Best and worst flights

nlogax · 12 Jul 2021

Butts said:
The worst any Military Flight - particularly Wessex Helicopters (temporary deafness guaranteed).

+1 for the Wessex experience. I did a Navy career day during my time at school, we had the choice of either visiting HMS Invincible or taking a trip on a RN helicopter. This is how I came to find myself strapped into the inside of an ancient, horrifically loud Wessex. Sitting directly opposite the open side door as we circled at scary bank angles, the city of Portsmouth looming below me. Every now and again we were on the verge of losing our lunches as the craft dropped a couple of hundred feet here and there in stormy skies.

Utterly grim and not at all representative of helicopter flights I've since taken.

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High Dyke · 12 Jul 2021

I haven't flown since travelling to/from Iceland a number of years ago. Got a free upgrade due to overbooking.

Other experiences include East Midlands to Amsterdam Schiphol. First officer was doing the flying. Had a very bumpy landing at Schiphol, followed by the long taxi to the terminal. Milan - Bucharest. When permitted the pilot taxied out from the stand, literally lined himself up on the runway and went for the take -off. My memory being he was facing the Alps. Landing at Belfast International (from East Mids) early morning and seeing all the fire engines ready to roll, as we landed. It turns out they were on shift change and prepping the vehicles for that shift.

As an aside to the Italy - Romania experience, when returning from Bucharest, needing to connect at Milan for Birmingham we were faced with two long check-in queues (Tarom and Alitalia) for the same flight. With some degree of panic our Romanian host made enquiries and we were ushered to a side counter. After confirming the details and an exchange of cash we had boarding cards - just as check-in for the flight was closed.

SouthEastBuses · 12 Jul 2021

For me

Best: British Airways Airbus A320-200 from London Gatwick (LGW), UK to Naples (NAP), Italy, in December 2018. Very friendly cabin crew / flight attendants, and they would happily talk to me in my making of a trip report video (which I will eventually post onto YouTube). I also always enjoy flying with EasyJet, and on my first flight during the Covid-19 pandemic (and indeed my first holiday abroad during the pandemic!) from London Gatwick (LGW), UK to Malaga (AGP), Spain (in June 2021), the cabin crew were very friendly. When I said this was my first flight during the pandemic, the cabin crew replied something along the lines: "Welcome back onboard! We have done a lot of measures to make you comfortable and not scared" and I replied: "and in fact, I'm not scared at all. I'm super excited to finally fly!". And another great thing: my first pandemic flight was not just on any aircraft, but a brand new Airbus A320neo!

Worst: Alitalia Airbus A319 from Rome-Fiumicino (FCO), Italy to London Heathrow (LHR), UK in July 2011. I was desperate for a water bottle, so I called the cabin crew / flight attendant asking for one. She initially refused. My mum then complained to another cabin crew member, and after so long, I finally received the water bottle. It was so hot that day that I was desperately thirsty. Thankfully, when I flew with Alitalia again in April 2015 from Rome-Fiumicino (FCO) to Milan-Malpensa (MXP) (both in Italy) on an Embraer 175, the cabin crew were much friendlier and welcoming.

185 · 13 Jul 2021

Worst...

30 minutes in a Tucano from Linton-on-Ouse... never, ever get in one of these ungodly contraptions especially after breakfast.

I felt like I had been for a leisure cruise on the space ship Event Horizon. Via Hell.

Journeyman · 13 Jul 2021

Butts said:
A Twin Otter from Glasgow to Barra where you land on the beach has got to be near the top of my list. It also cruises at a relatively low height enabling you to make the most of the wonderful scenery.

Got to agree, that's quite an experience, and one which I believe is unique.

TravelDream · 13 Jul 2021

High Dyke said:
. Had a very bumpy landing at Schiphol, followed by the long taxi to the terminal.

