Airline Reviews

It’s worthwhile to review a few airlines. The criteria for a good airlines for me is basically the quality of customer service from airline representatives, gate personnel and flight attendants.

DOMESTIC US AIRLINES

Southwest Airlines
Southwest is absolutely the best airlines in the states for domestic flights. Though the majority of their route network is limited to the midwest, Southwest boasts three advantages, in my humble opinion, over other airlines: front row seating always for handicap people, the quality of customer service from the flight attendants and competitive domestic airefare prices.

Because Southwest Airlines has no assigned seating, it’s first come first serve. This seating policy for disabled travelers is great because you always board the plane first and can take advantage of this fact. The only drawback to sitting in the front row on Southwest is that you will most likely sit next to a family, who follow you closely behind with regards to boarding before others. The family gets to board because they have a baby and baby carriage. But, for short flights, sitting next to a nice couple is fine.

Southwest Airlines can boast about their customer service of the flight attendants because they usually bring with them the midwest hospitality. This hospitality translates into attentativeness and focus on the traveler’s needs.

American Airlines
I’ve alway had great customer service with American Airlines, whether I take an international or domestic trip. American Airlines’ customer service stands out over the phone, at the ticket counter and onboard the plane. A couple of things that stand out with American Airlines is one, their cargo space on the plane in the front usually has enough room to fit a manual, fold up wheelchair. I like this about American Airlines a lot. This excellent news if you’re like me and want the best care for your wheelchair. The flight attendants will ask usually when you’re transferring from your wheelchair to an airplane aisle chair if you want your wheelchair stored in the onboard cargo space. If they don’t ask, you can just ask and they customarily respond favorably. Flight attendants on American Airlines usually provide excellent customer service as well whether you’re flying out of the states or out of Europe.

American Airlines also has a great frequent flyer program and teams up with a financial institution to award miles points for using that finance company’s credit card. In this case, Citi Bank. The other thing that American Airlines can boast about is their extensive global network. They are a part of OneWorld Alliance global network in which, airlines such as Cathay Pacific, belong. This means of course that if you utilize American Airlines’ frequent flyer miles program and use any of the airlines (most anyway and most trips) in the OneWorld Alliance program, then you can apply the miles from trips on those airlines. You just have to check with the airlines.

Cathay Pacific
For Asia trips, Cathay Pacific is excellent. They have superb customer service in regards to airline representatives over the phone, ticket counter representatives and flight attendants. They go out of their way to provide airport assistance and make sure you’re comfortable on the plane. In addition, Cathay Pacific’s website is one of the most user-friendly airline sites. The site allows easy multi-trip destinations configurations. They download time is fast, in my opinion, and the electronic ticket emails are generated rapidly to your personal email address. Plus, Cathay Pacific is a part of the One World Alliance so you can acquire miles with Cathay Pacific flights if you participate in the American Airlines miles program.

Only one minor thing that stands out with Cathay Pacific is that when you want to use the restroom on the plane, two or three flight attendants will congregate around to help you transfer on the aisle chair and take you to the restroom. Sometimes, they can be a bit clamorous about this but, better over service and than under.

Oh, the Cathay Pacific flight attendants are all cute. Bonus!

China Airlines
Coming Soon!

EVA Air
EVA Air for Southeast Asia flights has a couple of things going for it: their ticket prices are seem to be less expensive than Cathay Pacific. Or, they may have better programs and promotions. The other advantage EVA Air has is that their planes seem cleaner and more comfortable. They also boast the Evergreen seats which are a tier below the business class but higher than coach. These seats are of course more expensive but they have much more room and are more comfortable.

EVA Air can be strange though. The drawback to EVA Air is a somewhat hit and miss customer service policy for disabled travelers. When you make flight arrangements with EVA Air, you had better make sure to call the airliine representatives ahead of your flight to make any arrangements. Any. The airline or airline representatives anyway, seems to not know what to do with handicap travelers. The airline representatives call you about three to four times after you make initial contact with them and let them know that you’re in a wheelchair and need special assistance. They drill you about the dimensions of your wheelchair, the weight, what your ability or disabilities are, etc. Very tedious and time-consuming to talk to EVA Air representatives. Plus, the agents don’t always speak English that well.

Asian airline couriers, their policies and the people who work for them all seem to indicate the fact that they deal with handicap people less than Americans. That’s been my experience and observation. It’s cultural.

I’ve been on trips with friends where representatives at Cathay Pacific and EVA Air speak to my friend or friends about MY ticket rather than speak directly to me even though I’m the one in front of them and handling the transaction.

Traveling forces you to speak up.