Top Tips for Picking the Smartest Flight
Author: Pawan Kumar
When you are considering an air-trip, you will find some familiar names, some names which have gone out of business and some totally new names of airlines. So how do you pick the smartest flight?
Here are a few pointers:
- Look out for the black lists: Some governments like the EU and the U.S. maintain black lists of airline companies they deem unsafe. In fact, the US maintains a list of entire countries whose airlines they black list. Countries include Congo, Belize, Ghana, Israel, Indonesia, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Ukraine and others. Airlines from these countries are not permitted to set up their new services in the country unless their safety standards are improved. Similarly, the E.U. maintains a black list of airlines and you can judge the quality of airlines by studying these black lists. These are useful when considering last minute flight deals Canada.
- Ignore boards: Don’t turn to online forums to judge airlines. Customers on forums tend to judge airlines on basis of single events like a case of cabin attendant rudeness to judge the entire airline. Mistakes do happen and they must not be used to rate the airline in the long haul.
- Take note of awards: Awards garnered by air lines, especially bestowed by reputed agencies like Conde Nast reveal a great deal about them. Ratings may be given on everything from quality of food to keeping children occupied.
- Consider safety: If the airline you are researching has not won any awards, but is also not on any black list, you might want to check its safety record. The website airsafe.com has been tracking safety incidents like air crashes since a long time. They provide rate of fatalities per million flights and the most recent mishap related to an airline.
- Consider hidden fees: Low budget or small airlines may have less baggage allowance and baggage fees higher than big carriers. Pay attention to these fees if you are choosing a multi-airline itinerary. It is not wise to plan an itinerarythat will force one to repack one’s baggage when you are changing flights. This is useful while considering last minute flight deals Canada.
- Compare seats: If you are considering airlines which are similar, choose by finding out about quality of food, in-flight entertainment and comfortable seats. There are websites that provide you with seating charts so you can pick the seat which you find most comfortable.