I was impressed with an AeroMexico flight last year. Even had a hot meal in coach and it was tasty. Their boarding system was just goofy and stupid though, took over an hour to load a relatively small plane. Southwest would have that done in 20 minutes tops.

Nonetheless, I travel a lot, around 100,000 miles a year on Southwest Airlines. I really don't have any complaints, they treat me pretty well, and I have a KSA/WKT from TSA, so I just pick the Pre-Check or the Priority line that Southwest gives me - whichever looks faster. I can't remember the last time I took my shoes or belt off or take my laptop out at the screening checks.

I see a lot of people whine & complain, but this is unfortunately a necessary evil when we have been at war for 15 years. We have thousands of kids coming back without limbs or without their life, and we have old women griping about "groping" - which I have never actually observed to happen in 100,000 miles. Although, for many that I see, that pat-down might be the only action they got that year... Take off the fake jewelry and leave it at home and it gets pretty easy... It's called a Metal Detector.

If you're going on a one-week or less trip, do you really need to pack like an African expedition? The less you carry, the easier it is.. I haven't checked a bag in over a year actually with an average of 4-day business trip and I never re-use clothes. If it doesn't fit in my trusty Duluth Trading roll-up wardrobe thing, it doesn't go.

Alaskan Air is pretty good as well, and so is JetBlue. Stay away from United, Delta, etc.

I really wish people would just put their money where their mouth is. Between the years 1996 and 2002, I used to fly commercially every week from Pittsburgh, to Raleigh, NC and back. When the TSA was introduced and I experience my first groping, I decided I would NOT fly commercially again and I have not.

I will drive my car. Yes it takes more time, but I refuse to subjugate myself to these government boneheads, taking over the private world.

The solution is simple and requires everyone to just stop flying until the government gets its face out of it.

This is also a hard thing because it means possibly inconveniencing yourself in other ways, like taking 2 - 3 days to drive from NY to CA.

Everyone keeps talking about it and complaining about it but few actually DO anything about it.

Ayn Rand is totally right, take away their money, i.e. passengers, and changes will come very rapidly. Or I became a private Pilot and started flying my own Piper Aztec. No more TSA concerns. Unfortunately Obamanomics ruined my income so I sold my plane but I still refuse to step foot on a commercial airliner until the Government and TSA idiots are no longer a factor.

I just read the opening paragraph and when i saw the airline sited was united i stopped reading because they are the ABSOLUTE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE airline in the world. a dear friends wife has worked for Continental for over 30 years and all of the Continental people, employees were horrified by the negative they saw attitude exhibited by the united employees. The reason Continental was not a union shop and united is. Need anyone say more. i had a situation personally that was so bad and cost me $1500.00 so i wrote to the ceo/president that took a 1/2 day to find and told him that i would never under any circum stances fly united again.

You forgot one other national-flag airline that gives good service--at least inbound to the country whose flag it carries, though quality varies as the level of booking on the flight:

El Al.

That's Hebrew for "Up, Up, and Away!"

The national-flag airline of the Republic of Israel.

The last round trip I ever took was on El Al. March-April 2011. A ten-deay tour of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Caesaria Maritima, Mounts Carmel and Megiddo (overlooking Ramat-David AFB in the Valley of Jezreel), Tiberias, Kefer Nahum ("Capernaum" in Latin), Beit She'an, the Dead Sea (including Qumran), and finally Jerusalem.

El Al, in getting me there, gave me the best service I'd had in a long time. They also have their own security. They grilled me something fierce, and wanted to know whether I'd bought anything in the Duty Free shop (I didn't; the airline runs a duty-free shop on board). But I knew with absolute certainty my flight would make it without incident.

Other than that, from baggage handling to the tasty meals they served: no complaints.

"The only thing that could be worse, is a national-flag airline. "
You notice that in my other comments about overseas airlines which carrier is the worst?
Quantas (and its subsidiary Jetstar) is the national-flag airline of Oz.

The airlines are a government-protected oligopoly. The only thing that could be worse, is a national-flag airline. They know they've got you. Their only incentive, if they have one, is to make their country attractive for tourists and businessmen--to represent the country. But here in America, you have an industry with a very high barrier-to-entry. A government barrier.

Only when people may invent any transport mode they care to, will the airlines realize they either improve passenger comfort, safety, efficiency, and service, or they lose business.

Here's a barrier which ought to come down, and a company seeking to crash it. Terrafugia is making a name for itself with its designs (yes, designs, two of them now) for the world's first street-legal aircraft. The Transition (a fixed-wing push-prop) and the TF-X (a twin-engine tiltrotor!) are two exquisitely beautiful designs. To make them legal, Terrafugia had to arrange for special bendings of rules from the FAA and the NHTSA.

Now if this design had come up in Galt's Gulch, Judge Narragansett would have refounded Underwriters' Laboratories, which would have opened a new division for road-capable light sport aircraft. In fact, these are the sort of aircraft Ragnar Danneskjöld would have designed, or at least conceived.

Now imagine if everyone had the choice of either flying some puddle-jumping airline, or getting into their Terrafugia Transitions, or even Terrafugia TF-X's, taking off maybe from a standing start, and flying to the nearest airport to board a big jet. Or what if they were allowed to take off from and land on a sufficiently deserted road? Do you really think people would put up with the poor service of airlines today?

Having been overseas for 4 years, I haven't flown on a US airline since Nov 2010 (Airtran). Due to the requirements of VISAs in Oz, I did fly on foreign airlines frequently while overseas: Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia, China Southern, Scoot, Tiger, Quantas, Jetstar, China Air, and Emirates.
All provided better service than recent flights in the US (2007-2010 timeframe), although some low cost carriers just barely better.
The airlines best to worst (all travel in coach at lowest price available at the time):

Two best where coach is like business class:
Emirates (Oz - Thailand -Oz)
China Southern (Thailand to Los Angeles)

Good service (coach the way it used to be in the US:)
Air New Zealand (US to NZ, NZ - Oz - NZ)
Virgin Australia (OZ - NZ)
China Air (OZ - NZ - Oz)
Jetstar (Oz-Thailand-Oz)
Scoot (Oz-Singapore)
Tiger (Singapore-Cambodia)

Barely better than US:
Jetstar (Oz-NZ-Oz)
Quantas (Oz-NZ-Oz)

Your mileage may vary.

Anyone notice that the only caucasian face in the photo is the newscaster on the monitor?