In the spirit of the other thread about airports you're surprised you've never landed at: I grew up just outside of Charlotte. I lived in North Carolina until I relocated to California in 2005. After moving here I've flown to CLT several times to visit friends and family. And yet somehow I've never flown on US Airways. All my flights to CLT were on either United or Continental. I find it rather surprising that I lived near the largest hub for US for many years and flew there several times after I moved away, and yet never flew on them.

So you know the drill -- are there any airlines that you are surprised you haven't flown on?

Emirates - been to Dubai a couple of times now on Gulf Air and Lufthansa (EK was always more expensive), flown back and forth between Dubai and Qatar (always on QR, one time from DWC), connected many times between Europe and South Asia, East Asia, Australia and South Africa at the Gulf on both QR and EY. Heck, there are even single Etihad flights I flew multiple times but somehow inexplicably I never flew on EK.

Etihad- Despite being partially based out of Dubai for 15 years now (live there on and off), have never flown EY although their tickets to Dubai will include a shuttle bus from AUH. That being said-I live literally 5-10 minutes away from DXB so that explains why I've never considered it.
I did fly through AUH once- on Gulf Air. They used to run DXB AUH flights back then.

Does flying on US Airways in March 2013 count as having flown American? If not, I've managed to avoid American. There are just always better options from Baltimore.

I'll stick with US air carriers since I haven't flown on any foreign ones.

Alaska - I've flown on Horizon Air but not mainline Alaska.
Frontier
Allegiant
Continental
Northwest
Midwest/Midwest Express

Never flown KLM, although I have flown KLM Cityhopper once (twice actually, onward and back). But never on KLM mainline. And then think my home airport is Amsterdam, the home of KLM.

...any US-Airline (ok, been only once is America)
...Qatar, Emirates or Etihad (been often to Asia and Middle East, but never used one of those airlines, only ME-airline I ever had was Gulf Air on a two day trip from Kuwait to Bahrain and back)
...post Soviet Aeroflot (been a few times to Russia, but only Russian airlines have been Siberia (today S7) and Rossiya)

Alaska and United Mainline, American in general.
China Eastern in China, I've flown 2 of the Big 3, and I flew one MU's subsidiaries, FM

I have never flown on British Airways. I don't necessarily find that surprising, but it is odd that curiosity hasn't gotten the better of me yet. BA is, after all, one of the biggest carriers across the Atlantic.

For me, it's Alaska. I keep hearing how good they are, but yet when I travel to the northwest, someone always has better fares, flight times, etc...
I suppose I will fly on them one day, just a matter of time, I suppose.

I go to Turkey many times a year but I've never flown on Turkish.

Worked in the airline industry and never flew PA nor did I take advantage of the industry discounts to fly the BA concorde.
Never flew NW (though my first flight ever was on Republic, ATL-MSP).
Live in FLL and never flew B6, need to check them out.

bluestreak wrote:

For me, it's Alaska. I keep hearing how good they are, but yet when I travel to the northwest, someone always has better fares, flight times, etc...
I suppose I will fly on them one day, just a matter of time, I suppose.

That's me with Southwest. I didn't mention them before because I technically have flown on them before, but I haven't flown on them since 2004. But I could add the caveat that it's surprising that I haven't flown on them since I moved to California. They have the largest market share by far at SMF, which is my current home airport. Yet they either didn't fly to where I wanted to go (although that's changed somewhat now as they added some of the cities I regularly fly to, like MSP), or someone else had better fares or schedules, or I just plain forgot to check Southwest.com when I was booking a flight. Kayak is my usual go to search engine for flights, and while they will show that Southwest offers a flight they don't show their fares.

directorguy wrote:

Etihad- Despite being partially based out of Dubai for 15 years now (live there on and off), have never flown EY although their tickets to Dubai will include a shuttle bus from AUH. That being said-I live literally 5-10 minutes away from DXB so that explains why I've never considered it.
I did fly through AUH once- on Gulf Air. They used to run DXB AUH flights back then.

