Airline service ~ who's most reliable?

I used to live in the Chicago area (Valparaiso, to be exact), so I know O'Hare well.

Trust me... nothing out of O'Hare is reliable. When I lived there, I flew virtually everyone out of O'Hare, and flights were delayed almost 70% of the time. It's the second-most delayed airport in the country (only LaGuardia is worse). However, a new runway at O'Hare is opening this November, which sholud help things slightly. Still, even today, as I now live in Fort Wayne, I try to avoid connecting via O'Hare from our local airport... I now try to connect via other hubs whenever possible (which is easy, since we have service to Dallas, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Detroit, among other hubs).

Oh, and United Airlines has issues... but by some chance, was the United flight a United Express flight? Like many airlines, United subcontracts their regional-jet flying out to several carriers who operate under the United Express name and paint their planes in United colors. Some are good (SkyWest, Shuttle America), some are so-so (Trans States/GoJet), while others like Mesa Airlines are lousy. I've heard a lot of bad things about United Express flights operated by Mesa, such as 20% on-time ratings for some flights... in fact, Delta Air Lines is trying to cancel two regional-jet contracts with Mesa over similar crap reliability.

Since you live in the Chicago area, I suggest you fly Southwest out of Midway Airport if you can... less delays, less hassle, better service. And they don't charge for checked bags or snacks, either.

Dateline or some show like that had a show last week that gave travel hints. Connecting flights are notorious for delays. Flights later in the day also. Kinda like the domino effect, and as the above poster said, since O'Hare is the 2nd busiest, it is gonna happen more there than for me in Memphis. Just the nature of the beast and since flights are being cut due to fuel costs, I guess this will rise.

I believe Southwest had the best customer satisfaction out of all airlines last year. dead last was US Airways which is pretty much the only airline that flies out of Ithaca... XD they're going to start charging for drinks now, and not even the fun ones!

i know this may sound biased but Singapore Airlines hands down.... Im normally quite stingy on giving compliments for my local service industry, but SIA really is the best, with Emirates 2nd.

This is part of why I can't be bothered flying, I enjoy driving enough that it's not even a sad thing. More to the point, at any given point along my trip at an airport, I, sporting my usual beard and arab features (though I'm not), will be pulled out of any given line or checkpoint for additional random screening. Every time. That is not a metaphor, I've been at somewhere around 20 airports over the past six years or so. So short of international flights I'm not debasing myself anymore.

I fly every week for work.

I would say Southwest is the most reliable, but I do not like to fly them as a business traveler due to their "open seat" policy.

Pretty much any airline going through O'Hare is going to have problems at one time or another due to weather, traffic, etc.

I ABSOLUTELY agree Matthew.
Singapore 1
Emirates 2
Gulf Air 3

Both phenomenal, but with SIA just inching in front.

Scandalous. Empathetic vibes heading your way Blue Soul.....

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I've heard the most consistently positive things about Southwest Airlines, but they haven't been a choice for us here until recently (via Omaha).

I thought Northwest was bad (lost luggage, weather cancellations that had a domino effect of stranding us for 3 days), but United is a nightmare. Late, overbooked, tons of scheduling issues. When one plane didn't show up, they brought in a spare, and then had to pull it out of service for major repair. They told passengers waiting for 3 different flights that none of us would get anywhere until 2 days later. When pressed, they finally arranged seats for us on... Northwest. And this was all during one trip.

I had booked an early, non-stop flight to avoid the chance of missed connections, but that still didn't help.

June 10, 2008, MSNBC: "The worst airline ever."

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