What is the Best Major Airline in the US and why?

[Guru03]

In your opinion, what is the best major airline in the USA and why?

I'd say Delta out of the ones i have flown, they have friendly staff and I have never had a problem with them.

[kodiak]

I actually prefer Continental/United based on my experiences.

After several bad experiences, if I can avoid American I will.

[ubernoob]

Depends on what you consider major.

I avoid Delta and United like the plague. I'll fly Southwest if I can't find what I'm looking for elsewhere.

[kingkilla56]

I fly Jetblue, only because its relatively cheap. I hate Delta, I hate American.

[p_rushing]

Depends on how often you fly and where.

I fly a lot, so my opinion is based on what you get from the different membership sides.

2nd tiers-
Southwest- great flexibility to change flights if needed, but only flies to US, so points aren't valuable, also no business/first class so you will never get an upgrade

Airtran- same as Southwest except that there is a small chance you can be upgraded

JetBlue- only thing they have is that you get sat tv on all flights, even the majors don't have that

Majors-
American- avoid at all costs

United- I don't like how they handle their upgrade procedures and status is a little harder to get, everything else is the same as Delta

Delta- I use Delta, but I live in Atlanta so there aren't a ton of choices that make sense. I don't like their flight change fees, even for people with status, but they recently changed it and it has gotten better.

[TheGamingChef]

Frequent flyer here. Travel all of the time for work.

First, I would argue that Southwest doesn't really fit in the same category as the other 3 airlines listed. Delta, American, and United utilize the hub-and-spoke model but Southwest has much more of a point-to-point model, meaning they typically only service the major metros. But I have flown all four many times.

Delta is easily my favorite.

American sucks. United sucks even more. And US Airways is an abomination.

Wish I had something more concrete to back up my claim here, but it's really just a bunch of stories that I could share if I wanted to. Over the past 6 months or so, I have flown exclusively Delta though (because they have been my favorite, and my business has allowed me that flexibility because of SkyMiles collection) and I have not had a single issue.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Delta...the TC is a hub and they offer direct flights to where I want to go.

[55]

Continental was my favorite, so I guess I will now go with United since they merged with them.