Ahh the Polderbaan runway. It's almost certain you'll land there if you fly KLM Cityhopper. You think you've landed so you're there, but no, there's a 15-20 minute taxi then to the Fokker farm (I guess called the Embraer farm nowadays) and then a bus to the actual terminal.

It's not quite as bad as new Istanbul airport though. I had a 30 minute taxi when I flew from there. No, we weren't queuing, the plane was taxiing constantly during that time.

Journeyman · 13 Jul 2021

TravelDream said:
Ahh the Polderbaan runway. It's almost certain you'll land there if you fly KLM Cityhopper. You think you've landed so you're there, but no, there's a 15-20 minute taxi then to the Fokker farm (I guess called the Embraer farm nowadays) and then a bus to the actual terminal.

It's not quite as bad as new Istanbul airport though. I had a 30 minute taxi when I flew from there. No, we weren't queuing, the plane was taxiing constantly during that time.

When I flew from JFK to Edinburgh 4 years ago, we taxied for about 45 minutes before getting airborne.

TravelDream · 13 Jul 2021

Journeyman said:
When I flew from JFK to Edinburgh 4 years ago, we taxied for about 45 minutes before getting airborne.

Is that even possible? Kennedy is quite compact given the number of flights operating from there.

They can have long taxi times during the hub banks, but that is mainly queuing rather than moving.

nlogax · 13 Jul 2021

Journeyman said:
When I flew from JFK to Edinburgh 4 years ago, we taxied for about 45 minutes before getting airborne.

Maybe an off-night for Kennedy Steve if he hadn't already retired by then..

Brooke · 13 Jul 2021

Great thread!

306024 said:
My favourite way to fly, or it was. Fortunate to do Heathrow to Cape Town a couple of months before they were effectively withdrawn from service, which was another excellent flight. Remember the pilot introducing the plane as “The Queen of the Skies”, he sounded very proud to be flying the machine, and why not.

Another +1 on the BEST: I always loved the upstairs on the BA 747s and long had 60A / 60K as my favourite seat for any journey, especially overnight. (backwards facing window seats, just behind the cockpit)

cnjb8 said:
I’ve been to multiple countries but only one on plane, to Ireland.
Worst: East Midlands to Knock in Western Ireland on Ryanair. Started off fine, except for the fact someone had left a fingernail under the seat in front, until we were over Ireland when the plane started going upwards and downwards, not violently but sort of like a wave. I felt very sick. When we were at the descent to Knock it started to rain, so the pilot had to slam the plane onto the tarmac at Knock. Very traumatic for my first flight.

And +1 on the WORST: except for me it’s Kerry Airport instead. Regularly fly there with Ryanair for family reasons. Periodically you get really bad turbulence on the way in during the winter, and you just bounce around in cloud and darkness for 5-10 mins. After a while you land “firmly”, and there’s a complete silence in the full plane, til Ryanair say something cheery like “another ontime landing”!

Bletchleyite · 13 Jul 2021

A couple of best:

1. A Thai 777-200 from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. About 50 passengers (mostly our tour group), an hour's fuel and a bit of luggage. I have never felt a takeoff like it - the thing practically went about 6' along the runway then near enough straight up. (Slight exaggeration to be fair

)

2. Kingfisher Airlines from Shimla to Delhi, the aircraft I forget (a Dash 8 possibly) but it is hard to beat Himalayan scenery and the dodgy taxi ride to get there!

Worst is probably any time I've used Wizz Air, they really are just rubbish from start to finish, other than the price it's hard to think of a single good thing about them. Ryanair but worse. Service with a proper sneer, and no legroom.

Mention of dishonour also goes to Eurowings for excessively tight legroom (and not allowing purchase of extra legroom if booked through a corporate system even if that system supported it).

