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What airlines to avoid around the world? Taking RTW trip.

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What airlines to avoid around the world? Taking RTW trip.
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I'm taking a RTW solo backpacking trip and have found so many great deals on flights around the world. The majority of my trip will be in SE Asia, but I will actually start in Tanzania for a Kilimanjaro trek+safari, then back to Europe for ~2 weeks, then to SE Asia for a few months, then to Australia and NZ.

I have no definite plan or time constraints. I've built up enough miles to fly business or first class on my long haul flights, and have saved up $$ for over 3 years so luckily budget is not a huge issue either, but I will be taking advantage of cheaper flights.

I've done a fair bit of traveling myself and have never really had a bad flight except I could barely squeeze into ANA's economy seat on my 12 hr flight from Tokyo to Chicago. I'm 6ft tall with long legs. Also, RyanAir was hit or miss whether I liked it. I loved the price but every landing felt like a close call and my 40L pack was weighed and forced to squish in that frame, but luckily I pack light and barely made it.

Questions:

1) What airlines should I avoid?

2) Most of the flights I see are with AirAsia. Anybody have experience with them?

Vantaa, Finland
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1. Re: What airlines to avoid around the world? Taking RTW trip.
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Air Asia is a good budget airline which has a very extensive network in Asia. Being a budget airline they charge separately for checked baggage, food and drinks, seat selection, etc. Pre-booking services in advance over the Internet is much cheaper than paying when checking in. Most flights are point-to-point which means that you must collect your luggage after the flight even if your next flight is with Air Asia from the same airport within the same day. The only exception is the limited number of "fly-through" services which provide a true connection including transfer of baggage and no need to go through immigration at the connection airport. Tickets are not refundable - you can only get back the government taxes. You cannot cancel tickets - Air Asia advices you just not to show up for the flight if you cannot fly the flight that you booked.

Air Asia is quite good but the region has also other budget airlines that may offer better prices and serve destinations that Air Asia does not. Many people use Air Asia just because it provides a one-stop-shop for their flights. Note that some Air Asia services are flight/ferry/bus combinations.

Instead of telling which airlines to avoid it is easier to say that you should prefer airlines that belong to one of the global alliances (Star Alliance, OneWorld, SkyTeam). The alliances are not keen to take in horrible members that will blacken their good name. You probably would prefer to collect more frequent flier miles and use the ones that you already have, too.

http://www.airlinequality.com gives some idea of which airlines are good and bad although people usually prefer to rant about problems and fail to provide reviews when all is well. There are also rumors that the site ignores inconvenient reviews.

On the other hand, sometimes you have no choice but to use a presumably bad airline because it is the only one that flies to your destination.

Edited: 8 years ago
uk
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2. Re: What airlines to avoid around the world? Taking RTW trip.
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" 1) What airlines should I avoid?"

Well according to some posts on this forum you should avoid flying completely as there are complaints real and imagined about an awful lot of different airlines.

Go with airline that suits your price and route.

Deb

Portland, Oregon
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3. Re: What airlines to avoid around the world? Taking RTW trip.
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Air Asia is great, but remember it's an LCC/no frills/point to point only - sort of the Southwest of SE Asia, and their new hub at KLIA2 is ultra-efficient. I even stayed at their Air Asia Tune Hotel at KLIA2.

Air carriers that I personally avoid - anything from Indonesia, Laos, mainland China, Russia and most smaller African carriers. My very favorite is Asiana Airlines of Korea, and Vietnam Airlines is very good for short haul service in Asia.

By the way, you should investigate the Air Asia Asean Pass.

Edited: 8 years ago
San Francisco...
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if you go based on the advice in this forum, you may have to avoid all airlines. well perhaps there are a few that have yet to be mentioned.

In all seriousness, not sure what your plan is. First plan your route and then find the major alliance airlines that fly that route. A RTW star alliance or one world ticket would be one way to do it and go with their partner airlines.

Seattle, Washington
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Avoid Ethiopian like the plague.

Abu Dhabi, United...
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If you are using frequent flyer miles (via credit card points ??), you will be limited in your choice of airlines. So I guess this question applies just to the shorter sectors ? Which program's miles do you have ?

7. Re: What airlines to avoid around the world? Taking RTW trip.

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