The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

When it comes to flying, it's not easy to please us. We want safety, comfort, accuracy and good service at a low price while jet fuel and taxes are getting more expensive for the airlines.

Still, these ten companies managed to piss you off the most.

10.) American Airlines

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

AvarageMechanic says American is far from being flexible:

I screwed up the dates when I booked a future flight to Puerto Rico. Booked it last month, leaving next month. Total flight roundtrip was $430 for two people. They want $220.00 per person to change the departure date. That is an adjustment FEE, not the price the flight has changed. I could book an entirely NEW flight for what the fee's would cost us, at $450 for two people.

How is that legal?

Pretty easily, I'm afraid. American also filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011, and will merge with US Airways once they can figure out the legal side of it.

Suggested By: AvarageMechanic, Photo Credit: Aero Icarus

9.) Delta Air Lines

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

Forget about your laptop with Delta, says formerlydickmove:

It's October, 2011 and the airlines have just started flying after 9/11. I have to go to NY from Ft. Lauderdale. There are two lines for security: those with carry-ons and those without (they apparently stopped this practice pronto). The line for "with" was two hours long. There was no line for "without".

Stupidly, I checked my laptop.

At La Guardia, I watched as my bags were delivered. First my suitcase, then my laptop case. Open. Empty.

I took the empty case to the customer service desk and explained that my laptop was missing. They told me they were not responsible for lost items. It wasn't lost, I tell them, it was stolen. By one of their employees.

Still, no dice. Not responsible. I am starting a slow burn that threatens to explode soon.

If someone can take something out of my bag, I say loudly, then one of your employees could put something into IT, right? Don't you care about security?

Turns out they don't and I was never reimbursed for that laptop.

John Mulaney agrees:

Suggested By: formerlydickmove, Photo Credit: Aero Icarus

8.) America West —» US Air

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

Here's what some of you had to say about them...

My X-type is too a real Jaguar:

America West now part of US Air, they sucked, shitty connections never on time, last minute gate changes, flight attendants who wouldn't bother to wake you up at the gate after flying the all night red eye.


Sadly, America Worst - er West - actually bought US Air but took the name for the combined airline. They'll do the same to American.

And yes, I agree they are the worst domestic carrier, bar none. They used to abandon me in Phoenix because they were too delayed to reach San Diego without fines for noise abatement, but would do nothing for those they flew in, knowing they wouldn't get out. Bastards.


The absolute worst. 3 times I flew America West. Twice they bumped me and when I asked what I was supposed to do now, they basically just shrugged. The third time they cancelled a connection of mine out of the blue leaving me stranded in Phoenix and there were no other flights.

Sounds like fun! Not.

Suggested By: My X-type is too a real Jaguar, Photo Credit: Aero Icarus

7.) Alitalia

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

Big_Cheez is not a fan of Alitalia...

Was going to say US Air or American but then I remembered the last time I was in Europe and flew Alitalia. It truly makes any American airline look like they have world-class service. It's also run by the Italian government.

...but I'm afraid he is wrong. For more than two reasons:

Green Pig:

Actually, an investment group now owns 75% of Alitalia, the rest is owned by Air France. The new owners have made major advances in customer service, from what I'm told, but 20 years ago they were horrible.

ejp hates automatic transmissions:

Yeah - but on Alitalia, you get applause when you land on Italian soil. Such an airline!

Funny story, my sister in law used to visit her family in Italy. The only time she flew was Alitalia. She flew domestically in the US at 6 years old...and was the only one clapping when the plane landed :)

But DaMata points out that they gave us this, at least.

Suggested By: Big_Cheez, Photo Credit: Luigi Rosa, JackBet, _gee_, Dave Hamster.

6.) Aeroflot

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

Their logo still has the hammers and sickles, and there are other things that also remind you of the Soviet Union:

I flew from Lake Baikal to Moscow in 1995, it was well interesting. At that time the seats folded all the way forward and had a common bench with individual backs. When the plane landed an unoccupied seat would fold flat. This was not an issue if you were awake, however if you decided that the bench of an unoccupied row was a good place to nap, and since nobody bothered to wake a person up for landing, let's just say it made landing an unforgettable experience.

Than again, they are getting better according to Ashton S.:

I flew Aeroflot from Saint Petersburg to Moscow in 2008. It was one of the more interesting flights I have ever been on. The plane was a Cold War Soviet copy of the old Lockheed L-1011. It was ancient, but the bonus was the seats were positively huge by the stingy standards of today's airliners. They boarded the plane as soon as it got to the gate, and as soon as everyone waiting at the gate was on they closed the doors and taxied towards the runway. We actually took off 15 minutes early. Shame on you if you were late. The plane was pretty shabby, and very loud, but it was reasonably clean. They actually managed a full breakfast service on the one hour flight to Moscow which is unheard of for an American carrier.

Well, it's an experience.

Suggested By: Brian, The Life of, Photo Credit: Getty Images

5.) Spirit

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

It sounds to me like Spirit is the American Ryanair.