Regarding those DXB - AUH flights- what was the flight time- 20 minutes maybe? From what I've heard, it takes about 90 minutes to drive between the two cities.

Perhaps slightly off topic as far as aviation goes, but directly related to Dubai, I've always wondered if houses/apartments/condos etc have heating systems for use during the overnight hours during December, January and February? I know Dubai is world-famous for its heat, but was wondering if it ever gets cool enough at night to require the use of a heater.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Never flown KLM, although I have flown KLM Cityhopper once (twice actually, onward and back). But never on KLM mainline. And then think my home airport is Amsterdam, the home of KLM.

LOL That's like saying you fly into and out of Atlanta Hartsfield airport on any airline except Delta, which is home based there.

flapsdown40 wrote:

directorguy wrote:

Etihad- Despite being partially based out of Dubai for 15 years now (live there on and off), have never flown EY although their tickets to Dubai will include a shuttle bus from AUH. That being said-I live literally 5-10 minutes away from DXB so that explains why I've never considered it.
I did fly through AUH once- on Gulf Air. They used to run DXB AUH flights back then.

Regarding those DXB - AUH flights- what was the flight time- 20 minutes maybe? From what I've heard, it takes about 90 minutes to drive between the two cities.

Perhaps slightly off topic as far as aviation goes, but directly related to Dubai, I've always wondered if houses/apartments/condos etc have heating systems for use during the overnight hours during December, January and February? I know Dubai is world-famous for its heat, but was wondering if it ever gets cool enough at night to require the use of a heater.

From what I remember: we checked in at DXB, went through passport control, and then boarded the GF flight to AUH. We were served drinks and peanuts on the ground. On arrival in AUH, we went straight into the terminal. Flight was very short-but I don't remember the duration.
I have also flown DMM-BAH on Gulf Air, which must be even shorter.

Dubai to Abu Dhabi (from downtown to downtown) is roughly 90 minutes. AUH is outside of Abu Dhabi, and so marginally closer to Dubai. I remember when Etihad used to have a "hub" in Dubai Marina (a ticket office, and a check-in station from which you could check in, obtain your boarding pass, and board an Etihad bus straight to AUH) they used to market AUH as being 45 minutes away-not much further than DXB. For many people living in the New Dubai areas, AUH and DXB are roughly the same time-wise.

All buildings have air-conditioning-and each residential unit/office can control the temperature. During colder periods, people will simply adjust the AC controls to a higher temperature. No actual "heaters" as ACs can do the job.

I worked for over two years flying between London and Milan. Have been on holidays in Italy very often and never have flown Alitalia. You may argue that this is because of the LCC airlines but I have even flown Lufthansa Italy during that period and also BA very often...
Nothing to deal with price/quality really... just offer of tickets at that time...

I don't have any record of flying with British Airways despite doing 3 trips between Sydney & London in the 2000s and 6 flights on LHR-DUB.

I also haven't logged a single QF A330-300 despite the Qantas A330-200 being my most common aircraft by far.

Southwest.

They serve a few airports I could easily reach — EWR, LGA, ALB — but for one reason or another, never took the opportunity.

I missed out on the Frontier A318. Other interests during the years they flew them meant I didn't fly where they flew them. 2017 I chose to fly to Romania from LHR just to log my A318 flights...a long but very fun trip from my home in Phoenix.

Thank you Directorguy for your reply. Interesting to hear that Etihad used to have a check-in/pick up point in the Dubai Marina area. I think it's also interesting that Etihad's fortunes seem to be going downhill rather quickly (some would say freefall,) while Emirates just keeps climbing for the stars. Would it be safe to say that Dubai's Sheik Al Maktoum ultimately bankrolls Emirates? I think this is one of the major, major points of contention by the major US carriers who argue that the "subsidized" flight operations of the ME3 make those routes to the Mid East unprofitable for the US carriers.

flapsdown40 wrote:

Thank you Directorguy for your reply. Interesting to hear that Etihad used to have a check-in/pick up point in the Dubai Marina area. I think it's also interesting that Etihad's fortunes seem to be going downhill rather quickly (some would say freefall,) while Emirates just keeps climbing for the stars. Would it be safe to say that Dubai's Sheik Al Maktoum ultimately bankrolls Emirates? I think this is one of the major, major points of contention by the major US carriers who argue that the "subsidized" flight operations of the ME3 make those routes to the Mid East unprofitable for the US carriers.