I've had a few rough ones including on KLM and VLM's Fokker 50s (the latter resulted in broken glass all over the floor) but those were in some ways fun. And a landing of one of those into London City I always described as "the authentic plane crash experience without actually crashing"

Though I'd say while the F70/100 were much smoother I really dislike sitting at the back on those as there are only forward exits, which to me isn't safe enough. I always want to be able to go both ways, you never know where any fire might be.

rf_ioliver · 13 Jul 2021

Best: Chicago-Stockholm, business class SAS a330-300 - superb service, good food and plentiful drink.
Runners-up: Lufthansa Houston-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Beijing, both on the A380 economy class - great aircraft and always good service from Lufthansa. TAP, night flight Lisbon-Helsinki if just for the food and port

Worst: Tenerife-Helsinki, 757, charter flight - was there for a conference with colleagues and ended coming back with 200 sunburnt holiday makers: headwinds added 2 hours to the flight, all the alcohol was drunk somewhere over Spain, copious amounts of vomit, adults and children crying. There might have been a fight/argument too at some point. Had a lovely chat with the purser who thanked us for being sober and remarked that they might have to set fire to the aircraft rather than try cleaning it. I'll leave out the description of the toilets, but maybe just say the actual toilet itself was the cleanest thing in there....

High Dyke · 14 Jul 2021

TravelDream said:
Ahh the Polderbaan runway. It's almost certain you'll land there if you fly KLM Cityhopper.

I was flying with BMA at the time, so that shows how long ago it was.

Grumpy Git · 14 Jul 2021

TravelDream said:
Ahh the Polderbaan runway. It's almost certain you'll land there if you fly KLM Cityhopper.

Aye! HUY-AMS landing on runway 32L, the only flight where you are taxiing for longer than you are in the air.

TheEdge · 14 Jul 2021

TravelDream said:
Is that even possible? Kennedy is quite compact given the number of flights operating from there.

They can have long taxi times during the hub banks, but that is mainly queuing rather than moving.

From watching countless Kennedy ATC videos it seems once an aircraft is off the field and onto the two circular taxiways that encircle the terminal buildings if by the time you've got your gate or ramp entry point and there is no space you are either doing another circuit of the terminal or at least going around a bit then doubling back.

TravelDream · 14 Jul 2021

Grumpy Git said:
Aye! HUY-AMS landing on runway 32L, the only flight where you are taxiing for longer than you are in the air.

I suppose people from Norwich might disagree :P

A quick look on Flightradar showed a flight the other day took off at 8.16 and landed at 8.45. The transponder signal was lost at 8.53 when they were still taxiing. Those passengers certainly spent more time taxiing and on a bus in AMS than in the air.
All time UTC of course.

TheEdge said:
From watching countless Kennedy ATC videos it seems once an aircraft is off the field and onto the two circular taxiways that encircle the terminal buildings if by the time you've got your gate or ramp entry point and there is no space you are either doing another circuit of the terminal or at least going around a bit then doubling back.

That's my point. They aren't taxiing to get somewhere, but are waiting/ queuing. Kennedy is so poorly laid out, either planes trap a dozen plus others by sitting there (which ground probably won't allow) or are sent on a loop.

At Istanbul the taxi to the runway in use from the far end of the terminal is at least 30 minutes with no queuing or waiting, but constant taxiing to to relevant holding point.

TheEdge · 14 Jul 2021

TravelDream said:
I suppose people from Norwich might disagree :P

When I eventually get round to doing that I'm going to have to time the taxi at Norwich, time in the air, then time taxing and busing at Schipol...

TravelDream said:
That's my point. They aren't taxiing to get somewhere, but are waiting/ queuing. Kennedy is so poorly laid out, either planes trap a dozen plus others by sitting there (which ground probably won't allow) or are sent on a loop.

At Istanbul the taxi to the runway in use from the far end of the terminal is at least 30 minutes with no queuing or waiting, but constant taxiing to to relevant holding point.

Fair enough. I don't think I've ever suffered an incredibly long taxi, although I once had an awful experience getting to a remote stand at Munich during their building works. Incredibly long bus ride to then be left on the bus next to the aircraft before we were let on. One of my fastest taxi experiences ever was pushing back from just the right point on the main building of T5 at Heathrow, a few minutes to the active runway at the T5 end, jumped past the few aircraft waiting, in the air, gone, goodbye.

