{"id":4337,"date":"2013-12-28T03:57:55","date_gmt":"2013-12-28T03:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=4337"},"modified":"2013-12-28T03:57:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-28T03:57:55","slug":"u-s-airlines-dont-make-the-grade-imagine-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=4337","title":{"rendered":"U.S. airlines don’t make the grade? Imagine that"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This might qualify as the least-surprising survey finding in the history of surveys.<\/p>\n

OK, maybe I exaggerate, but not by much.<\/p>\n

Business Insider has rated the top 20 airlines in the world. None of them — zero — is based in the United States of America.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/the-20-best-airlines-in-the-world-2013-4<\/p>\n

I looked at the list and counted four airlines on which I have flown: Cathay Pacific, Thai, Japan Air Lines and Lufthansa. <\/p>\n

I’ll stipulate that I do not consider myself a seasoned world traveler, but I have been blessed with opportunities to fly abroad. Some of the air travel has been quite pleasant; some of it has been, well, quite unpleasant. Almost without fail, the unpleasantness has occurred aboard U.S. airlines.<\/p>\n

I won’t detail the terrible service I’ve experienced. I’ll tell you two quick stories.<\/p>\n

My wife and I flew to Copenhagen, Denmark in June 2006. We stayed there a week and then flew home. Our first leg on the return flight was aboard a British Airways flight from Copenhagen to London Heathrow Airport. The service was fabulous, top-notch; the flight crew was gracious, kind, attentive, cheerful … all the things you expect on a flight.<\/p>\n

We disembarked at Heathrow, then caught a cab to Gatwick Airport across town, where we boarded an American Airlines flight from London to Dallas-Fort Worth. The service then was, well, not nearly at the level I just described on that first leg. The flight crew was decidedly less gracious, kind, attentive, etc. <\/p>\n

Welcome back to reality, right?<\/p>\n

The second quick story involves a flight from Delhi, India, to Tokyo, via Bangkok. This was in 2004. I boarded the flight in Delhi, flew six hours aboard a Thai Air flight to Bangkok. The crew could not have been more gracious. I changed planes in Bangkok and boarded a Japan Air Lines flight to Tokyo.<\/p>\n

I took a sleeping aid to help me catch some shut-eye for the next six- or seven-hour flight. I settled back in my seat. The plane took off. After a while, the flight attendants began serving a meal. I declined my meal and went to sleep.<\/p>\n

When the pilot announced we were beginning our descent into Narita Airport in Tokyo, I awoke to discover a pillow under my head and a blanket tucked under my chin. I have no recollection of how they got there — therefore, I only presumed the flight attendant tucked me in.<\/p>\n

I do not believe that would have happened on a U.S.-based air carrier.<\/p>\n

Thus, the survey doesn’t surprise me in the least.<\/p>\n\n

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This might qualify as the least-surprising survey finding in the history of surveys. OK, maybe I exaggerate, but not by much. Business Insider has rated the top 20 airlines in the world. None of them — zero — is based in the United States of America. http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/the-20-best-airlines-in-the-world-2013-4 I looked at the list and counted four … Continue reading U.S. airlines don’t make the grade? Imagine that<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[212,536,752,880,1149,1324,2413,2817,2818,2819,4744],"class_list":["post-4337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-airline-survey","tag-bangkok","tag-british-airways","tag-cathay-pacific","tag-copenhagen","tag-delhi","tag-japan-air-line","tag-london","tag-london-gatwick","tag-london-heathrow","tag-thai-air"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}