OT: Airlines in the US for domestic travel

[USN_Panther]

Air NZ partners with United for US domestic connections. So I get stuck with United for connecting flights. Occasionally get connected with Alaska Airlines and they seem ok. But my experience with United is uniformly terrible.
What are your favourite airlines for flying within the US? I will probably ditch Air NZ for traveling to the US if there is a better airline option. Delta and American have NZ flights and partners that fly to NZ. Are they any better than United?
Air NZ is great, but United for missed connections, lost baggage, terrible customer service just sucks. I'm hoping to never fly United again.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

I've used American for years and I like them. Flights are generally on time, they rarely lose baggage. If they do, it is at my door or hotel within hours, usually. For the most part, their people are very nice and want to help. Always exceptions. I agree with you....stay away from United. I don't fly Delta either, but it's more that I don't like their political garbage.

 

[303vND]

It seems as if every airline is having issues. I searched for a flight from Houston to Pittsburgh on Southwest and it was a totally ridiculous fare. I can fly to Hawaii from Houston cheaper than flying to the Burgh. I also fly United but if you ever been to Bush Airport - you try to avoid it at all cost.

 

[ChiefJusticeMarshall]

Depends where I am going because some airlines serve cities some cities better. I try to get nonstop flights when possible, but flying out of Pittsburgh that is now not easy as it is not a hub. I have loyalty programs with United and Delta.

 

[Gunga_Galunga]

It's all in your experience. I tend to prefer United and hate American. Prefer Delta for Asia flights.

Edit: As the chief justice mentioned, a lot of it is where you're going from PIT anymore. Not gonna fly United with a transfer if I can get a direct on someone else. If you're flying to an airline's hub, you take that airline.

 

[USN_Panther]

It seems as if every airline is having issues. I searched for a flight from Houston to Pittsburgh on Southwest and it was a totally ridiculous fare. I can fly to Hawaii from Houston cheaper than flying to the Burgh. I also fly United but if you ever been to Bush Airport - you try to avoid it at all cost.

As far as coming in internationally, I find Bush in Houston not bad.
The other US options are LAX (horrible) San Francisco (not bad) and Chicago and JFK. The problem with the last two is that the NZ flights aren't daily.

 

[Pitt_Boss]

I travel a lot domestically, fly on all the airlines. I hate to tell you this, but they all suck fairly close to equal, and who is better/worse changes every couple of years. Recently, I would mostly say American is the worst of the big ones. My current rankings would be something like this:
1. Delta
2. Southwest
3. United
4. American

A couple caveats:
Delta had been doing well then REALLY screwed the pooch with the CrowdStrike outage. If I can overlook one bad experience because of that, they are still probably the best currently.
Southwest is pretty good lately if you can deal with no assigned seats (and sometimes smaller leg room). Usually doesn't bother me on the assigned seats and I will normally buy the upgraded boarding, but once in a while I get tired of racing to the gate.

A lot of the discount airlines like Spirit, Frontier, you are rolling the dice and I would avoid even though sometimes they work out great. But of the smaller airlines, my current two favorites are Jet Blue and Allegiant, have had multiple good trips on each.

 

[USN_Panther]

Depends where I am going because some airlines serve cities some cities better. I try to get nonstop flights when possible, but flying out of Pittsburgh that is now not easy as it is not a hub. I have loyalty programs with United and Delta.

TBF, a lot of my connection issues have been getting to Pittsburgh. United once stranded me overnight in SF when the direct to Pittsburgh was cancelled, then flew me through Chicago and stranded me there. The trip prior to that their delay getting me from Pittsburgh to SF through Chicago caused me to miss my international flight, which only goes once per day.

 

[ChiefJusticeMarshall]

As far as coming in internationally, I find Bush in Houston not bad.
The other US options are LAX (horrible) San Francisco (not bad) and Chicago and JFK. The problem with the last two is that the NZ flights aren't daily.

LAX bad. Philly and Newark horrible. Dulles is bad if you have a quick connection and are completely different concourses.