Ediswan · 14 Jul 2021

If we are doing efficient flights.

Some years ago, Aer Lingus, Cork to Heathrow. A short direct taxi to the runway, took off to the south, turned left, straight in to 09L, suffcient braking to make an early turnoff, adjacent to the gate (at whichever terminal was there at the time). Prior to departure, the cockpit door was open long enough to see the planned route, it was a straight line.

Grumpy Git · 14 Jul 2021

Ediswan said:
If we are doing efficient flights.

Some years ago, Aer Lingus, Cork to Heathrow. A short direct taxi to the runway, took off to the south, turned left, straight in to 09L, suffcient braking to make an early turnoff, adjacent to the gate (at whichever terminal was there at the time). Prior to departure, the cockpit door was open long enough to see the planned route, it was a straight line.

Funnily enough, I did the exact flight but the "innefficent" route last week. Taxi to the south end of ORK (runway 34), southern loop around London and landed at LHR on runway 27R.

We did get off the runway handy and to the gate in T2 quite quicky though.

Brooke · 14 Jul 2021

TheEdge said:
When I eventually get round to doing that I'm going to have to time the taxi at Norwich, time in the air, then time taxing and busing at Schipol...

We’re digressing a bit but the return of this, and also AMS-LCY, are a couple of good “time travel” flights where you normally land 5 mins or so before you take off.

Grumpy Git · 14 Jul 2021

Brooke said:
We’re digressing a bit but the return of this, and also AMS-LCY, are a couple of good “time travel” flights where you normally land 5 mins or so before you take off.

And (back in the day), much cheaper than BA001 LHR-JFK, which landed 1h 5m before it took off.

Brooke · 14 Jul 2021

Grumpy Git said:
And (back in the day), much cheaper than BA001 LHR-JFK, which landed 1h 5m before it took off.

Just a bit cheaper..!

TheEdge · 14 Jul 2021

Grumpy Git said:
And (back in the day), much cheaper than BA001 LHR-JFK, which landed 1h 5m before it took off.

As opposed to the sad shadow BA001 had become before its final demise.

Journeyman · 14 Jul 2021

Grumpy Git said:
And (back in the day), much cheaper than BA001 LHR-JFK, which landed 1h 5m before it took off.

I really wish I'd flown on Concorde when I had the chance. I just couldn't scrape the money together. One of my work colleagues managed it by maxing out his credit card. It took him years to pay it off, but he never regretted it for a second.

WestCoast · 14 Jul 2021

Best flying experiences - probably any of the Loganair services to the Western Isles out of Glasgow that I’ve done. Real flying! The trip to Barra on the Twin Otter is truly unique and you get a good hour long flight out of Glasgow to enjoy the ’robust’ flying experience, although when I did it last year the weather was not great. On the other hand, really enjoyed flying on the Embraer routing Glasgow - Benbecula - Stornaway in May this year as the early morning sun was out and the views of Uist were mesmerising.

Best for service - hands down flying on the Q Suite (Business Class) on Qatar Airways to Shanghai via Doha in 2019. The food was restaurant quality and the champagne flowed! Seat bed was amazing. I’ve done BA Club World and it doesn’t even come close to that.

Worst - the one that sticks out was an evening flight from Manchester to Tenerife on Ryanair in December 2017. Due to snowfall in Manchester, the plane was about three hours late leaving Manchester and quite a lot of the passengers were “well oiled”. Been there before but this flight was especially awful. I was seated just behind the wing. The guy behind me was drinking neat duty free vodka and started shouting obscenities at people and banging my seat back. Some guys at the back were taking turns to smoke in the toilets and to top it off there was a fight between two groups at the front of the plane. The crew were running up and down trying to calm everything down and at one stage the pilot came on to say we’d be diverting to Portugal if people didn’t behave. I’m amazed we didn’t. Ended up about five hours late as the Spanish police had to haul people off the plane after landing and apparently the return flight was cancelled as the crew could no longer legally work (and were exhausted!).