Not wishing to go off topic but the business model of the ME3 is for connections. Fly from anywhere to somewhere else and connect. When Emirates has such a bigger variety in destinations and flights it will have the best options for most travellers. If Etihad start cutting too many routes then they start to rely on more O&D traffic which is not what they necessarily want for a massive airline. It’s a vicious downward cycle for Etihad.

I live in an area where BDL, SWF, HPN, LGA, JFK are all within 45 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes from my home. EWR in maybe 2 or under. Therefore I've been lucky to fly lots of different carriers. Especially all during the 90's flying down to see my mom in FLL at least twice a year. My own love of travel, some for work has given me the opportunities to fly lots of carriers.

UA was the one that took me a long time to ever choose. Only once. Right now, Frontier is the largest active U.S. carrier I haven't flown on.

I have manged two versions of Skybus, a Carnival flight flown on a LAN-Chile 767 JFK-MIA, Independence Air, and Braniff 3.0 so I guess I'm pretty lucky.

I live in an area where BDL, SWF, HPN, LGA, JFK are all within 45 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes from my home. EWR in maybe 2 or under. Therefore I've been lucky to fly lots of different carriers. Especially all during the 90's flying down to see my mom in FLL at least twice a year. My own love of travel, some for work has given me the opportunities to fly lots of carriers.

UA was the one that took me a long time to ever choose. Only once. Right now, Frontier is the largest active U.S. carrier I haven't flown on.

I have manged two versions of Skybus, a Carnival flight flown on a LAN-Chile 767 JFK-MIA, Independence Air, and Braniff 3.0 so I guess I'm pretty lucky.

Emirates/Etihad - travelled from MEL to Europe pretty much twice every year since 2010 and somehow haven't managed to go on either of them yet, probably because I've mainly stuck to oneworld (JAL, Qantas, Qatar and Cathay). Also still haven't flown on an A350 yet, hopefully soon!

They're all defunct now, but I was always intrigued by the fact that I never got to fly on VASP or Transbrasil as a child. I did a decent amount of domestic/regional flying between 1997 and 2005 in Brazil, but only ever on RG. In fact, my first flight on JJ (in which I even had family members working at the time, and still do) only ever happened after RG's collapse.

The new F9 (I flew them a few years back when they were a full service). There prices are dirt cheap, but because of getting free luggage from status or free trips from miles, F9 never ends up being cheaper by a margin high enough for me buy a ticket.

In my case...I´m rather surprised that I´ve never flown in Copa Airlines...Being a main competitor in Latin American market...and myself with more than 160 commercial flights...but not...never with them...

I'm surprised I've never flown alaskAn, I'd like to and they fly where I want but the price and or times are never right.

Southwest, usually my family are bargain hunters but we managed to fly JetBlue and Delta all the time.

stl07 wrote:

The new F9 (I flew them a few years back when they were a full service). There prices are dirt cheap, but because of getting free luggage from status or free trips from miles, F9 never ends up being cheaper by a margin high enough for me buy a ticket.

Flew them once, and I'm not sure if I got lucky or not, but it was a pleasant experience. Crew were attentive and friendly, the Airbus was new and clean, and I got an exit row at no extra charge because of how empty the flight was. Even if I hadn't gotten the exit row, for $50RT from South Florida to New York, I really couldn't complain.

Delta Connection E175 SEA-SAN today! Nice ride, friendly crew and lunch in F that was better than what Alaska offers in F. Thanks, Delta!

My next first is Sunday, SAN-SEA on a 717. Two new aircraft types this weekend.