Definitely the worst in the U.S. No legroom to be had anywhere, and on a red-eye I took to Florida with them, the plane dropped out of the sky a couple thousand feet and not a word from the cockpit or flight attendants. Business as usual, I guess.


100% agree. The WORST I ever saw (besides them trying to get $45 out of my girlfriend for wanting to carry on her normal sized purse): Woman with 4 kids flying to San Diego. Each kid has a little backpack, since all kids are between 3 & 6 all backpacks are relatively tiny. Woman also has a purse. Spirit tries to get $225 from her at the gate. Woman goes ballistic. Security is called and I believe they settled for half.

Spirit's success flies in the face of the notion that it's cheaper to keep a customer rather than make a new one, because I don't know anyone who makes this mistake twice. In my own example, Spirit was $80 cheaper than AA, but after bringing 1 bag round trip it was $10 more expensive - and more cramped, and without free snacks.

Suggested By: BrtStlnd, Photo Credit: Aero Icarus

4.) Ryanair

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

I flew Ryanair a few times myself, and it's okay as long as you can forget that they are, in fact, assholes. Like, the whole company. Everybody.

This is what Mojonaut had to say about them:

Not because of their (apparently) unblemished safety record, but because their "cheap fares" flatter to deceive. Yes, the fare is cheap, but additional charges add up and you usually end up in a back-water airport anything up to 200km from your actual destination (how they call Oreo Al Serio airport in Bergamo "Milan Airport" is beyond me). And that's before you get to their snotty staff, sickeningly yellow aircraft interior which often smell of vomit, violent take-offs and landings, being bombarded by advertising over the loudspeaker during the flight, deep vein thrombosis-inducing amounts of legroom, and a fanfare if the plan lands in once piece.

Apparently, the few times the oxygen masks have had to be deployed (from apparently the newest aircraft fleet, made up of 737 800s, in the world), quite a large percentage of them failed to pop down at all.

And then there's their CEO, Michael O'Leary, who a lot of my compatriots want to see enter government in Ireland because he'll "sort out our finances" (yes, by taxing us even more than we're suffering now). He fabricates false stories about the airline JUST so he can get press coverage, even, at one point, entertaining the possibility of charging passengers to use the toilet (illegal under EU law) or having "standing-only" flights (illegal under ANY law). Everyone knew it was pie in the sky (pun half intended), but it got him column inches in the newspapers. He's a blackguard. He loves to wax lyrical about how our country should be run, yet none of the profits from Ryanair are ever repatriated in any way, shape or form. He also tries to destroy competition by trying to buy up airlines that he hasn't eliminated completely from the marketplace, including Aer Lingus, our former national carrier.

Suggested By: Jagvar, Photo Credit: Michal Osmenda

3.) Allegiant

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

Here's a little story about Allegiant from JimSlade:

I made the mistake of flying these guys...and it's a joke. They charge you for everything, which includes printing your boarding pass. (which they did for me, but it was literally on the back of a used piece of printer paper). However, the fees aren't bad when you consider what the actual planes are...old pieces of shit.

The plane was filthy, beyond filthy actually, it looked like the scene of a two day food fight in the cabin. Things were no better when I used the restroom...dirty, and there was writing on duct tape that said FLUSH and SINK in sharpie pen...what kind of image is this? Are they saying, we give such little care that we will just slap some duct tape down and write on it rather than pop for a label.

Also, their staff seems to always have a chip on their shoulder, like they really want to work for Southwest, but could only land this gig. I saw a flight attendant deny a drink for a mom with a kid who was coughing because she didn't pay. I mean...I get your 'business model' but if a kid is coughing get him a drink. The people seated around them ended up paying for a soda for the kid.

It's just a rough airline and bad experience. Don't fly it...and if you do...don't blame me...I tried to warn you.

It's a cheap airline experience, and I won't fly them again.

Sounds worse than Ryanair, who are, once again, assholes.

Suggested By: JimSlade, Photo Credit: InSapphoWeTrust

2.) Cubana

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

Apparently, this is what it looks like when they switch on the A/C in Cuba...

Dargtron adds some details:

Cubana - bar none.

Most of it's fleet are former-soviet airplanes that are in serious disrepair. Cubana once had a safety rating below that of Air Nairobi {I didn't even know there was an Air Nairobi} - I discovered this when planning my Cuba trip back in 2007.

There are all types of horror stories on the interwebs about Cubana's (lack of) safety. Everything from reports of seats not being properly bolted down to visible fuselage rot around the windows... Rapid decompression anyone?

Since I intended on making it back from my vacation, I wisely chose an Air Canada flight.

Suggested By: Dargtron, Photo Credit: hoyasmeg

1.) Air Koryo

The Ten Airlines You Hate The Most

As you can see, bad movies, and you're not allowed to complain. The North Korean airline is banned from the EU.

Suggested By: Arch Duke Maxyenko, a Dyslexic, Photo Credit: (stephan)


Top Photo Credit: 20th Century Fox