Blurb · 15 Jul 2021

Best: Business Class- Singapore Airlines A380 upper deck SIN to LHR (SQ Business Class with the huge armchair seats/flatbed) or Cathay 777 Hong Kong to LHR (best sleep I ever had from Asia to UK).
Best: Economy- ANA on a new 787 from Singapore to Haneda (exceptional service and food; great interior 2:4:2 seating; they let me have extra leg room seat as I’d run a 10km race previous day!).

Worst: Business Class LAX To LHR BA 747 (everyone crammed onto a bus to a remote stand, followed by standing on stairs for ages before boarding; generally shocking LAX service experience. BA Business Class miles behind other airlines).

Economy: Johannesburg to LHR BA 747 (middle seat; boiling hot; very large person in one of seats next to me; noisy kids; no sleep).

Royston Vasey · 15 Jul 2021

I forgot one of my best and certainly most unique. You can't do this any more, but ten years ago I took a Heli Air Monaco scheduled helicopter service from Monaco to Nice after a few days on business in Monaco. I think the capacity of the chopper was only 6 passengers. They picked me up from my hotel (I didn't upgrade to private limo, but took the luxury minibus on which I was the only passenger anyway!), check-in took a minute, security took only a few seconds, they even interlined my bag to BA back to Heathrow!

The flight time was six minutes along the Côte d'Azur, beautiful in the late spring evening. It only cost me a touch over €100, the taxi the other way had been €50!

You can't do this any more, both Heli Air Monaco and Monacair run helicopters to Nice but they are effectively private charters, you can't just buy one seat.

Grumpy Git · 15 Jul 2021

Best: Private 5-seater helicopter charter for the wife, two kids and myself in Lauterbrunnen for a 30 minute flight over the Eiger & Jungfrau region of the Alps in July/August about 15 years ago. I got the left seat in the front and the take-off up against the sheer walls of the valley was something else!

Worst #1: Red-eye Monday morning Liverpool-Dublin Ryanair flight, middle-seat in very back-row. I had no idea that Liverpool had played a late Sunday afternoon game at home the day before and the flight was full of still drunk (and exceedingly smelly) supporters returning to Ireland. I suspect most of them had arrived in Liverpool on either Friday or Saturday and had neither seen a bed or a shower in the intervening period, it was horrendous. The amount of litter left on the plane had to be seen to be believed. Fortunately it's only a 30 minute hop.

Worst #2: Getting diverted to Hanover (instead of Frankfurt) on a Lufthansa flight from Manchester due to snow (my destination was Heidelberg, so ~300km in the wrong direction). Sat on the tarmac for about 3 hours, but the beer ran-out in the the first hour. Pilot eventually gave-up waiting so de-planed and had to take a train in a blizzard, arriving at my hotel about nine hours late.

Bald Rick · 15 Jul 2021

Grumpy Git said:
Worst #1: Red-eye Monday morning Liverpool-Dublin Ryanair flight,

Red-eye? For a 150 mile flight? Did it go a long way round?

Royston Vasey · 15 Jul 2021

Cape Air is an operator of mainly-subsidised local flights in the US, providing "Essential Air Services". They fly out of a few bigger airports to some very small airports, some routes flying 9-seat Cessna 402s. The 9th seat is the co-pilot's seat, and if you ask very nicely at the start of the flight, the pilot will let you sit in the co-pilot's seat at his discretion. So whilst on a business trip, I did a 45 minute each way back-to-back for about $50 for the sheer hell of it. Brilliant experience.

This isn't me or the route I flew but it's exactly what it's like:

https://www.seatlink.com/blog/2016/11/cape-air-review-cessna-402-from-st-thomas-stt-to-san-juan-sju/

Best and worst flights

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