amazing JetBlue Terminal 5 (NB terminal has free wifi).

Having just had a horror United Airlines recently, I found this report very fascinating. US News used information produced by the UN Department of Transport and produced an excellent slide show.  Best to worst

1. Hawaiian Airlines (excellent on time performance and customer satisfaction ratings)
2. AirTran (high customer satisfaction and good baggage handling)
3. JetBlue (great customer satisfaction)
4. Southwest ( lowest % of customer complaints)
5. Continental  (consistently good for six years)
6. Frontier (similar rating as Continental)
7. US Airways (scores have been improving)
8. American (the worst airine for baggage losses)
9. Alaska (good on-time performance but passenger dissatisfaction)
10. United (with the lowest passenger satisfaction score)
11. Delta (most delays and most passenger complaints)

From my own experience, this is my current rating of the airlines in the USA (notice some overlaps!)

1. Virgin America-everything about VA is class-hope they can hang onto this as they expand
2. JetBlue
3. AirTran- 
4. Southwest Airlines-
5. Frontier Airlines
6. Continental
7. Alaska Airlines
8. United Airlines- 
9. American Airlines 
10. US Airways 
11. Delta

See my list of best airlnes and worst.

This sunset shot taken en route from LAX to Pittsburgh.

This was my 53rd United Airlines flight and my 60th flight at LAX!.

This was a superb flight...pretty much 5 out of 5!
Friendly staff, clean plane.

Thanks Rob and team!

This flight was in huge is contrast with yesterday's abysmal United Airlines flight from Syd to Los Angeles (check out review).

Flew my 222nd Qantas flight today -- from Melbourne to Sydney.
Also my 53rd (horrible) United Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles (see separate blog article)

 Altogether 673 air flights totalling 2091:51 hours of flying (12.5 weeks sitting inside tubes of metal)!!

In Miles	938,092
In Kilometer	1,509,714

Check out my flight memory.com with travel maps, airlines flown etc.

Dear United Airlines

Not flying with you between Australia and the USA again (I still have to fly home with you!) because:

• your 747 is so old and so tatty, it looks like no one cares. So much so the woman next to me was nervous that the maintenance was being done in the same slip shod fashion.
• your staff were very unfriendly They didn't care and resented the passengers being there. The Cabin crew chatted through the safety briefing. They gossiped loudly in the galley when people were trying to sleep. They visibly read magazines when on duty (some airlines are a little more subtle). They served the meals resentfully (although in fairness the meals were so bad, it was probably resentment at having to serve them to humans)
• the meals served in the  Economy cabin are miserly. Compare your meals with Qantas and Air New Zealand on the same sector. eg United's breakfast offering was only fruit or scrambled eggs and a small croissant compared to Qantas who provide scrambled egg or omelet, Cereal, jam for the croissant/muffin and yoghurt. In addition both Qantas and Air New Zealand have a snacking arrangement through the flight eg Qantas hands out a snack pack to every passenger.
• The standard of the aforementioned United breakfast. It was the worst I have ever been served on that sector. Why bother serving it? Despite hunger I and the passenger next to me left it almost untouched. Tasteless eggs served in an unappealing lump with a stale croissant and butter
• you are still giving Economy passengers one video screen in each section with no choice of shows for 13.5 hours? For crying out loud! Real airlines now have individual entertainment units. For example, while you have 12 music channels, Air NZ has SIX PAGES of radio and CD choices

Your staff and management need to fly as passengers on a real airline like Qantas, Air NZ or V Australia on that sector and see how it can be done so much better.

To add insult to injury was the video telling me I was on one of the world's great airlines. Having just flown Emirates, that made me laugh! Emirates are definitely one of the world's great airlines. Not United!

Today's Trip gets 2 out of 5, bringing my overall United Airlines rating to 3.4 (Same sector competitors: Air New Zealand 4.9 Qantas 4.8).


See my previous reviews of travel with United for Melbourne-Sydney-Los Angeles -Chicago:

• Part One: Check in & prep etc for MEL-SYD-LAX
• Part Two: Mel-SYD the Unfriendly way
• Part Three: SYD-Chicago The Skies get friendlier

Finally, check out how to do it properly: This is my review of Emirates Auckland to Sydney on the Airbus A380