Airline Service

While making a booking, you often wonder, which airline should I book with? Is it in my budget? Should I pay for the full service airline? Does it fit my schedule? And a ton of other questions flow into your mind while making that booking, be it for business or just for leisure. One important question might also be, should I book myself into Coach/Economy class or spurge that hard earned money for a Business class seat?

A lot has changed over the years in air travel. Today’s customer, like you and me, are more price sensitive. If the company is paying, the company’s travel co-ordinator/HR works with a very low travel budget. Gone are the days that companies would spend a fortune for your seat in business class. They would book you into a full service economy class seat, and understandably so, because of the recession, or the dropping business levels.

Again, with regards to service, in this article, its all a personal opinion and what I have experienced while travelling with different airlines over the years. I was actually flying before I learnt how to walk, and at that time we used to fly with the Golden Eagle – Gulf Air, the national airline of UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, at that time. It was also known for a good level of service during those days. As time passed service slipped, standards dropped and the hard product became stagnant and old. People in the gulf region were introduced to Emirates Airlines in 1985 (the year I was born). Emirates pledged to bring in a new era in airline service. Well, for me, after flying with Emirates so many times, it has no consistency what-so-ever, and no standardized product across its fleet. It makes money by simply dumping seats into any market by using its wide bodied jets, and lowering the prices to fill these seats up. Similar to what hotels do, if they have rooms available at the end of the night, they would sell it to the walk-in customer at whatever price possible in order to fill up the rooms, because once the night is passed the revenue is lost anyways, and they still would have to pay for the housekeeping, electricity etc.

Emirates has grown too big too fast, for its own good. Somewhere down the line the level of service was lost. What Emirates used to stand for is also lost. Typically on a Boeing 777 majority of the International carriers would have a 9 abreast (3-3-3) in economy class, Emirates chooses to pack in passengers like sardine in a 10 abreast seating (3-4-3) across the aisle. Their catering in economy and business used to be good, now that has also faced the cost cutting axe. Speaking of business class, its seats across its different aircrafts (A340-500,B777-200,B777-200LR,B777-300 & A380) are all different. There is no consistency in its business class seats, some have sleeparettes, some flat beds, some cradle seats.  But one thing worth mentioning here is their incredible ICE entertainment system. I do bow down to their entertainment system as it kept me really occupied for the long haul New York to Dubai flights. Also their policy of providing you with unlimited alcohol is somewhat of a winner.  Their crew have lost the touch of service, arrogance and above all attitude have kicked into their crew. Again as I said, mostly a hit or a miss service with Emirates now a days.  I would echo the same opinion about Qatar Airways, whilst the service might be marginally better than Emirates, they are headed down the same road of quick expansion with losing grip on the service.

Asian carriers like Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines are know for their service levels, but its also worth mentioning that these airlines have very robotic service. Their crew do exactly what they are there for, service. Noting more, nothing less. I guess it also comes with the culture. They would not stop and have a chat with you on long haul flight. Their products are also pretty standard across all their fleets. Singapore Airlines, takes the cake in the product department. They have some pretty bold seats out there. They serve more as a premium carrier, even in economy. Emirates, on the other hand, just puts in as many seats as possible in ALL classes of travel. Singapore airline’s Singapore Girls have the fair and have poise of the 1980s era cabin crew, which brings back the romance of travel.

Indian carriers have a very good level of service, I’m not just saying that because I am from India, but you need to experience it yourself. Especially after the deregulation of the airline industry, there have been a wave of private carriers that have brought a level of service that was previously unknown in the Indian market. With this, even the government airline Air India started pulling up its socks and revamped the service. Jet Airways still leads the pack in terms of service provided on the ground as well as off the ground, equally worth mentioning was the service on Kingfisher Airlines, which would go to the level of even polishing your shoes in their KingfisherFirst (Business) cabin. Their seats are different on their short haul and long haul fleet, but their food and drinks service really leaves you impressed. One down side, for all Indian carriers, is their ground service and airport facilities, majority of them don’t have their own lounge facilities or transit facilities at the airports, whilst international airlines like Emirates, British Airways have managed to open up their own lounges in Indian Airports.

Delta, American Airlines, Northwest (now Delta), United, Continental Airlines (now United) all have a similar service level. Whilst travelling domestically within the US you feel like its just another Greyhound bus service on the aircraft, with nothing given to you for free, even though these are full service carriers, and if they do, it would be of miniscule portion sizes. One of the major complaints with these carriers is that their service is really really bland. They tend to just be there on the aircraft for your safety, noting more. This includes business class seats. The airport lounges are a far cry from what you would expect in a business or first class lounge of an international carrier. They don’t serve free alcoholic beverages, food is there, in the form of snacks like pretzels, cereals etcs. All this is done in the name of “cost cutting” and “avoiding bankruptcy”. The American consumer/passenger doesn’t really have a choice as all the airlines are doing the same, so you got to travel with one of them and pay a hefty ticket price for nothing.

This was a very broad comparison about the service of airlines that I have mostly tired and tested. I agree I am no expert at making comments about airlines, but just felt like penning down the analysis I have had with a few airlines that I have flown. A lot more airlines left to be tested out. I have not included lowcost carriers, because its not fair to compare them with their full service counter parts. Low cost carriers I have tired are flydubai, indigo, spicejet, Jet Blue, southwest. And the worst out of the lost probably was spiceJet. 

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Airline Economy Seats Chart

	Seat Pitch	Seat Width	Seat Recline
	32”	19.7“	32”
	32“	17.5”	6”
	32”	19-20”	6-8”
	32“	17.5”	n/a
	31-32”	17.2”	6 degrees
	32”	17.75”	15 degrees
	31“	17.5”	n/a
	34”	17”	32 degrees
	31-35”	17-18”	5”