All opinions are my personal opions and should not be taken as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. We can agree to disagree.
Most airlines get something right. Those who get several things right have an advantage…. yet sometimes you like one sometimes the other.
I have two airlines I like a lot: Delta and British Airways. This can be both from an experience perspective as from a professional one. Let me explain….
Delta has grown tremendously over the last years from an airline that was hopelessly behind to one that offers very reliable service with high quality aircraft, a great business class set-up (I fly mainly business class when flying long haul), and from a professional standpoint, they offer excellent account management – good reports and thorough follow-up. Moreover the company has a real long-time vision and strategy.
What is still missing? A more flexible approach – from a personal perspective, they do not offer lactose free meals (unless you also give up on meat). That is ridiculous – you should be able to order that – most catering companies must be able to provide that.
From a European perspective, we also miss the “je ne sais quoi” – that little touch that makes your trip an experience rather than just a trip.
British Airways is the airline who invented the lie Flat Business Class seat. Unfortunately 1 out of 2 (roughly) business class passengers needs to fly backwards. Due to the high degree of privacy, you need to book an aisle seat if you are claustrophobic (luckily I am not). But the seats are good (although an update could be considered, hint hint).
Their pricing is very decent, Terminal 5 is excellent (despite the undeserved reputation it has to drag with it). The lounges in T5 are exceptional – food offering, showers, etc. Both in the Business Class lounge, the First lounge (for Gold Cards) and the Concorde room (for people flying First).
And at the same time, they manage to act as if it is all a special deal and they manage to make it feel more special than it actually is….
Account Management at British Airways? Practically non-existant – the account managers are good people but the structure of the account management does not reflect at all how companies now work globally. Nice people but no structure whatsoever…
We do several millions of business with them and no one except my own account manager seems to realize although we have a “global” contract. The contract offers no personalisation whatsoever.
So does the ideal airline exist? The one that pleases everyone? Probably not, but we can all have fun trying to find it!