This is getting into “my experiences are proof, yours are just anecdotes” areas, but one of the friendliest CAs (cabin attendant) I ever had was on JAL: she even gave me her phone number in Japan if I ever needed help (this was when I was arriving to start the undergrad Mombusho). On Thai Airways the CA asked around so my GF and I could sit together. On Air NZ I went back to the CA area and asked for a drink of water, and they gave me the whole bottle. Oh, and Korean Airlines gave me a free night in the Incheon Hilton on the way back to Japan as there was an overnight stop. That was damn nice. I’ve never had to suffer anything extreme in terms of seatmates, and that is pretty airline-independent as well. I’m just listing anything I can think of which was better than normal service, Asian or not. Looking at my travel journals, I see one incident on UA of the guy beside us being given a first class meal as his veggie one was not there (which merely showed how bad the sardine class meal was).

I can’t really give much more than that level as I have never had a booking error. There have been delays, though. SQ had a short delay out of KIX, and gave us all free juice, Thai a delay out of Bangkok and gave us all sammies. NW had a delay out of DTW and gave us a long wait. The only time I ever got upgraded was on an American carrier (UA), but it was the Japanese counter agent who did it – does that count? Also we were Premium members at the time, which is why I think.

In short, I have never had anything I would consider “extra” service from US carriers aside from an upgrade, and I can’t really compare that as I have never been a premiere member on any other airline (with UA it was as we flew about 25,000 miles from Japan to Hawaii to London to Minnesota to Montana in three weeks). I’m not trying to quash any US carrier events either. I don’t think putting me on an earlier domestic flight than booked as I arrived a bit early really counts.

I’ve never needed reticketing but I’ve gotten the first two from JAL.

I shouldn’t generalize as I have not flown US carriers that often, but I had one experience so bad that I can’t hear “Chicago” without shuddering.

Come to think of it, pretty much everything that you argued above could apply to seatmates on US carriers as well – I’ve had some of my best airplane conversations as well as my worst “this guy needs three seats to himself” and “sir that’s my shoulder, your pillow is over there” moments, a blood drenched restroom (turned out to be an exploding nosebleed), and one time someone stepped right over a woman who collapsed and was getting oxygen on the isle floor because he had to grab his laptop. Of course, I’ve also been on three planes where old Japanese dudes smoked in the washroom.

SQ is also great because it is owned by Temasek and therefore subsidized heavily by the Singaporean government—probably a good investment overall considering the traveler interest it attracts to Singapore. The U.S. carriers are mainly subsidized by credit card companies who throw their mileage around like candy, which means that many passengers are riding for free and the airline has less incentive to actively attract or maintain their business.

Anyway, I have never meet a cabin crew member on any Asian airline who went above and beyond the call of duty, but I have run into crew members on U.S. airlines who have done so—upgrading me to apologize for booking errors, giving me free booze after a delay, breaking re-ticketing rules to get me home on time. The two best flight attendants I ever encountered were on American and Northwest respectively; they were both older people, one male and one female, and they were like multilingual concierges, sommeliers and Benihana chefs rolled into one package.

One more point against the grain. I noticed that the service level on ANA had gone down quite a bit during my trip to the US this summer. Meals took forever to serve and pick up, and the crew totally disappeared for much of the flight. Both ANA and JAL have gone through extensive personnel restructuring lately, including pay cuts, so their crew members are starting to get into the grumpy/lazy territory of their American brethren.

I still take ANA most of the time because I generally know what I am going to get.

And as far as I can tell, the inconsistency in US carriers tends to be more like varying between crap and super crap, at least these days. Okay, that’s a bit harsh, but they’re not good. European ones can be risky at times too – I was not thrilled with Alitalia at all (aside from the fact they were flying a hand-me-down from Lufthansa with rust on the wing). All six of Skytrax’s 5-star airlines are Asian (including South Asia) or Middle-Eastern (Qatar). The major US carriers only make 3-star. My limit for long flights is 4-star. Europe and the Colonies (QANTAS, Air Noo Zild) get four stars as well, so it’s not a “western thing.” I think with Europe (not counting the recent low-cost ones like Ryanair (motto: “We’re probably not as bad as you’ve heard”) and EasyJet) the train has always been a more realistic way of getting around, and in Australia and NZ the focus of both major airlines is pretty international, thus open to competition. Taken to its logical extreme. that accounts for why SQ is so great – not a lot of domestic flights in Singapore….

Sometimes I’m even more put off by the “Hi, my name is Sandy, I’ll be giving you super service today! How are you enjoying our wonderful city? Pity the weather isn’t better today but I hope you have a fantastic wonderful happy stay!” type. (The same type of person who ends up looking at you like you are a registered sex offender if you only tip 20%).

I always get the feeling that ANA flight attendants are manufactured in a big plant somewhere in Kawasaki, and the slightly defective models are sold to department stores.

Second your comment about NW. They used to be decent, better than UA (back ten years go). But last year I left the overhead bin open by mistake and a snotty little (and he was: tiny. I could have shoved him in the bin and then shut it, and was tempted) steward didn’t shut it himself with a gentle reminder, or ask me to shut it politely, but treated me like a little kid by asking something like “...and what do you suppose would happen if we hit turbulence?” in a condescending voice. So I shall not fly them again as they treat their passengers like children. Instead I shall fly Asian carriers to as far as they go and then subject myself to the tender mercies of American carriers only for the short domestic hops I may need to take (that said, SouthWest gets a lot of really good reviews, so here’s hoping…).

I admit my experiences with US carriers are limited to NW and UA*, as well as Continental (and Continental Micronesia), and I have never tried AA or Delta (though I’ll be doing a short hop SFO-LAS on SouthWest next month), but I have found that at best US carriers are flying buses, and at worst they are rude and condescending. It’s strange really – it’s not as if Americans are total strangers to politeness or service, after all. I think it might be as US carriers are primarily domestic shuttles in a country where taking the train is seldom an option, so they have constant demand, no real external competition, and flights in the US are generally short enough so that no real attention needs to be paid to customer service.

*I’ve even flown US NRT-LAX in business class (free upgrade – why can’t SQ give me a free upgrade…?) and was not impressed that they didn’t have individual TVs even in business class.

Also another minor advantage to ANA is that my wife (who speaks no English) will be able to understand the crew and the various instructions for VOD games etc…..

Would sure like to try ANA Business Class, but that’s not likely to ever happen, as someone else would be needing to pick up the bill.

A few airlines like Virgin, Singapore, Air New Zealand and BA have fully-flat seats in biz class now, so you can sleep parallel to the floor just like on a real bed. United put fully-flat biz seats on its 767s and 747s this year and Delta has put fully-flat biz seats on a smaller number of its international planes. There are several ways to get around the additional space requirements: some airlines angle their seats 45 degrees inward, others have both forward and rear-facing seats so that people are sharing foot space from a lateral perspective.

The good news is that ANA will start using fully-flat biz seats next year, initially on its JFK route and then on other US and Europe routes (see here). They will be set up so that you always have direct access to an aisle without stepping over anyone—the seats are laid out in four columns instead of seven, but the rows are spaced closer together and your feet stretch out next to the person in front of you (underneath their side table).