Most of my flights were work!
I never pay for business class… that’s what airmiles are for!
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I don’t particularly have a choice - it’s the business I work in. Gold isn’t hard to maintain with BA if you work in what I do. I don’t even fly business - just economy or premium economy. Within a year, I need 1,500 points to maintain Gold - each flight I take is about 200 points so it’s not difficult.
My airmiles I then use for personal trips, mostly to Europe. Because I don’t pay in full using them, I still gain miles and points for those flights too.
Personally for me, Gold makes my life that bit less stressful. The lounges in particular just make flying better, both for work and pleasure. I cannot imagine returning to days of hours spent outside the departure gates or flying from Luton on a tiny plane to an airport miles from where I want to be!
Yeah, gold on BA is great, the first class lounge and dedicated security at LHR makes life much more pleasant.
But I don’t miss flying every couple of weeks!
Believe me after 7 years working in this industry I am hoping to move away from the constant travel. It’s not as glamorous as my friends think it is - jetting around the world.
Don’t get me wrong, I have been to places I would never have been able to afford (Peru, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong etc etc), and for free, but hitting 50 countries is enough. I want a stable life. A strong, and stable one.
Anyway - to add to the discussion a little better - I have had my luggage lost twice with Emirates, so it’s not just budget airlines. I got £30 when they lost it in Indonesia (when I was there - I was meeting with the British Ambassador the next morning so I rocked up in my jeans and t-shirt that I flew in!!) and a grand total of £0 when they lost it on a flight into the UK. Despite me having to pay extra for things until they delivered my bag two days later.
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The only airline I’d really consider good is Delta. All the others I’ve flown enough with to have an opinion (BA, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Ryanair, easyJet, Alaska, United) are rubbish, though Ryanair is by far the worst.
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I’ve flown with Easy jet a dozen times and only once had a problem. That was due to bad weather and we had a 12 hour delay with no food vouchers or information. Got to Liverpool at 3am and found it full of police because the passengers delayed there had kicked off.
Later that year we landed in Liverpool 20 minutes before we were due to take off, everyone had checked in early so they left early 
Only risked Ryan Air once and it was perfect.
It’s the rapid turn around times that are the problem, one slight issue and it can cause chaos
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Flew with fly be and came back from Spain wednesday this week. I found them fairly good. I have flown air linguis in the past not bad air line and monarch before they went under. I’ve also flown ba as well. The worst by far was Ryan air.
I flew with them in January and it was surprisingly good. Flew back with Virgin on the flight from hell…
I fly with easyJet quite often. I’ve only had a serious delay once when they couldn’t start the engines after we had boarded. We were disembarked, but they flew a plane out from London to pick us up and kept is fed and watered in the departure lounge while we waited.
In my view, it’s not whether or not bad things happen which is important, it’s how it’s dealt with. That one experience had led me to prefer easyJet over other budget airlines.
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I think this all proves that really it’s down to not just individuals but individual experiences.
I have yet to have a friend who has flown Virgin and not loved it. It’s so subjective with airlines. I can withstand more cramped conditions if the food is good and the drinks are a-flowing. Others need space and sleep so don’t care for the IFE or food.
My first flight on American Airlines to the US was in 2009, and the IFE was on the ceiling with 1 movie for the whole plane. Despite knowing this is no longer the case, I still have a bad “impression” of AA and have never flown with them again.
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It was so unusual I sent a very strongly worded complaint - they jumped on it and gave me substantial compensation
I used AirAsia - similar to Ryanair or EasyJet but the experience was actually rather good. Also, on board extras were extremely reasonably priced.
I had my worst experience with Luftansa and they still have not refunded me 
basically cancelled flights due to the weather and didn’t reschedule us, phones were all blocked up. despite all the problems I’ve heard about Ryanair beyond an hour’s delay I’ve not had any issue. I missed my flight with easyjet once and it was pretty easy enough to resolve it. (Had to pay tho)
Emirates is probably my fave, or Singapore Airlines. Qatar is pretty good too. Currently I tend to fly the London-Singapore Norwegian Airlines flights as a single is only £150 for a direct flight 
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What if you can’t afford to buy another flight…?
Also, I’ve flown to the US with AA and Virgin, and I didn’t have any issues - although I slightly prefer virgin as I got alcohol to drink on the flight (and you can actually check in at the desk, which, in my mind, is slightly easier than fannying around attaching tags to your own suitcase).
The only issue I had with Virgin was having to wait and worry for a bit at the check in desk, as it wasn’t letting me checkin… something to do with my middle name being on my passport but not my ticket (which is crap, as I provided my middle name when I booked via Studentuniverse, but Virgin’s systems crammed my first and middle names together, naming me Liamshaun Williams).
You can drink alcohol on American Airlines, can’t you?
Maybe, but I couldn’t be arsed with the slight chance of them questioning my age with them being based in the US and me being 19 at the time.
Ah yes, you need to be 21 to drink on AA.
But you can probably toke up 
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Yeah, not sure about what happens then? Wife overheard someone saying they can’t afford this and the staff dealt with them.
I’ve just been firing everything onto my credit card. EasyJet’s going to have a great time when I send my expenses in… nearly a grand to fly my wife and i to Newcastle and get the train to Edinburgh
That’s insanely good - do you have to book direct for that or book far in advance? I’ve never seen that price as an option
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